BIG~ mistake SE. Mighty big. (Materials Usage License)

Well, as a youtuber with a decent sized FFXIV and FFXI channel, all I have to say is that SE owns the material and they have every right not to let people monetize off their product.

This is a really poor decision to restrict the media usage to this degree, it does not reflect well on FFXIV ARR or Square-Enix. If you work in this industry and have not already seen the huge effect YouTube and Twitch has had on gaming and culture as a whole. Then allow us all to educate you on the benifits of having a more relaxed Media Usage License, what that can mean not just for FFXIV ARR but all Square-Enix titles. Where the usual press and publicity side of gaming used to focus a lot of money to get reviews and previews on magazines, blogs and gaming websites. A lot more of them have seen the huge potential YouTube and Twitch has. People who produce content on Youtube or Twitch can easily have thousands and in some case millions of people who subscribe to watch what they produce. Often this is games they themselves do not even enjoy, they watch it because they enjoy what the personality releases. It can be comical, informative, entertaining and some times really breathtaking.

Some of the best content released for games that have gotten people to play have been made on YouTube. I personally started to play Planetside because of videos on YouTube made by KAAOS, D2A and others who escape my memory. A lot of which I never even knew of but found by chance, they got my attention and I went out and got it within the week. It was my first subbed game outside of WoW, which was a day one purchase due to all my clan mates buying it (Unreal Tournament 2k4 clan). I have bought a lot of games due to content on YouTube showing it in early stage of development. Ditto I know a lot have as well, heck Nekro from darkForge (http://darkforgegames.com/nekro/), was hugely funded via Kickstarter because of TotalBiscuit who promoted it on his site. To the point he is going to be a Mayor in the game as a thanks from darkForge.

I can't even begin to discuss what Twitch and similar sites have done for gaming. Not only do a lot of people stream games, a lot of people watch them playing them. From the gigantic viewerbase of League of Legends, the quickly catching up DotA2 (which came with a streaming/spectating client), plus hundreds of titles that have users based on their enjoyment of the person streaming and not just the game. Every company realises this is not just a phase but the future of games and provides a huge amount of market penetration. Thats why the new consoles are also going to allow streaming and video recording (in a much smaller capacity than PC). There is so much to be gained from it that it would be silly not to take advantage of it. People can sit there with thousands and some times millions of people who watch thier content and if they produce some thing on your games. Chances being that you will get a huge amount of adoption from it, hell I'd gaurentee it if I had the money to do so.

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Originally Posted by Jennestia

Draven, SE didn't say you can't upload videos - they're saying you can't make money on it. This is why people don't really appreciate or respect that community anymore since it's become purely about money....

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That's crazy talk -- the youtube community was never respected!

Horrible decision by Square Enix. No other way about it.

Thats what the damn youtube leeches get making money from others products....


I am laughing at you all now and you're immense sense of entitlement XD

I fully approve of this product and/or service.

It's a horrible decision that really needs to be looked at. I'm the first person to defend SE... But this decision pretty much shoots themselves on the foot.

To the NA community team, you guys should realize how bad this looks. Speak up at meetings, let the team in Japan know that this isn't a good idea. These Youtube content creators and Twitch streamers are practically begging you to ease up on your restrictions to give SE FREE ADVERTISING!

This needs more likes guys. This really hurts a lot of people out there who post youtube videos for guides and just general info. Terrible move from SE.

The entire material usage agreement is archaic and outdated. Part of the reason why WoW became a hit was that they welcomed the Machinima scene with open arms.

I just don't understand the logic. Critics and die hard fans are the ones getting hurt by this.. And by proxy, potential future subscribers.

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Originally Posted by Deakka

The entire material usage agreement is archaic and outdated. Part of the reason why WoW became a hit was that they welcomed the Machinima scene with open arms.

I just don't understand the logic. Critics and die hard fans are the ones getting hurt by this.. And by proxy, potential future subscribers.

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There is no logic in it. People who defend it don't understand what's at stake. Word of mouth will not go full scale, and Square will be losing hundreds of thousands of potential customers in the future if this is not reversed in some way (assuming their hands aren't tied).

I'm not a video creator, but they seem to be neglecting important things here. Nintendo and Sega did the same things, and now they're hurting for attention and money. If you upset people with a cult like following, bad things come from it; take a look at Xboxone for an example.

I typically get my friends interested my showing them videos made by other people. Quality videos that may take days to make. People who deserve to get paid for what they do (so long as it's not a crappy let's play). I intend to keep my subscription to support them, but until they realize that player to player marketing is one of the most efficient forms out there, any western endeavors they attempt will be folly. They need to be a little more in touch with the world outside of Japan and adapt to new social media; their communication is improving overall with twitter and facebook, but as a whole they have a long way to go and still much left to learn if they want to learn how to swim in the future AAA market.

It doesn't matter if some video content creators are seen as greedy. They do quality jobs and have millions of subscribers. Any content they make is publicity for any game (they quite literally sell their viewer base if you get right down to the core of it); the ads that get put on their channel don't care what video is posted. The simple matter is, if you love this game, you should try not to lead Square astray with this folly whether it's their earnest will at present or not.

I am quite honestly trying to fathom some posts here. Is it white knighting anything that is negative feedback? Is it people who don't want more to come and clog up the servers (given that that comment has so many thumbs up, maybe). Are people worried about the community if the game is introduced to millions of additional people? If our personal interests are more important to us than the future of the game... then I'm kind've speechless.

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Originally Posted by Onnslaught

This needs more likes guys. This really hurts a lot of people out there who post youtube videos for guides and just general info. Terrible move from SE.

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Are you serious. You need to learn to respect the artists decision in how there material should be used. You are not the artist in this case. You have no saying in how you should use their material. Youtube wasn't around when the First FF and Final Fantasy VII came out they don't need your help then and they don't need your help now. So don't give me the "Omg but we helped since the beginning with our youtube video crap" because you weren't there since the beginning. There was no youtube at the time.

Besides that you can still promote the game and post videos you just can't monetize it. Of course if you refuse to even do that then that saids a lot about you. All you care is about money, and you can't even call corporate greed on square enix because all that does is make you look like a hypocrite. All you care is about money, and it makes you look like (you guessed it) "corporate greed."

Youtubers the new face of "Corporate Greed" who would of thought.

In the end it's not your decision or my decision. Learn to respect the artist work and his wishes with it. Otherwise my advise for you would be to grow up and learn to do so, set an example show that you care about peoples work even if you can't monetize it, don't be greedy. You can't have everything in life and welcome to the real world.

japanese dont even use youtube lmao

I don't even make videos and I find this pathetic... youtube video makers actually HELP SELL YOUR PRODUCT, and they give entertainment to current players too.

bad move, very old fashion and stupid.

The majority of people who watch channels like totalbiscuit & yogscast watch them for the people running the channel and not the actual games. They could live action roleplay and people would watch it, they don't need your video game "content".

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Originally Posted by luciferbelmont

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Yes I am serious. I don't make money off of anything on youtube nor do I have a youtube account so this really doesn't effect me. I still think it is stupid for them to put this kind of restriction on people. Who cares if people make money off of videos that feature their game? It is promotion of their game. It was ridiculous enough you couldn't stream open beta now they have this rule out there.

I just love how you lump me into a greedy youtube crowd when I have no personal gain in people being able to make money off of a youtube video with FF ARR in it.

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Originally Posted by luciferbelmont

Are you serious *Snip*

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Look at it from a marketing stand point. If big youtube personalities who create quality videos that take days to edit and are watched by thousands to millions of people aren't making videos about your game then you are losing lots of potential money. Creating quality videos that are enjoyable to watch all the way through is very hard and time consuming, getting paid based on how well you edit and how many people view it is a reward and a driving force to create more content, hence why youtube pays people in the first place.

Blaming this on corporate greed is a bit far fetched, it's more like you worked a 10+ hour day to entertain people and then at the end no one paid you. I don't think anyone who has a following is that passionate about this game as to work tirelessly to edit and distribute videos talking about it without some kind of reward for their efforts.

Why should they allow a random youtube attention seeker to make money on their product?

if you really dont care just upload your dumb videos without adds, i block them anyway.

I'm not upset that other people aren't going to be able to make money off of SE's work. We'll still see plenty of videos for FFXIV, just not people whose sole drive is personal profit.

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Originally Posted by Magica

japanese dont even use youtube lmao

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I hope that's sarcasm.

I love it how people only talk about crappy LP:ers such as PewDiePie and totally ignore reviewers and critics who do their living with this. "You can't make money off other people's work"? So you say people need to have original stuff to make money? Guess I'll have to make my own music, camera and software!

And people actually defend this.

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Originally Posted by Echou

I love it how people only talk about crappy LP:ers such as PewDiePie and totally ignore reviewers and critics who do their living with this. "You can't make money off other people's work"? So you say people need to have original stuff to make money? Guess I'll have to make my own music, camera and software!

And people actually defend this.

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Agreed... I read the newspapers pretty much everyday and watch stuff the Young Turks. Man, those journalist shouldn't make a dime.. All they were doing is reporting on something, its not their right to make profit on reporting the news. Siskel and Ebert (rest their souls) are considered the stalwarts of the review profession, they both made livings for several years commenting on peoples work. And the examples go on and on.

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Originally Posted by Echou

I love it how people only talk about crappy LP:ers such as PewDiePie and totally ignore reviewers and critics who do their living with this. "You can't make money off other people's work"? So you say people need to have original stuff to make money? Guess I'll have to make my own music, camera and software!

And people actually defend this.

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You're a fool. If they say you can't, you can't. That's the end of that. Don't even let me explain the difference between FFXIV:ARR & Sony Vegas Pro, or Photoshop.

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Originally Posted by JyoonB

You're a fool. If they say you can't, you can't. That's the end of that.

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And this is why I roll my eyes on the topic of copyrights.

The point of copyrights is to prevent you from grabbing something like Xenogears (assets, music, game engine) and pass it off as your own. At some point copyright laws turned into "if I say so you can't do it", which is little different from a child being petulant and bratty about not letting anyone see their toy; sadly, common sense and context never does fit into legalese.

That's how we ended up with stuff like the Chrono Resurrection mess, where a bunch of guys decided to make a 3-d version of Chrono Trigger for free (no costs for the project, art assets were entirely made by the dude they got to do the 3-d modeling, music was all recomposed and re-instrumented in some cases) only to get a cease and desist from SE, who then proceeded to do NOTHING with the Chrono series (and still have not, by the way) outside of a DS port with an even more contrived attempt to link it to Chrono Cross.

Does anyone of you actually live in the reality?
If you want to use a Product of someone else you need to get permission. You will have to get a license to do so.

But that Youtube folks that are whining are all leeches that want to profit of someone else work.

ITT: People can't see the forest for trees

YouTube users shouldn't be allowed to profit through other peoples work. If it's their only income I suggest they get a real job :)

Can someone explain to me exactly how the youtube partners program works, and why it is considered "monetization" of S-E's intellectual property?

On the surface, this seems like a stifling policy. But I would like to understand it a bit better.

I already said it in the other same topic!

The OP is an idiot, just like everyone else agreeing With him!

Every major Publisher has a Materials License (IP property) in Place!

Go try upload videos from any high profile (AAA) game from Microsoft, EA, Activision, Warner Bros, Sony or Nintendo in a PAID subscriber channel and you will be infringing the IP and Copyright Laws of said game!

So, is it OK to post FFXIV: ARR videos as long as there are no ads popping around it?

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Originally Posted by Petrified

So, is it OK to post FFXIV: ARR videos as long as there are no ads popping around it?

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If it´s just adds to other "free" videos, then you are not breaking the Materials (Copyrights) License.
The moment you put adds in Your video that make you Money, you infringing the IP and Copyright laws.

You can also have a "free" subscriber channel and put videos there and let People subscribe to it. Even advertise it. All ok! As long as there is no financial gain involved.

some people in this thread are missing the point.

You can make YouTube Videos of this game. SE encourages it.

However you cannot make YouTube videos or Any content in general and derivatives(video, game engine, story line, screen shots, drawn pictures, etc) that has anything related to SE's Intellectual Property for the purpose of making money off of it.

Unless you have explicit permission from SE to use their property in any given media that is for revenue/profit you are in violation of copyright law.

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Originally Posted by Arixtotle

You do realize that it says you cannot monetize through youtube or other sites that have certain programs but it doesn't say you can't monetize in other ways right? All this says is you cannot charge for views in any way, shape or form. What you still can do is ask for donations. You can still "make money" off of videos. Just not directly. Honestly, the rule about not adding third party music to videos is far worse and harsher than not allowing certain forms of monetization.

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About the music, someone would break the copyright law anyway if he has not the permission of the songwriter or singer

http://www.videomaker.com/article/14...copyright-laws

All what SE did was warning us that we would need the permission from the songwriter/singer

This policy is such a boneheaded and shortsighted move. People can argue the legal/copyright issues all day long, but the practical effect of this policy is that it will greatly lower the quality of FFXIV content on youtube. Simple as that.

All of the best youtubers monetize their content, period. If you don't let people monetize, you virtually guarantee the quality of the content covering your game will be low. All the top notch critics, commentators, and creative people won't touch this game with a ten foot pole. They can just go on creating content for the vast majority of other game companies who don't have such a shortsighted policy.

Now whenever a person does a search for FFXIV on youtube all they will see is a bunch of garbage LP videos from people with lousy mics and terrible commentary. This does nothing but hurt FFXIV in the long run, which is why I'm against it.

Great way to cause more controversy for no reason SE. Youtubers are a pretty big market and they should be allowed to make videos and make money off of them. Now we are going to see a fraction of the coverage we would once had.

I too believe SE is making themselves a massive disfavor when it comes to this policy.
My points being,
Without being able to make money from the game, the real pros out there who make videos for a living generating thousands of viewers into potential customers.

I don't really care what game they play as I only watch their videos for their personality so for them is relatively easy to just look the other way and play another game that does allow them to put food on their tables.

Without this ARR coverage will reduced to boring written reviews and fan videos.
Nothing bad with that but it still reduces the average quality of content.

what SE really needed with ARR Was for the average person to see the game isn't what it used to be and watch people they like have fun the with game, then they will see the difference and stop labeling it as FFXIV the failure, based on what they saw years ago.

I completely agree with the OP, this ill-conceived policy will only limit the exposure of FFXIV and hurt the small youtube casters who are basically giving SE free advertising. I think SE is a smart company and because of this they will eventually lighten their restrictions but it wont happen until significant pressure is applied. If we could spread the word to Kotaku, IGN , Joystiq and other game media sites we could essentially shame them into changing.

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Originally Posted by Parallel

This policy is such a boneheaded and shortsighted move. People can argue the legal/copyright issues all day long, but the practical effect of this policy is that it will greatly lower the quality of FFXIV content on youtube. Simple as that.

All of the best youtubers monetize their content, period. If you don't let people monetize, you virtually guarantee the quality of the content covering your game will be low. All the top notch critics, commentators, and creative people won't touch this game with a ten foot pole. They can just go on creating content for the vast majority of other game companies who don't have such a shortsighted policy.

Now whenever a person does a search for FFXIV on youtube all they will see is a bunch of garbage LP videos from people with lousy mics and terrible commentary..

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Anyone who doesn't recognize this is...well... I hope they aren't running any businesses in the future.

On another note.
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Guidelines for Music and Sounds

-You may only use music as it is incorporated in FFXIV;

-When showing gameplay, you may not replace the FFXIV music with third party music;

-You may not play FFXIV music alone (i.e., without accompanying gameplay footage), or
with third party materials;

-You may not use the song track entitled "Answers."
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That is just sad.

http://support.na.square-enix.com/ru...la=1&tag=authc