I love this game, and respect the dev team, but Square Enix crossed a horrible line.
Material usage license.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I've been extremely optimistic about this launch and I've been extremely patient with all the errors. I've made no serious complaints before now and I have nothing but good thoughts going forward. Or better said, I HAD nothing but good thoughts.
Nintendo tried to pull this crap months ago and got some of the worst hate from the public since it became a company. Since then they've been backing out of the policy slowly trying to find some middle ground but failing. The content filter on youtube has been indiscriminately axing videos that aren't even breaking any rules.
Reflecting on this why the hell does SE think they can get away with it? Doesn't anyone over there understand how the internet works? There is a strong level of symbiosis between video games and the internet media that highly benefits both.
No, I'm not a youtuber nor do I have plans to upload videos with ads. So most of you reading this would think "why does this matter to him?". I've tried for the last few days to not look at metacritic and get angry at those who give this a zero completely disregarding the whole point of the website over expected launch issues.
But every time I try to ignore it and tell myself "it doesn't affect me. This game will stay afloat and popular by fanbase alone. I have my LC and friends and I'm going to have fun no matter how bad people try to troll it."
Yet I come to the thought that this really does affect me. It bothers me and I could never say for sure how much better and how quickly this game could get better if it had some real positive spotlight.
So again I ask, what the hell is Square Enix thinking by enforcing a Material usage license that does not allow ANYONE to monetize FFXIV content (YT ad revenue etc), does not allow any FFXIV content to be mixed with even SOUNDS from other sources?
One example is Jessie Cox, who is a relatively popular Youtube personality who has had a very high opinion of this game for a long time. Under NDA he has only been able to talk about how much he loves it but never able to actually talk about it. He has had countless hours of content saved up and was ready to release the floodgates on his channel giving real quality reviews and opinions.
His job, like many other Youtubers, is to buy and play games and give people the look they need to decide if they want to play them. But why would he devote so much time when he has to make a living to praise this game when Square Enix tells him that he can't collect any ad revenue from his videos on it?
This is unacceptable for me, and a selfish ignorant move that needs to be fixed quickly if we're going to expect any news outlets to care enough to talk about this wonderful game.
Another opinion from TotalBiscuit, and more information about the restriction license.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybJr3SDB42Y
---------------------------
EDIT: Post count limit
I don't feel the need to directly respond to anyone in this thread. If people want to choose to be ignorant to the real problem here then fine. Those that have a problem with there being two threads on this issue need to check every community rep thread and how they begin with "There seems to be a lot of threads concerning xxx". Seems to me like due to the crappy responsive nature of the ARR forums that making multiple threads ends up being encouraged. Not that I made this thread with that line of thinking.
Also I stand by my accusation that the first reply in this thread was a clear misinterpretation to the point I was making. I never said anything about Let's Players. I was referring to the actual media personalities who are not about playing the game for you, but rather giving a more objective first look and review at the game.
Half of you simply stop at the thought of youtubers making money like it disgusts you. My issue has two parts. The first is that SE sought out these media personalities, gave them review copies, asked them to spend more than 40 hours in game before publishing anything, then told them that they can't be paid for their time. This is no different then telling CNN they can't collect any revenue for a news report.
The second part, in which I related my thoughts with metacritic, is that this is a bad move PR wise that throws free advertising out the window. Some of you want to argue that there are already tons of FFXIV ARR videos on youtube for people to watch. The question is, if you aren't interested or have no incentive then why would you look up those videos in the first place? There are people who just don't have the time to research games or simply don't know what they are looking for. These people have learned to trust someone in the world that spends a lot of time playing games with the purpose of giving consumers the information they need.
There is a whole demographic that will never look up anything about FFXIV ARR, yet if it were reviewed on a popular channel like Totalbiscuit for example there is always the chance it could hook some of these people.
Lastly, I do care if the publisher of a game I'm subscribing to likes to shoot itself in the foot. If you don't agree that this is a problem then really this is one of those problems that we can agree to disagree on without it affecting you at all. All to the point that you shouldn't even be posting in this thread.
