Square Enix Hates Viral Marketing

Especially when it's fan driven..

To be fair, they probably don't want bad publicity on their game. Showing the game is glitched and bugs may make some people think the game is bad, bugs, and they don't fixed their bugs, people may not want to play it. Also showing way to glitch in the game like this even if this is not hurting anything or serious, S.E probably don't want people to abused it, especially on a video that is going viral soon.

Tenten, stop being so annoying.

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Originally Posted by Zaiken

To be fair, they probably don't want bad publicity on their game. Showing the game is glitched and bugs may make some people think the game is bad, bugs, and they don't fixed their bugs, people may not want to play it. Also showing way to glitch in the game like this even if this is not hurting anything or serious, S.E probably don't want people to abused it, especially on a video that is going viral soon.

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I think the same. And why the others videos weren't deleted? Probably because they didn't go viral as the first one. Maybe if you report them, they will ask YouTube to remove them too.

You see, it was likely monetized and someone reported it, then SE acted on the report. It met all of the requirements to stay up (and even be monetized) but it's all in who you piss off on these forums or youtube lol. Their copyright system is automatic and if it matches, kiss your video goodbye.

The uploader can counter claim if he wants but its less hassle. It does showcase something bad with XIV (glitches/bugs) but they also take down music videos even if it accompanies gameplay.

It was the same in the beta, they wouldn't even let people stream the game during the OPEN BETA. There were tons of big streamers that we're dying to stream it and just couldn't. This game could be a lot bigger with the right marketing

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Originally Posted by Cyrus-Wallace

I think the same. And why the others videos weren't deleted? Probably because they didn't go viral as the first one. Maybe if you report them, they will ask YouTube to remove them too.

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I see video that is up to 100K without any problem, like Mr. Happy and Yogacast for example. As long as you don't alter their music or the video, or post video that show way to glitch or bug in the game, it fine to post the video. They were strict before not letting post video, but recently they changed it.

I got this copyright claim from SE twice, for my playthrough video of XIII-2. I'll never do a playthrough video of SE games again. still having copyright strikes now and it disable my ability to upload video longer than 15 mins.

1) The marketing department does not talk to the legal department does not talk to the game development department. What one department thinks is totally fine can be taken down by any other due to lack of communication.

2) Yasumi Matsuno is no longer an employee of Square Enix.

3) It is technically against ToS to post videos of FFXIV with any outside music (i.e. not from FFXIV). I imagine the other videos you posted would get takedown notices for similar reasons if they got enough views for legal to find them.

4) From a business and marketing standpoint, any fan-made video that does not generate additional revenue (sales, subscriptions, etc.) can potentially hurt your message. Until you provide hard data about how your fan-made video convinced X number of people to purchase the game, the video is fair game for takedown. YouTube and Twitch streamers like MrHappy did this and thus convinced Square Enix to change their streaming/online video content rules to allow them to post their videos.

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Originally Posted by Zaiken

I see video that is up to 100K without any problem, like Mr. Happy and Yogacast for example. As long as you don't alter their music or the video, or post video that show way to glitch or bug in the game, it fine to post the video. They were strict before not letting post video, but recently they changed it.

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On paper that makes sense...but the videos most likely to go viral are not ones that are not simply just showing stock gameplay. This is a huge misstep on their part

Sometimes.. I feel that just a single person is operating the game..

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Originally Posted by axemtitanium

3) It is technically against ToS to post videos of FFXIV with any outside music (i.e. not from FFXIV). I imagine the other videos you posted would get takedown notices for similar reasons if they got enough views for legal to find them.

4) From a business and marketing standpoint, any fan-made video that does not generate additional revenue (sales, subscriptions, etc.) can potentially hurt your message. Until you provide hard data about how your fan-made video convinced X number of people to purchase the game, the video is fair game for takedown. YouTube and Twitch streamers like MrHappy did this and thus convinced Square Enix to change their streaming/online video content rules to allow them to post their videos.

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#3 shouldn't be against the ToS, #4 is really grasping at straws. It would have to be a SERIOUSLY negative video to hurt sales. 9.9 times out of 10 it can only help, or at least break even. I work in marketing :)

EDIT: if you don't believe me, consider the fact that miley cyrus is the most successful musical act of the year. Bland and boring absolutely does not make it to the top. Almost any publicity is good publicity

Wow are they serious? People love silly humor..and that's exactly what that video was. I showed it to my friend yesterday and he was dying laughing...he also bought the game right after and is going to play today.

Reallllly stupid move SE. I am disappoint.

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Originally Posted by Gravehill

#3 shouldn't be against the ToS,

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Whether you think it shouldn't or not doesn't matter. It's listed in the ToS and has also been explicitly stated in numerous posts by the devs that due to the copyrights the game falls under, you're not allowed to alter the music while showing recorded footage.

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Originally Posted by Gravehill

#3 shouldn't be against the ToS, #4 is really grasping at straws. It would have to be a SERIOUSLY negative video to hurt sales. 9.9 times out of 10 it can only help, or at least break even. I work in marketing :)

EDIT: if you don't believe me, consider the fact that miley cyrus is the most successful musical act of the year. Bland and boring absolutely does not make it to the top. Almost any publicity is good publicity

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You shouldn't have clicked: "I accept" then in order to play the game, fyi.

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Originally Posted by Orophin

Whether you think it shouldn't or not doesn't matter. It's listed in the ToS and has also been explicitly stated in numerous posts by the devs that due to the copyrights the game falls under, you're not allowed to alter the music while showing recorded footage.

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Uhh in a conversation about whether or not we think this is a good move... I'm pretty sure what we think is the only thing that matters. Or are you implying that we're not even allowed to discuss things that are mentioned in the ToS? Lets just start burning books while we're at it I guess

support.

Bad or good publicity, does it really matter? there are Always haters for everything.

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Originally Posted by Gravehill

Uhh in a conversation about whether or not we think this is a good move... I'm pretty sure what we think is the only thing that matters. Or are you implying that we're not even allowed to discuss things that are mentioned in the ToS? Lets just start burning books while we're at it I guess

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Well since you're playing FFXIV ARR you kind of agreed to the terms lol. You hit "Decline" or "Don't Agree" if you find it bad.

Really to bad, I would have enjoyed watching the video.

Gotta admit I'm a bit disappointed in SE regarding this too, When videos like that get taken down, sometimes I wonder if companies have any sense of humor at all.

Wow!!!

SE needs to lighten up!!

That video was awesome and got a lot of attention.

Not the bad kind of attention, in fact it was THE BEST kind of attention you could possibly get! The video was going viral!

In today's market viral videos drive a huge portion of traffic and business.

All that video showed (regardless of the "joy glitch") was just how awesome a day in the life of a Lalafell could be.

But SE had to go ruin it just like a spoiled child would say "it's my toy and you can't play with it".

Get with the program SE, all these kinds of videos HELP the cause, not harm it!!!

I agree viral videos will give marketing a way to market the game without lifting a finger, and at no cost, i mean that lala bye bye video has 200k views also.

you know what made wow blow up, i didn't even know about it until this

LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY JENKINS

Well that's sad, that video actually gave me the strength to log back in after a month of being AFK. It showed that even though the game is currently still in its early stages, it has a wonderful, cheerful and very creative community. Not really sure if I like the fact that SE is going to play police to its actual good community.

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Originally Posted by Zaiken

To be fair, they probably don't want bad publicity on their game. Showing the game is glitched and bugs may make some people think the game is bad, bugs, and they don't fixed their bugs, people may not want to play it. Also showing way to glitch in the game like this even if this is not hurting anything or serious, S.E probably don't want people to abused it, especially on a video that is going viral soon.

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Oh please. Nobody is going to see that video and think, "Ugh, what a buggy game, the rest of it must be glitchy garbage too!"

This is just SE legal being extremely stupid.

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Originally Posted by neorei

I agree viral videos will give marketing a way to market the game without lifting a finger, and at no cost, i mean that lala bye bye video has 200k views also.

you know what made wow blow up, i didn't even know about it until this

LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY JENKINS

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Haha I didn't even know what WoW was until everyone was talking about Leeroy Jenkins...and then I finally saw the video XD

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Originally Posted by Ninix

Oh please. Nobody is going to see that video and think, "Ugh, what a buggy game, the rest of it must be glitchy garbage too!"

This is just SE legal being extremely stupid.

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You would..honestly be surprise. Remember: XIV wasn't exactly the most popular or successful MMO on the block, they really don't need a lot of bad publicity when possible. Let's be honest, ARR is pretty damn buggy, someone can make a compilation video of the bugs and glitches this game has. Ever did WP and have your oil appear above a door way or on the ceiling? Doomwall not spawning? Garuda/Ultima/Gaius/Titan/Ifrit etc that teleports off the area not reappear or appear in the middle stationary?

It may not be for that exact reason, but you can blame Youtube more than you can blame SE. For example you're not allowed to post Beta soundtrack or fan versions of music during beta yet someone who did a piano collection during beta was left untouched.

Was the video being monetized? Did the song used have anything to do with the copyright issue?

I have a halloween video of xiv with 'Thriller' playing, thats still up with a copyright notice. I even have cutscenes from 1.0 up that i posted here even when we were told not to, and I only received a notice for using the FF theme.

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Originally Posted by Tupsi

You would..honestly be surprise. Remember: XIV wasn't exactly the most popular or successful MMO on the block, they really don't need a lot of bad publicity when possible. Let's be honest, ARR is pretty damn buggy, someone can make a compilation video of the bugs and glitches this game has. Ever did WP and have your oil appear above a door way or on the ceiling? Doomwall not spawning? Garuda/Ultima/Gaius/Titan/Ifrit etc that teleports off the area not reappear or appear in the middle stationary?

It may not be for that exact reason, but you can blame Youtube more than you can blame SE. For example you're not allowed to post Beta soundtrack or fan versions of music during beta yet someone who did a piano collection during beta was left untouched.

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Well... no, I can't say that I have experienced any of those particular bugs in hundreds of hours of playtime. And honestly, while the game has its share of glitches (as do ALL games) it's not any more buggy that most at-launch MMO's I've played. In fact, I'd say that (aside from the server stability problems that have been mostly resolved) it's impressively well-polished for an MMO built from the ground up in less than two years.

Also, I don't see how you can say Youtube is at all to blame for this. Youtube is completely reactive, they do not ever remove any videos until they receive complaints from users or content owners. The blame for this video's removal rests squarely on SE.

I doubt it was anything personal. Did you go over their user agreements about sharing content? It has some specifics in there that you may have violated. If you still have the original, go over the agreements we all agreed to and see if there is something you may need to change. make the proper adjustments, then re-upload it. It's not SE's fault people cant be bothered to actually read their user agreements...

LOL @ Viral Marketing.

Anyone who isn't already interested in this game will think, "wow what a broken game."

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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;

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I'm surprised they included this stuff in the materials usage license. So, they're basically saying that only videos showing straight gameplay or clips with disjointed audio transitions are allowed? Poor machinima...

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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;

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I find this odd. At three months in who doesn't (at least some of the time) have game music turned off and their own playlist playing? How many streamers just have the game's bgm instead of their own music. Regardless, ToS is not copyright law, ToS determines the rules SE will follow when determining actions against accounts, copyright law determines what's allowed to be posted on youtube. Beta had a non-disclosure agreement which is something else entirely, and is no longer in effect post-launch.

Can't let too many people see how badly coded this game really is, gotta keep them subs coming.

The issue was most likely the music used with the video, as SE's rule is to use the in-game music only (not answers)
Man I liked that video too >.<

There was a fun Titan video that was up on Nico Nico and got popular really quick, I never got to watch it but it got taken down quick >.<

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Originally Posted by Reinheart

The issue was most likely the music used with the video, as SE's rule is to use the in-game music only (not answers)
Man I liked that video too >.<

There was a fun Titan video that was up on Nico Nico and got popular really quick, I never got to watch it but it got taken down quick >.<

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This is so foolish. So, completely foolish. They're limiting the creativity of their players, and this is going to turn a lot of people off. It's why I don't even bother to record Coil kills. Why bother? I don't have the in-game music on when I'm raiding, I use my own, and therefore if I posted it, I could get a mark against my account. So I don't bother, and it genuinely lessens my interest in the game.

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Originally Posted by NephHalp

I find this odd. At three months in who doesn't (at least some of the time) have game music turned off and their own playlist playing?

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I don't - Even after 11 years of XI I still listen to in-game music, not everyone is tired of hearing the audio of the game they purchased and pay for.

Man, a lot of the posters in this thread are stuck in a seriously small box of thought.

Many of you clearly have not progressed into a career that has a legal department. Do not underestimate the risk adverse nature of lawyers. Just don't.

My guess is that SE wants original game music, not because they think its the greatest combination of tones since Beethoven, rather - they don't want to get in trouble with copywrite/fair use violations with outside entities.

This is incredibly silly of them, and they've been doing it for awhile. I understand projects like the unsolicited Chrono Trigger reboot, but they need to grow up regarding people sharing playthroughs of their games with other people. Where would anyone be in WoW without tankspot or something similar to explain fights? At the base of their product is not some masterpiece of storytelling to rival history's best that needs to be protected, but a game of rules and mechanics that other people find interesting to see good players watch. Granted nobody owns the proprietary rights to basketball or chess, but they need to really grow up regarding this, because they are at odds with their target niche on this.

Anyone remember Nintendo pulling Smash from EVO and then doing the embarrassing backpedal?

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Originally Posted by Tupsi

I don't - Even after 11 years of XI I still listen to in-game music, not everyone is tired of hearing the audio of the game they purchased and pay for.

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Then you are the one person who is allowed to stream and post videos.

still waiting for this to get viral

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3LGf9SSWrU

but meh.