Square Enix Hates Viral Marketing

[Alcyon_Densetsu]

Dear fellow players,

Please, do take a few seconds to think and wonder how you would judge such an event if this wasn't Square Enix, like if this were another company that you didn't appreciate at all, if this wasn't Final Fantasy but a bad video game from a bad studio that you don't care at all about. Please try to totally ignore your own feelings and biases towards a company/product, and consider this issue from a very generic standpoint.

Please do so. It's very important if we are to have an honest debate about this and inform sensible opinions about freedom of speech; about the extent to which copyright can go and if it is legitimate to be used as a means to shut down opinions and artistic takes, even petty talk; about what this all means for the emerging 'new media' scene that transformed how we talk about 'things' in general, but is by no means different in nature than showing a game to a friend while saying 'stuff' about it—it's just much more public. It's only differently treated because corporations and copyright law say so, but this side of the story cannot be the whole story.

Please thus really try to separate actual law from common sense, firstly because few, if any, of us is qualified to talk about a law that is arguably lagging behind the current technology and is still very much in the making as we speak; secondly keeping in mind that law is meant to help society thrive, to protect and to enable people's rights to evolve and innovate; and therefore is bound to change and be revised at any time in history. We are very much dabbling in grey areas about all this, this is history in the making people; and your opinion on this cannot be subdued to a particular liking for a particular company or product, there's too much at stake for us to adopt such a narrow view.

As a small disclaimer I should point out that most of the links I provide here are from the same commentator, thus obviously a bit one-sided; but my point isn't to make a journalistic objective piece so much as to raise awareness and bring food for thought. Arguably also, this source is quite valid as a leading figure of the 'new media' scene and arguably very intelligently worded. Few people disagree with him as far as this industry is concerned—not talking about his opinions and tastes in games obviously; but with how he presents the whole triangular relationship between game makers, game media, and game players, on a theoretical but above all very practical standpoint, if this industry is to thrive and us gamers be served with valuable content.

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The underlying issue here is much larger than a mere video—astoundingly a positive one that was less about the game itself than a somewhat funny, spirited and downright kawai-cute take on what's essentially a fiction, a dream, and that actually did promote this IP more than anything else. It made us smile, gave us emotions—positive ones for that matter—what was the harm about it? Isn't that the whole point of art and entertainment in the first place? But anyhow, let's have a wider look at this picture, shall we?

It's about censorship in the name of a twisted perversion of copyright law, which "is meant to be a shield, not a sword; it's designed to protect, not to assault" (please refer to the two links at the end of this post for a deeper look at current patent law). It's a matter of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

As we speak several major Japanese companies (Nintendo, Sega, Square Enix…), and a few tiny western ones (WildGamesStudio), and no less than the US Congress itself when it tried to enact the SOPA legislation, are having a huge hard time understanding the very concept of 'new media' and its interest in the wider picture of consumer information and media innovation—YouTube and web 2.0 rich-content websites, as opposed to 'traditional media' such as written reviews and blogs.

If you don't believe me, then take it from the #1 independent YouTube reviewer, TotalBiscuit. Here's a 10-minutes comment of his on the detrimental restrictions that Square Enix imposes on video content, such as prohibiting the combining of Final Fantasy XIV footage with third-party content (comments, sound, and generally what makes a video content professional or passionate) or monetising the videos when it's the livelihood of professional 'new media' reviewers (their policy has been loosened a tiny bit since then, but by no means within the accepted standards that most publishers such as Electronic Arts, Activision, Blizzard, Ubisoft, Bioware, Riot Games, Rockstar Games, 2K Games, Bethesda Softworks, Epic Games, Bungie and most game companies in the world usually allow).

What Square Enix, Nintendo or Sega did/do, on these issues, is fundamentally preventing professional 'new media' to do their job properly, and gamers to even hype over their games. It is a disservice to themselves and their products, to the ecosystem of the emerging 'new media' and evidently to gamers at large, therefore a shot in the foot for the gaming industry altogether.

In the specific case of Square Enix with Final Fantasy XIV, their video policies have resulted in most of professional channels and independent gaming networks on YouTube deciding not to cover the game at all, for fear of copyright strikes and the taking down of their whole channel as an unfortunate consequence of it: 3 copyright strikes on your channel means it is suppressed by YouTube, and all your videos subsequently deleted, which is a dire outcome that professional commentators, who make a living out of reviewing and covering games, just cannot risk. The worst aspect, in the case of an MMO, is probably that there is no better way to cover an MMO than through long-form video content, since these games are so extensively deep and complex to explain—it sure is better to absorb all that information with visual and audio content than it is by reading long-written pieces.

This is bad. It means less coverage for the game, less exposure to gamers, less objectivity and variety in assessing the game, which is a disservice to all gamers who might have been interested in it… less of everything that makes a game—especially an MMO—thrive in this day and age. It hurts Final Fantasy XIV, there's no way to spin it otherwise.

A few quotes from the above link:

If the Japanese have proven anything lately, it’s that they do not understand gaming videos on YouTube. If the Shining Force incident proved anything, if this proves anything, then what you are clearly seeing is a culture that is out of touch with the realities of YouTube—out of the realities of streaming and things like that. […] I believe the total views for pieces of Square Enix content on my channel at this time, not counting the multi-part stuff of Final Fantasy XIII-2, is 2.1 million. Million! Do you hear that? —million! Do you know how many viewers there’s going to be for Final Fantasy XIV on my channel? ZERO! Because it’s not getting covered.
[…]
If people are put off buying your game because they could just watch it instead, then your game is very clearly not engaging enough from a mechanical standpoint. If I can experience all the game has to offer by just watching a video with someone chatting over the background, then that probably means that your game is not that exciting, and you need to be having just a little bit of luck how you designed it. If you make your games engaging, people will want to play them after seeing somebody else play them; if you don’t, that’s your fault! If you’re arguing that, say long-form video content that shows large chunks of your game is somehow detracting from the audience of your game rather than increasing it, I would love to see your evidence—I really really would. Please, show me anything other than correlation and conjecture. Oh, you want proof of the contrary you say? Oh, that shouldn’t be a problem, I’ve got three years of that stuff—bring it on!

More links if you wish to know better:

• A very recent example of corporate censorship on YouTube by WildGamesStudio:
  [2013/10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoD...&feature=share (14 minutes)
• The "Shining Force event", highlighting the suicidal and agressive stance taken by SEGA of Japan over these issues, which led to many channels (some not even monetising) being shut down:
  [2012/12] http://youtu.be/k84i3Op-LQI?t=14m20s (up to end, 6 minutes of commentary)
• The incredibly misunderstanding policy that Nintendo came up with in regards to YouTube videos containing any of their games footage:
  [2013/05] http://youtu.be/6yX4io2O4EI?t=22m24s (a 30-minutes commentary, quite enlightening and spot-on on these "copyright vs. new media" issues; this link goes to the last 10 minutes but please do watch the entire video if you have the time, it's really interesting).
• How SOPA was a danger to free speech and the internet in general—you'll sadly notice that, despite the legislation not being enacted, some of the fears highlighted by this political conflict are as a matter of fact being very real and actual, as we speak, as far as YouTube corporate censorship is a real concern.
  [2011/12] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwuX...&feature=share (20 minutes)

In the wider sense of "protecting people's and companies' work", the notion of patent law is right behind all this. Here are takes from a very respected source, which by no means would try to hurt the capitalistic system or its liberal ideals and framework (taken in the wider meaning of "freedom of entrepreneurship and opinion", not as "anti-republican" as per the US acception of the word), The Economist.

• Patents against prosperity (August 2011)
• Patent nonsense (February 2010)

Please, pretty please, let's be enlightened about all this, for it's certainly not the time to be defending anything else than innovation and freedom themselves, out of a sheer matter of principle. What's a particular game, a particular company, a particular phone, store name or icon shape in the wider scheme of our economic and political future? Nothing but petty details. I, for one, admit that I would defend these notions—freedoms, innovation—against pretty much any other consideration, because no individual, no corporation is above these fundamental drives of human evolution—in my humble opinion.

Notes:

1. This is not an 'anti-japanese' post. This individual is very much of a Japanese culture lover. My first encounter with it was at the age of 6, when I started playing video games on my Atari and NES. Ever since then, I've never been less than admirative of this country's culture, its achievements, its enlightenment on modern issues (sci-fi fan here). I very much respect Japan; I've always advocated that some animes and mangas are no less worthy than western shows and books (if not more for a number of them); I also happen to know Japan very well since my best friend's mother is Japanese, and I've been there several times. I've never been an 'otaku' for I don't really do fanboyism (ever, about anything, it just doesn't fit my balanced take on things), but know this culture quite well for a foreigner, as a genuine interest of mine, from its history to values passing by work realities and social conventions. This is how, in such a case, I actually think I see pretty well what's happening and how these companies might react so—and why I feel the need to voice the issue, because if anything the Japanese here are setting precedents that bode ill for the world at large.
2. I didn't create a new thread because I feel it would be quite off-topic in a game's general forum (and there's no 'off-topic' forum here), but please don't hesitate to do it if you wish so. You may quote parts of, or this entire post, I won't mind. These are not my words so much as ideas and food for thought, and I for one don't claim ownership of any these.
3. Please also not hesitate to forward and discuss any of these ideas around you in your various circles, be they in the physical or immaterial world. They say that the Final Fantasy crowd is an enlightened one because of the ingenuity and enlightened philosophy at the core of these games and stories; well I guess it's time, and a valuable subject, to have something real to show for it.