Square Enix Hates Viral Marketing

[frostmagemari]

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.

All the ToS can do is give Square-Enix a reason to suspend/ban your account if they find out that you made the video. The Terms of Service is not a club that they can swing at anything on the web that they don't like; It is only the agreement you enter into with Square-Enix for your continued access to the game.

I don't know what kind of copyright & Fair Use laws Japan has or how it interacts on the international stage, but that's what Machinima would fall under on the web, not the Terms of Service; Though, I would imagine that a company would have to adhere to the Fair Use laws of the nation they are selling their product in.

I would also like to point out the fact that gamers absolutely hate when games feel too policed and strict, especially an MMO. This is something that caused GW2 to lose a TON of players when it first came out. As I said earlier, boring stock footage doesn't make a game huge, it is the community that does. SE need to lighten up

Square-Enix really does need to lighten up about things. One of the things that make a lot of games popular in social circles is not the advertisement footage.. but rather the Machinima made by users of that game; Whether it's a bug showcased in an entertaining way, music videos like "Ni Hao" or "Hard Like Heroic"(by Nyhm) for World of Warcraft, or a full-blown "movie" showcasing someone's unique story for the world.

Myself, i never would have tried out the Mage class in WoW, which was the class that kept me playing for -years- before the deathknight was released, if i never saw a music video called "Big Blue Dress"(by Cranius) that made the class look like a lot of fun.