Day One: Garry's Incident Devs Accused of Censoring Bad Review

[Cognimancer]

Day One: Garry's Incident Devs Accused of Censoring Bad Review


Day One: Garry's Incident developer Wild Games Studio appears to have selectively pulled a popular TotalBiscuit review due to its criticism of the game.

After a failed Kickstarter campaign, Day One: Garry's Incident found its way to release via Steam Greenlight about a month ago. The general consensus was that the game wasn't very good, which wouldn't be remarkable - until the developers apparently decided to fight back against critics. Popular YouTuber "TotalBiscuit" had posted a video review full of harsh criticism against the game, which quickly became the most-viewed video about Day One. Lately, though, that video has been unavailable to watch. Wild Games Studio, the title's developer, took it down with a copyright claim - which TotalBiscuit believes was a deliberate censorship of his negative review. In response, the studio recently withdrew its complaint.

TotalBiscuit uploaded a new video in direct response to the takedown. He defends himself with several points, including the facts that Wild Games Studio itself provided him with the Steam key he used to review the game, and that using copyrighted material for criticism is protected as Fair Use. For a while, Wild Games Studio stuck to its guns; the developer posted on the Steam forums [http://steamcommunity.com/app/242800/discussions/0/810938810809560203/#p2] that "We protected our copyright because Total Biscuit has no right to make advertising revenues with our license." After the situation began to spiral into a PR disaster, the studio officially withdrew its complaint to YouTube.

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/Totalbiscuit/status/391815704048959488]

The details of the kerfuffle with Wild Games Studio aren't necessarily the focus of the new video, though. TotalBiscuit admits that his channel and network are successful enough to recover from the loss of one video's ad revenue, but many smaller content producers would not be able to bounce back. YouTube's copyright policy has caused a lot of grief for game critics in the past, and one developer abusing the system isn't as concerning as the fact that the system was so easy to abuse in the first place.

Source: Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/Cynicalbrit/comments/1otlnh/wtf_is_day_one_garrys_incident_the_video_is_no/]

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[TheDoctor455]

You know, the youtube Atheists have been suffering from this sort of thing a lot longer.

Though, they're generally called in for "hate speech" when criticizing religious homophobes; though said religious homophobes have also used youtube's copyright policies to try and silence their critics as well.

Not saying all homophobes are religious, nor am I saying that all religious people are homophobes...

but the key thing here is that youtube's policies have been abused in the past, and they have never done anything to fix that.

Youtube has never set up a system to punish those who file false reports like this, and they bloody well need to.

 

[Denamic]

There should be some sort of penal system for this kind of thing. Like making more than 3 false copyright claims makes your drinking water toxic.

 

[Legion]

The part I find the strangest is that the company thought they could get away with doing it. Did they honestly expect him to keep quiet and say nothing?

If you had asked pretty much anybody how the decision to do this would have played out, I strongly suspect most of us would say exactly this. All it does is make them look even worse. Now they are known for trying to censor criticism as well as making a bad game.

Granted it is easier to get away with if it is a lesser known person, but in this case it wasn't, and they should have realised how it would make them look.

 

[FogHornG36]

ewww this makes me think of that crummy company that made war z, I really hope youtube does something to punish these guys... or anything!

 

[Grabehn]

When I saw the video earlier, the first thing I thought was "Are they really claiming a video on the guy known for being vocal about this shit?" I mean, really?

On subject though, there should be a better developed "claiming system" on youtube, they should, at least for once, stop changin dumb shit on their player and asking you to change your name for the sake of it and fix stuff like this, which is what they should really be paying attention to.

 

[vallorn]

A group of other reviewers such as Nerd^3 and Nukem Dukem (mentioned in TB's video) are adding their own firepower to this argument which is great! The more word this mass of bad PR get's the better for everyone (except the Devs but they started it.)

Vids below if you are interested:

Spoiler

Anyway it's way past time for Youtube to fix this bloody system. Youtube atheists and other people with opinions that some find controversial have been copyright bombed with this and the worst part? To fight a take down you MUST give the other party your legal information and so some use it to get personal information of people then disseminate that information across the net to call for mob justice in real life.

 

[BanicRhys]

review

TotalBiscuit doesn't do reviews, he does "first impressions videos". (excessive finger quotes continue for some time)

I know copyright is important and everything, but it seems like nine times out of ten, it's just used to screw over the little guy and stifle his creativity. (I'm aware TB is probably the bigger guy in this instance, but my point stands)

 

[Neverhoodian]

I hate Youtube's "shoot first, ask questions later" policy with regards to copyright claims for just this reason.

I used to be a semi-active uploader, but I started getting hit with claims on videos that clearly fell under fair use. I never even monetized my channel, but that didn't matter. It's one of the main reasons why I stopped (along with no longer having the time or inclination).

I know I'm not the only one either. I have a list of inactive or deleted channels I used to follow that fell victim to bullshit copyright claims, be it from a faceless corporation like Warner Music Group to random assholes flagging videos for shits and giggles. Simply put, the system is broken and needs a complete overhaul. If Google wants quality content on Youtube, they have to provide the means to protect providers from shit like this.

 

[Hawkeye21]

"Day One: Garry's Incident" makes "Ride to Hell: Retribution" look like GTA V. I am not even kidding.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

How dare TotalBiscuit give people valuable information before they go and spend their hard earned money on something. Consumers should be left in the dark to consume!

Rated S for Sarcasm.

The CEO of this company made a huge mistake when he tried to fuck with TotalBiscuit. He's not easily scared. And he knows why. He deals with facts and logic, not with speculation. If I were an employee in his "company" I'd quit now and start looking for a new job. The guy fucked himself hard with this.

Incidentally, he's made TotalBiscuit even more famous now and gave him even more power as a critic.

 

[weirdee]

I think it's hilarious that they thought their game was good enough that they could just hand it to a famous figure and not get totally slammed on it

 

[Nihlus2]

How dare TotalBiscuit give people valuable information before they go and spend their hard earned money on something. Consumers should be left in the dark to consume!

Rated S for Sarcasm.

The CEO of this company made a huge mistake when he tried to fuck with TotalBiscuit. He's not easily scared. And he knows why. He deals with facts and logic, not with speculation. If I were an employee in his "company" I'd quit now and start looking for a new job. The guy fucked himself hard with this.

Incidentally, he's made TotalBiscuit even more famous now and gave him even more power as a critic.

Of all the critics to try and censor... Wild Games Studio goes after the one who has a law degree.

But on the topic at hand; It is quite disturbing how badly constructed (and easy to abuse) this system evidently is. I still remember the whole Shining Force debacle about a year ago, and the fact that it still has not been resolved is kinda interesting/disturbing.

Something clearly has to be reviewed about this system, and something better implemented in its stead.

 

[Gezzer]

To me the major problem with YouTube's system is how automated it seems to be. One bot finds a video with something from one of it's search strings and tells another bot to take it down, which it does. Even the companies searching for copyright violations have fallen victims to their own bot searches.
So first off I think there needs to be a takedown notice period. Say once the bot sends it's takedown notice the offender is given notice that they have 24hrs to respond to it. Prove it's not violating content to Google's satisfaction and you're good, don't or fail to respond in time and the offending video is removed.
Secondly there has to be some sort of penalty for anyone abusing the system I would think. If a non offending video still slips through the cracks and is removed and then is proven to not be a violating video the company/person issuing the takedown should be liable for damages. Say any lost ad revenue (averaged from previous data) is awarded to the victim/s of the false request.

But lastly I think TotalBiscuit needs to escalate this. Posting a video about the heinous act is a good start, but it doesn't really do anything to penalize the offender other than bad PR. If I was TotalBiscuit and had enough revenue to sustain it I'd launch a defamation of character and/or libel suit against the CEO. Of course he'd need to seek legal advice on how much grounds his suit would have. But even if it was a 50/50 proposition, the process alone regardless of the outcome could make other potential abusers think twice before they act.

 

[thethird0611]

Not gonna lie, im surprised this hasnt happened before. I thought it would be common sense not to try to silence someone through a pretty noticeable policy, but someone did it. The bigger thing is they did it to TB, who is BIG, so he is going to say something to his fans about it.

A little bit of 'Wow' and 'I knew it was coming' mixed together.

 

[Sansha]

The developers are idiots... any other reviewer and this would just go away, but not fucking TotalBiscuit. TB is an asshole, and loves to take shit personally, so of course there'd be a backlash from this.

This is ridiculous in itself - censoring reviews is bullshit, but this game is pretty evidently shit anyway - they had a perfectly good opportunity to create a very minimalist and really challenging survival game... but no, magic macguffins.

 

[RikuoAmero]

To me the major problem with YouTube's system is how automated it seems to be. One bot finds a video with something from one of it's search strings and tells another bot to take it down, which it does. Even the companies searching for copyright violations have fallen victims to their own bot searches.
So first off I think there needs to be a takedown notice period. Say once the bot sends it's takedown notice the offender is given notice that they have 24hrs to respond to it. Prove it's not violating content to Google's satisfaction and you're good, don't or fail to respond in time and the offending video is removed.
Secondly there has to be some sort of penalty for anyone abusing the system I would think. If a non offending video still slips through the cracks and is removed and then is proven to not be a violating video the company/person issuing the takedown should be liable for damages. Say any lost ad revenue (averaged from previous data) is awarded to the victim/s of the false request.

But lastly I think TotalBiscuit needs to escalate this. Posting a video about the heinous act is a good start, but it doesn't really do anything to penalize the offender other than bad PR. If I was TotalBiscuit and had enough revenue to sustain it I'd launch a defamation of character and/or libel suit against the CEO. Of course he'd need to seek legal advice on how much grounds his suit would have. But even if it was a 50/50 proposition, the process alone regardless of the outcome could make other potential abusers think twice before they act.

The problem with your idea there is that the burden of proof falls on the accused, which flies in the face of every legal system in a democratic nation. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who follows LittleKuriboh of Ygo Abridged fame, and his videos get blocked on a more or less regular basis. Can you imagine being him and under your idea having to prove your innocence each and every time, instead of the accuser?

 

[josemlopes]

To be honest though TB never really reviews anything, he just kind of plays the game for 2 hours and say whatever the fuck he wants (mostly consisting if the game caters to whatever needs he has at the moment).

Still, they are never formally called reviews either and the devs knew what could happen if they let him (or anyone else) play the game and provide feedback online. If the product is shit it makes sense that people will call it shit.