Jimquisition: Super Ethical Vlogging Climax

Jimothy Sterling

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Super Ethical Vlogging Climax

Jimquisition tackles the murky waters of product placement on YouTube, inspired by the recent shenanigans of Microsoft and Machinima.

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JoJo

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Unusual time for a video upload... hopefully not a glitch given today's earlier troubles in ZP. Nevertheless interesting episode, I hadn't heard of this deal before so kudos to bringing it to light Jim.
 

Fappy

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SirBryghtside said:
Wow, another episode so soon? Is this a glitch?
No, our god is just feeling generous today.

OT: Going to take a wild guess and say you were referencing Jessica Chobot in ME3. I have no idea if IGN's review actually disclosed her inclusion in the game or not, honestly.
 

Andy Shandy

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SirBryghtside said:
Wow, another episode so soon? Is this a glitch?
JoJo said:
Unusual time for a video upload... hopefully not a glitch given today's earlier troubles in ZP. Nevertheless interesting episode, I hadn't heard of this deal before so kudos to bringing it to light Jim.
Nah, it's not a glitch.

[Tweet t=https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/428550730622836738]

Anyway, yeah, this whole Microsoft/Machinima stuff was just stupid, simply put. The truly idiotic thing is that it's not really necessary. It's like they are trying to force word of mouth. They shouldn't, and just let the games speak from themselves. Speaking as someone who owns a One, it has some really great games already. I love the silliness of Dead Rising 3, Zoo Tycoon is great and Peggle 2 is like injecting pure, unadulterated fun right into your veins.

They didn't need to "buy off" people to say that some of the stuff the Xbox had was great, that sort of thing would've come naturally, in time. But no, they wanted it now, and just look even stupider, and the internet's image of them will continue to get worse (not that you should always pay attention to the internet, I might add)
 

PuckFuppet

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All in all, you're probably going be shit Jim. But then that is part of the charm.

This whole "watch other people play games or review things on youtube" thing has passed me completely by, as has most eh... "gamer culture" really, and I really don't see the outright appeal. That said it makes sense that companies are desperate to get behind these content creators who have a mass audience right in their target demo, and I don't think that is bad thing.

Even assuming that the vlogger or whatever they're called goes completely native and reviews something with a clear bias the net effect of that isn't going to be serious. If anything it'll just drive content creators who, whether benefiting from company interest or not, keep their stuff on the level further into the spotlight.
 

Doctor Proctor

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At least Jim got the facts mostly right, unlike the Escapist Podcast. One thing he glossed over though was that the NDA that was a part of this deal did NOT prevent disclosure, it was just an NDA on the terms of the contract. In other words, they could've said "The following video is brought to you by Micosoft" or some such thing, but just weren't supposed to talk about how much money they were receiving per 1000 views. This is fairly standard and exists even in the journalism side, as I'm sure you'd find out if you asked someone at The Escapist what their contract terms were for the commercials that they're currently running in front of their videos. ;)

In other words, MS was never preventing anyone from disclosing the existence of the deal, and neither was Machinima. It was the YouTubers themselves who failed to inform their audience, which to my knowledge is still illegal in the US since you are required by the FTC to disclose paid sponsorships (which is why it says "Paid Spokesperson" in fine print at the bottom during testimonial style commercials). So regardless of how you feel about MS and Machinima in this, the lion's share of the blame is on the YouTubers themselves, and I wouldn't trust a word that comes out of the mouths of any of those who didn't disclose this.
 

Zacharious-khan

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I'm liking jim working more closely with the escapist, it seems like we are getting more jim per week. THANK GOD FOR JIM
 

Bribase

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Just out of interest, what game in the video had the guy in the rucksack on the quad bike? it looks awful.
 

Atmos Duality

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The only voices in gaming still worth a shit were the regular folks. Some of them, somehow acquired an audience on youtube.

It was only a matter of time before plans were set into motion to drag them down to the same level of corporate fuck-puppetry that rendered the old magazines and critics untrustworthy.

(Nevermind that the original promo program for the Xbone as written was ambiguous to the point of being legally questionable. Machinima was quick to "clarify" the terms involving the NDA; but far more interesting is how Microsoft was just as quick to divert blame onto Machinima.)

Whatever.
I don't really watch any youtube game review streams much anymore, unless I'm looking for footage for something I might buy.
 

SonOfMethuselah

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Um... am I the only one who's just seeing an 8 minute video of various clips of Escapist shows? There's no Jimquisition here...

Edit: Ha! Three tries and ten minutes later! Dunno what that was all about.
 

themilo504

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I?m surprised that companies expect to get away with this kind of stuff, you would think that they realized that this would be very controversial and probably not worth it.

I?m guessing that they simply don?t care about potential negative consequences as long as the xbox one gets a bit more marketing.
 

SwimmingRock

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Bribase said:
Just out of interest, what game in the video had the guy in the rucksack on the quad bike? it looks awful.
I believe you're inquiring about Unearthed: Trail of Ibn Battuta. It's on Steam and shit. Jim did a video on it on his YouTube page and I've tried it myself. Didn't get far, because I encountered a game-breaking glitch that was sort of fixed later, but I'd already uninstalled the game by that time.
 

Hellkiller15

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The licking of the Xbox wasn't sensual enough for me. DO IT AGAIN! And get it right this time! Come on, you're better than that, Jim Sterling. I want that Xbox One to be dripping with saliva!

For anyone who didn't get that was a joke. That was a joke!
 

Penguinplayer

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I will probably pick up Jazzpunk on release day and I look foward to hearing your voice Jim. I've picked up every game published by Adult Swim on Steam so far and haven't been disappointed with a single one of the so far. Those guys know their stuff.

More on-topic, it's amazing how companies think they can still get away with this shit and that nobody would care if they found out. Shows how disconnected they are from reality.
 

TomWiley

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Loki_The_Good said:
Doctor Proctor said:
At least Jim got the facts mostly right, unlike the Escapist Podcast. One thing he glossed over though was that the NDA that was a part of this deal did NOT prevent disclosure, it was just an NDA on the terms of the contract. In other words, they could've said "The following video is brought to you by Micosoft" or some such thing, but just weren't supposed to talk about how much money they were receiving per 1000 views. This is fairly standard and exists even in the journalism side, as I'm sure you'd find out if you asked someone at The Escapist what their contract terms were for the commercials that they're currently running in front of their videos. ;)

In other words, MS was never preventing anyone from disclosing the existence of the deal, and neither was Machinima. It was the YouTubers themselves who failed to inform their audience, which to my knowledge is still illegal in the US since you are required by the FTC to disclose paid sponsorships (which is why it says "Paid Spokesperson" in fine print at the bottom during testimonial style commercials). So regardless of how you feel about MS and Machinima in this, the lion's share of the blame is on the YouTubers themselves, and I wouldn't trust a word that comes out of the mouths of any of those who didn't disclose this.
It's written loose enough that it could be interpreted that way but not clear enough that it could be interpreted as a blanket non disclosure. Even if microsoft and michinima had the best of intentions, which is arguable, the wording was such that anyone reading it could assume it was a blanket non disclosure; especially those who would not want to risk breach of contract and would therefore be inclined to err on the side of caution. Bare minimum Machinima failed properly directing their employees. That's assuming the best intentions.
Even if we assume that Microsoft discreetly and deliberately wrote it to make it seem like a confidentiality agreement, although it sure as hell doesn't read like a bilateral NDA, It still sounds like most of the blame for this unethical act lies with the people at Machinima.

Which is still far more complicated then the sensationalist "Microsoft bribes youtube" headlines we're seeing literally everywhere. And Sterlin doesn't really do much to question that popular sentiment either.