krazykidd said:
Mangod said:
So... Total Biscuit/Cynical Brit/John Bain posted two videos on YouTube not too long ago, a first impressions-video for Guise of the Wolf, and a recording of the research stream for the same game. Guess which videos have been hit by takedown notices?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ask3Dn1ocIQ
... this is just unbelievable; do these people seriously not see how this kind of attempted censorship harms their product and reputation? And this isn't the first time, either; TB got hit with a takedown notice for his video on Day One: Garry's Incident as well when he blasted that game for being, pardon the language, utter garbage.
I can't wait to see how FUN Creators (yes, that's their name. FUN. I beg to differ) try to justify this, because I can't imagine this going over particularly well.
Captcha: third degree...
Well, I reckon FUN are gonna get burned by this.
Actually you know what ? I get it. Why would i want a bunch of randomers talking about my games. Especially if it's a bad game or they are known to say bad things about their games. Sure it's free publicity, but only if the reviewer liked it. If the reviewer hated it, and is a popular figure, then it's bad for business. Yes it's a way to control information about their games , but i do believe only certain people should be allowed to " review" games not every tom, dick and harry with a camera ( i'm not saying that's what total biscuit is).
Its not that i necessarily agree with the reasons for taking down/flagging videos. It's just that i understand where they are coming from.
The main issue with this is, that it's illegal. In the US, where Totalbiscuit is based out of currently (and in most countries with any sort of half-decent laws). A review falls under fair use for *exactly* this reason. Because if it didn't, anyone could force any review they didn't like to be taken down and the consumers would be unable to get any sort of raw, unbiased opinion on the product. The developer's opinion regarding the review is completely irrelevant. Reviews fall under fair use and are protected speech. And quite honestly, the more reviews are available, the better it is for the consumers. Especially with how friendly mainstream game journalism has become with publishers and various entertainment corporations.
If you make a shitty game (and let's be real, they knew they'd made a shitty game. NO ONE could have looked at Guise of the Wolf and go "You know what? That's done and completely ready to put up for sale") then you put on your bigboy pants and take your lumps. If Totalbiscuit puts up a first-impressions video where he points out every major bug and mistake he can find, you go "Thank you for the constructive criticism," and you try to do better next time. That is, if you actually care about being a competent and honest game developer.
If you just want to put out a half-finished product and hope a bunch of uninformed people buy it before the bad word gets out, then yeah, they're basically following the playbook. But all this does is hurt them in the end, and show what a terrible sort of development company they are. The best thing they could do is change their company name and remove Guise of the Wolf from their resumes so that no one recognizes them and rightfully refuses to buy their future products.
