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What stands out most about this issue is the open-mindedness of the Video Games Industry. The fact that they've stood up for someone's ability to not only recor

What stands out most about this issue is the open-mindedness of the Video Games Industry. The fact that they've stood up for someone's ability to not only record their gameplay, but on top of that, make money from it just shows how understanding they are (unlike neighboring industries that take down amateur remixes from Soundcloud and YouTube). They're one of the few industries that generally: ● Don't Sue Pirates ● Don't claim copyright infringement on uploaded video game soundtracks to YouTube or gh.ffshrine.org (except Square Enix because their Final Fantasy OST still sells big) ● Don't send DMCA notices to people who remix their content (make mods) ● Allow unofficial communities to sprout up using their IP's name in the domain name url I'd say they're going above and beyond to support fair use & infringement in order to please customers, grow communities, and grow their fan base through crowdsourced content infringement. Genius I'd say.

zwily 13y ago
The industry does have some of the nastiest DRM we've ever seen though.
ekianjo 13y ago
Don't claim copyright infringement on uploaded video game soundtracks to YouTube (except Square Enix because their Final Fantasy OST still sells big) Because most video game music is crap, really. Of course, there are exceptions, but nothing that would really sell anyway if they were marketing it. Don't send DMCA notices to people who remix their content (make mods) Huh... you haven't heard about Nintendo I guess? They just closed the site of someone who made a Mario clone (a 20+ years old game) in the browser, and they also sued Great Giana Sisters in the 80s because it was too similar to Mario. Allow unofficial communities to sprout up using their IP's name in the domain name url I can't remember which site right now, but I clearly remember Sony or other big players making it difficult to use some of their brands as domain names. It's clearly not as nice an industry as you seem to be considering it.
- ChrisNorstrom 13y ago
  1) Are you really going to make a hot-air blanket statement like "Most video game music is crap"? You do realize that even mid-budget games like Resident Evil 5 & Remember Me (both with really good soundtracks) record using Hollywood sized orchestras. 2) A "CLONE" of a game is different. Especially when you clone an iconic game that Nintendo still sells. It's clearly not as evil an industry as you seem to be considering it.
  - ekianjo 13y ago
    1) it's not because you record with an orchestra that it's not crap, sorry. Music is not just about how much money you throw at it, if there's no art in it, it's just crap. And when I say "there's exceptions" I dont know how you can say i make a blanket statement. 2) Sorry, but a 20+ year old game should be in the public domain, period. Why do we apply copyrights which are longer than what we apply on drugs? Sorry but I consider that especially Evil, in the same way that Mickey Mouse is still not in public domain even though it's been 75 years+ since its first appearance.
    - pubby 13y ago
      >if you are an extremely talented musician, it's not in videogames that you'll get [...] the best salaries >Music is not just about how much money you throw at it That doesn't make much sense.
      - ekianjo 13y ago
        >Music is not just about how much money you throw at it I meant that because someone else mentioned the usage of orchestra as a sign of good music. It is not.
    - Morgawr 13y ago
      >And when I say "there's exceptions" I dont know how you can say i make a blanket statement. Honestly, calling most videogame music crap is a bit ignorant imo (even though you mention "exceptions"). A lot of videogames, even minor ones and some indies, have amazing music and OST. This is because sound is one of the most important aspects of game development, even though most people don't really understand that. It is up there, style-wise, with graphics and gameplay. A good OST can make or break a game and it's surprising how unnoticed this goes until you find a game with actual crap/out of place music, and then you notice. I often listen to several game soundtracks and I own a few albums just of pure videogame music, there is a huge market from fans (and even non-fans) directly buying music CDs of videogame OSTs. Plus they are often sold with collector's editions and similar. Let's give a few examples of games with great music (great, not just "good", for most of them are at least good and far from "crap"): Final Fantasy, Halo, Monkey Island, Zelda, Civilization, Silent Hill (by far my favorite), Castlevania, Portal, The Elders Scrolls, Metal Gear... I could go on, but you get the point[1]. As a musician I can say for sure that game soundtracks are among the most entertaining and fun to play, there's a lot of people on youtube recording covers and re-arrangements of famous game OSTs. Really, claiming that "most videogame music is crap" is just being ignorant. [1] http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/nine-legitimately-awesome-video-game-soundtracks-20131004 http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/nine-legitimately-a...
- InclinedPlane 13y ago
  Let's see: Zelda and Mario series, pretty much every Square game, Halo, Star Wars games (though that's cheating), Minecraft, Castlevania games, Skyrim, Journey, Bastion, and many others. Video games have about as much chance of having awesome sound tracks as other media such as cinematic films.
  - ekianjo 13y ago
    You do realize that the games you quoted represent 0.0001% of all games being marketed ? (regardless of popularity). I could just say you are being biased. Besides, if you are an extremely talented musician, it's not in videogames that you'll get widespread recognition nor the best salaries either. Can you name any of the musicians who worked on the games you mentioned, by memory ? Good try. So of course, people who are talented tend to move to other industries.
    - InclinedPlane 13y ago
      Why is popularity not a factor? It should be. And do you seriously expect me to list a significant fraction of all games to satisfy your needs? That's ridiculous. Here's my claim: a significant fraction of the most popular games have excellent sound tracks. I provided evidence to back up my claims, you have provided none to back up yours.
    - anonymoushn 13y ago
      Nobuo Uematsu, Lifeformed, Ben Prunty Do movies have awful music in general, just because there are lots of shitty movies and movies with a music budget of at least $1000 represent .0001% of all movies?
    - Zecc 13y ago
      > Can you name any of the musicians who worked on the games you mentioned, by memory ? Good try. That's a bit unfair. Movies tend to put the composer's name in big letters right before the movie starts, while in games the name usually comes "buried" in the credits only. Also I personally find that the best soundtracks come from Japanese games, and I'm not very good at dealing with Japanese games.
- chilldream 13y ago
  Nintendo is and has always been an outlier when it comes to clamping down on "their" IP. This is the company that tried to sue Blockbuster for renting games (the fallout from this suit is why rental games didn't come with the official manual). They also tried to sue Game Genie out of existence. If you were bothered by the Super Mario JavaScript thing or Nintendo leading the charge on this YouTube drama, it's nothing new.
  - ekianjo 13y ago
    Sure, yet Nintendo is still widely loved by the same people who seem to complain about their behavior. Talk about Stockholm syndrome :)
Negitivefrags 13y ago
When we were revising our Terms of Use recently we wanted to make sure there was a provision about monetising gameplay video being allowed. This is because previously we were getting a fair amount of email users who required us to give written permission so that Twitch would allow it. We actually got a fair amount of push back from our lawyer who advised us against it. We did include it it though I feel he added a lot of extra weaseling to the clause that probably wasn't needed.
lnanek2 13y ago
I've seen companies come in and present at Google IO about how awesome it was for them and players both when they added upload of game moments to YouTube. It was a huge word of mouth advertising win for them that users were sharing and promoting videos of playing their game. If anything this is a case of Google hurting games, probably due to some lawyer of theirs forcing them to.
EpicEng 13y ago
"Open-mindedness"? Please. It's free publicity for them, that's why they are doing what they're doing. Nothing wrong with that, but let's not pretend they're sticking up for these guys out of the goodness of their hearts. This is the industry that tries to screw consumers every chance they get with crappy DRM and them trying to kill off the used game market.

zwily 13y ago

The industry does have some of the nastiest DRM we've ever seen though.

ekianjo 13y ago

Don't claim copyright infringement on uploaded video game soundtracks to YouTube (except Square Enix because their Final Fantasy OST still sells big) Because most video game music is crap, really. Of course, there are exceptions, but nothing that would really sell anyway if they were marketing it. Don't send DMCA notices to people who remix their content (make mods) Huh... you haven't heard about Nintendo I guess? They just closed the site of someone who made a Mario clone (a 20+ years old game) in the browser, and they also sued Great Giana Sisters in the 80s because it was too similar to Mario. Allow unofficial communities to sprout up using their IP's name in the domain name url I can't remember which site right now, but I clearly remember Sony or other big players making it difficult to use some of their brands as domain names. It's clearly not as nice an industry as you seem to be considering it.

ChrisNorstrom 13y ago
1) Are you really going to make a hot-air blanket statement like "Most video game music is crap"? You do realize that even mid-budget games like Resident Evil 5 & Remember Me (both with really good soundtracks) record using Hollywood sized orchestras. 2) A "CLONE" of a game is different. Especially when you clone an iconic game that Nintendo still sells. It's clearly not as evil an industry as you seem to be considering it.
- ekianjo 13y ago
  1) it's not because you record with an orchestra that it's not crap, sorry. Music is not just about how much money you throw at it, if there's no art in it, it's just crap. And when I say "there's exceptions" I dont know how you can say i make a blanket statement. 2) Sorry, but a 20+ year old game should be in the public domain, period. Why do we apply copyrights which are longer than what we apply on drugs? Sorry but I consider that especially Evil, in the same way that Mickey Mouse is still not in public domain even though it's been 75 years+ since its first appearance.
  - pubby 13y ago
    >if you are an extremely talented musician, it's not in videogames that you'll get [...] the best salaries >Music is not just about how much money you throw at it That doesn't make much sense.
    - ekianjo 13y ago
      >Music is not just about how much money you throw at it I meant that because someone else mentioned the usage of orchestra as a sign of good music. It is not.
  - Morgawr 13y ago
    >And when I say "there's exceptions" I dont know how you can say i make a blanket statement. Honestly, calling most videogame music crap is a bit ignorant imo (even though you mention "exceptions"). A lot of videogames, even minor ones and some indies, have amazing music and OST. This is because sound is one of the most important aspects of game development, even though most people don't really understand that. It is up there, style-wise, with graphics and gameplay. A good OST can make or break a game and it's surprising how unnoticed this goes until you find a game with actual crap/out of place music, and then you notice. I often listen to several game soundtracks and I own a few albums just of pure videogame music, there is a huge market from fans (and even non-fans) directly buying music CDs of videogame OSTs. Plus they are often sold with collector's editions and similar. Let's give a few examples of games with great music (great, not just "good", for most of them are at least good and far from "crap"): Final Fantasy, Halo, Monkey Island, Zelda, Civilization, Silent Hill (by far my favorite), Castlevania, Portal, The Elders Scrolls, Metal Gear... I could go on, but you get the point[1]. As a musician I can say for sure that game soundtracks are among the most entertaining and fun to play, there's a lot of people on youtube recording covers and re-arrangements of famous game OSTs. Really, claiming that "most videogame music is crap" is just being ignorant. [1] http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/nine-legitimately-awesome-video-game-soundtracks-20131004 http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/nine-legitimately-a...
InclinedPlane 13y ago
Let's see: Zelda and Mario series, pretty much every Square game, Halo, Star Wars games (though that's cheating), Minecraft, Castlevania games, Skyrim, Journey, Bastion, and many others. Video games have about as much chance of having awesome sound tracks as other media such as cinematic films.
- ekianjo 13y ago
  You do realize that the games you quoted represent 0.0001% of all games being marketed ? (regardless of popularity). I could just say you are being biased. Besides, if you are an extremely talented musician, it's not in videogames that you'll get widespread recognition nor the best salaries either. Can you name any of the musicians who worked on the games you mentioned, by memory ? Good try. So of course, people who are talented tend to move to other industries.
  - InclinedPlane 13y ago
    Why is popularity not a factor? It should be. And do you seriously expect me to list a significant fraction of all games to satisfy your needs? That's ridiculous. Here's my claim: a significant fraction of the most popular games have excellent sound tracks. I provided evidence to back up my claims, you have provided none to back up yours.
  - anonymoushn 13y ago
    Nobuo Uematsu, Lifeformed, Ben Prunty Do movies have awful music in general, just because there are lots of shitty movies and movies with a music budget of at least $1000 represent .0001% of all movies?
  - Zecc 13y ago
    > Can you name any of the musicians who worked on the games you mentioned, by memory ? Good try. That's a bit unfair. Movies tend to put the composer's name in big letters right before the movie starts, while in games the name usually comes "buried" in the credits only. Also I personally find that the best soundtracks come from Japanese games, and I'm not very good at dealing with Japanese games.
chilldream 13y ago
Nintendo is and has always been an outlier when it comes to clamping down on "their" IP. This is the company that tried to sue Blockbuster for renting games (the fallout from this suit is why rental games didn't come with the official manual). They also tried to sue Game Genie out of existence. If you were bothered by the Super Mario JavaScript thing or Nintendo leading the charge on this YouTube drama, it's nothing new.
- ekianjo 13y ago
  Sure, yet Nintendo is still widely loved by the same people who seem to complain about their behavior. Talk about Stockholm syndrome :)

Negitivefrags 13y ago

When we were revising our Terms of Use recently we wanted to make sure there was a provision about monetising gameplay video being allowed. This is because previously we were getting a fair amount of email users who required us to give written permission so that Twitch would allow it. We actually got a fair amount of push back from our lawyer who advised us against it. We did include it it though I feel he added a lot of extra weaseling to the clause that probably wasn't needed.

lnanek2 13y ago

I've seen companies come in and present at Google IO about how awesome it was for them and players both when they added upload of game moments to YouTube. It was a huge word of mouth advertising win for them that users were sharing and promoting videos of playing their game. If anything this is a case of Google hurting games, probably due to some lawyer of theirs forcing them to.

EpicEng 13y ago

"Open-mindedness"? Please. It's free publicity for them, that's why they are doing what they're doing. Nothing wrong with that, but let's not pretend they're sticking up for these guys out of the goodness of their hearts. This is the industry that tries to screw consumers every chance they get with crappy DRM and them trying to kill off the used game market.