2013-05-18, 07:56 AM
What I want to know is:
What about fan sites? Southperry for example is oriented around Maplestory yet it runs ads to sustain itself. Could Nexon take action against Southperry as it's essentially profiting from Maplestory?
What about review websites? They run ads to help sustain themselves yet use other products on the site itself, whether they're games or otherwise, for their reviews in the first place.
A Youtube channel is essentially a small, personal website. It isn't the product itself that's making the money. It isn't being sold, or distributed in any way, shape or form. The ads are necessary to continue producing coverage to begin with. The ads are for the ''coverage'' not the product that may be present IN that coverage.
The thing about Let's Plays is that they aren't any different from reviews, at all, especially from in-depth reviews that go over many of the product's ''inner workings''. If anything Let's Plays honestly have more pull than any review website you can find anywhere on the internet. Let's Plays rake in millions of views per month. Many millions. Every one of these views is a potential sale, and for ANY business this should appeal to you. The more eyes on your product the better, ESPECIALLY when it costs you nothing. And again, just like those review sites these people need ad revenue unless you're saying YOU want to help cover costs, which let's face it... you probably couldn't afford paying all these people yourselves.
There's a reason not many companies, if any, are going after Let's Players, or any online content for that matter. Nintendo doing this doesn't mean this is some ''standard'' in this industry. It honestly isn't. They did it out of the blue because they honestly have no clue what this type of content does for them. If they DID know they WOULDN'T do anything. The opposite actually; they would encourage it. ALL of this content helps raise awareness for you and your products at no expense to you whatsoever. As a business you want to support this. As ANY business. It boggles my mind how some big companies spend MILLIONS to promote their own products and don't realize that these days people are more than willing, and capable, of promoting your content FOR you for FREE. We do YOUR work. We make YOUR lives just a little easier. The people just need that ad revenue to CONTINUE doing this for you.
Nintendo's decision has them double-dipping. They didn't have to create ANY of this free content yet are the ONLY ones profiting from it at the same time. It's honestly suspicious. They go on about how they could have taken down each and every video but out of the goodness of their hearts they didn't, yet they may as well have because now the creator doesn't get jack pomegranate. So WHY keep the videos up, Nintendo? Because you realize that that content helps you. You don't think any of these people deserve SOMETHING for their support of your name and products? It doesn't even cost YOU anything so why not?
It's odd that the company who's struggling to sell their own product THEMSELVES are going after people who help sell their product for them. Did I mention at no expense to them? Just making sure.
And none of this is even about archaic legal ''rights'' but more so a questioning of LOGIC and common sense. Business? Public relations? Does anybody believe Nintendo even knows what year it is right now? Because, I mean at the end of the day, sure they have the right to take everything down I guess. Them and every other company. But there is a reason why many don't dare to do so. It isn't about ''rights''. You don't disrupt balance. You don't remove one half of a symbiotic relationship. It's the people who make or break virtually any business. Nintendo would have gone bankrupt in the 90's or so had their support not been there, so why attack the communities who help keep the lights on in your offices? Your homes?
Watching a Let's Play is LESS damaging to you than an official demo is. Heck, when I was a kid me and my friends used to mooch games off each other. That's real life PIRACY. At least with Let's Plays -- mere footage -- you can't actually experience the game without getting your own copy. You experience more of a game in a dinky-ass demo than any footage since you're actually PLAYING it at that point. When you were at your friends house as a kid, watching him play the latest game, did you experience it then? No. It wasn't until he passed you that controller that you actually experienced the game.
And a fact is that anybody who would rather WATCH gameplay than PLAY it means they weren't ever going to buy the game to begin with. You lost nothing in potential sales because that person WASN'T a potential customer. If watching a Let's Play changes somebody's mind from playing it (It can work both ways, but for this example I state the worst case scenario) that is no different than when you'd go to a review website, see a bad review, and decide you no longer want that product.
What about fan sites? Southperry for example is oriented around Maplestory yet it runs ads to sustain itself. Could Nexon take action against Southperry as it's essentially profiting from Maplestory?
What about review websites? They run ads to help sustain themselves yet use other products on the site itself, whether they're games or otherwise, for their reviews in the first place.
A Youtube channel is essentially a small, personal website. It isn't the product itself that's making the money. It isn't being sold, or distributed in any way, shape or form. The ads are necessary to continue producing coverage to begin with. The ads are for the ''coverage'' not the product that may be present IN that coverage.
The thing about Let's Plays is that they aren't any different from reviews, at all, especially from in-depth reviews that go over many of the product's ''inner workings''. If anything Let's Plays honestly have more pull than any review website you can find anywhere on the internet. Let's Plays rake in millions of views per month. Many millions. Every one of these views is a potential sale, and for ANY business this should appeal to you. The more eyes on your product the better, ESPECIALLY when it costs you nothing. And again, just like those review sites these people need ad revenue unless you're saying YOU want to help cover costs, which let's face it... you probably couldn't afford paying all these people yourselves.
There's a reason not many companies, if any, are going after Let's Players, or any online content for that matter. Nintendo doing this doesn't mean this is some ''standard'' in this industry. It honestly isn't. They did it out of the blue because they honestly have no clue what this type of content does for them. If they DID know they WOULDN'T do anything. The opposite actually; they would encourage it. ALL of this content helps raise awareness for you and your products at no expense to you whatsoever. As a business you want to support this. As ANY business. It boggles my mind how some big companies spend MILLIONS to promote their own products and don't realize that these days people are more than willing, and capable, of promoting your content FOR you for FREE. We do YOUR work. We make YOUR lives just a little easier. The people just need that ad revenue to CONTINUE doing this for you.
Nintendo's decision has them double-dipping. They didn't have to create ANY of this free content yet are the ONLY ones profiting from it at the same time. It's honestly suspicious. They go on about how they could have taken down each and every video but out of the goodness of their hearts they didn't, yet they may as well have because now the creator doesn't get jack pomegranate. So WHY keep the videos up, Nintendo? Because you realize that that content helps you. You don't think any of these people deserve SOMETHING for their support of your name and products? It doesn't even cost YOU anything so why not?
It's odd that the company who's struggling to sell their own product THEMSELVES are going after people who help sell their product for them. Did I mention at no expense to them? Just making sure.
And none of this is even about archaic legal ''rights'' but more so a questioning of LOGIC and common sense. Business? Public relations? Does anybody believe Nintendo even knows what year it is right now? Because, I mean at the end of the day, sure they have the right to take everything down I guess. Them and every other company. But there is a reason why many don't dare to do so. It isn't about ''rights''. You don't disrupt balance. You don't remove one half of a symbiotic relationship. It's the people who make or break virtually any business. Nintendo would have gone bankrupt in the 90's or so had their support not been there, so why attack the communities who help keep the lights on in your offices? Your homes?
Watching a Let's Play is LESS damaging to you than an official demo is. Heck, when I was a kid me and my friends used to mooch games off each other. That's real life PIRACY. At least with Let's Plays -- mere footage -- you can't actually experience the game without getting your own copy. You experience more of a game in a dinky-ass demo than any footage since you're actually PLAYING it at that point. When you were at your friends house as a kid, watching him play the latest game, did you experience it then? No. It wasn't until he passed you that controller that you actually experienced the game.
And a fact is that anybody who would rather WATCH gameplay than PLAY it means they weren't ever going to buy the game to begin with. You lost nothing in potential sales because that person WASN'T a potential customer. If watching a Let's Play changes somebody's mind from playing it (It can work both ways, but for this example I state the worst case scenario) that is no different than when you'd go to a review website, see a bad review, and decide you no longer want that product.