I am looking around YouTube and seeing the let's play channels to search about indie games that I am not familiar with. Their experience and comments adds a new dimension to my gaming purchase decisions. I also believe that people are using this new venue of review as well. This would mean that whoever get's picked by the big gaming channels, can have added revenue on their pocket and thus, new games. A good sign for indie game developers. I am looking at channels like Markiplier and so on. Check other channels as well if you want to get a new indie game.
I do the same thing but I'm not that into indie games especially when they look like they came straight out of the developers of Amnesia, you know those type of games, and those games that are all story but no gameplay because they're "indie". Anyway, I think it would be great if those Youtuber's that are making it big would actually donate or even try to support the developers of the game. Yes they make good on advertising the game but still.
Well, if they are free then they are made with no profit in mind, so what's the problem? Plus, again, it increases recognition, if the game was good and got well known, the developer is more likely to be hired by a big company.
Yeah but think about it, wouldn't it be unfair for the developers in a way? Youtuber's get paid for their content, which they got from playing a game that is free. Of course I'm not blind to the positive things it brings, I just think it's a bit well, you know what I mean.
No, it's not? If you're giving something away without the intention of profiting off of it, what gives you the right to suddenly turn around and demand a profit?
Yeah you're right, I guess it's a matter of perspective. As a developer I would surely feel bad in a way to see that the game that I worked hard on and give away to everyone for free is being used by somebody else for their own profit.
This does not stand on its own though. You could have created the game for income or monetized it in some other way in the first place. Let us now think of it this way. With the added recognition of you as a developer, you can now move on to create games for profit. The earlier free game can be a demo of what you can do. Now, this is going into a "copyright" thing. I am not entirely knowledgeable on that end.
Exactly, it will fall into "copyright". But I think Let's Play's are now an accepted part of the deal, most developers now have that in mind but if you were to tell me 5 or 8 years ago that someone from the internet can make a decent amount of money just by playing a game that I made, I would probably go "Whoa! Wait second!".
Have you ever seen the series PewDiePie does called "Three Free Games with PewDiePie"? He plays 3 different (usually) indie, and gives them tons of exposure. Markiplier does the same. I know of a lot of other Let's Players, but not many of them play indie games, just big box ones.
I am familiar with Markiplier showing a lot of indie games on his channel, but have not really watched PewDiePie as much. So, I am surprised he does the same. Exposure is a good thing to have though. Whoever gets shown on the large LP channels can be a make or break moment for them. I guess so. We are more connected now. Besides LP channels are exposing more of the indie side of gaming. Those developers may or may not grow to be as large as the big names, but it pushes them to make more and possibly innovative games.
Good luck taking that to the court. If companies like Microsoft and Nintendo are scared to take that to the court, a tiny developer doing free games sure couldn't. Plus, the whole reason they make it free is so they can get people to talk about them and see them, and get free advertising. This isn't a new thing, a ton of succesful indie studios started as a freeware dev studio.
I don't think big companies are scared to take it to court, it just wouldn't make sense since these Youtuber's are basically putting the word out "Hey play this game, I'm clearly having fun". In Nintendo's case, they try to make some sort of deal with it which I can see the reason clearly but it would make them look as if they're really hanging on too tight with the money. But I think it makes sense for Nintendo in a way, if you take a look at it, they made the game so they do have the right to ask for a share.
They are scared. Because there are no clear laws regarding "new media" and fair use. They would spend a ton of money to go to court and risk getting blown up.
Yeah maybe, but I think they're more scared of the backlash it would bring. I think they can make it work in terms of a copyright claim angle like what Youtube does to videos that have copyrighted music or material with no proper permission, they either remove the video or music (if it's the one that's copyrighted) or they make it so that the user won't be able to monetize the video. I think that's why Nintendo's new policy made it through Youtube.
Well yeah, they can make the claim, but then people can choose to fight it, and they are kind of in a really hard spot. That's why when the big Youtubers' videos get hit, they usually get reinstated, because companies don't want to go into a court and face expensive copyright lawyers on a case where they have no clear footing.
Agreed. That's the real problem, there's no clear law that covers the case since there's really nothing legally wrong with recording yourself playing a game and getting paid for doing assuming you paid for the game. If it's a movie then there's a chance of legal action cause there's a law for it.
Actually, the games are protected under the same law as the movies are. So yeah, it's interesting that the movies are trated differently, even if it's under the same law..
