TotalBiscuit and Wild Games Studio problem (Updated)

[Gunzkewl]

 

TotalBOOscuit ‏@Totalbiscuit 3m:

 Well, cat is out of the bag since someone on Reddit found it. My Day One: Garrys Incident video was copyright flagged by the devs

 

I should point out that this is a game I was sent review code for, it was also the top-ranked video on Youtube for that game.

It is fairly obvious what they are doing here, abusing Youtubes copyright system to censor criticism of their product.

 

This happened 2 days ago, we contacted them for an explanation and have heard nothing. Giving them til Monday to respond before goin nuclear

 

It should be pointed out that US Fair Use doctrine exists in particular to protect criticism from being censored in such a way

 

It is a pro-consumer doctrine and with good reason. Maker and Polaris will come down on them like a ton of bricks come Monday.

 

Long story short. Dev sends code, code used to make critique, dev dislikes critique, dev abuses system to censor critique.

 

Its annoying that this had to come out, we were trying to solve it privately, but hey, copyright claims are public viewing on Youtube.

 

If I've seemed a little grumpy over the last few days now you know why. Dev attacks my livelihood for doing my job, silently fuming for days.

 

 

Wild Games Studio response:

We protected our copyright because Total Biscuit has no right to make advertising revenues with our license.

 

10/21/2013

Wild Games Studio

Official Statement regarding the YouTube video “WTF Is... : Day One: Garry's Incident ?” from TotalBiscuit

We sent TotalBiscuit a Steam key on September 26th, giving him permission to evaluate Day One: Garry’s Incident.

Monetizing wasn’t mentioned in our communications and it was an error on our part to not have clarified the issue.

It was for that particular fact that Wild Games Studio had asked the video’s removal.

After the video was made unavailable, we have taken seriously the reaction from the community concerning freedom of expression.

We strongly believe in the freedom of expression of people and medias and have removed our copyright claim.

Wild Games Studio didn’t intend on preventing anyone from using their right to freedom of expression.

For this reason, Wild Games Studio sincerely apologizes to TotalBiscuit and anyone who felt that their freedom of speech was denied.

 

 

TotalBiscuit

Well, as you can see the copyright strike was removed, after the internet carpet bombed Wild Games Studio and Polaris petitioned Youtube. As a result of all of this, there are now multiple copies of this video floating around, including a monetized one on Daily Motion which is generating ad revenue. We won't ask for those videos to be removed, it proves the power of the Streisand effect, but we'd encourage those who monetized to donate the ad revenue from that video to the EFF charity.

 

 

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/Cynicalbrit/comments/1otlnh/wtf_is_day_one_garrys_incident_the_video_is_no/

 

Here is a link to the review of TotalBiscuit of Day One: Garry's Incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjTa_x3rbJE

 

TotalBiscuit video Response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0

 

What are your thoughts?

[Scia]

TB is right about it. If they want a video full of praise, they should've made one on their own.

 

And that's why so many people including me love TB: He doesn't give a shit about anything and gives his oppinion as uncensored as it gets.

 

Respect to TB for that.

[xRAGExSounDxRIOTX]

He has all the right to critique the game. They willingly gave him the code to critique it and TotalBiscuit didn't like it. Why would they flag it for copyright if all he did was critique it? I'm on TotalBiscuits' side for this, he has all the right to put up a video explaining that he doesn't like.

[Jozi]

We would not have any negative game critique out there if devs could do this. Game it self is really bad and devs doing this just adds negativity to the game and themselves.

[TEDWARDS]

They call him the cynical brit for a reason

[boggle4321]

respect to TB for giving his real opinion, more people need to be like him

[Woolbeach]

Well, the devs sends him a review copy of the game, he should be able to say his honest opinion without getting in trouble for it. 

[Lord Pantaloons]

typical dev behavior, I can't believe they thought they made a good game though, they must all be blind.

[Jozi]

Have a good laugh watching this

 

[Jozi]

Also for those who haven't seen the video TB made here it is:

 

Review Video : DailyMotion version of the said video here.

[kuddlesworth9419]

The game sucks ass too. 

[Flamewalker]

TotalBiscuit just gives his uncensored view about it, which he has done in every review, but yer this is the developer just getting butthurt because they expected great reviews for the game (which it will never get tbh)

[Anult]

Reminds me of the controversy surrounding Terraria when it was discovered that videos criticizing the game were initially pulled from YouTube and any criticism of the game on the terraria forum led to an almost instant, permanent ban from said forum.

 

I mean, what did Wild Games Studio expect from TotalBiscuit?

 

He was not going to sugar-coat the review just because he got a review sample, he bashed the game deservedly and now Wild Games Studio is going into damage-control mode because they can't take the criticism.

[Ethnod]

I actually watched this vid as it came out, the game is horrendous, what did they expect? You cannot make a game like that and not know you did shoddy work. I hope Wild Games Studio has their ass handed to them

[rashdanml]

Eh, knowing TotalBiscuit (haven't watched that particular video, but I have watched his other reviews), there's a proper way to critique a game without generating developer hate towards the critique. 

 

I don't choose sides. On some level, TB probably approached it the wrong way. I'm also not saying the developers should censor his critique, though on some level, they are justified in doing so. 

[Gunzkewl]

Eh, knowing TotalBiscuit (haven't watched that particular video, but I have watched his other reviews), there's a proper way to critique a game without generating developer hate towards the critique. 

 

I don't choose sides. On some level, TB probably approached it the wrong way. I'm also not saying the developers should censor his critique, though on some level, they are justified in doing so. 

 

You should see the video, the game is terrible, full of bugs and bad optimization.

http://www.dailymoti...dent_videogames

[Derangel]

Eh, knowing TotalBiscuit (haven't watched that particular video, but I have watched his other reviews), there's a proper way to critique a game without generating developer hate towards the critique. 

 

I don't choose sides. On some level, TB probably approached it the wrong way. I'm also not saying the developers should censor his critique, though on some level, they are justified in doing so. 

 

They are not justified on ANY level. There is no justification for forcing Youtube to pull the video, none. If they don't like his opinion that is just too bad for them. They sent him a review code for a terrible game and are pissy because TB said the game is terrible and showed it being terrible. All they are doing is trying to remove a negative view of their game, nothing more. It is pathetic and says everything I will ever need to know about them as a company. If they don't want people like TB to shit on their game they shouldn't make shit games.

[rashdanml]

They are not justified on ANY level. There is no justification for forcing Youtube to pull the video, none. If they don't like his opinion that is just too bad for them. They sent him a review code for a terrible game and are pissy because TB said the game is terrible and showed it being terrible. All they are doing is trying to remove a negative view of their game, nothing more. It is pathetic and says everything I will ever need to know about them as a company. If they don't want people like TB to shit on their game they shouldn't make shit games.

 

 

You should see the video, the game is terrible, full of bugs and bad optimization.

http://www.dailymoti...dent_videogames

If a game is really that terrible, a proper way to critique a game would be to offer suggestions on how the game could be not terrible. TB rarely does that, and rarely does that properly. 

 

Openly bashing a game isn't critiquing, regardless of how awful he thinks it is. 

 

I'll say it once again, since people don't seem to be getting the point: In any conflict, both sides share the blame in varying levels. No one side is completely right or wrong. 

[Derangel]

If a game is really that terrible, a proper way to critique a game would be to offer suggestions on how the game could be not terrible. TB rarely does that, and rarely does that properly. 

 

Openly bashing a game isn't critiquing, regardless of how awful he thinks it is. 

 

I'll say it once again, since people don't seem to be getting the point: In any conflict, both sides share the blame in varying levels. No one side is completely right or wrong. 

 

No, you don't get the point. Whatever TB says is completely procted by the law under the fair use act. It doesn't matter how he said it. TB is NOT at fault. The ONLY fault is on the devs. They can be angry at his opinion but this is not being angry, this is cencoring a negative opinion. Just because you don't like how he goes about his videos doesn't mean he is wrong. He has every right to say whatever he wants and the developers can not do anything about it. They gave away their legal rights to it by sending him a review code. Doing copyright claims on Youtube can get people BANNED from Youtube. What Wild Games did risked TB's entire channel.

[Gunzkewl]

If a game is really that terrible, a proper way to critique a game would be to offer suggestions on how the game could be not terrible. TB rarely does that, and rarely does that properly. 

 

Openly bashing a game isn't critiquing, regardless of how awful he thinks it is. 

 

I'll say it once again, since people don't seem to be getting the point: In any conflict, both sides share the blame in varying levels. No one side is completely right or wrong. 

 

How can he offer suggestions?, when the problem with the game is bad coding.

[Gabriel]

its a shit game anyway 

[That Norwegian Guy]

Have a good laugh watching this

 

That was amazing, thanks for the laugh It's almost like the game is so bad that it's good.

 

When it comes to the conflict this thread is about, TotalBiscuit is not a proper critic, and rarely balances his opinions out. He's more of a comedy act, like Zero Punctuation. I pretty much gave up on him since his 'coverage' (stream) from The Secret World, where he bitched and moaned how the game wasn't holding his hand like Guild Wars 2 was, well duh Einstein, one is a game targeted towards mature audiences, the other a standard populist assembly line MMO.

 

Mostly I despise this guy, (completely skipped the WAN show where Linus invited him to serve up his cringeworthy "opinions") and he has done lots of damage to lots of games that didn't deserve it, but that doesn't mean these Wild Games guys have any right to do what they did.

[MetEishYa]

If a game is really that terrible, a proper way to critique a game would be to offer suggestions on how the game could be not terrible. TB rarely does that, and rarely does that properly. 

 

Openly bashing a game isn't critiquing, regardless of how awful he thinks it is. 

 

I'll say it once again, since people don't seem to be getting the point: In any conflict, both sides share the blame in varying levels. No one side is completely right or wrong. 

Did u even watch the video?? The game is poorly optimized, mobs are on a stupid AI, mobs appear out of nowhere and instant kill u, there is invisible walls in stupid places, loading a game is buggy, graphic option list has no notes making it hard to understand what an option does, no quick save option, all of these thing TB addressed in the video. He did not say its crap and give no reasons, he said the things he liked about the game and then the things he thought were crap and why they crap, which IS giving valuable feed back or suggestions to improve the game.

 

And as for ur comment "No one side is completely right or wrong" is wrong, if someone is a PAYING customer then one side is completely wrong. This is a final release game not a beta.

 

So plz watch the video BEFORE u post comments like that.

[Derangel]

That was amazing, thanks for the laugh It's almost like the game is so bad that it's good.

 

When it comes to the conflict this thread is about, TotalBiscuit is not a proper critic, and rarely balances his opinions out. He's more of a comedy act, like Zero Punctuation. I pretty much gave up on him since his 'coverage' (stream) from The Secret World, where he bitched and moaned how the game wasn't holding his hand like Guild Wars 2 was, well duh Einstein, one is a game targeted towards mature audiences, the other a standard populist assembly line MMO.

 

Mostly I despise this guy, (completely skipped the WAN show where Linus invited him to serve up his cringeworthy "opinions") and he has done lots of damage to lots of games that didn't deserve it, but that doesn't mean these Wild Games guys have any right to do what they did.

 

There is no such thing as a proper "critic". As long as he is giving his honest opinion and not lying about things in the game he is doing it correctly. TB doesn't claim to be a reviewer. It isn't his job to take a look at a game as a whole and give highly detailed analysis of it. TB looks at a specific portion of a game and gives his thoughts on it, trying to show things he likes and does not like during the video. Like every single person on the planet he has his likes and dislikes of various things.

[Derangel]

This is a double edged sword.

 

On one edge you have to consider that the majority of the fans of the big review sites and YouTubers are brainless morons who just parrot the opinions of the review websites. So if a company or person slaughters a game in the review then the developers should be able to pull it because it could absolutely kill any chance the game has of being a success.

 

On the other edge you have to consider that reviews are usually one persons opinion on a game or a product. You do get big review sites that are a bit shit and do sellout to developers in order to help sales and the popularity of the website, however, that is expected. The developers do need to realise that reviews are opinions and a single video game isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea.

 

With all of that in mind we have two solutions to an issue that isn't going to go away. The first solution is to just ban the sellouts from YouTube, however, due to capitalism that won't happen. The second solution is for developers to let any review, good or bad, stay on YouTube (or any other website) because it is one persons opinion.

 

One thing developers need to regardless though is this simple little thing. Make good games and stop shipping out crap to the customers just for money. Not going to happen if you are Electronic Arts or a bunch of other crappy companies.

 

There are no two sides to this. TB's videos and any like it are protected under US law by the Fair Use Act. It doesn't matter if a person is a sellout or overly critical. It doesn't matter if their audience is intelligent or quite stupid. The Fair Use Act makes it clear. The developers have no legal right to have the video pulled.