Should let's playing be a source of income for many?

[Seth]

The US constitution disagrees with you.
" Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."
Realise this is just an excerpt but I have it as my signature on another forum. I am not from NA but I do like this part of your constitution. If your government can make no law prohibiting free speech, then no one has the legal right to prohibit free speech as the government can not make a low to prohibit it. That would be against the constitution.

That concerns the government censoring speech, not private companies. Google CAN restrict speech on their websites and it doesn't violate the Constitution. Hence the "Congress shall make no law..." part.

 

[the8thark]

That concerns the government censoring speech, not private companies. Google CAN restrict speech on their websites and it doesn't violate the Constitution. Hence the "Congress shall make no law..." part.

Understood. Any company that tries this on me instantly loses my business though.

 

[Salem]

Understood. Any company that tries this on me instantly loses my business though.

Exactly, companies have the right to censor, you have the right to not deal with them, it sends them a message.

 

[Mark]

To be totally honest with you, it would appear like they're destroying an organically grown facet of gaming culture in the foot. And so what if people make money doing Let's Plays? More power to them. I rarely watch LP's myself, and even then the few LP's I do watch tend to be totally non-profit, but if someone is providing you with entertainment, I don't see why they don't deserve to make some money doing so. A lot of us give these LP's money to enable them to continue doing this, myself included, because it is entertaining and they deserve money for entertaining us.

Think of it in a similar way to musicians, while LP's aren't really artistic expression in the same way that music is, there's a difference between people who do stuff on the cheap in their bedrooms for fun vs people who actually put the effort in to put out something that is polished and professional, and when someone goes the extra mile to provide you with something that IS of a professional level of quality, I don't think it's at all wrong that they get paid for their work a bit.

Nintendo are totally within their rights to enforce copyright claims with LP-ers, but just because they can doesn't mean they should. LP is a legitimate part of gaming culture, for better or for worse and there are indeed people who work their butts off to provide quality content. In doing this Nintendo is screwing people out of a livelihood (or a hobby) that they have the right to. What's next, are we going to start firing games reviewers? Their livelihood is also based around playing games and talking about them, it's a different format but it's not really any different. We accept that reviews are a niche in the market that has been filled, and there's clearly a demand for LP videos, otherwise people wouldn't watch them.

I do miss the days when we actually purchased products rather than simply renting them.

 

[Beauts]

I think Nintendo have been ridiculously heavy-handed with this. That is literally my only opinion on this because it's just like they are on a power trip. LPs aren't hurting Nintendo OR YouTube. If anything they are helping both in some small part, either through traffic or promotion of games. Unless someone is using Nintendo property and passing it off as their own somehow, then Nintendo should back the hell off. So what if someone makes a little money from Lets Playing something? Whatever money that is is a drop in the ocean to Nintendo at the end of the day. As I said, if it was a question of plagiarisim or something then fine, sanction away. But lets players aren't doing anything but playing a game and having people watch them. Are they going to stop people inviting friends over to play games with them or what? We get it, Nintendo: these games belong to you. You don't need to flex your big old multinational conglomerate muscle all over the shop and ruin fun and a hobby for many people with varying levels of success just because you're butthurt that not every piece of shrapnel might not be going directly into your pocket.

I like watching LPs just purely because there are a few LPers I really like and find entertaining, and they often choose to play games I either enjoyed playing myself or am interested in seeing something of the game. I have no idea who is earning money and who isn't and at the end of the day I don't care. I don't think Google comes into this except legally and even then I feel like they should butt out. YouTube isn't the only video hosting website.

 

[Terror Drone]

If Nintendo took money away from me for doing a let's play I would get pretty angry. And let me tell you I don't get angry much lol. If I make a video it's mine and Nintendo can take their paws off it.

 

[RedLink]

I used to think it was wrong and pathetic of people to do let's plays for a standard source of income, but after watching Top 10 Meme's Video on PewDiePie, I've come to realize that Let's Play people are entertainers, and really they aren't earning much money in that regard. In addition to this, they help bring exposure to indie/lesser known games, kinda like how Roger Ebert brought exposure to Dark City.

And honestly, this is ultimately for the developers/Youtube to decide on their own. The community shouldn't have a say in it.

 

[Johnny Sooshi]

I used to think it was wrong and pathetic of people to do let's plays for a standard source of income, but after watching Top 10 Meme's Video on PewDiePie, I've come to realize that Let's Play people are entertainers, and really they aren't earning much money in that regard. In addition to this, they help bring exposure to indie/lesser known games, kinda like how Roger Ebert brought exposure to Dark City.

And honestly, this is ultimately for the developers/Youtube to decide on their own. The community shouldn't have a say in it.

PewDiePie earns over $7M a year. That's a lot of money. Licensed LPers earn a decent bit, but even then, not all do it as a full time job.

 

[RedLink]

PewDiePie earns over $7M a year. That's a lot of money. Licensed LPers earn a decent bit, but even then, not all do it as a full time job.

Yes, but compared to entertainers like Oprah, Judge Judy, Tom Cruise, Eminem, etc....he doesn't make much.

 

[Johnny Sooshi]

Yes, but compared to entertainers like Oprah, Judge Judy, Tom Cruise, Eminem, etc....he doesn't make much.

True. But $7M is a large amount of money. Yes, in the entertainment industry it's not the most, but it's more than most people. And while I don't particularly enjoy him, he does donate a large amount of his yearly profits.

 

[RedLink]

True. But $7M is a large amount of money. Yes, in the entertainment industry it's not the most, but it's more than most people. And while I don't particularly enjoy him, he does donate a large amount of his yearly profits.

I'm only saying this to people who have this idea in their heads that "it's not fair that he plays games and makes this much." I also used to think that, but after Top10Memes explained this alternate way of looking at things, I stopped caring as much.

And taxes could also take away a big chunk, so who knows.

 

[Johnny Sooshi]

I'm only saying this to people who have this idea in their heads that "it's not fair that he plays games and makes this much." I also used to think that, but after Top10Memes explained this alternate way of looking at things, I stopped caring as much.

And taxes could also take away a big chunk, so who knows.

Ah, I see

Taxes shouldn't really do much for that to be honest. At most it'll take away no more than 1M USD. They have high taxes but even then, he'll still have a lot. I would say there are other better entertainers in the LP industry, but ultimately he's one of the ones who somehow popularized it to the mainstream. I think it was probably the fact that he played horror games, a genre that not everyone is big on because they don't want to deal with something scary, so they'd rather watch someone play it so that they can experience it, but don't put their nerves at risk as much. As time went on, he did other stuff and ultimately made the money that he makes.

 

[RedLink]

Ah, I see

Taxes shouldn't really do much for that to be honest. At most it'll take away no more than 1M USD. They have high taxes but even then, he'll still have a lot. I would say there are other better entertainers in the LP industry, but ultimately he's one of the ones who somehow popularized it to the mainstream. I think it was probably the fact that he played horror games, a genre that not everyone is big on because they don't want to deal with something scary, so they'd rather watch someone play it so that they can experience it, but don't put their nerves at risk as much. As time went on, he did other stuff and ultimately made the money that he makes.

Oh by far there are WAY better entertainers in the LP industry. He's annoying, unfunny, and has to appeal to prepubescent teens as his main crowd. But then again, I don't like 90% of the LPs on Youtube, or LPing in general, so I'm biased.

He became popular because he published multiple long videos (20 minutes+) multiple times a day, putting him up on Youtube's recommended list. He was able to do this probably because he barely does any editing to his videos (the sound mixing is atrocious). Also, apparently he actually used to be tolerable back in the day, so that probably contributed.