Let YouTubers Stream/Record Your Game?

[CleanWater]

What do you think about it?

I'm planning to include on my next EULA a term that prohibits YouTubers to show important plotlines and other stuff about my game, to not let them spoil the surprises and plot twists.

 

[bgillisp]

I'm just going to say...good luck enforcing it. Also you may wish to look up the negative backlash against Atlas for the restriction on Persona5 before making that decision, because what it did was made MORE people post it as it was now seen as a forbidden fruit, and everyone wanted to see this forbidden video.

Basically, I'd say just let them have at it. Anyone who watches a video for 10 - 20 hours is probably not going to play the game anyways.

 

[Tai_MT]

Honestly, it isn't going to bother me if someone records or puts up a "Let's Play" of my game. Won't even bother me if they streamed it. My only conditionals for doing so would be to link me to their videos or archive the video so that I could see it/download it if I liked. I'd prefer they also linked to where you could obtain my game as well, but I don't think I'd ever even try to enforce that.

My reasoning for wanting to be linked to their videos or to a video archive where I could download their video (I prefer the ability to download it and save it to my harddrive, but it isn't a requirement) is so that I can watch the way they're playing my game. No plan ever survives contact with the enemy, and no matter how well prepared or good at game design I am... someone is going to do things I don't anticipate. Someone is going to play in a way I didn't expect them to. As someone who tinkers in game design (and will never really make it his job), that's valuable insight for me. It's useful information in creating better versions of the existing product, patching problems, and maybe even tinkering level design a little better. The reason I'd prefer a saved file of the playthrough to a YouTube link is just because if YouTube ever decides it's going away or is getting rid of videos... I still have the videos to be able to look back through if I need to at some point.

I don't think I'd ever be able to enforce people giving me download links to their videos or archiving it. But, it's the method I would just personally prefer. It sure beats getting a recording program on my own computer to record YouTube videos, anyway.

Beyond that. Yeah, no, I don't really care if they show off my game. Especially since it's currently designed in such a way that you'd really only be spoiling the stuff you were doing... and not really the stuff other players might be doing. Though, even if it wasn't designed that way, I don't think I'd really care. I'd just love to see people play it, critique or no, trashing it or not. It's useful information to watch someone play your game in my opinion. I value that.

 

[Hudell]

I want as many youtubers playing my game as possible :X

 

[Orb]

That's, like, my dream

 

[Alexander Amnell]

Let's play are how I decide what games to buy. In a world where companies create simplistic trash but pair it as a sequel to your favorite games of the past in order to sell on nostalgia you need actual play though of the game to find out whether games are actually worth buying.

Speaking frankly, best case scenario I'll ignore your Eula and find a let's player who also ignored it, or else I'll never give your game a chance to begin with. I normally don't make it past hour 2 without either buying or deciding I'm not interested, but with how loose and vague marketing campaigns can be the people who spend their time recording their gamplay experiences are absolutely essential to me investing in any game with actual money.

 

[Daniel47]

Honestly, it isn't going to bother me if someone records or puts up a "Let's Play" of my game. Won't even bother me if they streamed it. My only conditionals for doing so would be to link me to their videos or archive the video so that I could see it/download it if I liked. I'd prefer they also linked to where you could obtain my game as well, but I don't think I'd ever even try to enforce that.

My reasoning for wanting to be linked to their videos or to a video archive where I could download their video (I prefer the ability to download it and save it to my harddrive, but it isn't a requirement) is so that I can watch the way they're playing my game. No plan ever survives contact with the enemy, and no matter how well prepared or good at game design I am... someone is going to do things I don't anticipate. Someone is going to play in a way I didn't expect them to. As someone who tinkers in game design (and will never really make it his job), that's valuable insight for me. It's useful information in creating better versions of the existing product, patching problems, and maybe even tinkering level design a little better. The reason I'd prefer a saved file of the playthrough to a YouTube link is just because if YouTube ever decides it's going away or is getting rid of videos... I still have the videos to be able to look back through if I need to at some point.

I don't think I'd ever be able to enforce people giving me download links to their videos or archiving it. But, it's the method I would just personally prefer. It sure beats getting a recording program on my own computer to record YouTube videos, anyway.

Beyond that. Yeah, no, I don't really care if they show off my game. Especially since it's currently designed in such a way that you'd really only be spoiling the stuff you were doing... and not really the stuff other players might be doing. Though, even if it wasn't designed that way, I don't think I'd really care. I'd just love to see people play it, critique or no, trashing it or not. It's useful information to watch someone play your game in my opinion. I value that.

Very well stated! I personally am not bothered when YouTubers record my content. Frankly it's free marketing. Assuming it's a good product.

 

[Tai_MT]

It's free marketing even if it isn't a good product. There are videos and games out there that have become popular for being really terrible. Though, I'm not sure anyone truly aims for "It's so bad, that it's good" categories in anything.

Even if you create a terrible product, however, you could give those YouTubers and update on your product on things you've fixed. It's a good way to keep in touch with any consumer base you may have. Nice YouTubers might even put out an "update" video on your game, if they think the changes you've made are worth looking at the product again.

 

[Zeriab]

If I were to have any requirement it would be to have them link back to my game.

 

[Frogboy]

I'm hoping that YouTubers do a Let's Play for my game when I'm done with it. It isn't really banking on intricate storyline with crazy plot twists, though. In my case, public exposure would be beneficial.

 

[CleanWater]

It's free marketing even if it isn't a good product. There are videos and games out there that have become popular for being really terrible. Though, I'm not sure anyone truly aims for "It's so bad, that it's good" categories in anything.

Actually, it can turn into free marketing against your product. Even if your game is not that terrible, but they want to enforce it no matter what.

 

[Celianna]

I don't see the downside unless your game is literally only a kinetic novel with zero gameplay elements - so basically one entire long cutscene. Why download the game if you can simply watch it on youtube instead (in which case I wonder why they haven't done so themselves in the first place)?

Other than that, it's free marketing, and as @Tai_MT mentioned, valuable insight on how a player will play your game. Even with all the debugging in the world, you're never going to account for the random **** players will pull to break your game. It's great to see them play and have an instant reaction so you know what's going well and what's going wrong, and you can use this info to improve your game.

 

[Tai_MT]

Actually, it can turn into free marketing against your product. Even if your game is not that terrible, but they want to enforce it no matter what.

The only way marketing against your product works, is if you, as a dev, decide to do nothing to fix the glaring issues your game has. Many AAA publishers have proven this over the years. Lots of Indie devs have proven it as well.

If someone YouTube Let's Play's your game... and they rip it to shreds... Well, that's a learning experience for you. What went wrong? Why? You only need to take the criticism, learn from it, and improve upon it. We live in an age where a finished video game product is rarely ever "finished". It can be altered. It can be fixed. At least, most of the time it can.

All you really need to do is know about the YouTube video, watch it, and then perhaps leave a message saying you're taking the criticisms seriously and you'll be working on a fix for some of the more glaring issues. Maybe even let the YouTuber know when you've made major fixes in case they'd like to do another video on it.

Heck, just getting it out there that you're open to criticism, critique, and making changes when necessary, builds a ton of goodwill with any playerbase. I know as a player myself, that if I see updates for a game that read like, "okay, I'm sorry, I screwed up, the game isn't that great right now, I'm working to fix a lot of the issues", I'm more inclined to come back later and give it another try.

But, in any real case, feedback from people actually playing your game is quite useful. I sometimes do this with my friends. I tell them, "hey, come here, sit down and play this". I then do nothing but watch them. I say nothing. I may make mental notes as they go along, but that's usually it. It's a very useful experience to watch someone play your game who has never touched it before. Watching them think it through and what choices they make in the way they play.

I honestly just imagine this would be a freakin' gold mine to me if someone I didn't know randomly played it on YouTube, recorded it, and I had that to watch.

 

[Milennin]

I don't care, because my games are free to download anyway, so I lose nothing by having others upload videos of it. But I do potentially gain people who will be interested in playing it after watching a video about it. None of my games are heavy on story, so any videos containing spoilers shouldn't be too bad for any viewers - unless they're those kind of people who insist on going in completely blind, but then again, why would they be viewing the video in the first place?

 

[Philosophus Vagus]

I don't really see how that would hurt your game to be honest, except in very specific and unlikely circumstances such as Celianna posited.

More importantly however, I can't see how you'd actually stop streamers from doing it in the first place. The music industry has finally given up mostly on policing the spread of their content through the internet (after years and years of shoveling money pointlessly at it) and the big, rich game companies that have recently caught on to that trend have started to learn the same lessons already. If they don't have enough money to actively stop the problem, I'd caution you that you might be about to tackle a bull and it might be healthier to sidestep him than to get gored.

 

[bkavoo]

as long as they give you credit and link to your channel, it works and it's a good advertisement too.