darkSpyro

Alright, I get the point that some people are doing real criticism and not being negative for the sake of it. I also know that fully accepting everything Activision brings with Skylanders would be stupid. I will stop "complaining" about the negative people, it's pointless and I don't want to only be "that guy who complains about negative people".

I thought I'd chime in on the leaks issue, but before you read on, please read Rob's post above.

In regards to the favouritism thing. The marketing/PR sides of a company have the job of getting their products in front of as many of the right eyeballs as they possibly can. A few years ago, for a game like Skylanders, that meant targeting the biggest gaming websites and toy shows. However, things have moved on, with YouTube videos often providing the largest audience for gaming content. So you'll often find the YouTube channels with the biggest audiences invited to large events and sent the kind of press information that used to be reserved for gaming websites. This is not favouritism, this is business. Those marketing teams work really hard to make sure certain information hits at certain dates to build momentum towards a product's launch. I can guarantee, there will have been a lot of people at Activision frustrated by the HomeEnter leak. Those characters might not have been meant to be seen for weeks or months. Revealing them at this point would then lead to a long void between news. Not to mention the crummy quality of the images; and in Head Rush's case it wasn't even an image of the figure or a render, it looked like a sketch. These things need to be accurately planned and spaced so that you don't overload the press and so that your game continues to be talked about leading up to release. It's a careful, well planned, process that definitely has an impact on the eventual sales of your game,

However...it is very frustrating that Activision are now sending mixed messages. The interview with Eric was great, it seemed to indicate a company willing to walk a different path, but the truth seems to be that yes, they will walk a different path, but only in certain circumstances. Now it seemed to me that the Dark Edition leak from Toys R Us would be one of those circumstances. It was very close to official information going out, so it feels especially harsh for them to hit YouTubers for that. The HomeEnter leak on the other hand, I can completely understand. Also, you should know I spent a good deal of time putting together a great video for that leak too, so I've got every reason to be annoyed that we couldn't run it, but I see why. The difficulty is that not everyone can ask Activision first, not everyone will know if a leak is for an event planned tomorrow or in two months and because of the interview with Eric, not everyone will know what's ok to report on and what isn't. Unfortunately, that means all of us now have to act in a safety first position with Activision. If it's not come from them or a reputable news outlet, don't report it.

One bit of advice I would give, if you do plan to take the risk to cover something early, make sure your video contains either screenshots or video of the website that is the source of the leak. Also, make that clear in your audio too. If you're just filming something else on the internet, hosted at another location, you're less liable (but still not safe). If you just take the images and put them in a video directly, then you're going to get hit 99% of the time.

I would like to retort on a number of points.

Quote: wideawakewesley

In regards to the favouritism thing. The marketing/PR sides of a company have the job of getting their products in front of as many of the right eyeballs as they possibly can. *snip* This is not favouritism, this is business.

I think most people understand and accept the favouritism, but it does seem to be very extreme. Surely anybody promoting their games on YouTube should be given at least a little respect (see below)

Quote: wideawakewesley

Revealing them at this point would then lead to a long void between news.

Em . . . one of the biggest complaints recently has been the "long void between news", could even be argued that this is why people were so keen to jump on the leak.

Quote: wideawakewesley

The interview with Eric was great, *snip* Now it seemed to me that the Dark Edition leak from Toys R Us would be one of those circumstances. It was very close to official information going out, so it feels especially harsh for them to hit YouTubers for that.

Agreed.

Quote: wideawakewesley

The difficulty is that not everyone can ask Activision first

I believe Activision could have made more friendly attempts to contact offenders with a warning that did not result in a strike, after which an official strike would be justified.

This is the sort of respect I think people are asking for when they refer to favouritism. It would not have taken too much extra time to contact YouTubers regarding the videos, than it did contacting YouTube about the videos. IMO Activision made a big mistake here, and blame has to sit with senior management even if they didn't know (probably even more culpable if that were the case).

Edit: tried to clarify first point.

ill say........ i did get a strike. I was really worried about uploading more new exciting! images to my channel.

Quote: StrikerCamo

ill say........ i did get a strike. I was really worried about uploading more new exciting! images to my channel.

Was it for the Dark Edition during the leak or after

Gotham, anyone willing to cover the story or own up to this? They really need to come out and say "we don't need fly by night" content creators. Apparently they believe they can be selective on who can use their content to their benefit. I hope youTube starts charging for this "enforcement" because it's like using people and infrastructure free of charge. Or are they? I'm beginning to wonder if their other favorites are being paid for their services...don't care one way or another...but this selective discrimination doesn't seem right to me.

Maybe if no one posts anything, they'll get the message about how we feel about it. It's a thought. Then they can advertise on national TV for mega bucks

I havent gotten anything back since my last email. I have no doubt though it takes some time to investigate things like this. I figured I would drop a line again come Friday to the contact I was speaking with. See if there was any reason to suspect something might come from it. Also there is SDCC this weekend which likely will take priority for a lot of these people on gaming sites. So I still will hold out hope for something coming from it, I just dont suspect it as something that happens over night.

If they did not want to see videos of leaks on youtube, they should've told us before or just take a look at their business...

So... Kotaku never did much with this.

But they did leak Eon's Elite ahead of schedule.

Wonder if there was a deal made there.

It's like going to the government when the government is the plantiff. Don't expect justice here. Just vote with your dollars and lack of youTube posting.

Quote: UncleBob

So... Kotaku never did much with this.

But they did leak Eon's Elite ahead of schedule.

Wonder if there was a deal made there.

Kotaku - "So Activision, we have this news story we're going to run about your less than legal copyright claims on YouTube subscribers. We wanted to get your side of the story first though"

Activision - "Um.... Here... Have this exclusive a day early... maybe we can make this whole..."problem" go away?"


In all serious though, I havent heard back at this point. Not sure if I will. I provided them the information. Thats about really all I can do. Frankly given how the industry works, it wouldnt surprise me at all.

Then they force kotaku to take it down