Online video hosting service Vimeo has created what may become a public relations nightmare with a new rule governing content rolled out yesterday via the Vimeo blog.
In the post, Vimeo Community Director Blake Whitman reveals that Vimeo will no longer accept videos that gamers post of their gameplay, and any existing videos of gameplay will be deleted after September 1.
Ostensibly, it has nothing to do with copyright concerns or DCMA notices. Whitman instead cites two reasons for the action: The service wants to get back to a goal of highlighting "creative expression" which the company feels does not include gameplay screencasts; and the gaming videos are longer, and as larger files, create lag with the service's transcoder.
The post has garnered over 550 comments (and counting) by concerned Vimeo users. The service has long been favored by gamers for video uploads because the quality of the video is much higher than other video-sharing sites (such as YouTube).
User Servio expresses the feelings of those whose videos face removal:
Bad decision. I thought of posting videos of yourself editing a video game and such. Is that creativity? That you could share with family and friends... And is it a written fact that video game videos are making transcoder wait times longer? Also how does machinma get the okay? When machinima is based off of a video game. Overall bad and stupid decision that just doesnt make sense.
While some gamers are upset at the removal of any gameplay-related videos, others have voiced a worry about the effect upon machinima, which are "animated" stories created with the 3D capabilities of a game engine rather than a video camera or CGI. If you've enjoyed Red vs. Blue or the popular World of Warcraft version of "The Internet Is for Porn," then you've seen machinima in action. The community fears that with Vimeo staff being put into a position of judging whether a video meets the new rule's criteria or not, errors will be made on the side of deleting too much rather than too little.
Vimeo finds itself in a position that's becoming common with user-created content sites. Companies are trying to cut costs as well as stay true to a vision, and often have to choose between focusing the company and alienating a loyal portion of its userbase, who may leave the service and head for competitors' sites.
More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:
Comments
The problem is a lot of the videos they are taking down have a lot more creative expression than two squirrels having sex ( a popular video one of the vimeo staff uploaded).
The EA Skate. community is outraged at the fact that our videos that take months of editing and a lot of thought and creativity are being removed alongside videos of someone simply playing a game.
The vimeo staff has been nothing but rude to a large portion of their userbase.
So we react:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46tgzRIlCDg
Emmit, I think they failed, but for different reasons. I think that the gaming community would be an excellent one to section off from the general Vimeo videos and monetize to death. Gamer sites are generally a lot easier to monetize than the garden variety all-purpose ones since they have a hardcore, dedicated vertical market. No one wants to listen to me, though. :)
Post new comment