YouTube User Breaks With YouTube to Break With Machinima

Earlier today a popular YouTube personality known as “Braindeadly” posted what he claims to be his final upload to the popular video streaming site. Within, he bid a somber farewell to the significant audience he has built since his channel was brought online less than a year ago. The video runs at only 1 minute and 9 seconds and is set against the backdrop of the sort of doleful melody one might hear at the tragic end of some Nicholas Sparks romance. In the case of Braindeadly, whose real name I could not find, this tone is effective in carrying his message.

“I went to a call with Machinima this evening,” Braindeadly explains at the video’s start. “They said that my contract is completely enforceable; I can’t get out of it. They said I’m with them for the rest of my life; that I’m with them forever.”

For the remainder of the running time, Braindeadly addresses how much he has enjoyed making videos and communicating with his audience. At the same time he does not want to remained tied down to Machinima forever, and the prospects of such a fate have devastated his motivation. You can watch the farewell video for yourself below:

I became curious as to the specific contents of the contract that Machinima partners are required to sign. I didn’t even have to spend much time looking. A reddit user by the handle of “MachinimaThrowAway” posted the scans of the document, the individual claiming that he or she was likely risking his or her job in doing so. The most alarming portion of the contract, and what is most relevant here, lies within the first paragraphs:

This letter of agreement (the “Agreement”) sets forth the mutually agreed upon conditions by and between Machinima, Inc. (“Machinima”), a Delaware Corportation, and [contractee’s name] (herein referred to as “You” or “Director”) concerning Director’s grant of certain rights to Machinima with respect to Director’s YouTube Channel, currently located at http://www.youtube.com/____________ (including other URLs such as http://www.youtube.com/____________. which may be separate YouTube channels or refer back to the main Director YouTube channel), and any future YouTube channels launched by Director during the Term of this Agreement. all of which shall be subject to the terms of this Agreement and collectively referred to herein as the “Director YouTube Properties.”

The complete contract can be found here.

What is most disturbing about the phrasing of this introduction is that Machinima claims possession over any and all YouTube channels belonging to the contractee. What this means is that Braindeadly cannot simply create a new channel and exercise his creative freedom that way. It is likely that he would be required to move to another similar site, such as Dailymotion or Vimeo, to be able to even consider resuming his craft in an independent manner.

This is a little sickening.

It would be a valid argument to say that this individual should have been a bit more perceptive when signing his name to a binding agreement. I agree, but I have to express some disbelief toward whomever offered the contract in the first place: forever? This guy can never make another YouTube channel without Machinima being able to swoop in with their hands out. That seems more than a little underhanded and unrealistic. Then again, I am probably just not well enough acquainted with the way business is done today.

Braindeadly created his channel on May 17th, 2011. Since then it has earned more nearly 30,000 subscribers and more than 4 million views. As a content creator he has focused almost entirely on World of Warcraft player vs. player videos littered with his own comedic commentary.

I have contacted both Machinima and Braindeadly for comment and will update this post should I hear anything. With the massive amount of attention this is now receiving through reddit and other sources it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

‘Dishonored’ Looks to Offer Some Cool Steampunk Action

I read a book recently entitled The Alloy of Law: A Mistborn Novel, which is the fourth chronological entry in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series. It stands alone from the previous three, only shouting vague references to that trilogy, so I can’t recommend it enough even to those unacquainted with Sanderson’s work. The Alloy of Law took a step away from the very dark fantasy environment in which its predecessors reside, and instead provided a very dark borderline-western setting with a handful of steampunk elements.

I have considered for some time now that Mistborn would make a great video game. In many ways the series has always read as something similar to Assassin’s Creed with a lot of really cool and complicated magic thrown in there, and less historical factors. With the most recent novel, wherein the characters abandon daggers and swords for revolvers and shotguns, the only setting more friendly to today’s mainstream gaming audience I can think of is if the series were set amidst a modern military conflict.

Enter: Dishonored.

I was unaware that this game existed, and I am sorry for that. The trailer does not showcase any actual gameplay, but it is easy to come to grips with what it will be. I can imagine a dark, detail-rich world open for exploration — a preconception fueled by Bethesda’s attachment — and a lot of crazy powers to utilize in the proceedings. The central figure equips some sort of mechanized mask that seems to grant him the ability to stop time. It looks as if he can somehow attach himself to objects and be pulled forward (referencing the bit with the window). And I am sure there will be plenty of dudes to kill.

I would place Bioshock Infinite as my most anticipated game of 2012 were I asked, so perhaps it would be proper to point at my recent infatuation with steampunk settings as my reasoning. Dishonored looks to be less stylized and far more gnarly than what Irrational Games is cooking up for the fall. There are is a lot of old-fashioned clothing, combined with motor vehicles, primitive mechs, trains, and laser beams. I am waiting, and willing, to consume them both of these steampunk adventures in their respective entireties. They have won my interest.

This Whole Gaming Journalism Thing is Getting Exciting

It is a very exciting, and scary, time in the games press. I am not really even a part of what is going on out there, though I wish I was, but simply watching from the sidelines of this whole business has me experiencing a roller-coaster of emotions that seem to be shifting from day to day. I think it started back in early 2009 when 1UP was acquired by UGO, and Electronic Gaming Monthly was shuttered. I started to question whether or not dedicating my time and education to wrestling my way into writing about interactive entertainment for a living was really a smart idea. I decided that it wasn’t, but that I didn’t care. I love video games. I am passionate about them and I want to spend my time letting people know just how creative and special they can be.

Vox Games made a huge announcement over the weekend: they have changed their name to Polygon, but more importantly they have also acquired the talents of Phil Kollar (formerly of Game Informer and 1UP), Matt Leone (1UP), Tracey Lien (Kotaku), and Emily Gera (VideoGamer). I can’t say with any form of honesty that I have followed the work of either of the latter inclusions to the Polygon team, but Phil and Matt have both been huge inspirations to me as a writer and as an enthusiast. Read More…

NGR — The Hunger Games

NGR — The Hunger Games

I was resistant to The Hunger Games for a long time. After witnessing something as facetious as The Twilight Saga become a pop-culture phenomenon, I sort of built a hardened psychological shell to protect myself from the concepts that all of those goddamn kids find entertaining. Shortly before the series’ film adaptation was released I began considering how exactly it is that the older generation of first-world dwellers become so disillusioned with things that are considered popular: often they simply stop caring, but a lot of the time it seems to start when an individual builds up a fixation on one particular popular event and begins to look down on all of the phenomena following it. You see it all the time now — people who listen only to classic rock; people who watch only ’70s-era television; people who seem to perpetually believe that the only literature of relevance was written by William Shakespeare.

For myself, Harry Potter seems to have been the phenomenon of my generation. The Hunger Games belongs to my 16-year old sister and her friends. That’s what I thought at least.

My girlfriend purchased the first book in the trilogy back in the autumn, but she never really told me much beyond that it was written in the present tense. She let me know when she was finished with the book and we moved on with our lives. When the movie was fast approaching release, however, she began to get very excited. Kelsey is much smarter than I am, and also much more passionate about the things that she considers important. It was her display of this excitement that worked into me the idea that I should stop being a grumpy old man of 23 years, pick up the damn book, and read it. Read More…

Forget the Star Wars Special Edition — Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut On the Way

Forget the Star Wars Special Edition — Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut On the Way

I didn’t write a proper review for Mass Effect 3 and I don’t really have a good reason for it. I consumed the game at a much slower pace than its predecessors; some of that is the result in the change in circumstances that have occurred since those titles were relevant, but a lot of it has to do with how little compulsion I felt to jump back in and steer Commander Shepard to victory. What eventually fueled the drive to the finish was the intense, seemingly overblown controversy surrounding the game’s — and ultimately the trilogy’s — ending. When the credits rolled I had gathered a lot of understanding for where all of the ill-will toward BioWare had come from.

It didn’t really matter how BioWare ended Mass Effect; no one was going to be satisfied. There was simply too much excitement, and expectations had been elevated to an impossible peak following the events of the second game. These games have been about the choices of the player since the series was called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and that is really where you end up with a lot of incensed fans. While I will not go so far as to spoil the ending of Mass Effect 3 here in this text, I will say that the choices that the player has made throughout the trilogy are not accounted for. BioWare has essentially trained its audience to expect a reward for all of their actions and I think a lot of them, myself included, were anticipating something a bit more relevant to the respective paths that each of them took. Instead, the ending itself is another choice to be made, and the results are dictated by an arbitrary meter. None of this is impacted by whether or not Mordin survived the the Cerberus-funded suicide mission, or affected by Shepard’s romance with Liara. Read More…

EA Wins “The Golden Poo!”

Giant Bomb’s Alex Navarro published an article today regarding Electronic Art’s acquisition of The Consumerist’s user-voted award for being “The Worst Company in America,” aptly entitled “The Golden Poo.” I can’t argue that EA is undeserving of some sort of recognition for the numerous poor decisions that they have made throughout the last couple of years. I do echo Navarro’s assertion that it seems a bit silly for a video game publisher — albeit a borderline tyrannical one — to receive this honor with their competitor having been Bank of America. Nickel-and-diming consumers for each and every stray penny they might have while employing some questionable business practices is one thing; illegally foreclosing on several thousand active men and women of the armed forces is entirely another.

The internet gaming community has always been an active, entitled, and outspoken one, oftentimes to its own detriment, but I think they have made the right move here. EA’s 64% share of the votes collected in The Consumerist’s poll is most likely the result of the negative reception Mass Effect 3 has received from fans since its release. For the most part, I agree that it is a dumbed down, poorly-written, and poorly-executed game in comparison to its predecessors. But, my own issues with EA lie outside of the realm of the Mass Effect series, though I would like to question the individual at BioWare who deemed Javik a non-essential squad mate.  Read More…

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