This isn’t my vid, but one of my subscribers was inspired to follow in my teabag stained footprints. And the result is pretty awesome. Excuse it not being in HD (don’t forget: if it wasn’t for Geoff my vids would be done in crayon), but regardless of that he’s got some nice editing going on, and the music is fan-bloody-tastic.
Got online tonight and joined DrunkinDunkin on Harvest Day Conquest. It was the first time I’d played any of the new maps so it was pretty cool. My virtual soldier is now super fit after all the distance running while I attempted to find out where I should be going…. or what direction I should be running in.
Donncha and Duck joined later and we stayed in Conquest mode which was unusual as it’s not a mode that we normally play very much due to the propensity for spawn trapping (which we did our fair share of…hmm maybe a little vid of that at some point too). BigMooney joined the fun and although we sent invites back and forth he eventually ended up on the opposite team.
That was not so good, but it made for some really close games – the first game on Port Valdez ended at about 6 tickets left for us and the second game when right down to the last man standing with Paul’s (BigMooney) team just pipping us to the win.
But anyway, the main point of this post was to share this:
Those of you who have CVs or Resumes know how important it is to ensure that you keep your CV/Resume up to date to reflect your achievements and portray you in the best possible light.
Along with my Bronze Swimming Badge I now have another boon to add to my general accomplishments and certificates:
#1 Oh Yeah Baby! Wooooo!
I’m thinking that makes me fully qualified to take over control of the economies of some European countries, or at the very least the UK government.
I thank you all. As of Monday my address will be: 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA.
When it comes to little things like the law, and rules created to reflect it, consistency is usually the cornerstone of its integrity. Obviously there will always be exceptions to the rule/law but in general we can all hope that everyone is dealt with fairly and objectively.
Which is why YouTube’s approach to copyright is somewhat less than awesome.
Copyright is actually very simple to understand. 1 What is infringing? 2 Remove infringing content.
On YouTube there are two things to consider, is the video content infringing/is the audio content infringing? As it’s a video site then it makes sense for the whole video to be removed if it’s the video content that’s infringing, but if the audio is the infringing part then that should be muted….. and this is not some far out concept:
Swansea-based tribute group the Ultimate Eagles have so far received more than 750,000 views on the site for their rendition of The Eagles classic Desperado.
But the footage, made in Llanelli, has now been “muted” after the Eagles’ publishers stepped in with a legal challenge.
[...]
“The video footage was left intact, as that belongs to us, but the sound was muted even though it is us singing and playing, not The Eagles.”
In the meantime I’ve had a reply from those denizens of consistency at YouTube:
Dear David,
Thank you for notification.
Based on the information you have provided, it appears that you do not have the necessary rights to post the content on YouTube. As such, we will not be able to restore your video.
Please take some time to review our Copyright Tips,
http://youtube.com/t/howto_copyright, as well as the copyright-related
information available in our Help Center.
You may also visit YouTube’s Copyright School, a self-paced guide to copyright terms and tools, found here:
If we receive a retraction of the claim from the original claimant, we will be able to restore the video immediately.
Otherwise, we unfortunately are unable to assist further in this matter.
Sincerely,
The YouTube Team
Hmm…. I create the gameplay, I edit the gameplay, I put a notice at the beginning of the video identifying it’s legal status but apparently (according to YouTube) that’s not enough. This is not actually the first time that I’ve encountered a complete lack of intelligence regarding the subject of copyright. Many many many moons ago I had a video deleted from my web host for copyright infringement….. even though it was an original track that I wrote and recorded, the video was filmed and edited by me, I was in it, and I had a copyright notice at the end.
The mind boggles.
I’ll take it that “If we receive a retraction of the claim from the original claimant, we will be able to restore the video immediately. Otherwise, we unfortunately are unable to assist further in this matter.” As the polite way of saying “Go jump off a cliff”.
I will reply asking them clarify at what point LoveCatMusic obtained ownership of my video content, but I won’t hold my breath for an answer.
Dear The YouTube Team
Thank you for your reply.
However, I do have the necessary rights to post the VIDEO content on YouTube.
The video content of the alleged infringing video was created, recorded and edited by me. At the beginning of the video there is a very clear copyright notice which states that the VIDEO content is covered by the EUCD and DMCA.
The audio was ‘Bidibodi Bidibu’ by Bubbles which LoveCatMusic are apparently the copyright holders. As such the audio content was allegedly infringing, not the video content (to which I retain copyright as creator). It would make sense that in the event that the audio was deemed to be infringing copyright then it should have been muted as has been the case on numerous other videos.
The situation is further confused by the fact that numerous other videos use the same audio but are not deemed to be infringing copyright, for example:
Or just use the search: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Bidibodi+Bidibu&aq=f
To recap – LoveCatMusic do not own the copyright to the VIDEO content and as such it should be reinstated with the audio muted.
If you require that I do this via the legal challenge then I require you to inform me as to which jurisdiction the claim of copyright was made.
Regards
David Nicol
….not holding my breath. But it’s all a bit of fun in the meantime. Dance monkeys! DANCE!!
Okay, it’s only taken me bloody ages but here, finally, is the 1K Q&A vid for hitting the one thousand subscriber milestone.
As a quick recap to how this all came about for the Johnny-come-Latelys and the hard of remembering, I started this blog back in January when I started playing Modern Warfare 2 after a hiatus from gaming. Initially it was charting my success (or lack thereof) in gaming. I’d started watching gaming videos on YouTube in an attempt to discover where I was going wrong and found a load of really good resources there.
When people started to read and follow this blog regularly I started sharing the YouTube directors that I found useful and then started doing a ‘Three to Watch’ weeklyish video that showcased uploaders who were not that well known at the time. One of those was sasbenjr who was taking a completely different tack on the video community by going in-depth with regards to tactics and what to do and why.
He also ran a competition to win a Hauppauge HD-PVR and winning that allowed me to move my own channel on to what it is now. So a lot of this is all down to Geoff and his amazing generosity. So thanks again Geoff!
Recently I’ve not been online as much as usual as I’ve been on a pretty intensive course that will help me move in to a different area of work, the course is over, but I’ve also just got a new job with a mega-commute attached. This means that I’ll unlikely be online much during the week.
But anyhoo – Scarab was my favourite game. The review linked has many spot on observations, including the less than useful instruction manual which left out pretty much everything of use (including how to move and start the game….. hmmm a bit like the BFBC2 manual). I think that EA are missing a trick by not remaking it – even if it was only as a download title.
So that’s pretty much it for the moment – I’m hoping to get some more gaming in before I start at the new job, and intend to continue putting up vids. I’ve also got a load of vids to catch up on as I’ve hardly been on the internet at all for over a month!
So here’s the vid:
Thanks all.
Peas and loaves.
Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.
Okay, I definitely passed 1000 subscribers on YouTube earlier today, but some people may have unsubbed in between time, so I’m taking this opportunity to get that milestone out of the way while the iron (and the weekend) is hot.
Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me from the beginning, it means a lot to me. And welcome aboard to the new subscribers. Just to reiterate my position with YouTube, subscribers and whatnot, and not to sound unappreciative, but the amount of subscribers remains unimportant to me. It’s fantastic that people enjoy my vids and that’s enough for me.
I’m doing a Q&A vid as is traditional at this point, so if you have a question you’d like me to answer then put it here, or on the comments section of the attached vid. I can’t guarantee that I’ll answer all questions (and some questions I won’t answer), but I will answer as many as I can. Should there be too many, I will be concentrating on the more ludicrous efforts as I prefer to keep the tone of my channel fairly light hearted (except for my recent rants….).
So get questioning, I’ll probably put the full Q&A video up on Wednesday.
Thanks all.
Peas and loaves.
Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.
Anyone with a YouTube channel will have at some point received messages asking for help in getting subscribers or “hey I subbed, sub back”. The fixation on subscriber count is something that I’ll never really understand as it’s not important to me. But for anyone out there who wants to know how the popular channels really got their subscribers then these instructional videos will help:
Now, I realise why my subscriber count is not really high….. I don’t have an iPhone! Damned technologies thwarting me at every step.
So, there you have it – how to get subscribers on YouTube, no need to send me (or anyone else) messages along the lines of “I subbed, sub back pl0x” or “will u help me get moar subscriborzzzz”.
Peas and loaves.
Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.
Everyone loves a bit of drama. Some of it is manufactured, some of it is because some people have zero social skills and some of it is caused because opinions and the perception of “facts” fail to mesh. Add some pride and you can get yourself a doozy! (btw, the first two ’causes’ of drama are not relevant here, they’re just included for reference).
DSP – also known as Dark Syde Phil or The King of Hate HD (never really got that one as there’s not much proper hate in his videos) posted an “Inbox” vid. It’s the standard Question and Answer format that people seem to enjoy – you know, you send them a question, they read it out and give you a response but the only thing that you pay attention to is that they’ve read your name out!
Now he answered a question about being on Machinima and/or being partnered with Machinima. For the most part, and from what I understand about Machinima contracts, he’s correct in what he says. Not so sure about the Machinima Partnership bit though. So that you can get an idea of what I’m on about, here’s the vid (skip to 8.50 – and it goes on for about 10 minutes as DSP can’t half talk…):
From what I understand, Machinima has put the partnership umbrella over certain channels which is different to being actual partners and judging by the “watch the ads or GTFO my channel” attitude of at least one of the “partners” it would seem that the channel owners do get a cut of the advertising revenue. In that case DSP would appear to be mistaken. As for the rest of his opinion on Machinima – well, I don’t think he’s far off the mark.
It would seem that currently Machinima is in a state of flux. MW2 is on its way out and there’s a glut of new games on the horizon. Plus many of the established “stars” are splintering off to do their own thing, or set up rival enterprises, some are leaving gaming and others are losing their appeal. Over the past couple of months Machinima has signed a massive amount of new directors of varying quality. My only thought on that is that they’re scooping up as much fresh blood as possible to ensure they have enough content when the new games are released, and the most successful of those will get priority of the fifty million other directors on there.
But anyhoo – I digress. Back to the drama. So Hutch saw the vid, or was told about the vid and blew a gasket (I imagine).
There was also a video response, but I missed that as Hutch removed it, I only caught the aftermath vid:
So pride caused an overzealous defence of Machinima from Hutch. That’s fair enough. But after watching the DSP video and reading Hutch’s tweets it seems that he’s basically confirming what DSP said! Other than the current partnership issue, DSPs reasons for NOT going with Machinima were what Hutch said happened. Machinima wouldn’t feature his vids in the way he wanted them to, plus he didn’t want to go through the hassle of adding the pre and post roll Machinima clips (and it is a hassle adding in other peoples content).
Drama drama drama. I wonder how many extra views and advertising impressions both channels have received from that….
*EDIT* Skip to 6.22 for rant (not sure if this is the vid that was meant to be removed or what):
Peas and loaves.
Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.
My “Using Tracer Darts” in Battle Field Bad Company 2 video has just hit 1,000 views. This is quite a milestone for me as it is the first “proper” video that I’ve put up that has reached that number of views.
Shoop da woop
The best thing about the vid as far as I’m concerned is my total incompetence with the tracer dart on Isla Inocentes – but at least it gives hope to all those other players out there who are not “beast”.
I don’t think I’ve used tracer darts since I recorded that footage. In most cases I end up using my sidearm against an enemy and turning them into a mobile disco (as amusing as it is) is not quite as effective as Graching them in the face. I’m better at old school rocketing and leave the tracering to those much better than I am (which is pretty much everyone).
I wonder if I’ll ever get a vid with views that are OVER NINE THOUSAND!?
Peas and loaves.
Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.
The hunt is on, again, for a new Machinima Premier Director now that SeaNanners (Adam) is a bona fide, honest to goodness, straight up employee of Machinima. Much in the same way that a Premier Directorship came up when Hutch was lured into full time employment at the House of Fun.
The Premier Director is selected from the list of existing Machinima Directors so it could be ANYONE!….
No it can’t be. And no it won’t be. Sorry to shatter anyone’s illusions here. Last time around I correctly predicted who would be chosen based on the workings of democracy. It’s a very simple equation to work from – the person with the most votes wins. That time around it was Tejb. Tejb had at least 50,000 more subscribers than anyone else in the running which meant that even if only half of his subscribers were active and weren’t porn bots, multiple accounts, or inactive then he’d win. And win he did – surprise surprise <_<
Anyone with a YouTube account and more than a hundred subs can work out for themselves that for the most part only 10% of the subscribers are 'hardcore' (meaning they watch, rate and mostly comment on EVERY video put out), about another 25% or so will view and thumb, and the rest will sporadically watch and/or participate. That's not counting the 10% of subscribers whose tally of subscriptions is in excess of 150 YouTube channels which means to me that they could care less what you do and are even less likely to watch any content you put out anyway.
By my reckoning most 'YouTubers' have between 20% and 35% of their total subscribers who actively participate in the channel. I could be full of da poop, but these figures are based off interaction on my channel and from looking at the number of thumbs and comments on other peoples channels so I've not just pulled the information out of my ass. However, if you have more reliable numbers then please let me know, because I love stuff like that.
Anyhoo, back to the point. SeaNanners announced the drive for a new Premier Director in his most recent video:
Now, here's where I got interested. Adam says it's not going to be "a popularity contest". But it is. It can't be anything but a popularity contest. The last "election" was a popularity contest, and any time you invoke the power of democracy it will ALWAYS be a popularity contest.
Here's how Adam has attempted to throw a spanner in the democratic works. There will be three current Machinima Directors chosen to duke it out for the mantle of Premiership. Two of them will be decided by being….. *ahem* most popular in terms of likes and comments. And the third will be a Wildcard chosen by the BananaMan himself.
That's a great idea, but it's not going to change the fact that if the outcome is being decided by the community liking, voting and commenting on the three finalists then the finalist WITH THE MOST ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS will be the winner. It doesn't matter if SeaNanners plucks Jesus Christ himself (not Obviously Jesus) from the list of Machinima Directors, if his active subscriber count is not in excess of #1 or #2's active subscriber count then he hasn't got a hope in hell (and unless SeaNanners chooses THE most popular person on Machinima at the moment then he might as well not waste his time).
Sure the extra publicity will net the Wildcard some new subscribers, but that's it. Democracy is a popularity contest, asking the community to vote is a popularity contest, and putting a wildcard in there will NOT change the outcome. Unless they decide to use another voting system such as proportional representation….. but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
By the way, does anyone know who the most popular people on Machinima are right now? I unsubbed from Machinima a while back so have no idea who's who and what's what on there any more.
That is all.
Peas and loaves.
Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.
