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Thursday, February 5, 2015

Keep Those YouTubers Away From Nintendo! Nintendo Creators Program!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Exposing the fraudulent YouTube celebrities.

Props to Nintendo. They're making the hard, but correct choices. Back in 2013, I wrote an article that was very supportive of Nintendo taking monetisation away from the for-profit YouTubers who relied on using Nintendo's intellectual property to make money. After over a year later, those talentless hacks managed to achieve a shift in Nintendo's policy: Introducing, the Nintendo Creators Program!

Note that it's not "Nintendo Creators' Program". The "creators" (the content creators, being the YouTubers) don't own it. At all times, Nintendo is in charge here. Nintendo explains it with this,
The Nintendo Creators Program is a service through which Nintendo gives you part of the advertising proceeds it receives from YouTube for your Nintendo-related YouTube videos."
In other words, Nintendo is doing you a favour by giving you anything. It's sort of like the mentality that the federal government is trying to give to its citizens: The government owns all of your money, and it doesn't tax all 100% of it just because it pities you.

...Except unlike the government's, Nintendo's claim here is very legitimate. The government's claim is just theft via force, and the IRS should be abolished. But that's the subject for a series of other articles already written.

Nintendo Creators Program explanation, YouTube advertising revenue
You give Nintendo money when you buy the game.
Then Google gives Nintendo money when you film the game.
...Then Nintendo gives you some money back, and soon, you'll pay off the game's purchase price!

Currently (this may be changed in any direction in the future), you can register individual videos (for getting 60% of the money) or your entire channel (for 70% of the money) with the program. You get the money to your PayPal (apparently people frequently ask, "What is PayPal?") If your channel has any videos of games not on Nintendo's "whitelist", then your channel won't be eligible. For example, the PrinceOfKoopas channel would not be eligible because it has a Let's Play of Gameloft's Sexy Poker, which is not approved. Channel curators may delete offending videos from their channels before applying, or they can just make a new, Nintendo-specific channel.

Nintendo makes it clear they own the content being shown in the videos, but you own the videos itself. Also interesting is that the relevant jurisdiction is in Japan, and not Washington state (Nintendo of America).

So let's take a look at the whitelist.

Nintendo Creators Program whitelist typos names spelled wrong
I would love to be a Nintendo intern.

Other than questionably-written titles (the above is just a sample of those), there are noticeable omissions. Such as, anything in the Kirby, Pokémon, and Super Smash Bros. series. I suppose second-party games are a no-no. (No EarthBound or Fire Emblem either, or Rare's Donkey Kong Country games.) So with a limited selection of titles from a limited selection of systems and franchises, it's hard to compete among other Nintendo Creators Program participants, right? On the basis of the game itself? So then it becomes a test of your skill as a presenter.

(Aside: Donkey Kong Jr. Math IS available, and I submit that my Let's Play of it will forever be the best. ...And it was the first on YouTube.) 

For those not up to the task of being a skillful presenter, they are already objecting to the program and what it stands for. Chief among those talentless hacks is PewDiePie, who spoke out against the program along with other popular YouTubers.

Keeping losers like PewDiePie away from Nintendo's intellectual properties is one of the best decisions Nintendo can make! Why? For a variety of reasons, including that it disassociates Nintendo properties from morons who scream into a microphone, promote ADHD in children through video-editing style, and constantly and casually make rape jokes. It also frees Nintendo developers from having to be influenced by people who try to get developers to make games focused on being watch-friendly. Why is this important? Because the number one focus for a game developer should be on making the player happy, not whoever is watching the player. With the rise of YouTubers, developers are pressured into getting their priorities wrong; in effect, they are being pressured into subverting the very fundamental principles of game design.

PewDiePie screams, screaming
Fortunately, .pngs can't rupture eardrums.

Some people are trying to get KoopaTV to side against Nintendo here by citing that Nintendo is going to promote censorship of opinions on games that people make videos for. After all, if your lifeblood is attached to a company, and you criticise them and try to encourage people not to give them revenue, what do you think would happen to your revenue? PLUS, Nintendo actually approves of videos (although does not sponsor nor endorse them — it is REQUIRED you state Nintendo does not endorse you), meaning they won't approve of negativity. The Terms of Service even says, "[you agree not to upload] any content that infringes, dilutes, or otherwise harms the Content or the Nintendo brand and image" And since KoopaTV is for freedom of speech, thought, and against censorship, we should be against this, right?

...Yeah, no, we're not. I find it hard to believe that Nintendo would cut you off for giving your honest opinion of their game. If you want to show Swapnote (which is on the whitelist for some reason despite not being functional) and then give your opinion that Nintendo was wrong for shutting it down, Nintendo is not going to shut you down. They still give reviewer copies to people who write poor reviews of their games, after all, such as IGN.

Plus, people managed to get people's real opinions on games long before YouTube was even a website. It's not like humanity lost that ability. Additionally, there are all of the people NOT in the program that you can turn to!

...Such as KoopaTV, which gives our honest thoughts on videogames every weekday! Even including yesterday, where we trashed Paper Mario: Sticker Star. (Which is NOT on the whitelist, presumably because it's impossible to make it look good.)

If Nintendo does end up using this as a totalitarian service, it's not like they are going to be taking down every video on YouTube that isn't in the Nintendo Creators Program. Freedom of information will still be out there!

And if everything falls apart, then at least Nintendo is sending a very important message: Your video-making should be a hobby and not a full-time job. Make fan content out of love for the franchise! Which we know is more than possible, with great, free websites out there like KoopaTV!


KoopaTV will always remain free to access, although KoopaTV may also look into ways of making money to fund things like buying a domain name. Ludwig is on YouTube as PrinceOfKoopas (which is also his Nintendo Network ID), and has huge disdain for "popular" YouTubers and watches none of them.


A non-toxic and upcoming YouTuber, Jareditton, Let's Played Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!. Watch it here.
While Nintendo is fighting off PewDiePie's influence, another prominent gaming company is literally embracing him with open arms and cake.
Somehow, KoopaTV afforded a domain name without making money.
Ludwig views YouTubers as obnoxious and they shouldn't be thought leaders.
Is there a conflict between freedom of speech and being compensated on YouTube?
CAPCOM is getting into video content policies, too, but a bit differently than Nintendo.

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