I drag myself out of Aethernet Hibernation, prompted by a certain level of outrage. My preferred Cinema Hosting Site, Vimeo - a place that I have spent some time promoting, as it has always seemed to me a comfortable and technologically advanced place to host one’s Cinema - seems to have made an odd decision:
The Vimeo staff has decided that we are no longer going to allow gaming videos on Vimeo. Specifically, we are no longer going to allow game walk-throughs, game strategy videos, depictions of player vs player battles, raids, fraps, or any other video gaming videos that simply depict individuals playing a video game. Videos falling into this category will be subject to deletion as of September 1st; new videos of this type will be removed.
Of course, as a resident of Second Life one immediately says “and so how does this concern me? I am not playing any sort of ‘game’, in fact I have taken time from instructing my employees and dealing with clients and speaking to my latest beau just to read your rubbish, Ordinal, this had best be good”. But, and I hate to say this, in many quarters Second Life is considered a “game”. I know, improbably, but it is regularly placed alongside Chess and Poker and the World Of Warcraft and other Activities Which Actually Have A Point To Them. Certainly I am not at all confident that a proper distinction will be made here when it comes to removing old pieces of cinema (such as, well, all of mine).
Obviously it is, literally, the choice of the folk who own the particular Aethernet Site in question as to what they allow, but ethically speaking when one has a certain community which has served to promote the service one has built up, one has a certain responsibility to it. And regardless of that, good god, were I to upload an hour’s worth of my wandering around Caledon I cannot see how that could be termed as somehow less worthy than a video of myself wandering around London. Or playing with a Cat.
Speaking personally I find myself in a state of Flux now; I am not sure whether my Cinema will be determined as being “machinima” (Good Game - for the moment at least) or “depicting individuals playing a video game” (Bad Game naughty delete in September). I am terribly susceptible to Anxiety and thus may decide simply to remove everything and make it generally known that Vimeo is not a place for Cinematic Artists. However, I would advise anyone wishing to investigate these distinctions to join the folk on the Vimeo General Forum, or perhaps leave a comment on their Journal Entry announcing this. I am sure that Proper and Satisfactory Clarification will be received forthwith.
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