Blizzard posts Machinima rules!
8
Sep
Sep
13
This is fantastic news: Blizzard have posted their own set of Machinima rules, which are arguably even clearer and allow more than Microsoft’s first draft of their rules.
Key points:
- Their “offensive content” clause is pretty clear: keep it within the T for Teen ESRB rating of WoW. That’s a clear guideline that’s easy to work within.
- They don’t allow commercial work, but there are exemptions for sponsorship. This is very cool - it’s clear that Blizz’s primary concern is to make sure as many people can see WoW Machinima as possible, and it’s very cool they’re allowing some revenue opportunities within that. The wording here also might imply that RvB style “premium memberships” or selling DVDs is permitted provided that your production is still available to view for free - I’m not at all sure about that, so I’m going to try to get some clarification and report back. I initially misread this clause - don’t take this one to the bank yet.
- There are no fanfic or sound usage limitations. Woo!
- They’ve got a direct contact address for any Machinima-related questions: machinima@blizzard.com
There are a few downsides:
- The “offensive content” clause is clearer than MS’s, but it’s also more limiting. The ESRB’s Teen rating allows “violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language.” That’s fairly broad, but it’s clear that you couldn’t make Red vs Blue comply with those rules, for example. MS’s rules are less clear - meaning you can be less sure if you’re in trouble - but they also allow more latitude, as MS have said they’ll be making decisions based on quality, not just content.
- Blizz request that you seek approval from them before you enter your film into contests and film festivals - this is the only “oh, dear” prohibition for me. Personally, I think that this clause might get changed pretty soon: for example, if I was publicising a Machinima film, I’d be requesting 25 or more of these a month (for film festival entries). Add a few more serious filmmakers into the mix, and you’re talking about having to hire someone full-time just to deal with Machinima.
- No mention of a commercial license. Blizzard don’t mention any possibility for commercial licenses for WoW Machinima (except in a clause saying “you can’t sell your work without written permission from Blizzard”). That doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t any (and I’ll be looking into that) but initially I don’t get the impression of openness to commercial ventures that the MS license gave.
Overall, this is great news, and it’s great to see Blizzard taking steps to support the Machinima community around World of Warcraft.
And on a personal note - let’s just say this couldn’t have happened at a better time.
(Thanks to Brandon “Oxhorn” Dennis and Bilius at Shattered Keyboard for the tip on this! There’s also some discussion of these rules going on over at WoWInsider.)
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From Overman's Blog
A Warmer Blizzard
In case you haven’t heard, Blizzard (the makers of World of Warcraft) have released their own set of rules related to machinima and content creation with their game. I found out about it while at the Machiniplex Premiere last night, which wa...
I’m not sure if we’re reading the section about contest entries correctly. What it specifically says is that Blizzard is happy to provide a content use license in order to support machinima makers. I read that as “we will provide one if you need it.” I didn’t see anywhere in there that Blizzard said they would REQUIRE such a license before allowing the entry into the contest. Indeed, the next heading explains what a content use license is and puts it squarely in the context of the contest imposing requirements, not Blizzard:
“In the event that you are required to prove to the contest organizer […] that you have Blizzard Entertainment’s permission […], a content use license is provided.”
That sounds to me like they’re saying “if you want to enter a contest that requires all content be either your own creation or properly licensed, we’ll provide you a license on paper to prove you have our permission.” It’s not a requirement seen on many machinima contests, obviously, but it’s fairly common in the larger world of film festivals and competitions. (If anything, I originally read this as Blizz being forward-thinking and hoping people would enter their machinima in contest that are not specifically FOR machinima and therefore would want proof of license to use Blizzard’s assets.)
I think this is something I will seek further clarification on.
Hugh,
A question from the academic side: What do you think about screenshots used in publications? This has been a difficult question to get resolved, even when working with Blizzard. The paragraph on academic use is rather vague. My interpretation is that Blizzard would not object to use of screenshot in an academic publication, but it’s not explicitly stated. Also, technically, academic books do bring in revenue, although we all know that authors and university presses aren’t producting these books primarily for profit
Well at least they included the “event” licensing issue. Not that it makes me confident… but it’s up to the artists to get their permissions if needed.
It says “a content use license is provided” not “will be provided” so that implies you have one automatically, just not in writing per se. Right?
Regarding your “oh dear” on getting permissions, Hugh - go for it. Bombard the crap out of them. Maybe they’ll loosen up.
@Henry: You have to contact Blizzard for permission. This I know because of the book - and they’ll want to review each screenshot. Having said that, in our experience they’re quite fast and friendly about it. I can get you a contact if you need one.
@Brommon: The problem here is that every film festival submission form I’ve ever seen requires that you have permissions in place before you fill out the form.
Now, my read of that based on “Blizzard Entertainment is happy to support your efforts by, pending review and approval of your Production, providing a content use license for your Production. ” and “A content use license is not unlimited: it permits the use of the Blizzard materials in your Production only for the ‘event’ that the license has been issued for,” is that you need to apply for a license for every festival seperately, and because of the fact that you’ll rapidly become very unpopular with festivals if you submit without having solid permissions, you need to do that for every festival you submit to.
Having said that, I agree, getting clarification is a good idea. I’ve contacted Blizzard requesting a quick chat about this license, and this is one of the points I’ll bring up if that happens.
@Coyote: I don’t know. My read of “a content use license is provided.” is that they’re providing an example of how the process would work in an ideal situation. Having said that, with the language I discuss with Brommon above, it’s unclear whether they’d need to just clear the film once, and then grant permissions automatically, or if they need to clear each venue. However, the “A content use license is not unlimited:” clause makes me think that they want to clear each venue.
Yeah, if I don’t get a dialogue with them via normal means, I might just make a loooooooong list of all the places I want to submit Fair Game: WoW to…
Well, I guess this is a step in the right direction :)
It’ll still take a while for Blizzard to earn my trust back, but this is Good News.
Are they the second company to do this so far?
Well, third if you count Second Life, fourth or fifth if you count IClone and Moviestorm.
@5 - Blizzard are the second major company to release a set of guidelines specifically for Machinima, yes (Microsoft being the first).
That’s not to say that other games companies haven’t addressed the specific needs of machinima in the past. We’ve had agreements with Bioware (BloodSpell), Microsoft/Bungie (Red vs Blue) and Ion Storm (Anachronox: The Movie) to name just a few. These new Rules announcements are pretty major, though, because they try to lay out what you can and cannot do in clear black and white terms, and they apply to everybody rather than to the specific machinima maker who negotiated a deal.
Typically, it all happens just a few days after we release Machinima For Dummies, making quite a few sections of the book horribly out-of-date and inaccurate :-( Ah well. That’s what this blog is for, I suppose.
P.S. Before any old-school machinimakers start to complain, I know that Anachronox was a special case, but it was the first example I thought of.
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