Nintendo IP Claims vs "Let's Play" Series Signals the Demise of twitch.tv and Partners

For the first time in video game broadcasting history, console gaming giant Nintendo is laying claim to any and all ad revenue generated through the broadcasting of Nintendo video games. Zack Scott, owner of the "Let's Play" series available on YouTube, was notified yesterday (5/15/2013) that Nintendo has successfully laid claim to any of its intellectual property found in Zack's uploads. Any "Let's Play" video with Nintendo based copyright material is now in complete control of Nintendo, including the revenue generated from commercials from the youtube videos on Zack's channel.

This indelible move could signal the demise of bigger things though. Zack Scott and the "Let's Play" series is only one small block in the wall of video gaming content. If Nintendo continues their onslaught of Intellectual Property claims, we are going to see big changes in the climate of revenue generating content creating platforms like that of twitch.tv.

The twitch.tv platform makes enormous amounts of money on broadcasters doing exactly what Zack Scott does, playing video games with audio commentary. Many popular players, like Zack, are very successful and enjoy the benefits of a revenue sharing program. In essence, making money doing what they love. YouTube plainly states that just because someone paid for the video game itself doesn't give them the right to upload even if  the copyright owner is credited. If twitch.tv is forced to rewrite its Terms of Service to mimic that of YouTube's ToS gamers are going to see changes that may ultimately result in the forfeiture of revenue generated through certain video games by partners and twitch.tv alike.

Discuss this post on reddit!

Sources:
Polygon.com
Zack Scott's facebook post 
YouTube's Copyright Policies 

How to Fix Lag on twitch.tv, Vimeo, and YouTube

So you're sitting in front of a youtube video with your 30mb download connection and your video won't load without studdering. You transcode it down to 480p and even then it's still studdering. Similarly, twitch.tv won't even load a VOD from the LCS without studdering at 360p! You check your line via speedtest.net and everything is legit. You check your network and nobody is even downloading. What the actual fuck is going on?

The answer may lay beyond your computer, beyond your network, and even beyond your ISP. Before streamed video reaches you it gets routed through different servers. Some of these servers are congested, and rather than upgrade the servers, some cheap bastard decided it would be a great idea to just throttle the connection speed to allow for more people to use it. That's right, somebody is saving money at your viewing expense, how twisted is that? Luckily, there's a fix.

Some very smart people of the reddit community did some digging and found out which IP ranges contain these toxic servers. These IP ranges can easily be blocked through settings on your router or through windows firewall. By blocking these servers you force your video service to reroute the video through stronger, faster, less congested servers. The undesirable ranges are as follows:

NetRange 173.194.0.0 - 173.194.255.255 : owned by GOOGLE
NetRange 206.111.0.0 - 206.111.255.255 : owned by XO Communications

I've made a simple little 3 minute video for those who need a little help on how to block these connections using Windows Firewall. Simply follow this short tutorial and enjoy streaming video at the speeds you deserve and nothing less. Enjoy!

Discuss this on reddit!

Team EG Evil Geniuses Removes Greg "Idra" Fields from Roster

Today Alexander Garfield, CEO of Evil Geniuses publicly announced that Idra will no longer be a part of the profesional gaming team known as Evil Geniuses.

Greg "Idra" Fields played Starcraft II as Zerg for team EG. Idra is well known in the community for being crude, rude, and just plain toxic. Idra's recent achievements include winning IEM Season VI, IGN Season 1 "Best of the West," and MLG 2010 in Washington D.C. Since 2010, Idra has won $31,400 in prize winnings for various tournaments. Idra is certainly among one of the best Starcraft II Zerg players in North America.

Alex (@ottersaresocool) explains that while Evil Geniuses is more than gracious with allowing it's gamers to be gamers. Most gamers experience the urge to be bad mannered, rage, or taunt here and there. However, Alex and team EG delineate the difference between gamer bad manner and being "disrespectful to an entire community" who "via their own enthusiasm and passion for the entertainment product he creates, makes his profession possible." In other words, EG isn't willing to sponsor a product that is going to publicly shit on those who support it.

For Idra fans and team mates, like iNcontrol, this marks a very sad day. Idra haters are no doubt satisfied with the decision to kick Greg off EG. For Alex and the EG brand the burden of having a toxic team member is now gone. And for Idra? We'll see if the removal of the EG safety net changes his perspective on whether or not his fans and fellow community members are worth his time and patience. Best of luck, Greg.

Discuss this post on reddit!