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Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

I would love an Arcade hangout in this deadwater town. There's a few arcade cabinets at a small hangout but it's never opens that often.

It has a Foosball table, a Pool Table, Ms.Pac-Man, and a Star Wars Pinball machine. I wish there was more do here.
 
I think video game bars will be popping up in more and more places soon. I know there's a barcade in my city (or at least there used to be) which mostly focused on arcade games like driving simulators and the like, and board game bars are popping up all around the city with great success. This latest generation of young adults doesn't seem to enjoy the idea of getting hammered while watching baseball or basketball as much as the older generations, so I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see a rise in them. There's also the fact that being a nerd is cool now to help the idea along.

Uuuuuhhhhh...sssssoooo, aaaabbbboooouuuut tttthhhhaaaaat.

Video game bars in Japan have been shutting down in waves recently. Very long story short, Japanese game publishers do not like people getting "free plays" of their intellectual property, and so they've been sending cease and desist letters to video game bars for copyright infringement. There's been pushback from the bar owners themselves as well as certain corners of the gaming press, but I've been advised not to refer people to off-site content to understand my posts. I wouldn't recommend you "take my word for it" on such a heavy topic, so if you're interested, I'd recommend googling.

Now, Japan operates under an entirety different set of copyright laws than the US of A, but when a work is copyrighted in another country, then the law gets REALLY complicated. IANAL, but to oversimplify things, the copyright laws of wherever the work was copyrighted creep their way into US courts.

I've seen talk of video game bars in Japan rebranding themselves as "video game stores" to get around copyright. Alcohol is less regulated in Japan than the States, so the idea is that the video games are totally demo booths that you're just playing with other people while someone sells you games and/or alcohol. But 'Merica got some heavy limits on drinking, so that workaround wouldn't work for us Yanks. It'd be a risky business venture, is what I'm saying.

Again, IANAL, I have not cited sources, treat all this as hearsay. Though if you do trust me, a stranger on the internet, then I wouldn't expect any "true" video game bars anytime soon. Barcades like Dave & Busters are likely the upper limit, unless you exclude displaying any games copyrighted in Japan. In other words, most of Nintendo's catalog, plus Capcom, Square Enix, etc. You could probably get away with people bringing their own games to, say, trade Pokémon, but IANAL, beware of greying the line.

Yeah, copyright sucks sometimes.

...drunk D&D sounds like a nightmare.

I speak from experience: yes.

EDIT: Tyop.
 
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In the context of reviews at least, requiring off-site reading to understand it is kinda unnecessary. However, I have no problems with people linking to off-site articles for discussion in this thread!
Oh thank god, I get to cite my source:

TEEN CONTENT WARNING: POLITICAL THEMES

This video's about seven months old, but the man behind it (George Weidman) has a decent rep and there's interviews with multiple video game bar owners. Plus sources cited are shown on-screen. I don't have the free time to do a research report myself, so I'll let the video stand as is, no passionate defense or anything like that. It's raw news-y stuff, so I slapped a Teen content warning just in case. The video may ruin your childhood.
 
After working with scarcely a break until the last possible minute before I had to dash for the late bus, I'm now composing my letter of resignation. Phew!

The weather here is alternating between gloomy showers and crisp sunny breezes. British springtime! I'm on break next week, and I'm certainly going to make the most of it!
 
I have the hidden superpower of unconsciously summoning heavy snow wherever I go. The three-ish inch deep snow outside my livingspace makes me wonder if Spring decided to finally retire (they're certainly past retirement age). And when I took a vacation to Arizona, Winter decided to finally show up to work. And then they vomited over everything. Lazy bum.

Sorry, me and Winter got beef. If Jack Frost shows up and asks any questions, you don't know me.
 
I need to stop playing gacha games. The temptation to spend even just a few bucks is hella strong
Found a happy (?) news article for you:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/nintendo-to-smartphone-game-makers-you-can-only-gouge-our-players-so-much/ said:
“Nintendo is not interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game,” a CyberAgent [gacha game developer working under Nintendo] representative told the WSJ. “If we managed the game alone, we would have made a lot more.”

When asked by the WSJ, Nintendo's Japanese arm replied with a statement that apparently confirms CyberAgent's allegation. “We discuss various things, not just limited to payments, to deliver high-quality fun to consumers,” the Nintendo rep told the WSJ.

So maybe spend the microtransaction money on Super Mario Run? Or just download Pokémon Playhouse and do the minigame where you bandage cute Pokémon, it's the best one. Not that I would know anything about a Pokémon game designed for toddlers. I certainty don't have Pokémon Playhouse installed on my phone. I certainly haven't spent four hours playing it. By myself. I haven't done that.

Also, for all the flack I give Nintendo, there's always that moment where they renew the faith.
 
Depending on where you live, maybe! It depends on your country/state's liquor laws, as well as how many gamers live near you. And depending on the games in question, local copyright law and international treaties on copyright may come into play. For instance, Nintendo cuts deals with arcade machine developers so they can sell their games to arcades (evidence: the Nintendo sticker on Cruis'n Blast, a machine I've seen in person at a local bowling alley and in a Dave & Busters ad, as well as photos from the developer's website), but they bust out the lawyers when you hook up a Switch.

However, that's only because Nintendo is Japanese, and Japanese copyright law favors copyright holders (disclaimer: IANAL, I'm speaking in my capacity as a Nintendo fan who's watched them protect their copyright over the years, from those stupid mini-discs for the Gamecube to some more nasty stuff I'd rather not talk about here). Other companies may or may not be as litigious. Smaller publishers and indie developers that can't afford to litigate/just appreciate the publicity are a safe bet. And I've heard tales of video game developers doing commission work for bars - Robert Yang has done commissions, though I'd rather not link his work. I like what I've played, but it can be very NSFW.

Long story short, it's complicated. And Cruis'n Blast lets you race as a triceratops. Not as someone riding a triceratops, as a triceratops. And when you press the gas pedal, you make engine noises. It's hilarious.

Edit: tyop
 
Back in 2011, the owner of a Pokémon fansite claimed that Japan has looser copyright laws; years later, I learned that's not the case.

Also, I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos with text-to-speech voices, and I'm still looking for a way to both preview and download those voices because I want to make parody videos. Apparently there's something pre-installed on Windows?
 
Also, I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos with text-to-speech voices, and I'm still looking for a way to both preview and download those voices because I want to make parody videos. Apparently there's something pre-installed on Windows?

What version of Windows are you running? Off the top of me head, if you set OBS to Display Capture and just watch the video fullscreen, you can get a full-quality rip that way. But there might be an easier way, depending on your version of Windows.

VERY IMPORTANT EDIT: DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE ANY VIDEO RIPS YOU MAKE. ALL YOUTUBE VIDEOS HAVE SOME FORM OF COPYRIGHT, AND SO YOU SHOULD USE AS LITTLE OF THE SOURCE MATERIAL AS POSSIBLE TO MAKE YOUR PARODY. OTHERWISE, YOU MAY NOT QUALIFY FOR FAIR USE PROTECTION.

Sorry if you already know this. Just tacking this on in case any lurkers get any ideas. I can refer you to some YouTube case law, if you're interested.

Oh, and IANAL. I just, uh, read case law for fun. I'm weird.
 
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\>you need to actually violate copyright laws to get a strike on youtube
if only

Just to clarify; what I'm talking about is legal fair use, not YouTube "fair" use. In theory, the law trumps YouTube's copyright system. In practice...ugh.

Still, there are options. Since this seems to be growing relevant to the discussion, I'm going to cite MATT HOSSEINZADEH v. ETHAN KLEIN and HILA KLEIN, a legal dispute between two YouTubers that started via copyright strikes. Link is to both the judge's opinion herself and an actual copyright attorney's reading of the opinion. But it's long and boring and legalese, so here's a TL;DR quote about fair use basics:

District Judge Katherine B. Forest said:
Fair use is an affirmative defense to copyright infringement. It “is a judicially created doctrine . . . first explicitly recognized in statute in the Copyright Act of 1976.” On Davis v. Gap, Inc., 246 F.3d 152, 173 (2d Cir 2001). In determining whether “the use of a work in any particular case” is fair use, courts must consider non-exhaustive factors:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.​

17 U.S.C. § 107. No single factor is categorically determinative in this “open-ended and context-sensitive inquiry.” Blanch v. Koons, 467 F.3d 244, 251 (2d Cir. 2006).

Buuuuuut if you can't afford an attorney, you're stuck in YouTube's copyright system. And I am not going there.

Edit: So, uh...anyone wanna talk about kittens? Happy kittens?
 
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