Wargaming.NET promoted some players with large followings on YouTube with the title of community contributor. One such YouTuber --SirFoch-- recently published a scathing review of the game's most recently added vehicle -- the Crystler K. In his angry tirade, he accused the new tank of being a pay-to-win mechanic, since players have to buy the tank with real money, and it doesn't seem to be damaged by anything other than "premium ammo". (Yes, you read that right. It's ammo you have to pay real money to buy, just to damage a tank that costs real money...)
Since SirFoch was considered an official community contributor, he worked far more closely with the community leaders than most players. One of these community leaders going by the name Zoltan "Ph3lan" Sipos --a community manager-- didn't take kindly to all the F-bombs and curse words directed at World of Tanks in the video, and in a DM conversation with SirFoch, demanded that the video be taken down.
Sir Foch refused, and Ph3lan then threatened to take the matter to YouTube itself, implying he would DMCA copyright claim the video in an attempt to de-monetize every World of Tanks video SirFoch published if he refused to take the video down himself.
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| Images courtesy of GameRevolution.com |
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| Ph3lan can be seen threatening to remove the video under false pretenses here. |
For those of you who don't know, companies and individuals are able to flag videos on YouTube for infringing on said company's --or individual"s-- legally owned intellectual property under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. There are exceptions to the rules, such as transformative works that fall under the Fair Use clause, but things flagged for copyright infringement by people who don't legally own the work --transformative or not-- are quite literally breaking the law when doing so, and can be prosecuted for it.
Ph3lan does not own the work in question, and from what we can clearly see from SirFoch's screenshots of the conversation that took place, Ph3lan had clear intent to flag videos under false pretenses, which is also a Federal crime here in the states, as well as many parts of the world.
After influential gaming personalities on YouTube such as The Jimquisition and TotalBiscuit covered the story shortly after the scandal received widespread attention, The head community manager of Wargaming made a public announcement, clarifying that they wouldn't pursue copyright claims on videos based on criticism. He later apologized on behalf of the community.
The Apology comes too little too late for many gamers disenchanted with the press --and game publishers alike-- for what many see as 'targeted discrimination' toward the gaming community. If The Gamergate dumpster fire of 2014 was any indication, there is a very real divide growing between game publishers and gamers, due in no small part to the ever increasing number of stories like this one involving censorship.
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