How It's Done: Rockstar Releases Video Production Editor For GTA So Fans Can Make Films
from the bizzaro-nintendo dept
Peruse the history of fan-film posts we've done in the past and you'll be met with depressing results. Too often the makers of movies and video games prefer a restrictive approach to fans using any form of their content. The approach tends to be of the blanket variety, where a default to protectionism often ties up fan-work that is either usefully creative in and of itself, or else beneficial to the original content producers if only it would be allowed to breathe. Nintendo has become famous for this kind of restrictive practice in YouTube recently, but it is hardly alone.
Rockstar, as it has so often before, breaks the mold on this kind of thing. Back when Grand Theft Auto 4 was the latest iteration in the GTA series, some enterprising fans had used video editing equipment, along with the game itself, to create their own brand of fan-film, using game footage as the vehicle for an admittedly simple but impressive story line. The whole thing was 2 hours long and has been viewed on YouTube over half a million times. Rockstar, for its part, not only didn't take the video down, but it went so far as to provide its own video editing software for fans in the latest PC version of the series, Grand Theft Auto 5.
When Grand Theft Auto V launches tomorrow, it will come complete with a video editing suite that will allow you to make movies from Story Mode and GTA Online footage you capture. The software, the Rockstar Editor, lets you do a number of things [like] record and edit footage and share them with the community. The editor features special camera modes, filters, depth of field and audio customization options, and a Director Mode feature that allows you to create movie-making sequences from a cast of characters from Story Mode.
This, quite simply, is how it's done. Rockstar/GTA fans expressed an interest organically in something they wanted to do with Rockstar's product, an emergent use that Rockstar may never have even considered, and, rather than getting butthurt over the use of the content and sending out the threat-letters, the company enabled its fans' behavior instead.
And why wouldn't they? After all, far from harm, it would be an absolute boon to Rockstar to see YouTube pages filled with fan-creations in the form of short or monstrously-long creative works, all done within GTA itself. It's just one more way to have fun within the game, one more way to be expressive with fellow fans of the game, and one more way for the GTA name to be etched into gaming history. This is pure CwF+RtB calculus at its finest.
Well done, Rockstar.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: fan films, fans, grand theft auto, gta
Companies: rockstar
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
How it's not done
http://www.gamersnexus.net/gg/1916-investigation-rockstar-games-customer-service-calls
Rockstar phone support being instructed to hang up on customers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How it's not done
It took two phone calls but it was fixed that day.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They miss the whole point!
It is not about the money or the joy of sharing, capitalism is all about control and power. By giving up power over something they just show they are dirty socialist who want to destroy America.
< /sarcasm >
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: They miss the whole point!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Useable? No.
Why? Cause Rockstar won't fix their issues with all the hacked accounts
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just Google "GTA V PC lobby empty" to see how many problems there are, and how ignored everyone is by these people.
Profit before quality. Shame on you Rockstar.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
About you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]