Blizzard introduces WoW Machinima page
In order "to nurture the advancement and growth" of the Machinima community, Blizzard has launched a Machinima information page.
Currently they have a selection of movies to view, but the really interesting thing, to me at least, is the Guide for Fair Use video creation or the Letter to Machinimators of the world. This document describes the main rules for making WoW movies and not getting into trouble. Here are some highlights:
Your movie has to be non-commercial - so no selling it or charging fees to view it.
It has to have a T (Teen) rating, just like the game.
If you want to enter a non-Blizzard contest, festival or get your movie shown on TV, you have to get a Content Use License from Blizzard first.
You can have sponsors, but sponsor related content must be limited to 10 seconds and be clearly labeled.
They encourage the use of WoW movies for educational use.
Future additions to this page will include a forum specifically for WoW moviemakers where staff members will answer questions for movie noobs as well as established veterans. There will also be a FAQ, artist Q&A and more contests. Though they don't wish to compete with sites like YouTube, they will also be doing some hosting of videos eventually.
Blizzard has always been supportive to the Machinima community with their contests and displaying the winners to a large audience at BlizzCon. Obviously, they see the benefits of further encouraging the spreading of the Warcraft word via visual media.
Do you moviemakers out there consider this a step forward or an attempt to gain more control?
