YouTubers playing THIS game are in Trouble

– There is some massive news coming out around Minecraft that specifically affects Minecraft YouTubers but in my personal opinion affects anybody who has a gaming channel on YouTube. But I’ll get to more on that in a little bit. This topic is particularly close to me

As an individual because I started my entire YouTube career with a Minecraft channel, as I’m sure a lot of people do. Back then you could do basically whatever you wanted with Minecraft. The creators at the time did not care. But rules were added later on to offer the company a little more protection.

I’m of course referring to the last time the Minecraft EULA was updated. It was pretty dramatic. But that update was nowhere near as far reaching as the one that was just put out the other day by Minecraft. The points we’ll cover today specifically focus on the YouTube creator side

But also Minecraft server hosts as well because a lot of YouTubers have Minecraft servers. So let’s get into it and we’re gonna cover the really big points here. The first one being that there are new restrictions around the way you can title a Minecraft video. By the way

This full end user license agreement update will be linked in the description below if you would like to see everything that changes here. But from that very document, content creators can no longer use Minecraft as the primary or dominant title for their content. They give us a few examples here of what’s good

And what’s not good. And one of them that’s not good to use is a title like “Minecraft, the Ultimate Help App.” Essentially starting a video title with the word Minecraft in this way almost makes it sound like, I guess in their opinion that this is a video that was specifically made by Mojang,

The company behind Minecraft. That’s more of an assumption on my part but that seems to be the trend. Putting Minecraft as the first word in the title is probably not a good idea. However, if you’re like The Shaft which is a Minecraft podcast, you could name your video “The Shaft,

A Minecrafter’s Podcast,” and that would be fine. The second huge point here is that pay walls in front of Minecraft content are no longer okay. So if you are a YouTuber who does regular members only Minecraft live streams, you might wanna rethink that strategy. Getting into news about Minecraft servers

There are now restrictions on server promotion. Specifically Minecraft assets such as logos and fonts cannot be used to promote mods, servers or worlds that are not related to Minecraft. Another point on servers is that they now must be acceptable for all ages. All Minecraft servers must be suitable

For all ages with no exceptions. That means that any content on a Minecraft server that is deemed inappropriate by Mojang is not allowed. And then to top all of that off, where things get really confusing is this next point about servers. Every server’s entry process now must include a disclaimer

That this is not an official product of Minecraft. So your servers have to be completely friendly to all ages but also they need to be very upfront about how they’re not associated with the company that owns Minecraft. As you read through these changes, you’ll notice that some things have a little more context,

They have a little more detail, and some things are seemingly nebulous, and that’s probably on purpose. The reason I say that is because I actually talked to a Minecraft creator that I know pretty well. Their name is Farzy, and they’ve been doing this for a while.

Farzy did not have time to jump on camera with me today but did offer a quick thought. He says, “I don’t think Minecraft is gonna be very strict with this new end user license agreement for 99% of users. I feel like these changes are more about giving Minecraft the ability to take action

For extreme cases that harm/abuse Minecraft’s brand.” We’ve certainly seen examples of that in the past when it comes to other companies implementing really strict ways in which content creators can and can’t use their products. I would say Farzy’s opinion is a very positive outlook on this whole situation.

That has not stopped a large portion of the Minecraft community, though from subjecting the company to a lot of backlash. Server owners in particular are feeling like this is preventing them from engaging with Minecraft in a meaningful way. They feel that Mojang is taking way too much control here

And as such is kind of shutting down their work. Meanwhile, content creators are extremely concerned about how this is going to impact their ability to make money off of their channels which are centered around Minecraft. According to the new guidelines, “You are allowed to create, use and share videos, streams

And screenshots of you playing or using Minecraft. You may also make money from your videos and streams through ad revenue if you follow the guidelines in this section.” The videos must be free to view, and you have to have your own unique content to the video or the livestream.

The only example they give about adding unique content comes in the form of audio commentary. Now, does that mean you can do a silent Minecraft video where maybe you have some music and it’s just you building something and it’s maybe sped up? That’s not clear, and because they don’t make that distinction

This is one of the reasons creators are so concerned. And of course this is a double whammy to creators who have a Minecraft server as part of maybe a membership program to their YouTube channel. From looking at these guidelines myself, it seems that server hosts largely are following

The same guidelines that were there from years ago. However, because now all Minecraft servers need to be friendly to all ages, this does throw a wrench into maybe communities who are more adult oriented. Maybe they don’t want people who are under 18 on their servers. Now, of course, that’s just me speculating

And I’m not the only one. There’s a lot of speculation going on here. A lot of people speculate that Minecraft and Mojang are doing this because they just want to prevent abuse of the Minecraft name itself. And don’t get me wrong, there has been abuse of this product in the past.

People will sell expensive guides and accessories. They’ll create massive servers that are actually pay to win. So you can’t really get very far unless you start shelling out money. These new guidelines certainly do offer Minecraft and Mojang that protection, but it does come at a cost.

And this is where I want to talk about the major implication for all gaming channels, regardless of what you’re playing. You see, the problem with being a gaming creator on YouTube is that this can happen to you. And there’s nothing you can do about it. You’ve tied your entire channel, your entire brand

To something that you don’t actually own or control. So by the good graces of Microsoft in this case, you up until now have been allowed to basically run your channel and title your videos however you see fit. But they are completely within their rights to enforce these guidelines

If they feel like they’ve been broken. And we have seen other corporations pursue guidelines like this when it comes to YouTube creators. As many of you know covering Nintendo games on YouTube has its own pitfalls. For example, if you do any kind of modded content around modern Nintendo Switch games,

You can bet that eventually Nintendo will find those videos and have them removed. This happened actually recently to PointCrow who has a channel that’s mostly focused around Nintendo games. A while back they did some modded Zelda content and all of those videos got removed

As well as some other ones that were not modded. Gaming creators like PointCrow know this all too well and it’s why they work to kind of diversify their content over time. At VidIQ we tell you not to play too many games on your channel and confuse your audience.

But in my opinion, you should eventually work on a plan that helps you broaden your scope of your gaming channel in some way or another. Developing your voice and your unique personality and perspective over time on your channel is going to be what allows you to start maybe trying other games,

To give your thoughts and opinions about things maybe happening in the gaming community. So are Minecraft creators just done for? Personally, I don’t think so. This isn’t Microsoft saying you can’t make Minecraft content. That’s not what’s happening here. But this does mean that you as a Minecraft content creator have

A responsibility to make sure that your content is within these guidelines, whether you like them or not. I do feel like given how big the story is and how upset people are, there is a chance you might see some of these walked back a little bit.

So you’re gonna want to keep up with Minecraft’s documents and just all the news surrounding this so you know exactly what’s going on, because by the time you watch this, things may have changed again. And if you’re interested in taking that approach of perhaps expanding your reach

As a gaming channel and going beyond just playing one game, I’m gonna recommend this video right here which is kind of part of the building blocks to starting a gaming channel in the first place and helps set you up for that success later on.