Ethical Virus

Ethical youtube

Ethics are regularly a hot topic in video game criticism.

Whether it's readers accusing big-name consumer game sites of taking money for positive reviews, or sites failing to disclose when a trip to see the next big video game was paid for by a publisher, internet forums are often fit to burst with conspiracy theories and compelling evidence alike.

But now there's a new branch of ethical conundrums on the block. With the rise of the video game YouTuber, and video criticism in general, viewers have started to question whether certain big names in the world of YouTube are being paid off by publishers -- and whether it actually matters.

Should Let's Players (people who record and share gameplay for viewers) be bound to the same journalistic ethics and rules as a traditional journalist? Does it matter that your favorite YouTuber rarely has a bad word to say about any game they play? Does YouTube need stricter rules when it comes to disclosure of deals?

Gamasutra gathered information and opinions from a variety of video game YouTubers, and talked to experts on the matter, to discover where the ethical path is leading for YouTube video game criticism.
Play for money, money for play

Let's begin by finding out what the YouTubers themselves believe when it comes to ethics of publisher payments and disclosure.

I surveyed 141 video game YouTubers, with subscriber numbers ranging from less than 5,000 to more than 1 million, asking whether they had ever received money directly or indirectly from a video game developer or publisher, for recording videos of games.

Below you can see the result, split into two separate groups - the first is YouTubers with less than 5,000 subscribers (70 percent of those surveyed), while the second is all those YouTubers who have more than 5,000 subscribers (30 percent of those surveyed).

The reason I've split these results into two separate charts is to determine whether those who have more subscribers are more susceptible to being paid by publishers. It makes sense that publishers would aim to offer cash to YouTubers with large numbers of subscribers, but I wanted to determine whether this was actually true.

Graphs
As you can see, 98 percent of those with less than 5,000 subscribers said that they have never received money from a developer or publisher to record videos of games. In comparison, at least 26 percent of YouTubers with over 5,000 subscribers said they had taken money to record videos.

So clearly as you move up the subscriber scale, the bigger YouTubers are being offered cash for coverage or asking for cash to cover games, and at least a quarter of them are taking it. However, that doesn't answer whether the smaller YouTubers would partake in the act if they were given the opportunity.
Is it ethical?

Hence, my survey next asked, "What is your opinion of YouTubers charging money to developers for video coverage, and is it ethical?"

Of the YouTubers with less than 5,000 subscribers, 64 percent said they were against taking money from publishers and developers to record videos of games, while the other 36 percent didn't see a problem with it.

"Considering YouTube is mostly being advertised as a PR platform and not as a platform for legitimate critique, I would not be surprised if bigger YouTubers would charge money for coverage," reads one comment. "In that regard they would provide a service to the game developers."

Another reasons, "If the YouTuber brands himself as a reviewer, it would not be ethical. If the YouTuber is more of a Let's Player, it's really up to him as long as he remains transparent."