Final Fantasy XIV Doesn't Allow For Let's Play Video Monetization

Planning on doing a Let's Play video series of Final Fantasy XIV? Well, don't expect to get paid a cent for any work you put into any of it because Square Enix will make sure every dime, dollar, penny and quarter to a dollar from advertisements will fall squarely in their coffers and their coffers alone.

Reddit user Vulpix0r – either some young punk kid who likes Pokemon or a man-nerd who can't get enough of his 140 Pokemon – posted up a quick thread letting everyone know that Square won't be tolerating any kind of monetization on their latest subscription-based re-release of the highly controversial, highly anticipated, highly loved, highly hated and continually talked about Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

But enough about the formalities – let's skip the foreplay of context and just get right to the sexy legal stuffs. Courtesy of Square's official support page...

If you don't mind not making any money on the hard work you put into doing Let's Play videos and garnering all manner of subscribers and viewers as a part-time gig or a way to financially dig your way out of your mother's basement as a full-time job, then by all means make videos of Final Fantasy XIV, but remember to include the following line in all the descriptions of the videos you post of the new MMO:

Hey, you guys didn't really think that something like Let's Play videos would benefit the gamer in the end-game did you? You didn't really think you could make money doing something you loved and could garner enough cash in the sticky web of partnered advertisement revenue to pay bills and keep more than ramen noodles and day-old peas on your plate, did you? Ha! You should have locked away those thoughts with your feeble attempts to dream.

Anyone living in the Corporate States of America should already know that the only reason you have dreams of doing anything is so some guy sitting in a $10,000 leather chair in an executive office at the top of a highrise you're not even qualified to look at in the downtown of a city you can't even afford to ride a taxi in, can stand up and stomp loudly on the glass entity that used to be the image of your dreams.

In this case, however, a rather small man in a firm-fitting suit sitting in a highrise in Japan just stood up and stomped loudly on a collection of glass dreams that belonged to a small group of money-hungry YouTube users who use Let's Play videos to make a little cash.

The only thing you can hope for at this junction is that the little guy from Shinjuku, Tokyo stepped on enough glass dreams that maybe one of the shards cut through his custom-tailored shoe and pricked him in the foot. Otherwise, congratulations Let's Play YouTubers on getting screwed. You're now back to being in the same financially rickety boat as the rest of the average middle-class pleb suffering in an intolerable economy.

Capitalism for the win.