Some disclaimers:

Moderators, if this is an inappropriate thread, please kill it, but my intentions are honest ones.

This is a discussion about leaking, not the content itself, please do not discuss recent leaked content or link it.

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The recent leaked footage makes me angry (yes I did look at it).

I don't think it's right that people covertly record demos because:

What you see is invariably a poor quality recording

Any reveals are hardly going to be dramatic (it was demoed after all)

It's just so disrespectful - asked not to record, there are 'guards' patrolling the aisles and people do it anyway???

Stunts like this discourage studios from holding fan demos at all, even 'audience test'.

I would like to contend (please counter if you wish) that there are no cases when covertly obtained demo footage has been helpful to fans of any Fallout games, or indeed games in general.

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My main problem with it is that the recording quality is crap so you can't even see anything properly.

Sure it's disrespectful and all that, but I feel like most people just want people to watch their video because the game has a lot of hype and will get a lot of views. Sadly it's just not worth it. Just like trying to watch leaked comic-con trailers.

Sure you might notice some new stuff, but you don't notice that much and in the end it's not very enjoyable.

Not voted as my attitude is - meh.

I'll watch the official footage, or copies thereof, to get the best quality and am happy with the current pace of releasing info, plus I dont want to know everything.

Others live and die by trying to obtain or watch leaked footage.

Each to their own really.

Pfft. Moralizing business decisions is always an iffy endeavor at best. But lemme play devil's advocate.

It's 'disrespectful' to record after devs asked you not to? It's disrespectful to limit which of your fans get to see something based off of their ability to attend a specific event. Which isn't to say one is better than another just that something being 'disrespectful' is not a good reason to not do something. It not being particularly important footage goes both ways too, it being leaked is then not particularly important. It being limited to a select few fans/press seems relatively petty then, does it not? Why is this relatively inconsequential footage being arbitrarily limited to a select few? It being of poor quality doesn't actually seem like a pro or a minus, it just is. And it is because the developer set the stage in such a way that it's the only way to obtain anything at all. It discourages studios from showing demos. Er, why?

The cynic in me would like to note that I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the leaking wasn't accounted for, not planned exactly but that the leaking wouldn't be seen as objectively bad either. It causes people to talk about it which is free press for the game and comes pre-packaged in the allure of 'exclusivity' and breaking the rules and being terribly naughty in recording it in the first place. Beth gets plausible deniability so people who paid for the privilege of being there (I'm assuming there was some kind of payment even if it was just in travel costs) can't get too offended but scoops up free press which is always nice.

I hate secrecy and I hate exclusivity to info. Leaks are bad, but the reason they are bad is because they have to be "leaked" in the first place. Disrespectful on the leakers part? I'd say it's a lot more disrespectful of the company itself to demand only a select few get to see it and then try to freaking take down leaks just so that the people who were unfortunate enough to not be able to attend the event can't see it and have to just 'hear about it' from those that did get to see it.

Bethesda are selling us a product, we should be demanding transparency of information so we know what product we are to get. Not come to defend them when they try to shut down "leaks" that were only leaks because they themselves 'forced' people into creating said leaks. If anything I'd say we need more leaks, lots of 'em. Maybe then they'll get it into their heads that they shouldn't be limiting who is allowed to see the new info and who isn't.

I voted for getting away/kudos, but that does not quite explain my feelings. I believe that if you are going to show exclusive footage to one part of the world you may be ignoring many other parts. I don't have any major conventions that Bethesda is likely to show up to, so I would have to spend hundreds of dollars to see this footage and I feel that is bs, personally. I don't have a problem with a short timed exclusivity, such as Tomb Raider actually showed exclusive video at gamescom, but within a week showed to the rest of the world. I believe if you invite the public, expect leaks or make the footage available the rest that couldn't be there sooner than a possible future date. I understand it's supposed to be a bonus at a Con, but once the Con is over let everybody else in on it. Otherwise do it like Rockstar, they don't flash their games around to the Public, they restrict the game to games journalists. Because, when you open it up to a portion of the public, you should really open it up to the rest of the public, that aren't lucky enough to live in Texas or Germany. I mean why doesn't the city (Boston) it's based in get a first look, or a thing near BGS HQ? What about the west coast? Like I said earlier, TR did it well, by releasing info to the wider world a week after they released it to a select few.

About leaked content in general:

I didn't vote.

Reason is mostly leaked content has a bad quality. Also it usally shows just a small aspect of what a dev wanted to show.

And this in a bad quality. Did I say bad quality?

Even more fun are the guys who try to leak and comment what they are seeing - wich is in 80% BS as far as I can tell.

Therefore:

leaked video footage = crap

leaked design documents = vitae, potenzia, the holy grail

Note that design documents don't show the "current" version of a game.

But I love to read the early drafts and compare it with the finished product. Also some of the never done/ discarded stuff is sometimes brilliant.

My thought that it's both of their faults, but mainly Bethesda's. As The Leprechaun said, if you're gonna open it up to the general public, then let EVERYONE have a chance to see the footage, not be stuck to leaked, crappy version from someone's camera. Considering the content (I won't discuss it here out of respect for the OP), I don't really understand why Bethesda didn't just let everyone see it. They are trying to sell a product, yes? Then why are they doing everything in the powers to ensure only a selected few get to see that product up close while the rest of us have to rely on what was said about it?

Because Bethesda will release the footage anyway? But in a style wich suits bethesda and wich the audiance will enjoy.

This could include moderation/spoken comments, as well as HD res and so on.

Without leaking, the world would be a better place.

Without exclusive content withheld from some of the fanbase, the world would be a better place.

This. People who come to Gamescom, who come to Quakecon, and I've been to both (not this year), want to experience the spectacle. To see industry people like Todd live and see presentations first hand. I would, as an attendee, never decline people who don't have the opportunity to go to those shows, the footage. Seeing it live and being a direct part of it, should be enough.

Jul 29. Tweet from Hines, "360K people are gonna show up at Gamescom. Some number will wait in line for hours for FO4. What would you have me do?"

Pete Hines, if not using it as an excuse, does clearly not understand this. If he genuinely thinks, that attendees will be pissed that people from home, see the footage 1 hour later than them, is mindblowing. As I said earlier, witnessing the experience first hand has always been enough personally and for the people I've been with. If nothing else, I would love to have everyone else see it, for discussion purposes alone.

Hello, Big Brother.

Depends on the leak and where it comes from. Bootleg footage from an exclusive demo is probably actually good for hype and doesn't actually contain any information the studio wasn't letting out anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if they expect somebody leaking it so the bootleg footage can make it's rounds before they actually release the high quality video. Gives the die hard fans something to do.

On the other hand, a disgruntled employee leaking major plot spoilers can lessen the enjoyment of the game for many players.

I'm not entitled to any of the footage, and if the dev wants to keep it under wraps for the time being I'll respect that.

I can see no rational reason why these demos and presentations where not simply filmed and released by Bethesda in the first place (after the events) as it seems to be counter productive towards advertising their product, while its unfortunate that poor quality recordings have been released its Bethesda who have created the situation by strangely attempting to keep these demos from the majority of their interested fans.

I haven't watched any of the leaked footage since I expect that the demo will be released at some point.

I can't see the reasoning to letting some few individuals be 'special' and watch a demo that's forbidden of release to the public. I mean what's the point? Were they also all given a gag order to not talk about it? NO! They go on-line and describe in detail everything they can remember. So WHY? WHY can it just not be shown? What is it that they are seeing that, if released to the general public, would be so terrible? Is it because they are still making changes to the game? Doesn't seem likely.

If they have some fixed timeline on when to release information then just apply that timeline to everyone.

If I find a decent leak you bet your bottom dollar I'm going to watch it. It's info that has already been released and described in detail already.

So, whenever I wish to have you not film my doings and share them with the world, I must provide you with my reasons for wanting privacy. Further, you, not I, are the one who decides if my reasoning justifies my privacy.

I think,like most phenomena, it's ultimately relative.

I can understand the surreptitious development of Fallout 4 as it offers BGS the chance to advertise the game for the first time exactly how they want, which can be seminal in terms of sales and hype.

But when BGS is advertising their game to a paucity of journalists, under the cognizance that fans have been generally starved of information over the duration of this saga, only for this information to be poorly relayed, articulated and promulgated by said journalists is when I condone any and all "leaks" of this info.

This barely (if at all) qualifies as a leak, this is information Bethesda fully intended to promulgate.The only offence from people that have leaked this information, is that of circumventing Bethesda's megalomania and it's deserved.

If you want to keep a secret then don't whisper around the curious and in this case the fervent.

Edit:

Seriously, the only offence is that fans don't have to view the same footage vicariously through the eyes of a journalist.

But this isn't private stuff, they've been showing it to the public at Gamescom. It's not like someone hacked Todd's iphone and posted his naked selfies. If they're showing it to anyone who wanders into the booth at an open-to-the-public show, and they're allowing the contents to be freely reported on and discussed in public venues, then why not get on with it and share it with the fans who couldn't get to Germany or Texas??

That sounds borderline tyrannical, without "leakers" we would be living in a world of speciously created propaganda and controlled messaging (presuming that's not partly true already).

Chose the 2nd option. I really don't give a damn about leaks themselves only because I don't want my first playthrough to be spoiled.
I want to keep things as fresh as possible. I don't see anything wrong with leaking information because it's gonna come out anyway. The only things the leakers are achieving are forcing the companies to release the HD versions of vids or make an official statement about something because they're obliged to.

If you find the leaked info useful then good on you. I don't even want to visit story-speculation threads because a good 1 or two of those might be spot on. Your mind would be "pre-blown" before you find out the big revelation. I don't know why people like MattyPlays go out of their way to rob themselves of experiencing the game the it was meant to be.

I don't know why they want the viewing of their demo limited; I just know that they do. I show them the courtesy that I would hope they would show me.

Leaked footage are like six tapes. You can hardly see sh+ and they only make you wish they were HD.

I don't like leaked stuff because its usually crappy footage and rehashed already known information.

that and its to easy to take out of context. most of the time private showings get released to the public anyway

so I tend to wait for it.