It's Friday the 13th

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV saw a few raids, a trial and leveling on a couple of alternate roles (Fishing, Botany and Lancer). We actually used the Dancer in one of the Alexander raids, which was interesting. We also spent a lot of time in the Crystalline Conflict, I should learn and get more comfortable with other roles than Bard for it, because I'm a sitting duck whenever an enemy gets in close. Granted I more often than not get a fair amount of assists, but being able to brawl may be more helpful. Also figuring out how to do a character portrait for when a CC match starts was a lot more trouble than it needed to be.

Also during the stream got a call from work to let me know we're in another awkward period, but that call happened during a period where I couldn't quite do a BRB, so I just muted my mic.  

Another weird thing was that I ended up having two bowls of grapes, I normally just have one at the start of the stream to make sure I have some fruit, but I wasn't feeling having anything sweet following the mid-stream break.

Twitch Clips 

• Kick his A...!
• We're dancing man! 
• HA! Got him!
  

For the raid last night we sent things over to Aggie_oG  who was playing Fallout 76 over at twitch.tv/Aggie_oG!  

Made a new video for my YouTube channel, inspired by finding the VHS tape of You Only Live Twice earlier this week. It's actually more of me going down memory lane. It can be found over at https://youtu.be/K0zfQGGUpO8.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout involved Body Uppercut Combo, Body Hook Combo and Triple Combo #1. But as you can tell since this post is being done in the afternoon, today is a workday that has no work... so we did some extra exercises as well.

Well at 12:08 AM Eastern Time, I got the final achievement in Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle to complete that game Friday the 13th of May of 2022. You can be I'm proud about the perfect timing!

Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle Achievements

• Lucky Number 13: Completed a 13 day streak in Daily Death.

Also played some Smite before bed, and I managed to get Thor's second achievement, both of Persephone's achievements which completes the Queen of the Underworld update content, and one of Morgan La Fey's achievements. I have to say I do like what I figured out with Persephone, as it was the first time I've used her in a match, which happened to be assault so it was randomly selected. I feel I understand Morgan's abilities a little better, but her second achievement is going to be near impossible for me to pull all as it involves building her passive by using all her abilities on one character. 

SMITE Achievements

• Tectonic Stun: As Thor, stun three or more enemy gods at once using tectonic rift.
• Master Harvester: Unlock the Smite Award "Master Harvester."
• Grasping Vines: Unlock the Smite Award "Grasping Vines."
• Strength Drawn from Pain: Unlock the Smite Award "Strength Drawn from Pain"

The 76ers lost to the Miami Heat last night... and clearly that is probably Doc Rivers last game he'll coach for Philadelphia, because I can't imagine him not being the obvious scapegoat. The Sixers showed no fire in the last two games, despite what they showed in games 3 and 4 to tie the series up. 

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj.

Atlus, the studio behind the Persona and Shin Megami Tensai series of games, has a survey that is asking if folks would be interested in seeing their games on other platforms... I highly encourage everyone fill it out over at: https://p-ch.jp/enquete2022/na/

And speaking of Persona... for tonight's stream we'll be getting back to Persona 5 Royal, we're in the waiting period for the next major plot point, so we'll try and knock out various companion quests.

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Freeform Rant: The DMCA Drama on Twitch

This week, many of my fellow Twitch Streamers have been hit with DMCA take-down orders as it relates to clips containing licensed music, and from my point of view, it's just the latest in a series of on-going legal wrangling from the Music Industry to 'protect the recording artists and record labels'. Is it their right to make such demands, why yes, yes it is, they own the copyright on the music... and from my point of view as a Twitch Streamer, I often look at those channels that do nothing but act like glorified radio stations or night club DJ's, playing nothing but licensed music as being a novelty act that was just asking for trouble... and they are probably the ones being hit the hardest by this.

From my point of view, this is nothing new, as some may know I did have a YouTube Channel that was called Fred Casden's Basement, where I did full on reviews that featured content in the realm of Fair Use, such as using screen captures of shows or scans of comic books I was discussing, among other things to try and spice up my content. When my channel grew to where it could be monetized to get some income on my work, that's when I started to have a few issues, such as CBS taking ownership of a review I did for their awful MacGyver reboot because I used a few screen shots from that weeks episode to make my point, and when I started to port Twitch broadcasts to that channel, I noticed that the Warner Music Group was really protective over certain songs that appeared in Saints Row The Third and Saints Row IV. Now in the case of the issues with CBS, since I was doing a review I could of challenged it based on 'Fair Use' because I was making a critical point, but the issue with WMG was a little more complicated.

The music industry, in my lifetime at least, has been really anal about protecting itself against piracy thanks to the events surrounding Napster, and the combinations of the recording artists and the record labels have been doing everything they can to keep as much control over their songs as possible. While the Film and Video Game industry has certainly moved with the times, the former more reluctantly than the later, the Music industry has only taking the smallest of steps forward to expanding use of licensed music, begrudgingly loosing how it appears on streamers channels on YouTube, Mixer, and Twitch if its in the context of a video game... it's why most people tend to turn off in-game music for things like the Grand Theft Auto series because it's such a headache.

As the copyright holders, any record label, for example the Warner Music Group, can demand something be removed, and Twitch has the platform in question here, much like YouTube has to comply with that request. In fact any video game publisher can do the same, however that's not exactly smart business considering the amount of virtually free advertising they get from people who stream video games. Some may argue that Twitch should look out for its streamers, however YouTube already set the president on just being the service provider when it came to such issues back, so Twitch is just following the path laid out.

I don't blame the hire ups at Twitch, they are a business and they are providing a service for people to use. Could they have handled it better, probably, but at the same time, the music industry for the most part is just like Donal Trump, it makes threats that could be bad for everyone if it doesn't get its way. So the question is what do people do if they aren't gamers and want to play music on their channels... well one, if you are musician, create your own content, don't do covers or perform licensed songs, do your own thing. If you're wanna-be DJ, well mix your own beats, create your own tracks that aren't licensed to a record lable. If you are gamer, don't have Spotify, iTunes or Amazon music playing tracks as you stream. The issue of in-game music is still a thing, but if its a game with a ton of license music like a Saints Row or a Grand Theft Auto, probably best not to use the in-game tunes, you might want to either lower the volume to where can barely be heard or just turn the in-game music off.

Of course that's just my opinion.