So,

Everybody's wondering where PlayItBogart went.

Well, I didn't go anywhere. I'm still gaming, still working 40 hours a week, still interacting with human beings.

I suppose the better question would be "Why did YouTube suspend PlayItBogart's account?".

It was Strike Three. Let me explain.

When you put up Shit You Probably Shouldn't, some bored employee at the company that owns the copyright to it surfs YouTube when he has nothing better to do to see if you uploaded The Gumby Christmas Special or Dr. Phil on The Simpsons. Then he sends YouTube a letter saying "tits or gtfo" and YouTube sends you a nasty letter saying you've committed a crime worse than ravaging the Pope.

In both instances, yes, I was probably in the wrong, and I didn't contest them. And for a time, all was well.

Then Take Two came along.

Yes, you know Take Two. They own 2K Games, Bethesda Softworks, and to some extent, Rockstar, the company behind the Grand Theft Auto series. Perhaps you've heard of them?

Evidently, they feel that the video "GTAIV - "Hostile Negotiation", the Michael Mann Edition" is a blatant, profit-stealing copyright-infringing non-fair use travesty and simply HAD to go. Which is kind of odd, considering my account is littered with clips from Take Two games such as Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, NFL 2K3, ESPN NFL 2K5, All-Pro Football 2K8, 24: The Game, Star Trek Encounters, and Star Trek Conquest, and they never had a problem with any of THOSE clips.

And since YouTube is too lazy to actually investigate claims, they just blindly follow whatever somebody with a company email address says and kicks your clips, and if it's the third time, your account and every other account tied to your email address goes bye bye.

This is of course, a bullshit claim by Take Two Interactive, since the video fell under the perview of fair use, what with it being nonprofit (I don't profit off my videos), entertaining AND factual (many viewers had no idea how GTAIV worked), didn't deprive any revenue from them (quite the opposite, in fact), and is transformative, being that I made it into something more than it was by itself.

So yeah, I'll file a counterclaim. In theory it would reverse the third strike and give me back my account. But by then the damage is already done. Take Two has already sullied their reputation with me, and YouTube being an accessory to it wouldn't make things any better, so I'll certainly be shopping for a new repository for my videos (which are all backed up in soft copies), but it would be nice to have the original account standing with all the original account for posterity. I'd also remove all content promoting Take Two Interactive from my account (As I've already done with my games collection, INCLUDING Grand Theft Auto IV), because if they feel that I can't promote their game using their game which I paid for and use it to encourage OTHER people to purchase their games, then I want none of it.

Not surprisingly, this throws the Star Trek review into jeopardy, seeing as four of the games featured in it WERE Take Two games (SPOILER ALERT: Encounters is clunky, Legacy is dull and broken, Tactical Assault is a dumbed down version of Starfleet Academy and therefore is fail, and I stopped playing Conquest after about two days). So that'll probably have to be backburnered AGAIN because at this point I don't want to go through it and remove the "infringing" content.

Allow me to reiterate - YouTube and Take Two Interactive may go fornicate themselves.
The only question is how hard and with how blunt an instrument.

In any event, the Rollergames video is now on Revver.