this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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Thanks for the heads up.
@nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works please remove the word 'official' from the title. Even though the video uses it, that use is wrong.
What about this is 'official' in any way? It makes me not want to play the mod for their manipulative use of the word in their advertising.
Edit: thinking back on it, I doubt there was any intention of manipulation. Most likely just ignorance on the implications of using the word.
Edit 2: The developer changed the video and removed the word 'official' from the title. The video also includes the text 'Portal: Revolution is an unofficial, fan-made modification for Portal 2 and is not with or endorsed by Valve Software.'
It having official in the title has nothing to do with whether it's a Valve game or a mod, though. It just means that it's a trailer released by the developer themselves and not some random person, that's all that official means.
The developer of Portal is Valve, so saying 'official' makes it seem like it's from Valve.
Yes, 'Official' in itself does not mean 'made by Valve'. The meaning is contextual. In the case of games, 'official' denotes it was released by the creator of the title itself. So, in this case Portal was made by Valve. Anything using 'Portal' and 'official' together means Valve.
"official trailer" for the mod - I don't see the problem here.
They probably could've just made a more honest title like "Portal: Revolution - Official Trailer for the fan mod". The title is longer and more unwieldy, but at least it'd be very clear
Your point is worthless. Not everyone needs context hand fed at all moments, and your misunderstanding of the title is anecdotal and unique to very few people.
Edit: changed wording because it wasnt one single person making the argument
I wouldn't say worthless, that's hyperbolic, but it is far beyond necessary, just saying that it could've been clearer, definitively.
Imagine it under a different context.
I made a fan art of some Pokemon that was popular then made a poster of it and started selling it as an "Official Poster" of that fan art. I was the artist of the art on the poster and made the poster itself. However the term "official" strictly means it is properly licensed under the Pokemon brand and that The Pokemon Company themselves cleared the product to be used under the brand of Pokemon. Otherwise they can straight up sue me and take the profits, and they would be legally in the right because 'official' is a term that has protection under trademark law.
In your example where literally every detail has been changed, including the type of product being produced, that makes sense.
The video says, "Portal Revolution Official Trailer." What that says to me is "This is the official trailer" presumably released by the creator of Portal Revolution (which is a community mod).
Even in the worst possible way I can try to interpret that, calling it "manipulative" seems like a huge stretch.
If Valve somehow thinks it's the same thing as your Pokemon example, I'm sure we'll see some action taken.
I mean, you had to specify "which is a community mod". Without that information, it would be reasonable to assume it was made by Valve. No?
I did edit my comment saying it was likely not intentional. But in the case that it was intentionally using the word 'official' to mislead people to even just click on the video, is still misleading and manipulating people into doing something they may not have done otherwise.
But yeah, it's most likely that the dev did not realize the implications of using that word.
I am curious why you think the example is too different. Because it outlines the exact same scenario besides selling the product. A company owns an IP. A person uses that IP to create a product. That product is then labeled 'official' though the owner of the IP had not authorized the use of their IP.
Exactly: and it says "official trailer" — separated from the rest by a fancy hyphen just like what I have used. The context is quite clear that it's the trailer that's official, and thus the meaning is quite clear as well.
The context is the 'Portal' game series by Valve. Interesting how you conveniently skip right over that part.
The developer has now changed the video and removed the word 'official' from the title. The video also includes the text 'Portal: Revolution is an unofficial, fan-made modification for Portal 2 and is not with or endorsed by Valve Software.' If there was no issues with saying 'official' then why did they remove it and add that text there?
You think they're trying to trick you into
check notes
playing a free mod?
Implying being creator of a popular mod doesn't open a lot of doors.
I like how you made notes and checked them without actually reading the whole comment. You're an observant one.
I like how you replied without actually addressing what I said, nor emphasizing what it is I "missed". Seems kind of pointless, no?
Read the comment and you'd understand. But if you just want to stay ignorant while you jump to your conclusions, that's your prerogative.
Not my job to make your argument for you. I made my response based on what you said. If you want to reword or emphasize something relevant go ahead. Otherwise it just sounds like "No, you, um totally misunderstood me! Ya, that's it! I'm not going to tell you how though, just keep re-reading it until you agree with me!"
You straight up didn't read a large part, buddy.
I did. You clearly didn't understand. Read my posts again.
This is all you failing to understand something very simple.
It's the official trailer for the mod, that's all it means.
No, I understood it fine as soon as I found out it was a fan-made mod.
I never heard of this project before and had no idea it was a mod when I clicked on the video that says both 'Portal' and 'official' in the title and on the thumbnail.
If you need context first then it's misleading. The context of "fan mod" is not explicit from an outside perspective.
The fact that this thread has more up votes on the "remove the official from official trailer" posts baffles me. The first line of the description says it's a mod.
Because the title and thumbnail both say 'official' and to someone who has not heard of this before would reasonably assume it's an official addition to Portal made by Valve. Not until after you click on the video are you able to learn it's not actually official.
You are led to click on the video thinking it's something it is not.
That is the epitome of misleading.
Again, it's the official trailer for Portal: Revolution. I'm really not sure what's confusing about this.
Again, using the word 'official' with 'Portal' implies that Valve made it.
Do people just magically know that Valve had nothing to do with it because of the "Revolution" or any other factor?
The title and thumbnail is quite clear that it's the trailer that's official. Nowhere does it says it's a Portal from Valve. Even more there is no reason for such assumption: Valve does not hold copyrights or ownership over the world "portal" on the dictionary.
What we are seeing here is a failure to follow elementary school education.
Since you mention education, let me school you on the fact that Valve does in fact own the trademark for 'Portal'
You say 'there is no reason for such assumption' even though the assumption is built right into title of 'Portal'. The person reading it is already 'assuming' this is in reference to the Portal series made by Valve. If 'there is no reason for such assumption' then why else would anyone assume it has anything to do with the Portal games? Hell, why would anyone assume it's a video game at all?
It's obvious that the trailer is about the Portal series and if you are unaware of anything about the fan mod there is no way for anyone to be able to guess that the video is not about an official new addition to the Portal series. Particularly considering Valve just released an update to Half-Life 1.
How pathetic that you can't just have a reasonable discussion and instead resort to flinging insults like a monkey flinging their own shit. Grow up, kiddo.
Trademark is not ownership of the word. Anyone and everyone can use the word "Portal" to speak about the game, its mods, its lore, fan content, likes and subscribes, etc.
The video was originally titled in the already common pattern across all industries in the media: "Work title: Work subtitle - Official Announcement". It's honestly not hard to parse, and it does not constitute in itself any judgment on whether it's Valve's Portal or the Portal of anyone else who can and is allowed to use the name (think eg.: I write my college thesis and announce it as "Portal: Why the Game is Good - Official Announcement").
I do be fair and mention I come from the Pokémon fandom, where (until the series went into Yearly Crunch) the amount of fan content more than 7x-ed the amount of "official media" so one learns to parse announcements and titles faster. I guess I'm trained by a different internet than yours. However I don't get why you think I'm somehow "flinging insults", but I guess that just strengthens my point that elementary education should be revisited.
I changed it, thanks
Thank you