A video on The Escapist has a rant from Jim Sterling about the conditions WBIE's PR firm forced on "YouTubers" who requested advance review copies of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. The terms he outlines show an undue effort at controlling the message for the new release. The clip is about seven minutes of creative compound swearing and froth worthy of anyone's time, but in the interest of expedience, we can turn to a summary on MCV:

Stipulations for access to pre-release PC code for the game allegedly stated that YouTubers must:

• Maximise awareness for the game during the ‘week of vengeance’
• Persuade viewers to purchase game
• Not show bugs or glitches that may exist
• Discuss the story
• Include discussion of the Nemesis system – “this really should take up the bulk of the focus, such as how different the orcs are, how vivid their personalises are” etc.

Also stipulated was that standard FCC disclosure should be contained within the body of the description after the links and call to action (placing it after ‘show more’ button)

“Videos will have a strong verbal call to action, a clickable link in the description box for the viewer to go to the game’s website to learn about the game to learn how to register and play the game,” the agreement added. “Twitch stream videos will have five calls to action. Videos will be of sufficient length to feature gameplay and build excitement.

“Videos will promote positive sentiment about the game”

Reviewers were also told that they must “not mention LOTR or Hobbit movies, characters or books” and, most worryingly of all, that “the company has final approval on the YouTube video at least 48 hours before any video goes live”.

Sterling also says that Warner allowed sponsored Mordor videos to go up but content ID’d videos from those not signed up to the agreement.