The thing of it is that it has to fall under fair use. If you record yourself talking while you're playing the game, you can upload gaming commentary videos on your channel, but the most important thing about the video is the commentary to match with the video. For instance, don't do a gc video and talk about some hit song that was on the radio the other day. Even though you're talking, it doesn't consider it as fair use because it has nothing to do with the game. Now if you was to talk about how to beat something in the game, talk about how you got beat in the game, or you talked about news, history, and other stuff about that particular game in general, that would be acceptable. Now there are times when you can briefly talk about other things, like for example, giving someone a shoutout or talking about how are are, but talk about it in such a way that can be related to the video in someway. Some people say that it is wrong to do videos like this, but at the end of the day, there are so many gc videos out there, and it's making the companies of the game and YouTube more money, and it helps out the game player who's watching the video beat a few levels and learn something new about it. Two things that are most important about your gc videos is #1, the commentary, and #2, talking in relation to the game about criticism, review, news reporting, research, or teachings that you have about that game that you're playing.
The following link has helped me a lot into deciding what counts as fair use: http://socialtimes.com/fair-use-youtube_b61891
But, be aware that if the people who were involved in making or producing the game want you to take it off of your channel, or if YouTube wants you to take it down, fair use will only take you so far. My advice to you is that if they ask you to take it down, just do it. But I don't think that that will happen. This is just a scenario that you should think about in case it actually happens.
I hope this helps you. =)
P.S. If you do your gc videos this way, then yes you can monetize them. And joining a network is not a bad idea... I'd go with TGN or SocialBlade (AKA MakerStudios).
Falzone says that this is somewhat of a gray area,
Short or long, it can still be claimed as fair use, whether it makes it right or not. The reason people get in trouble for it is because it's not original enough or it's too popular, which if it's too popular and/or it makes more money than the original, then they will jump on that and try to have it taken down simply because it's getting too much fame. The key thing into fair use is being original, which I will admit can be a bit hypocritical at times. When you claim something as fair use, it needs to be done in your style. This is why we have fair use. One of the main points of fair use is to comment on something popular by making your version of it or to show tribute or likings to whatever you're claiming fair use on. No where does it say how long it has be, but I do agree that some people take it to the extreme sometimes. The reason they don't specify how long it has to be is because some things are shorter than others, while some things may be longer than others. For example, doing a parody of a song could take 4 minutes, while doing a parody of a viral video could be 8 minutes. Commercial or non-commercial, anything is up for fair use. That's like telling Saturday Night Live that they can't do a certain sketch because it relates to an episode of "Star Trek". Which really, fair use is only used if it's challenged in the court of law. People like Toby Turner get away with gaming commentary videos because of fair use, disregarding the question of whether they're getting paid to do it or whether they've gotten permission from the creators and producers of it to do it. What it comes down to is that if you're doing videos like this, it needs to show the people how creative or how smart you are, depending on how you present it. This is how people also get away with making Christmas music. I explained fair use because if you don't know the full effect of fair use, then you won't know if you can make money from something that you claim is fair use or not. You need to know your boundaries, which again is why we have fair use and which is why I left that link for everyone to go to. And you need to claim it as fair use if you're going to post gaming commentary videos. Making money from something that is claimed as fair use doesn't play as a factor into fair use. Deciding what claims as fair use is how you're using it and if it is taking too much away from the original. And the people behind the game has every right to step in and tell you what is too much. =)People try to stretch fair use way beyond its definition and then wonder why they get in trouble. Fair use also says non commercial so he can't monetize which was his question. He can load them up no problem but he can't make money off em. If you noticed he wanted to monetize so the answer is still no even with fair use Remember this is YOUTUBES guidelines and they have the last word. They say fair use means no ads on your videos!
There's no reason why you wouldn't - it's making money for the company that made the game, published the game, for advertisers, for YouTube, and YouTubers; and it doesn't harm anyone! It would be retarded not to let people monetize gameplay + commentary.
I don`t wanna ruin your Day but the List of Developer/Publisher that doesn`t see it that Way is probably bigger then you might Imagine.