Also whoever says GW sues often etc. did any of you know any game from Blizzard besides the lost vikings? Every Blizzard game is a collection of stolen ideas, mostly from GW.
Now GW is strugling while Blizzard doesnt know where to put the money (well a lot goes to lawyers sueing private people writing compendiums for WoW etc.)
The warhammer universe is the greatest fantasy and scifi world out there, GW should get much more money to expand that universe.
Blizzard also stole the colour blue and the letter "B". Also what ever happened solomons gold? and the dinosaurs?
You seem to think that Polyjean is lying based on the tone of your post. Warcraft is generally stolen from Warhammer and Starcraft from Warhammer 40k. This is basically common knowledge.
This is the "devil's spinning coin" scenario. As long as the coin remains spinning on its edge (which is best for both parties), both are winners as EA maintains a good fan base and slightly growing community through Curse's efforts and Curse continues to offer a premier location for cybernauts to get their latest info about the game. If the coin stops spinning, heads or tails, they both lose.
The best thing for EA to do here was correct any flaws in the relationship with Curse (and other fansites) and maybe even solidify the fansite as one of their recommended "goto" community sites. Anything else just gives the devil opportunity to watch the coin drop... and laugh.
Man I just lol'ed the entire way through that article!
I work in the home audio industry, and this suit bears a striking resemblance to a company most people know called Monster Cable.
Monster Cable sues anyone and everyone who tries to use the word "Monster" in the name of their business. If you go to monster.com (you know... the job hunting website), scroll down to the bottom of the page. You'll see a link that says "Looking for Monster Cable?" That link was put in place thanks to a legal settlement between monster.com and Monster Cable. They have also sued Monster energy drinks and a few other big brands... but now are focusing on tiny places...
Most recently, Monster Cable sued a small family owned chain of mini-golf courses on the east coast, claiming trademark infringement. How ANYONE could confuse a mini-golf course with audio/video cables is beyond me... I think the case is being settled out of court simply because the mini-golf owners do not have the money to afford a legal battle (which is the outcome of most of Monster Cable's frivolous suits).
Never argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level, then beat you with experience.
The funny thing is people are treating GW like they are as bad as Activision, which in AV's case it's all about the money, whereas with GW it's ALL about the IP.
One misconseption thats common when it comes to Games Workshop is that they like other companies are sitting on a pile of money, it's kinda true in a way but far far from the Mircosoft/Activision/Sony amounts - funny thing is about 2/3 years ago GW was close to going under, so going about saying 'they are the mircosoft/activision of TT gaming', at times we wish it was then they would have made the games themselfs as they would have had the money to throw away at those risks, but again all it's stating is that it's just money grabing which is the core of the misconseption as it's not about money, it's about protecting the IP - thats all they have really, if that got comprimised then the whole busness would go under.
The WA thing is because as people have stated GW are highly protective of the IP with the Blizzard 'ripoff' cases iirc GW tired to get them in court at least 5 times over it but Blizzard had canged it just enough to riggle out of it - WA/Curse are basically not 'playing by the rules' when it comes to GW's 'fansites' they are ment to be NON-PROFIT, and Curse is heavily pushing not only the Curse client but all the premiums the site has to offer plus trying to push themselfs into 'the offical site' status - GW don't just got to court on a wimm like that they've proply attempted to at least talk with the owners since the site appreared lots of times and it's been out a LONG time now so this is the last option to get Curse to 'complay' with GW's rules regrauding 'fansites'.
I'll be the first to agree with most people that WA did help EA and Mythic with WAR - however the last thing you should do is fk with the IP owner say 'Game$ Wor$hop the money grabbers' as much as you want but it's no different if someone made a 'fansite' of any other IP then asked you for money for 'premiums' for it
Good lord, with Games Workshop, it HAS ALWAYS been all about the money. Their business practices have proven that time and again.
In the tabletop gaming world, they are indeed the Microsoft/Activision/EA of that industry. The fact that the industry as a whole involves a lot less money than the computer gaming industry is just a matter of degree. Games Workshop's mentality has been every bit as bad.
Its not that they are using the name, its that they are making a lot of money off of the warhammer name which Games workshop owns. They made 3 million in revenue last year off of Warcraft and Warhammer. I know if I owned a copyright and someone was making that much off of my namebrand then hell yea I would sue. This isnt a case of a big company going after a fansite. Curse is a multi million dollar company who is making money off of the Warhammer namebrand. Curse also promotes itself as a fansite which is misleading. Fansite implies it is a website run by fans and its only intent is to promote the game and not to profit off of said game. Honestly Blizzard could sue them for the same thing if they chose to do so.
Also whoever says GW sues often etc. did any of you know any game from Blizzard besides the lost vikings? Every Blizzard game is a collection of stolen ideas, mostly from GW.
Now GW is strugling while Blizzard doesnt know where to put the money (well a lot goes to lawyers sueing private people writing compendiums for WoW etc.)
The warhammer universe is the greatest fantasy and scifi world out there, GW should get much more money to expand that universe.
I'm gonna hazzard a guess that the folks controlling the Tolkien estate would like to have a few polite legal words with GW concerning the uniqueness and originality of their IP.
Actually Blizzard may have a dog in this fight there has been a persistant rumor that Redpheonix is either working for or compensated by Blizzard.
Today as I sifted through the news related to this (not surprising since I used to be Site Manager at Warhammer Alliance) I came upon this post, linked to me from folks scratching their heads, just as I am now.
I'm unsure of how serious the poster was putting this up, but just in case people might do so mistakenly, that rumor is completely false. I have not been employed nor currently am employed with Blizzard - not when I was running Warhammer Alliance, and not now. As interesting as it might seem that MMO companies employ "wetworks" divisions filled with folks supposedly loyal to another title to use as "dogs in a fight", it's just not true, at least as far as I'm concerned.
As for the suit? If you look in the thread, there's an informative post from the original owner of Warhammer Alliance, Shelby "Garthilk" Cardozo:
As always though, people are free to come up with their own opinions. I just thought I'd register to clear up stuff related to me. No idea how this "persistent rumor" got started at all.
They are such control freaks with their goofy IP. They would have a lawsuit out on anyone that is making money off of their IP without first giving them a pound of flesh.
TBT: A fan-based movie was made about the inquisitors named Damnatus and they blocked it the moment before it was ready to be released.
The amount of ignorance in this thread is amazing but I blame the person who wrote this article by placing a misleading title. It's not GW sueing Warhammer Alliance. It's GW sueing CUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRSSSEEE FFS. Why are people trying to make GW look like baby killers?
I hope you all know that WA is not a fansite anymore. It used to be a year or two ago till curse bought the site from the owner. Now it's a site part of a commercial company who doesn't have a intrest in a making a fan anything site they are just there to make money off over hyped mmo's. Why do you think they don't make / buy sites for other mmos? Because they don't thave money behind them and they know if they go over board that this sueing thing will happen more often.
Please correct the title to.
"Games Workshop is sueing Curse Inc." -_-
and stop making curse look like a poor innocent victim. It sucks that WA is caught in cross fire but the only person to blame for that is Curse.
Good lord, with Games Workshop, it HAS ALWAYS been all about the money. Their business practices have proven that time and again.
In the tabletop gaming world, they are indeed the Microsoft/Activision/EA of that industry. The fact that the industry as a whole involves a lot less money than the computer gaming industry is just a matter of degree. Games Workshop's mentality has been every bit as bad.
Of course its about the money... Have you ever heard of a successful business that lets any potential source of revenue out of their hands? GW is a corporation, they dont need some third party making use of their IP and not paying a dime to them, it only makes sense for them to sue for their own name. I say sue curse for every dime they can.
That site was launched back in 2005, what's the point of suing them now ? I dont see how they can win this, it doesnt make any sense.
In 2005 it was a fansite and as from 2009 it was owned by Curse.com which is a company earning money from a registered trade mark which is Warhammer.
Curse deserves all the flak in their ass because they are the Palpatine of gaming sites.They have done more harm to community gaming site and MMO players than people can't imagine.They want to have control over all the mods for any possible successful MMO.The sheeps will flock to them,the sheeps will love them and the sheeps will give them money.
I don`t support and I won't shed a tear for them.
In the land of Predators,the lion does not fear the jackals...
Also whoever says GW sues often etc. did any of you know any game from Blizzard besides the lost vikings? Every Blizzard game is a collection of stolen ideas, mostly from GW.
Now GW is strugling while Blizzard doesnt know where to put the money (well a lot goes to lawyers sueing private people writing compendiums for WoW etc.)
The warhammer universe is the greatest fantasy and scifi world out there, GW should get much more money to expand that universe.
Blizzard also stole the colour blue and the letter "B". Also what ever happened solomons gold? and the dinosaurs?
lol! some get their fact mixed up!gw is and formost very popular in their own field but they are not and never wanted to be game dev
that being said their franchise is stil one of the top in their field why do you think everybody want to be linked with war
because if they make it to the expectation of the real war reader and table top player etc the whole nine yard!they have very tengible chance of being the next wow big guns !so gw knows this they would be silly letting it go when they are sitting on top of a gold mine at worst right now, and possibility that it transform in a diamond mine! if a game dev does its job proper !
its not like the lore will miss they got stuff to do 10 everquest 1, 16 expension lol!
The argument about the anonymous registration is kinda weak cause Curse will dodge it by saying that they actually registered to Goddady which in turn offered them "protection from spammers"... That's what "domains by proxy" claims to be.
On the next round GW will hit back with the absence of contact information on the website and Curse will dodge once again with what the original owner of WHA said just above, that not only they knew about WHA but had approved on a disclaimer... Then Curse will counterattack with the argument that GW doesn't even have a fansite on their own about the specific IP so how could it considered competition?
I don't know... i am all with GW on this but it looks a tough battle
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
They are only doing this because WAR is dying and running out of money.
Why would GW give two cents on how much WAR makes? They get paid either way....
Mostly because the bulk of posters on this forum have no clue how licensing, etc, works -- or, indeed, any understanding of economics whatsoever. (Reminds me of the mid-1990s, when people on USENET... remember that?... were convinced Wizards of the Coast somehow got a cut of every after-market sale of Magic:The Gathering cards.)
Basically, on this forum, whoever you hate the most is always behind anything bad, and the reason is always because "They're greedy!", even if there's no possible way they could be making money on the deal.
This has, as some of the smarter folks here have correctly noted, nothing whatsoever to do with WAR and how much money it does or doesn't make. It is, however, a classic example of corporate abuse of trademark laws. Frankly, they do not have a case, but it's likely the owners of the warhammeralliance domain don't have the money or time to defend themselves. This is the same tactic which has been used, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, to shut down sites which criticize a corporation, such as "kmartsucks.com" and the like.
Comments
Blizzard also stole the colour blue and the letter "B". Also what ever happened solomons gold? and the dinosaurs?
That site was launched back in 2005, what's the point of suing them now ? I dont see how they can win this, it doesnt make any sense.
You seem to think that Polyjean is lying based on the tone of your post. Warcraft is generally stolen from Warhammer and Starcraft from Warhammer 40k. This is basically common knowledge.
This is the "devil's spinning coin" scenario. As long as the coin remains spinning on its edge (which is best for both parties), both are winners as EA maintains a good fan base and slightly growing community through Curse's efforts and Curse continues to offer a premier location for cybernauts to get their latest info about the game. If the coin stops spinning, heads or tails, they both lose.
The best thing for EA to do here was correct any flaws in the relationship with Curse (and other fansites) and maybe even solidify the fansite as one of their recommended "goto" community sites. Anything else just gives the devil opportunity to watch the coin drop... and laugh.
+1 on the blacklist
/live goes on and i vote whit my wallet
BestSigEver :P
This is bullshit. Warhammer Alliance did nothing but help WAR. If anything they steered thousands of players to this game!
Don't forget the common spelling: Game$ Work$hop.
They pretty much have always been the Microsoft of tabletop gaming..
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
Man I just lol'ed the entire way through that article!
I work in the home audio industry, and this suit bears a striking resemblance to a company most people know called Monster Cable.
Monster Cable sues anyone and everyone who tries to use the word "Monster" in the name of their business. If you go to monster.com (you know... the job hunting website), scroll down to the bottom of the page. You'll see a link that says "Looking for Monster Cable?" That link was put in place thanks to a legal settlement between monster.com and Monster Cable. They have also sued Monster energy drinks and a few other big brands... but now are focusing on tiny places...
Most recently, Monster Cable sued a small family owned chain of mini-golf courses on the east coast, claiming trademark infringement. How ANYONE could confuse a mini-golf course with audio/video cables is beyond me... I think the case is being settled out of court simply because the mini-golf owners do not have the money to afford a legal battle (which is the outcome of most of Monster Cable's frivolous suits).
Never argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level, then beat you with experience.
The funny thing is people are treating GW like they are as bad as Activision, which in AV's case it's all about the money, whereas with GW it's ALL about the IP.
One misconseption thats common when it comes to Games Workshop is that they like other companies are sitting on a pile of money, it's kinda true in a way but far far from the Mircosoft/Activision/Sony amounts - funny thing is about 2/3 years ago GW was close to going under, so going about saying 'they are the mircosoft/activision of TT gaming', at times we wish it was then they would have made the games themselfs as they would have had the money to throw away at those risks, but again all it's stating is that it's just money grabing which is the core of the misconseption as it's not about money, it's about protecting the IP - thats all they have really, if that got comprimised then the whole busness would go under.
The WA thing is because as people have stated GW are highly protective of the IP with the Blizzard 'ripoff' cases iirc GW tired to get them in court at least 5 times over it but Blizzard had canged it just enough to riggle out of it - WA/Curse are basically not 'playing by the rules' when it comes to GW's 'fansites' they are ment to be NON-PROFIT, and Curse is heavily pushing not only the Curse client but all the premiums the site has to offer plus trying to push themselfs into 'the offical site' status - GW don't just got to court on a wimm like that they've proply attempted to at least talk with the owners since the site appreared lots of times and it's been out a LONG time now so this is the last option to get Curse to 'complay' with GW's rules regrauding 'fansites'.
I'll be the first to agree with most people that WA did help EA and Mythic with WAR - however the last thing you should do is fk with the IP owner say 'Game$ Wor$hop the money grabbers' as much as you want but it's no different if someone made a 'fansite' of any other IP then asked you for money for 'premiums' for it
Bring on the WARRRRGGHH!
Good lord, with Games Workshop, it HAS ALWAYS been all about the money. Their business practices have proven that time and again.
In the tabletop gaming world, they are indeed the Microsoft/Activision/EA of that industry. The fact that the industry as a whole involves a lot less money than the computer gaming industry is just a matter of degree. Games Workshop's mentality has been every bit as bad.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
Its not that they are using the name, its that they are making a lot of money off of the warhammer name which Games workshop owns. They made 3 million in revenue last year off of Warcraft and Warhammer. I know if I owned a copyright and someone was making that much off of my namebrand then hell yea I would sue. This isnt a case of a big company going after a fansite. Curse is a multi million dollar company who is making money off of the Warhammer namebrand. Curse also promotes itself as a fansite which is misleading. Fansite implies it is a website run by fans and its only intent is to promote the game and not to profit off of said game. Honestly Blizzard could sue them for the same thing if they chose to do so.
For sitation purposes:
(3 million in revenue last year) - http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/22/curse-gaming/
(multi million dollar company ) - http://www.crunchbase.com/company/curse (funding: $11 million)
Warp
I'm gonna hazzard a guess that the folks controlling the Tolkien estate would like to have a few polite legal words with GW concerning the uniqueness and originality of their IP.
Today as I sifted through the news related to this (not surprising since I used to be Site Manager at Warhammer Alliance) I came upon this post, linked to me from folks scratching their heads, just as I am now.
I'm unsure of how serious the poster was putting this up, but just in case people might do so mistakenly, that rumor is completely false. I have not been employed nor currently am employed with Blizzard - not when I was running Warhammer Alliance, and not now. As interesting as it might seem that MMO companies employ "wetworks" divisions filled with folks supposedly loyal to another title to use as "dogs in a fight", it's just not true, at least as far as I'm concerned.
As for the suit? If you look in the thread, there's an informative post from the original owner of Warhammer Alliance, Shelby "Garthilk" Cardozo:
http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4666095&postcount=51
As always though, people are free to come up with their own opinions. I just thought I'd register to clear up stuff related to me. No idea how this "persistent rumor" got started at all.
BOOOOOOOOOOOO
JUST BOO TO GAMES FAGSHOP!
BOOOOOOOOOOOO!
They are such control freaks with their goofy IP. They would have a lawsuit out on anyone that is making money off of their IP without first giving them a pound of flesh.
TBT: A fan-based movie was made about the inquisitors named Damnatus and they blocked it the moment before it was ready to be released.
GW, you are all sorts of fail.
AND YES, I AM YELLING: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The amount of ignorance in this thread is amazing but I blame the person who wrote this article by placing a misleading title. It's not GW sueing Warhammer Alliance. It's GW sueing CUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRSSSEEE FFS. Why are people trying to make GW look like baby killers?
I hope you all know that WA is not a fansite anymore. It used to be a year or two ago till curse bought the site from the owner. Now it's a site part of a commercial company who doesn't have a intrest in a making a fan anything site they are just there to make money off over hyped mmo's. Why do you think they don't make / buy sites for other mmos? Because they don't thave money behind them and they know if they go over board that this sueing thing will happen more often.
Please correct the title to.
"Games Workshop is sueing Curse Inc." -_-
and stop making curse look like a poor innocent victim. It sucks that WA is caught in cross fire but the only person to blame for that is Curse.
Of course its about the money... Have you ever heard of a successful business that lets any potential source of revenue out of their hands? GW is a corporation, they dont need some third party making use of their IP and not paying a dime to them, it only makes sense for them to sue for their own name. I say sue curse for every dime they can.
In 2005 it was a fansite and as from 2009 it was owned by Curse.com which is a company earning money from a registered trade mark which is Warhammer.
Curse deserves all the flak in their ass because they are the Palpatine of gaming sites.They have done more harm to community gaming site and MMO players than people can't imagine.They want to have control over all the mods for any possible successful MMO.The sheeps will flock to them,the sheeps will love them and the sheeps will give them money.
I don`t support and I won't shed a tear for them.
In the land of Predators,the lion does not fear the jackals...
Games Workshop has always been one of the most bass ackwards companies I've ever come across. Their entire mentality is obnoxious.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I agree with fiontar.
I've seen multiple cases of GW doing stuff like this over the last few years.
And what about Scarecrow's brain?
There is none, because ideas cannot be copyrighted. There is no such thing as owning an idea, only a specific implementation of it.
Sound advice.
lol! some get their fact mixed up!gw is and formost very popular in their own field but they are not and never wanted to be game dev
that being said their franchise is stil one of the top in their field why do you think everybody want to be linked with war
because if they make it to the expectation of the real war reader and table top player etc the whole nine yard!they have very tengible chance of being the next wow big guns !so gw knows this they would be silly letting it go when they are sitting on top of a gold mine at worst right now, and possibility that it transform in a diamond mine! if a game dev does its job proper !
its not like the lore will miss they got stuff to do 10 everquest 1, 16 expension lol!
Why would GW give two cents on how much WAR makes? They get paid either way....
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
The argument about the anonymous registration is kinda weak cause Curse will dodge it by saying that they actually registered to Goddady which in turn offered them "protection from spammers"... That's what "domains by proxy" claims to be.
On the next round GW will hit back with the absence of contact information on the website and Curse will dodge once again with what the original owner of WHA said just above, that not only they knew about WHA but had approved on a disclaimer... Then Curse will counterattack with the argument that GW doesn't even have a fansite on their own about the specific IP so how could it considered competition?
I don't know... i am all with GW on this but it looks a tough battle
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
Mostly because the bulk of posters on this forum have no clue how licensing, etc, works -- or, indeed, any understanding of economics whatsoever. (Reminds me of the mid-1990s, when people on USENET... remember that?... were convinced Wizards of the Coast somehow got a cut of every after-market sale of Magic:The Gathering cards.)
Basically, on this forum, whoever you hate the most is always behind anything bad, and the reason is always because "They're greedy!", even if there's no possible way they could be making money on the deal.
This has, as some of the smarter folks here have correctly noted, nothing whatsoever to do with WAR and how much money it does or doesn't make. It is, however, a classic example of corporate abuse of trademark laws. Frankly, they do not have a case, but it's likely the owners of the warhammeralliance domain don't have the money or time to defend themselves. This is the same tactic which has been used, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, to shut down sites which criticize a corporation, such as "kmartsucks.com" and the like.