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Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

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Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#11
post #5

Does that count as legally defending your trademark on Bethesda's part? And if Bethesda is right in that "Scrolls" is too similar to "The Elder Scrolls", as to cause confusion in the market place, how would a game of Quake rectify that?

In ancient Mesopotamia (according to my grade 10 ancient history class a long time ago), when one man accused another of a crime, the accused would be thrown into the Euphrates river. If the man died, then the gods decided he was guilty. If the man survived, then he was falsely accused, and the accused gained possession of the accuser's wife.

I believe the point of a duel in this context, though, is simply to avoid an elongated legal process, arguing something so ridiculous and trivial. Notch just wants to keep developing.

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#14
post #8

I have no clue who Bethesda is, but if they took him up on the offer it would be great PR in the eyes of gaming(?) consumers. It would show they're cool and don't take themselves too seriously. They'd certainly win cool points from me. Do it, Bethesda.

Bethesda being the company responsible for the Elder Scrolls (Morrowind, Oblivion and now Skyrim, amongst others), and for Fallout3 and Fallout: New Vegas.

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#15
post #8

I have no clue who Bethesda is, but if they took him up on the offer it would be great PR in the eyes of gaming(?) consumers. It would show they're cool and don't take themselves too seriously. They'd certainly win cool points from me. Do it, Bethesda.

Right. But, Bethesda already have a stellar reputation in the gaming community, their "The Elder Scrolls" series is many many orders of magnitude more well known than Mojang's upcoming game "Scrolls". The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the most anticipated games this year.

Mojang and Notch have far far more to gain from this than Bethesda do.

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#16
post #5

Does that count as legally defending your trademark on Bethesda's part? And if Bethesda is right in that "Scrolls" is too similar to "The Elder Scrolls", as to cause confusion in the market place, how would a game of Quake rectify that?

In ancient Mesopotamia (according to my grade 10 ancient history class a long time ago), when one man accused another of a crime, the accused would be thrown into the Euphrates river. If the man died, then the gods decided he was guilty. If the man survived, then he was falsely accused, and the accused gained possession of the accuser's wife. I believe the point of a duel in this context, though, is simply to avoid a…

Not exactly; I mean, sure, he clearly doesn't care a massive amount, but if his only aim was to keep developing then he could always just give in and change the name without trying to get this PR out of it.

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#17

I love this idea, and in a society that prided itself on honor, Bethesda would take him up on it. Unfortunately the law does not promote honorable behavior.

Remember, in Game of Thrones, that Bronn only became Tyrion's champion for the money, not any sense of honor.

What if Bethesda finds it easier to hire 3 top Quake 3 players for 1k each to fight Notch and friends? They might find it easier than going through the lawsuit.

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#19
I don't know anyone who plays The Elder Scrolls but I could see their fanbase calling it "Scrolls" for short. If not for trademark, they could just be trying to protect SERPs:

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&q=scrolls&tbs=... (query: scrolls)

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&q=scrolls+game&#38... (query: scrolls game)

You can clearly see that "scrolls" pulls up mostly pages about The Elder Scrolls. (You have to ignore the pages about the lawsuit.) Then again, Notch called his previous game Minecraft, which certainly makes you think of Warcraft and Starcraft. Sounds like this is just his shtick.

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#20
post #15
post #8

I have no clue who Bethesda is, but if they took him up on the offer it would be great PR in the eyes of gaming(?) consumers. It would show they're cool and don't take themselves too seriously. They'd certainly win cool points from me. Do it, Bethesda.

Right. But, Bethesda already have a stellar reputation in the gaming community, their "The Elder Scrolls" series is many many orders of magnitude more well known than Mojang's upcoming game "Scrolls". The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the most anticipated games this year. Mojang and Notch have far far more to gain from this than Bethesda do.

Thanks for this explanation. I've vaguely heard of Bethesda, but for some reason, it was attached to the old GEOS GUI for DOS, in my head.

I hadn't head of Elder Scrolls before. I'm a GTA/Battlefield/Minecraft junky, but thats about it for games.

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