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Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

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Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#71

Post by palish »

huckfinnaafb wrote: post #70
palish wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not the author, but he's "the face of Dota" at this point. (Well, he's "the person of Dota", at least. Mr. Ismail is far too reclusive to ever show his face.) Unfortunately, it pains me to say this, but this is the truth: If you tried to commercially release your own DOTA, and if you'd copied skills/heroes/items from the original game, Valve, or rather Ismail, would sic lawyers on you immediately. I know this be…

Valve may have creative rights on the details, but I'd be surprised if they could convince a judge that they own the rights to a whole genre of gaming. Especially when there's already a plethora of popular games already under it.

True, however, the details are DOTA. League of Legends isn't DOTA at all, for example.

It's hard to explain. You could only really understand if you'd played the game. "DOTA" roughly means "A highly/specifically competitive game, wherein that game also includes specific heroes and items which competitive players have spent years practicing with and the community in general have come to expect". For example both DOTA and HoN have an item which grants you 10 seconds of magic immunity on use, and can't be used again for more than 1 minute. So if your game doesn't, then it's probably not "a DOTA".

HoN and DOTA both share about ~75% of the "details" (and almost 100% of the details that matter) so it's very much "a DOTA". Whereas League of Legends shares maybe 5%.

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#72

Post by gobongo »

ConstantineXVI wrote: post #54
eggbrain wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No need, I'd wager Carmack and friends are plenty good at their own game.

Having played against some id software people back in the Quake 2 and q3demo days, they were far less good at the games than one might naively expect, at least when compared to hardcore gamers.

Knowing the internals of the game and the map designs is no substitute for playing the game for hundreds of hours against other top competitors.

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#73

Post by rquantz »

knowtheory wrote: post #2

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.

I think this idea is funny, but a future where legal disputes are settled by whoever is a better gamer/swordsman/chess player is moving back toward feudalism. Ideally, the winner of the legal dispute should have something to do with the merits of the case. I realize that there are weights on the scales of justice that are heavier for the one who has more money, but if it comes down to might-makes-right, the little guy really doesn't stand a chance.

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#74

Post by aserra69 »

DNeb wrote: post #61
angrycoder wrote: post #51

It would seem Bethesda fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "Never go against a Swede when trademark is on the line"!

Love the Princess Bride reference! I even read this in that character's voice (what was his name?)

Vizzini (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/) - played by Wallace Shawn (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001728/)

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#76

Post by Cushman »

jeremyarussell wrote: post #37
lmkg wrote: post #28

This is not without precedent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_airlines#.22Just_Plan... Southwest Airlines was sued by Stevens Aviation over their use of the phrase "Just Plane Smart" in their advertisements. Herb Kelleher, CEO of Southwest, offered to settle the dispute by arm-wrestling the CEO of Stevens. He lost the match, but got rights to the phrase anyways, and both companies got a lot of good publicity…

You get a plus for that one. I always like when people provide evidence to back stuff up. To me though, how can someone trademark or copyright a single established word in any language, it just seems ridiculous really. PS: I hope Bethesda takes him up on the offer.

How do you feel about "Apple"?

Re: Hey, Bethesda Let’s settle this

#77

Post by Cushman »

huckfinnaafb wrote: post #42
knowtheory wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, okay, that's true (but not my primary point, since i've not read/seen Game of Thrones). My point was that Bethesda is under no obligation to do this, and it's not clear to me that this would have legal binding. So in that sense they'd be accepting based on Notch's intentions (honorable or not), and I presume that Mojang would only agree based on their honorable intentions. There are of course many ways to wease…

I'm not sure why a legally counselled written contract wouldn't be considered legally binding.

That a contract has been drafted and signed, even in good faith, is only half the battle. It must also be enforced. The court can simply ignore some or all of a contract which is obviously unfair or exploitative to either party. Centuries of legislation and case law go into determining what sorts of clauses are, in fact, enforceable.

This is why you need a lawyer to draft a contract, and cannot just write whatever on a piece of paper and sign it. Even lawyers overreach, however; it's part of their job.

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