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Blizzard Going After WoW Related iPhone Apps
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sun May 03, 2009 11:31 AM
from the anything-you-can-app-we-can-app-better-in-a-few-years dept.
from the anything-you-can-app-we-can-app-better-in-a-few-years dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Apparently Blizzard is going after developers making iPhone apps for World of Warcraft (free and otherwise) by giving them cease-and-desist orders. As Mike Schramm says 'Blizzard may be planning to do more with the iPhone,' but 'It would be a real shame if Blizzard legal was simply going after fans who have invested a lot of time and effort into these apps even when there's no clear reason for them to do so.'"
It's interesting that they're doing so around the same time a video for a (rumored, alleged, unconfirmed — take your pick) iPhone client for World of Warcraft has been floating around.
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Submission: Blizzard attacking iPhone devs. by Anonymous Coward
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Dear Blizzard... (Score:1)
Re:Dear Blizzard... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? Sorry to be blunt, but why?
Starcraft II, or any game, would be a risk. A tiny risk, granted, because it will be a seller, no doubt. But why should they shift the focus off something that is simply and plainly a cash cow.
Blizzard is, after all, a profit oriented organisation. They will do what makes them cash. I know, they are held in a better esteem than Sony or EA, but at the end of the day, they're in for the same reason these others are: Money.
Parent
Milking WoW for all it's worth. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
It's normal for Blizzard, though (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, you seem to forget that this is actually normal for Blizzard. They'll tweak the game until they consider it to be right, and that sometimes means 2 years past the planned release date.
I'm not even saying this as a bad thing. In the end, that's their main secret sauce. They're the guys who would agree with you that balancing the races and the game mechanics isn't just details, it's the game. Most others would (be bullied by the publisher to) shove it out the door now, and maybe patch it later.
I mean, think about it. What did WoW have that, say, EQ2 didn't have, as both launched in the same year? I can't think of anything major that Blizzard invented, other than the "rested xp" bar, and we could debate all evening if that counts as "major". Blizzard simply took the time to polish the turd, so to speak, and it paid off.
What set their RTS apart, since you mention Starcraft II? Make no mistake, Starcraft came out in an age where there were about as many "me too" RTS produced by everyone and their grandma, as there were "me too" FPS. There was everything out there, from fantasy to SF to historical. Again, it seems to me like all Blizzard did was actually give it a good long tweak and polish before it got released.
So I wouldn't be praying for them to do a rush job this time. If they feel that it still needs more tweaking, so be it.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Would you prefer if they shoved it out the door as soon as the killer bugs are out and the game is more or less stable and playable, with no semblance of anything that could be remotely considered balance, so everyone plays just ONE side and uses ONE kind of units because they represent the I-win button?
Because that's the alternative. You will not see studios go silent and mull over games for years, then release a new oh-so-wonderful gem of computer game art. This just does not happen. Any studio that tried
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There are two things I can think of. First, Blizzard can clearly make a lot of profit from Starcraft II, probably with a better profit margin than the industry average. If they can't afford the man-power, they can can afford to hire more people and still make an above-average profit.
Second, the value of the brand will begin decreasing at some point, at least in the US. Starcraft came out ten years ago, and many of its original fans are now in their 30s and won't have time for new games. Blizzard may be losi
Re: (Score:2)
No, they'll probably think it's a starfaring expansion for World of Warcraft and be pretty pissed. :)
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That's only for trademarks [wikipedia.org].
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So it's a professional sport in Korea, and that means ... what exactly for Blizzard?
Do you think that ... whatever company makes footballs could exist only on the ones sold for NFL games? Maybe a bad example since those balls will probably cost more than the eggs you can buy in your local sports store, but those "pro gamers" from Korea do not pay a single cent more for the game.
Re:Dear Blizzard... (Score:4, Insightful)
And before anyone claims that they should funnel developers from WoW to SC2, you're on Slashdot. That means you should know that faster development isn't a matter of shoving more developers into a meat grinder of code.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
...getting distracted with flame wars.
RIP Tseric [wowwiki.com]
Re: (Score:2)
The fscking game has was announce over two years ago.
And I'd be happy if they took 2 more years on it if they felt they needed to. You know why? Because I want it to be good enough that I'm still playing it in 2020, just like the original Starcraft was good enough that it's still fun to play now.
Re: (Score:2)
Really worth going after? (Score:2)
From Blizzard's point of view, is it really worth going after? If they put out an official iPhone client, a lot of people are going to drop the (at worst) buggy and (at best) unsupported unofficial clients for the latest and greatest Blizzard one. It's worth more to them to keep their customers happy then to be The Source for an iPhone ap that they'll like;y not even break even on developing and maintaining (since clients themselves are usually, what, free?), unless they plan on charging an arm and a leg
Re: (Score:2)
Nominative use; proceed and permit (Score:2)
Read about trademark laws.
Read about nominative use [wikipedia.org]. If you have developed a product or service Y that is compatible with another company's product or service X, it's OK to say Y is compatible with X as long as you don't imply that the maker of X endorses Y.
In order to maintain their rights on the WoW & Warcraft trademarks, they have to enforce it. That generally leads to Cease & Desist letters.
Not always; it could be a proceed and permit letter [darrenbarefoot.com].
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
When the title is "Warcraft Arena Calculator"
This implies that the maker endorses it.
It doesn't say "Arena Calculator", with "Warcraft compatible" in the description.
It's using the trademark as if it was a Blizzard Warcraft product, and this will definitely cause confusion.
Blizzard has to defend their mark, or Warcraft might eventually get declared a generic name.
Cease and desist doing what? (Score:4, Insightful)
When the title is "Warcraft Arena Calculator"
This implies that the maker endorses it.
In which case, the proper response is "cease and desist using our trademark in a confusing manner", not "cease and desist developing your product under any name".
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunately, the places where the cease and desist letters are posted all seem to be down. IANAL, but if they're going after the trademark, then that would be defensible. If they go after an app called "Mulana's Rating Calculator" (or whatever), then I have no freaking clue what interest or grounds they'd have to enforce it. Copyright on derivative works? Sounds like a legally fuzzy area.
Past experiences with WoWarmory.com (Score:1)
Great, Something Else Drivers Have To Worry About (Score:2, Funny)
40-Year Old Virgin: "But officer!! I was two hits from leveling up my Wizard and I didn't have time to stop for the light!!!"
And Why.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Is the Apple silo so vaulted for the iphone? Isn't this what the Android model can help avoid? Sure, you won't get the program in the marketplace, but you sure can host it in another country where the C&D doesn't mean much and keep on innovating. Umm... Unless Blizzard forgot, these are people who are making free publicity and advertising for their pay application. Wouldn't you want to "integrate" the app into someone's life to ensure that when the time comes to cut the budget in the household, that
OK so... (Score:3, Interesting)
Say I write an app that does not use or distrubute any Blizzard content, nor does it use their API. The app does not use "Warcraft" in the name. It might store, calculate or reproduce information related to Wow that I have originated or collected solely from non-Blizzard sources that have already OK'd my use of it.
I cannot see how Blizzard can have any legal case to stop me selling my app.
That would be like McDonalds having a legal right to prevent me from selling my own original hamburger recipe, even though I have never worked for, or signed anything with, McDonalds.
Re: (Score:2)
Where did those "non-Blizzard sources" get their data?
If the data is about one's character(s), then the data is directly related to and covered by agreements with Blizzard. Would you like to bet that all third party sources for in-game information have an agreement with Blizzard stating that Blizzard
Re: (Score:2)
What happens if the person that wrote the app never installed wow or even played wow? Admittedly unlikely but that would mean they could not have accepted or even saw a licencing agreement, as its only a click-through when you install/play.
Actually I thought that the whole click-through EULA thing had already been legally undermined years ago.
Re: (Score:2)
That is irrelevant. The will also be licenses for the data used by the websites the application accesses. The idea is that Blizzard controls access and distribution of the data that makes up the game.
I suggested looking at the game EULA as it will have a lot of the same restriction on distribution of data.
Re: (Score:2)
If your app has information (e.g. stats etc) about a "giant battleaxe of doom" (or whatever), no matter where YOU got it from, ultimately the source of the info has to be from the game itself.
The Day Blizzard Dies... (Score:2)
Blizzard does not have a clue (Score:4, Insightful)
Most of their players are gold farmers? (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense. There's a small base of legitimate players paying the salaries of millions of gold farmers.
Let's guess 30 cents an hour per worker (just a guess), and the account is used 24 hours a day in shifts, so... $7.20 in wages per day. I'll assume by "most", that you meant 75% of the players are gold farmers, and b
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Blizzard does not have a clue about customer relations.
Their number of subscribers and customers would lead me to believe otherwise.
There are plenty of websites out there that have all the information you could ever want about WoW, and then some. Besides, Blizzard doesn't need to outsource development of secondary apps to amateur developers, because they have extremely talented developers in house that can do a much better job. Also, you completely ignore the fact that Blizzard provides a scripting language for users to completely customize their GUI (too bad
And we have a winner... (Score:2)
The first person that manages to multi-box 5 iPhones running Shamans through arenas wins at WoW.
Sad, too bad (Score:2)
I find it really sad, I would have liked to have tried glidder, it would have made my life simpler, but now I can't even get an Iphone app that at least let's me know when my AH item has been sold...or when I should log on, before I lose that email someone sent me a while back....sheesh.
Re: (Score:1)
2007? WoW has twice as many subscribers as it did at the start of 2007.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Does it matter? I thought all Chinese players already moved to EU/US servers to gold farm.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Hi. What's your hobby? It sounds like a fucking waste of time to me though, just a preemptive FYI. (No, I don't play WoW, I quit, but I don't use my old WoW time being productive, I entertain myself with other also useless things).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Before I quit I was playing almost exclusively for mount collection... Then they took two reward mounts out with the last patch so I quit. :-/
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
My favorite e-drama was with Nihilum/SK-Gaming:
http://serbandsteel.dingblog.com/?loadblog=524&cm= [dingblog.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not actually true, they did this to the very first app that came out (it was just a simple app for fetching character info off the armory) and it was free -- that was some time ago. I remember the app's author posted that he was asked by Blizzard to remove the app (not sure if they actually used a C&D letter) and he complied.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps not surprising given the size of the company now, but Blizzard's legal team is getting as inconsistent and stupid as Microsoft's.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, as someone pointed out below, it may be more to do with the fact that the app actually (I believe) had the name 'Warcraft' in the title, which is a clear copyright issue. Blizzard's alw
Re:Blizzard is just another business like NFL or N (Score:2, Insightful)
IP is still a blanket evil with the small exception of company names and logos (a la trademark).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
And the real solution to this is to make different server settings for different communities.
What? There are people who enjoy the idea of botting? Let them run bots of Gnomergan. What? There are people who hate all mods? Okay, no mods on Onyxia. What? There are people who want death to be permanent? Okay, death kills you for good on Deadmines.
Tada.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Because it's a frickin' blizzard!
What's next, "why is the sun so hot?"