I understand they’re trying to protect their IP, but surely that doesn’t track very well when its being used within their game, under their rules – sure, fansites might be made, but unless money comes into the picture, I still struggle to see the problem truthfully. Blizzard aren’t even close to consistent on their rules for this stuff, either.
Plus, if disclaimers are put in place that they aren’t the right holders for the name and imagery, shouldn’t that be adequate? It seems to be in other veins of media.
In the corporate poisoned mind, free exchange is uncommodified and dangerous. If customers are using an iconic but not strictly copyrighted label, the risk exists that the design, name and general image takes off independently.
That’s how DotA and LoL came into being and that sort of creativity and innovation must never happen again as it cut into profits.
I don’t know enough about corporate law to really form a solid opinion on this, so I’ll take what you’re saying at face value. It’s a crying shame that they feel the need to inhibit their own users experience because of a potential legal grey area, though. Damn.
I know that is not very pleasant, but well, I think the only way is to Rename your guilds name to something similar, and assume that your guild assosiated with ‘The Scarlet Crusade’. A good example is a guild named Scarlet Scourge.
So if your want to stay as close as possible to the concept, it would be quite reasonable to change your guild’s name towards something like
‘Scarlet Campaign’
or ‘Scarlet Followers’
or ‘Scarlet Union’
or ‘Scarlet League’
or maybe simply just “The Scarlet”
'tis so, and it’s unfortunate. Cynical money grubbing to the point of detrimental, stifling action is the name of the game because the self interest involved isn’t rational and never could be.
That part of it is legally sound, but creatively and expressively bankrupt. We’re all under strict contract not to threaten the bottom line in order to partake in a product. Consume, don’t innovate.
Frankly, I’m sure they’d shut down RP as a whole, were it popular enough to demonstrate players creating new, more compelling material under Blizzard names than the people supposedly hired to do the actual work.
Dorn is Exaviel, he of all people should be pretty aware of this ruling. Doesn’t make it any less of a pity, though, it’s utter nonsense no matter who is afflicted by this arbitrary decision. I’m sure it will be only a matter of times before guilds with names that pertains to lore characters will soon be targeted as well.
Weird take on it, when, as petty as the rule is, it was broken.
It sucks and I am sad that guild and the GM have to go through this, but going full “lol why everyone is downplaying it”, when it is a rather common occurrence and is considered to be rule-breaking - rather weird.
However, normally it isn’t that Blizzard just monitors the guilds and its names - I do not remember a single incident that GM just went full ballistic and forced a name change on a whim. So it must’ve been someone petty, who just mass-reported the guild’s name thus forcing the change, and Blizzard complied because it is a rule.
Heartaches, Heartaches.
My loving you bears only Heartaches…
To reply sincerely though, as sucky as it is to have the guild name changed, what does it actually change? You can still run a guild focused around the Scarlet Crusade without having that as the guild title and it won’t be any less valid.
I can confirm this one, having to name a guild “The Great Wolf” instead of “The White Wolf” presumably because of that same controversy. Thanks America.
Really lame to mock how the guy is upset about a name he’s had for years being changed, can people stop mocking someone being upset about something they was invested in being taken off them? some people are abit more bothered by some things than others, terrible look.
Yes, it is understandable, but at the same time, with all the respect, but it is silly to feel that bad if you, for example, had a character named ‘Illidan’ and devs decided to make you rename it. That is understandable in some sort of way.
On the other hand, players want to join guilds that are already in lore, and from Blizzards side it is kinda a bad move to do it in such a way. For example, they could easily create a NPC guilds, and people who like the idea of it, they could join them (at least on RP servers, but since RP community is a minority, they don’t care that much, and it is reasonable, because we are not their main source of profit, this is not a charity game afterall…), while getting the possibilies to do dailies from that. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, it provokes players to stay solo, and MMORPG is not about solo gameplay. It is about communicating and playing with others. Everything has its own reasons.
Pointless saying with all respect if not going to show respect for said person being abit upset, no point in mocking the guy, kicking him when he’s down, if some think its abit of an over the top reaction thats fair enough, dont really need to mock him though
It was more the melodramatic way of it being phrased. Being a bit miffed or a bit disappoitned would be more of an apt reaction than claiming you were heartbroken.