Blizzard plays nice with World of StarCraft modder

@(Unverified)
Citation needed. Where is there any back peddle here?

@KvanCetre
Not really. The video was taken down, but I don't think it was ever confirmed if the mod author was told to stop development.

@KvanCetre They removed this guys youtube video of the alpha for "cited as copyright and intellectual property violations." citation: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01/19/world-of-starcraft-modders-clash-with-activision-blizzard/

so they are backpedaling for their screw up(eg. removing the video) and trying to suck up to him because Riot games is talking with him. citation: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01/20/starcraft-mmo-modder-wins-the-internet-with-a-job-offer-from-rio/

That being said, in my opinion, this may be the start of the slippery slippery slope of the downfall of the Blizzard empire.

@mttgamer

You obviously missed the part where the article stated that

"The company went on to explain that issuing a take-down order for the offending videos is part of its standard procedure when dealing with fan mods and possible copyright infringement"

Therefore, there is no slope, and it's certainly not slippery. Standard procedure is standard procedure.

@mttgamer
You do understand how big companies work, right? You temporarily ask a video to be removed, have meetings to decide what is in the companys best interest, then act accordingly.
Are you seriously suggesting blizzard will fall because they removed a video of one mod, reviewed it, then invited the guy out to meet the team all within 48 hours?
Most modders arent even lucky enough to get noticed when they actually release something final.

@(Unverified) On his site he said that Acti-blizzard sent the him a cease and desist order - by messenger. That's a bit more than pulling down a video, they are trying to save face public relations wise and now that they know he's working for another company, I think legally he wont be able to continue his work if he continues with Riot Games and now Acti-blizz is probably trying to salvage his work.

@Zerogrifter

He's not actually working for Riot Games, they just expressed interest in hiring him, and I NEVER saw anything about a cease and desist order so I suspect you don't have your facts straight overall on this.

@KvanCetre

I said it MAY be....I'm just not much of a fan of the blizzard empire anymore :/

@Barinthos

Shoot now, ask later is not good methodology in my book.

Just my opinions thats all they are.

@Eamil
Even if there was a cease-and-desist letter delivered, what was the actual text of said letter? I strongly suspect that should it be published it would be discovered that Blizzard only demanded removal of the video from YouTube and did not demand that he stop work on the mod.

But this is the internet. Jumping to conclusions without getting all the facts is standard operating procedure. So go ahead and hate on Blizzard; your mind is already made up anyway.

@KvanCetre Standard procedure or not, it's implied by the take down notice that development should cease. You said yourself that most modders are lucky to even be noticed by the large studios. Remember a little mod called Counter-Strike? Valve ended up buying the rights to it and exploited it (remember - exploit isn't necessarily a bad word), giving us what we have today.

It's interesting to note that until Riot Games extended this public offer of an opportunity that ActiBlizz had no public comment on the matter. Once the flames of "teh internets" began to burn, Riot jumps on this matter and now, saving face, ActiBlizz extends a slimy hand of friendship.

This is pure speculation, but I'd expect that the modding tools used have some clause indicating that anything created is the property of ActiBlizz, etc, etc. So, they'll play nice, take what he's made and exploit it. At least Riot is willing to give him a shot.

@TxRedcoat "It's interesting to note that until Riot Games extended this public offer of an opportunity that ActiBlizz had no public comment on the matter. Once the flames of "teh internets" began to burn, Riot jumps on this matter and now, saving face, ActiBlizz extends a slimy hand of friendship."

What's actually notable is that those two things most likely have no correlation because they happened at roughly the same time. We're just getting the news late. The comment expressing interest in hiring the mod author went up yesterday (hard to tell exactly when because the site uses a vague "1 day ago" timestamp). The talks between Blizzard and the mod author were posted on the World of Starcraft forum yesterday morning at 10 EST, having probably happened earlier that morning or the day before.

@TxRedcoat
Counterstrike, day of defeat, team fortress... I can name a few. There are thousands of mods for games and you'd be hard pressed to name a dozen that got recognition from the original game developers. Those were all compete mods, this is a mod still early in development.

And are you seriously suggesting a company like blizzard should operate the same as riot? Blizzard has the ability to hire the absolute best in the business, riot is an indie developer known only for its work on a decent free to play game. Is it really responsible for blizzard to hire a guy based on a partially finished mod? I'd hire the guy from minecraft first.

@TxRedcoat

actaully this is pretty standard for Blizzard, they've ALWAYS supported comunity develpment within thier offered editor tools.
HOWEVER, posting video of their property on youtube "COULD" be construed as copyright infringement, however so could anyone posting video of "how to beat level X" or a how any video of a multiplayer match etc etc. Since its thier property to begin with.

@phrightener

well, i would link you the video, but uh ...apparently only blizzard is allowed to see it ..or somthing