Legal

Do you have a few million on you and a desire to preserve some gaming history? Then pick up the phone and call Rhode Island, as the state is getting ready to sell 38 Studios' assets, including its games.

The state is looking to recoup some of it $130 million debt that it fell into once 38 Studios went belly-up. One of Rhode Island's lawyers says there "is interest" in the studio's assets, including concept art, design documents, and computer software. The sale of 38 Studios' IP includes the Amalur franchise, which encompassed the Project Copernicus MMO.

The state is also set to begin a lawsuit this week against former 38 Studios execs, including founder Curt Schilling. The suit claims that the executives did not inform the state when they knew that the studio would have a hard time keeping afloat financially. Schilling has asked the judge to dismiss the suit.

A while ago, Project Tank popped up on our radar for two reasons. First of all, it was a browser-based multiplayer tank-based combat simulator. Second, it bore a lot of similarities to the existing multiplayer tank-based combat simulator World of Tanks, enough that Wargaming.net brought out the copyright lawyers. A copyright infringement suit was filed today by Wargaming.net, claiming that Project Tank directly copies many elements of World of Tanks and violates some existing patents.

Gamebox has responded to these claims on the official site for the game, claiming that Wargaming.net has engaged in "underhanded" actions to try to shut down the project. This marks the end of the closed beta for Project Tank, which is promising open beta in approximately a month. You can take a look at the side-by-side comparison from before and draw your own conclusions about whether Project Tank is being unfairly accused or entirely fairly accused.

It's time for a grab bag edition of Ask Massively! A reader named Nicholas is up first:

I was wondering if you could help me remember a game studio that was developing a new Korean action- MMORPG game engine (and it wasn't Bless, Blade and Soul, or ArcheAge). In the tech demo, no environment was being shown; it focused on the combat aspect of the engine. All the combat took place against a white background, and it was combo-based and reactive to hits. I remember a slow motion scene with an NPC being punched in the face and the face distorting. At the time, there were no announced games using the engine; the video was just showing what tech the game studio had developed. If it helps any, I remember the comments saying that the engine was just going to be vaporware.

I think we might! Massively's Lis pegged it as NetEase's Dragon Sword trailer. +1 to Lis.

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Almost two years ago, Star Wars Galaxies players were rocked to their core by the news that their virtual world was to be sunsetted at the end of the year. Despite obvious SOE love for the title and player petitions, the call was already made: LucasArts didn't want to renew the contract with SOE, and that was that. Because of an IP, an entire galaxy was lost.

It's one of the "cons" of IP-based MMOs. Because there is licensing and contracts and other legal mumbo-jumbo involved, an online game that is completely wedded to an intellectual property has the added danger of being shut down completely if the IP is denied to the studio. SWG is a sobering lesson as to how this can happen to an otherwise healthy game.

If you haven't noticed already, Lord of the Rings Online is somewhat inspired by a certain IP. This IP can survive without the game, but the opposite is not true. So the scary question that we'd rather not ask is this: What if Turbine loses the rights have its game set in the Lord of the Rings universe?

It's not an unreasonable question. And what makes it even scarier is that it could conceivably happen as early as next year.

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For all the talk about video games causing crimes, we don't often hear about the times when they may well prevent them. Thomas Frongillo, age 18, has been arrested on charges of threatening to commit a crime after making statements about shooting up the college that he attended, but the threats were not made in person. They were made in an online game run by Jagex, most likely RuneScape, which is what led to his arrest.

Frongillo allegedly said, "I'm going to shoot up my school tomorrow," and indicated a knowledge of firearms to other players in the game. He also made anti-Semitic comments and had indicated shooting at small wildlife in previous chat sessions. Jagex employees notified the police, and he is currently on bail pending his court date on April 19th. Frongillo's lawyers claim that the statements were made in jest and that the young man had no intention of carrying out any acts of violence.

Browser-based Project Tank from Gamebox is under fire this week from the makers of World of Tanks for alleged copyright infringement.

Beginning with a report to Facebook regarding the Project Tank FB page (which is where the game is playable), Wargaming is also looking to shut down the game itself, citing intellectual property violations. Gamebox is currently looking to reinstate its Facebook page while fighting the accusations.

In an official statement released by Gamebox, the studio claims that, while they are fans of World of Tanks, no ill intention is there. "We sincerely hope Wargaming not to continuously consider us as a 'threat' to its user group, since PT and WOT are different in many ways and don't compete with each other at any platform," the statement says.

We've included gameplay videos from both games just after the cut below so you can judge for yourself if you think this IP dispute is warranted or not.

[Source: Gamebox press release and several tipsters]

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The AP is reporting that Rhode Island is attempting to default on the debt it owes for 38 Studios' $75 million loan and subsequent bankruptcy. The state has a proposal before lawmakers that would keep it from having to make any payments to bond holders.

Supporters of the move to default say that the insurance company will compensate bond holders, while the EDC, which approved the loan, says that defaulting will hurt future project and bond ratings. One lawmaker and default proponent, Rep. Charlene Lima, said that the 38 Studios fiasco harmed the reputation of the state and constricted its future economic development.

The proposal is being opposed by Governor Lincoln Chafee, who wants to see the debt repaid.

Do you like eSports? Blizzard Entertainment clearly does, as the company has just purchased the technology and assets of IGN Pro League. Several employees came along with the acquisition, including former IPL general manager David Ting. The hard assets will be used to promote various events centering around Blizzard's online games, while the staff members are joining Blizzard's internal eSports teams according to initial reports.

Needless to say, this marks the end of IPL's competitive gaming coverage, which has in the past included games such as League of Legends and StarCraft II. The brand does not go with these employees or assets, meaning that last weekend's $100,000 Shootmania launch event was the final broadcast for the IPL. It remains to be seen what will be launched from the expanded Blizzard team, but representatives from the company were quite clear in stating that this is a move meant to promote the company's online and eSports presence.

Despite recently seeing the first of what players hoped would be a string of new content, gPotato's new title Sevencore announced today that it will be closing its doors. A forum post says that the game "has proved to be less attractive to players than anticipated and thus [it's] become unprofitable for the developer to be continued as a game." The developers hope to transition active players by undertaking the following:

• Reimbursing all gPotatoes spent between the 1st of February and today as well as between 30% and 75% of purchases prior to this date,
• Closing the in-game shop with immediate effect while considering making all shop items available for free,
• Keeping the game open until the end of April,
• Boosting experience gain and running events during the final period of the game, and
• Encouraging players to migrate to other gPotato games with special enticement packages.

This bad news comes on the heels of the news that Webzen recently purchased gPotato and Gala-Net. Perhaps the purchase will breath new life into the developer after it showed a dip in quarterly sales when compared to the last year.

Let's assume for a moment that you're Curt Schilling, formerly of the Red Sox and formerly of the now-defunct 38 Studios. You're facing a massive lawsuit for fraud regarding a $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island. What do you do? It appears that Mr. Schilling's first approach is to ask the judge on the case to throw out the case entirely, claiming that the basis of the case is itself fraudulent.

The crux of the lawsuit is the state's claim that Schilling and the 38 Studios board of directors willfully obfuscated the company's status from state lawmakers. Schilling has put forth that 38 Studios fully disclosed its status to the state investors on numerous occasion, providing them with an accurate picture of the company's financial situation. Due to this disclosure the allegations of fraud and obfuscation are simply not possible, hence the request for dismissal. Schilling goes on to claim that the entire suit is politically motivated and that the company's failure is chiefly due to Governor Lincoln Chafee not doing enough to save 38 Studios from bankruptcy.

The cutsie DOFUS is sweating big anime sweat drops today as the game and its forums have come under multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.

The team reported the first attack this morning on Twitter, saying that the devs were working on beefing up the title's security. However, come this afternoon all hell started to break loose. "We may be under a second DDOS attack, forums and game are inaccessible at the moment," the DOFUS Twitter account said.

We'll keep on top of this story as it develops.

You know the drill people: Accounts hacked, time to change those passwords ASAP. Who's affected this time around? It's the runners-and-gunners of PlanetSide 2 in Europe. Email addresses and passwords for some accounts were exposed, and affected players have been notified that they should create a new secret code so that the unwashed hackers don't gain entry to personal accounts elsewhere.

ProSiebenSat.1 issued the warning last night: "We have ascertained that there was recently unauthorized third-party access to one of our systems. The possibility that your data (email address and password) has been accessed by an unauthorized third party cannot be excluded. We were able to detect the problem promptly and took all necessary action to rectify the issue."

The company said that account data are encrypted and issued instructions how to change your password if this impacts you.

No European SOE PlanetSide 2 accounts were affected by the intrusion.

[Thanks to the mighty Tandor for the tip!]

[We've updated the article to clarify that only some PSS1 accounts were affected. SOE's European accounts are in the clear.]

While government regulation is welcomed in some corners of our lives, it's not always welcomed everywhere. After recent gun violence has been making headlines more than ever, U.S. President Barack Obama set out to "find the cause" through new funding for 23 executive orders that pertain to the origins of gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden then met with experts in the video game industry to discuss the possibility that video games themselves are the cause. And probably that rock 'n' roll music, too. Darn kids!

Certainly we here at Massively have our own opinion on this matter, as video game violence legislation would affect us all. Read on past the cut to see what we have to say about government regulation for our favorite hobby.

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While violence in video games and the effect upon its participants wasn't at the crux of today's gun control press conference, President Obama did mention that he is sending the Center for Disease Control after the industry to root out a possible cause of gun violence.

One of Obama's 23 executive orders was to "Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence." Among these potential causes are movies, television, and video games.

The President defended the order by saying, "We don't benefit from ignorance. We don't benefit from not knowing the science of this epidemic of violence. Congress should fund research into the effects violent video games have on young minds."

Vice President Joe Biden previously met with several video game industry leaders as part of the task force to make recommendations on the issue.

During our conference calls we were essentially asking how close to the line we are allowed to tread and still maintain a positive, open comm link with Fox Legal. We've never received a C&D, and don't want one. We gave scenarios, and Fox Legal was generous enough to give us specifics on what they perceived to be derivative. So long as we maintain this fine line, Fox Legal stated that "of course" we can proceed, and that they "wish us well".

When we stated 'well wishes', we were simply alleviating people's fear that - no matter what DarkCryo does-it will be 'shut down.' We know now how to avoid this scenario, and should no longer be an issue.

FUO was scheduled for a Kickstarter campaign in the not-too-distant future, which "may have to be postponed indefinitely" in response to the recent drama. If that Kickstarter secures funding in a timely manner, DarkCryo will be aiming for an alpha release in winter of 2013.