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Comment by manfredo | Hacker News Reader

Do people really expect blizzard to be ethically positive? At least among my friends (which admitted skews toward hacker types) Blizzard is notorious for being for the game industry what the RIAA or MPAA is for the music industry. The company has sued 3rd party implementations of games network protocols and engines, even when no assets were distributed. They even tried to sue Valve over DOTA 2. And to top it off now they've pivoted to a loot boxes monetization model.

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If you're fooled by a company acting virtuous, sure.

> They even tried to sue Valve over DOTA 2

Didn't DOTA start as Starcraft mod or something? I don't know what the legal status of mod/spinoffs is. Could I sell my own Mario fanhack game?

DOTA started as a Warcraft mod, which used Warcraft characters. The suit resulted in some characters being changed to be less similar to the original Warcraft heroes (e.g. Leoric -> Skeleton King -> Wraith King).

I don't think it's unreasonable to say that "you cannot use our game world / universe" in your game? Valve and Blizzard came to a pretty reasonable arrangement.

AFAIK Skeleking -> Wraith king was a purely -China- ceremonial thing

AFAIK Skeleking -> Wraith king was a purely -China- ceremonial thing

Yes, the "pressing ceremonial reasons".

>I don't know what the legal status of mod/spinoffs is.

No one did. Blizzard's failed lawsuit established precedent. Now we know.

>Could I sell my own Mario fanhack game?

If you are using any assets from the original without permisison, or any copyrighted names/characters, no.

Blizzard are the Apple of the gaming industry. They can pretty much get away with anything because the people that like them REALLY like them and those that don't are just not very interested. And due to this they can get away with some really, really shitty things, and have done.

But this particular event may be their reckoning.

=3= Mmmm, Nintendo's more "the Apple of the gaming industry". Super-closed, walled garden ecosystem, stubbornly oblivious of and draconianly IP-protective in response to online phenomena of game streaming (to the frustration of their more aware American branch), etc.

Also, did any computing company eventually turn their products into slot machines? Because Konami would be the THEM of the gaming industry: https://www.polygon.com/2019/10/12/20911313/silent-hill-slot...

The vibe I get from the Nintendo direct showcase is at least straightforward and honest. You have some middle aged businessman in a suit who clearly doesn't play any video games. They shove game after game at you without too much fluff or politics. They don't explicitly say this but in my head I hear, "We want to sell a shit ton of games and make a ton of money from you, look at this game, this game and this game! Oh we aren't done check out nostalgia game 1 and 2!!"

I find that sort of honesty refreshing when companies like Blizzard, appear to champion social causes in order to gain a mass following to sell games, rather than sell a good solid game without the political fluff piped in.

I agree. I like Nintendo as a brand more than I like Blizzard as a brand. I don't like that I have to buy their hardware, but I do appreciate that they keep producing quality content.

(I do wish they'd left the old Wii online stores open, but that's another issue.)

What does =3= mean?

Pursing lips while thinking???

(Given the hmmm after)

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=rick+morty+lips

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