(rant) Games Workshop and their lack of clue. (new stupidity 11/18)!

[SirFozzie]

FUMBBL :: Online Blood Bowl League

I am (or should I say was) the biggest fan of the game Blood Bowl. I personally championed the video game through development hell. A couple years worth. But fuck them. Fuck them and their lack of clue. They could not catch a clue in a field of horny clues, after spraying themselves with clue musk and doing the clue mating dance.

Here's the thing. This game is no longer for sale. The fans supported this game through the long years in the wilderness. They worked faithfully on getting the rules updated. The Living Rulebook is a result of the loyal, dedicated fans keeping a game alive that Games Workshop couldn't give a fuck about.

As a result of the fans effort, the game lives, The Cyanide game is a direct result of the LRB, of folks at FUMBBL playing a couple million games of Blood Bowl.

And this is how GW repays its most fervent fans. They're filing cease and desist orders against any site that has the word Blood Bowl in the name. That's 50 odd sites. They're demanding FUMBBL shut down. All in the name of supporting a bug ridden, limited piece of crap game that I cannot stomach. (and for me to be saying that, considering my original fandom, again, is something), and renewing their trademarks

Way to piss on your loyal supporters, Games Workshop.

Before anyone starts saying "Well, they own the IP, so it's legal".. quite frankly, I don't give a fuck about legal or not. It's not RIGHT. Right and Legal can be two very different concepts. They can do what they're doing. I have just as much right to tell them "Fuck you. I'm not going to buy your stuff any more. I'm going to instead spread the word that you shit on your most loyal fans"

[Apathetic Lurker]

WORD

[Mustang]

Games Workshop has never been the sharpest tool in the shed and they do love exerting their IP rights. How they have managed to be in business this long has surprised me.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Wow.

I really don't understand this move from a corporate perspective at all. Unless Cyanide was bitching up a storm that whatever price they paid for the Blood Bowl license was being severly undercut by FUMBBL, I don't see why, after all these years, Games Workshop has finally decided to take action.

There is no doubt the existence of FUMBBL has impacted the sales of Cyanide's game and has affected its on-line community, but that's just becuase it's a lot better product. Given all of that, I guess it's not too surprising. If you can't beat them, sue them.

[JediKooter]

Perhaps there is something going on in the background that is not public info yet and this is why they are doing this?

[SirFozzie]

Basically, it's the renewal of their trademark for BB.

[RendeR]

PREACH ON BROTHER FOZZIE!

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Basically, it's the renewal of their trademark for BB.

So if they don't try to enforce it, they lose it?

[Greyroofoo]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

So if they don't try to enforce it, they lose it?

If they don't enforce it, then what's the point in having it?

[Glengoyne]

Surprising Yes. But really not as surprising as the fact that they did nothing about fumbbl for years.

Maybe Cyanide is pushing it. They had to pay for a license that fumbbl has enjoyed royalty free for some time. If fumbbl is taking away users, then perhaps Cyanide has a point. You can't expect them to pay, presumably dearly, for something that others are enjoying for free. So I can see them forcing GW's hand here.

edit-->Oh yeah: It's all about the Benjamins

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

If they don't enforce it, then what's the point in having it?

I think you missed my point. There are many reasons to have a trademark besides enforcing it. There are also many reasons why a company may let some uses of a trademark slip by (like, here, for example where fumbbl's use of the Blood Bowl mark led to increased exposure and likely more sales and fumbbl wasn't making any money off the mark themselves).

The legal issue I was referring to is that let's say some other company or group (not fumbbl) started to use the trademark and Games Workshop went to enforce it and the company refused and Games Workshop took them to trial. I believe the offending company could make a strong legal argument that by not enforcing the mark (i.e., allowing fumbbl to use it so blatantly) that Games Workshop has, in essence, abandonded any claims to it and therefore it can be used by anyone.

I am not a trademark lawyer, but I think that argument can be made and while not iron-clad it certainly could complicate future enforcement actions by Games Workshop.

[Subby]

And you wonder why you're still a virgin.

[RedKingGold]

Originally Posted by Subby

And you wonder why you're still a virgin.

Not if he was a receiver.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I think you missed my point. There are many reasons to have a trademark besides enforcing it. There are also many reasons why a company may let some uses of a trademark slip by (like, here, for example where fumbbl's use of the Blood Bowl mark led to increased exposure and likely more sales and fumbbl wasn't making any money off the mark themselves).

The legal issue I was referring to is that let's say some other company or group (not fumbbl) started to use the trademark and Games Workshop went to enforce it and the company refused and Games Workshop took them to trial. I believe the offending company could make a strong legal argument that by not enforcing the mark (i.e., allowing fumbbl to use it so blatantly) that Games Workshop has, in essence, abandonded any claims to it and therefore it can be used by anyone.

I am not a trademark lawyer, but I think that argument can be made and while not iron-clad it certainly could complicate future enforcement actions by Games Workshop.

this is my understanding of it

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I am not a trademark lawyer, but I think that argument can be made and while not iron-clad it certainly could complicate future enforcement actions by Games Workshop.

GW had went after online stores a little bit ago to have them remove all their images for products because of IP concerns. They seem a little slowing in doing this. I think they have also gone after people trying to create fictional shows and computer mods that are in the 40K universe.

I understand why they are doing this, but just seems odd in the way they go about it. There are plenty of games that have fan sites dedicated to a specific game and liberally use the name of the game on their site so, not sure what they are trying to do here or what the differences are.

Also, my comments on not sure how they are in business still is more of a concern over their product lines and how they support them. I play 40K and seems like they can't get everything in synch from a rules standpoint. Ever.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Mustang

I play 40K and seems like they can't get everything in synch from a rules standpoint. Ever.

That has been my impression of Games Workshop since I started playing 40K (with my Squats!) and Fantasy back in 8th grade (about 22 years now). The rules were never in synch. The main rule book would come out and some major rules didn't work, a codex would be issued to fix it but that codex would throw everything off, so some new rule change would come out in a White Dwarf magazine, but that change had a ripple effect that affected something else, etc, etc, etc.

[Warhammer]

Isn't that part of their business model to keep people buying product after product?

[Abe Sargent]

Wow, bad move by GW. Bad move.

[Abe Sargent]

I love BattleTech, in part because we have the same as FUMBBL and tons of BTech sites, yet despite the IP traveling through three companies in the past few years, no one has ever rattled sabers.

I'll miss the occasional game over at FUMBBL if they cave, however.

[Abe Sargent]

What's international law for this stuff? I know South Korea doesn't care about copyright law at all. Could you transfer everything to a S Korea server and be okay?

[MIJB#19]

The use of IP in the context of the internet is confusing. I kept wondering why Games Workshop owns the IP Address of the fumbbl server...

[SirFozzie]

Round 2 of Games Workshop's lack of clue:

Tabletop Gaming News » Games Workshop threaten release of new Blood Bowl rules

Games Workshop is concerned about the number of fantasy football miniature companies now showing up in the world. GW has also noted that several of the Star Players do not have official figures. They have agreed to allow them in at this time … however over the coming weeks (perhaps months) they do not want to see discussions (or worse released figures) from other miniatures companies about creating figures to fill in for missing star players. Miniatures released by any company should not be marketed online as being a great figure for such and such BB Star Players.

It was made very clear today that if GW sees such marketing happening … they will pull the LRB 6.0 (or modify it before it is officially posted) and remove all star players from the document that do not have an official BB figure effectively deleting the rules for that player from the game (and since LRB 6.0 will be the offical rules for many years to come … this will be a serious deletion). So not only would this erase all the LRB 6.0 stars added to balance out the game and team’s inducements. But many LRB 5.0 stars (Ramtut, Zara, Hemlock, Helmet, Ugroth, Spleenripper, etc. etc) would be deleted from the rulebook as well.

If other people are seeing a need to patch holes in your game.. doesn't that say that there is money to be made by making a quick figure of your own?

Fuck them. "Don't fill the holes in our game, or we'll get mad, take our toys and go home".

[Rizon]

Daivd Winters is no doubt behind all this.

[RendeR]

Seriously, as sickeningly money-grubbing as GW is they go about making it in the absolutely stupidest way possible.

You want to triple your profits? cut your prices by 25%, make models for your "unsupported games" like Mordheim, necromunda, and Blood Bowl" and actually "support" the games you make by updating and revising the problematic rules and issues those games have.

Of any Hobby/gaming company I've dealt with, GW blatantly is the only one that sits back and says "Fuck Off" to its entire customer base and then raises the prices on their products on top of it.

And they wonder why people turn to things like Ebay and discount online shopping?

Fucking morons.

[digamma]

SF,

Why do you hate articles?

[Maple Leafs]

As someone who has no idea what any of these products are, it's fun to read the thread and try to figure out what's going on.

For example, I'm pretty sure this "Spleenripper" guy is important.

[RedKingGold]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

As someone who has no idea what any of these products are, it's fun to read the thread and try to figure out what's going on.

For example, I'm pretty sure this "Spleenripper" guy is important.

Winner of thread.

[Glengoyne]

Something I just discovered. Right before Thanksgiving, Games Workshop sent boardgamegeek.com a cease and desist order resulting in all fan contributed content for all games workshop games to be pulled, and future fan contributions have been insta-blocked.

This goes beyond what Cyanide might have cornered them into doing. I'm wondering if they have new in house council. Sometimes very smart people make very poor business decisions. As of now the boardgamegeek community, whether they own GW products or not, are rating GW games as 1 out of 10. Probably not significant, but no one is going to say "Hey Space Hulk is a top 5 game...Maybe I should check it out". Space Hulk is now rated 170...with an anchor.

[Mustang]

I haven't been to boardgamegeek in a week or so just given everything going on. Wow, they have gone just epic on the stupid level. I just can't even see going that hard over fan based material. Using graphics and having photocopied rules, sure, but all this fan based material?

The gaming population is a very small slice, pissing them off does not seem like a very good business move.

[Calis]

Lets get Fozzie's blood pressure up this morning! More GW craziness.

hxxp://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=326733

We wanted to inform our community here on WarhammerAlliance.com that Games Workshop has filed lawsuit against Curse for operating and maintaining WarhammerAlliance.com. We feel this is a blatant disregard of the needs of Warhammer fans, and the community we've worked hard to set up. The lawsuit cites trademark infringement, cybersquatting (on the domain name), dilution and unfair competition. You can check out the full complaint here. It also states that GamesWorkshop was unable to contact anyone who was an administrator or decision makers at Curse (despite the numerous links on our site...).

We are shocked and surprised by this filing when this site, created in 2005, is well known for being one of the biggest Warhammer Online game fansite.

We thank you for reading this and welcome your continued support - see you in game!

Glancing through there a bit, it looks like they're shooting to get a cut of the ad money from the site. Nice.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by Calis

Lets get Fozzie's blood pressure up this morning! More GW craziness.

hxxp://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=326733



Glancing through there a bit, it looks like they're shooting to get a cut of the ad money from the site. Nice.

Yeah, I saw that. Fuck GW up the ass with a chainsaw with diamond tipped blades.