Wargaming Goes on the Offensive about Chinese World of Tanks Knockoff

[IanDavis]

Wargaming Goes on the Offensive about Chinese World of Tanks Knockoff

A "disturbingly similar" clone copies the game's historical errors as well as everything else.

​

Imitation might be the most sincere form of flattery, but it can still get you sued. China's infamously lax copyright and trademark laws have created modern wonders like the [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122207-China-Opens-Unofficial-League-of-Legends-Restaurant]League of Legends restaurant[/a] and the [a href=http://shanghaiist.com/2011/07/15/joyland_the_blizzard_bits.php?gallery0Pic=25#photo-25]World of Warcraft theme park.[/a] Most of the time, there's little that a company can do besides watch its brand be devalued. When Wargaming.net saw their popular World of Tanks pop up on Facebook, it took action and [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/10/4317870/world-of-tanks-wargaming-sues-chinese-developer-project-tank]sued its creators in court[/a]. Described as "disturbingly similar", Changyou and Gamease's Project Tanks alegendly ripped off most of the game, from the art assets to the fictional and historically incorrect elements as well.

Project Tanks, alternately known as both Tank Ground War and Ground War Tanks, looks and feels just like Wargaming.net's hit title, but runs in a browser thanks to the Unity Engine. Developed by two Chinese companies, Gamease and Changyou, it's a f2p game that (until recently) ran right from Facebook. Changyou is behind many big eastern F2P games, including the [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123917-ESRB-Scolds-Wartune-For-Fake-AO-Rating]not-so-adult Wartune[/a].

From the opening garage, to the tech trees, and even to the camera angles, it's pretty clear that Project Tanks is more than a little similar to World of Tanks. In fact, Wargaming claims that it uses some of the exact same art assets as well. But Wargaming has even better evidence than that. [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/10/4317870/world-of-tanks-wargaming-sues-chinese-developer-project-tank]As stated[/a] in its court case: "Copying is further evidenced by the fact that the designers of Project Tank copied tanks from WoT that never existed in real life, and which included features original to WoT." Busted.

Changyou fired back with their own statement, saying that "we feel truly shocked and bullied by Wargaming," and that it "never intended to pose a threat or compete at any platform with World of Tanks." They go on to claim that getting the Facebook game pulled was part of "a series of underhand [sic] actions" on the part of Wargaming.net.

Source: [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/10/4317870/world-of-tanks-wargaming-sues-chinese-developer-project-tank]Polygon[/a]

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[JaceArveduin]

My sides hurt, have they made a medicine for laugh-induced pain yet?

Seriously, if you're going to copy, at least be smart enough to change a few major details. Or at least do your homework.

 

[Gritimo The Odd]

As interesting as it was to play the game on facebook, im glad wargaming came in shut them down. This degree of plageralization should never be supported as it really screws the creator over.

Also, Delighted to have the Mighty Jingles video featured. Jingles is one of my favorite World of Tanks and lately War Thunder vid makers. Something about that charmingly smooth british accent of his. His youtube account can be found under the name BohemianEagle.

 

[WarpZone]

People keep saying "rip-off," but I don't know what that actually means in this context. I don't play World of Tanks, so I have no basis for comparison. Are they using models and textures from the first game, or new names or terms that Wargaming made up? Can anybody post side-by-side screenshots of the same tank or menu in both games?

Basically, I'd appreciate it if someone who knows World of Tanks intimately could demonstrate that this is actual lifted art assets, not just another "Fighter's History" situation. Thanks.

 

[marurder]

The way the response was worded... It sounds like they are talking to the local (Chinese) audience, which would most likely never even know the original. There is a deep resentment in the Chinese of western 'bullying'. It sound like the company is going to use that to protect it's user-base. No dues will be paid, not rightful customers received. But I wouldn't be surprised if in the next few weeks the World of Tanks servers get attacked.

 

[wooty]

A fake version of *insert item here* in China?! Shocked I am.

But in all seriousness, it does seem very very very similar to WoT. A game I'm sill sat on the fence about whether I like or not.

People keep saying "rip-off," but I don't know what that actually means in this context. I don't play World of Tanks, so I have no basis for comparison. Are they using models and textures from the first game, or new names or terms that Wargaming made up? Can anybody post side-by-side screenshots of the same tank or menu in both games?

Basically, I'd appreciate it if someone who knows World of Tanks intimately could demonstrate that this is actual lifted art assets, not just another "Fighter's History" situation. Thanks.

I wouldn't say I know it intimately , but you can take it from me, the layout of the HuD, the graphics style, the control style, the garage style and icons are basically the exact same as WoT. Rip off is a strong word; but as I said before, this is China.

 

[J Tyran]

People keep saying "rip-off," but I don't know what that actually means in this context. I don't play World of Tanks, so I have no basis for comparison. Are they using models and textures from the first game, or new names or terms that Wargaming made up? Can anybody post side-by-side screenshots of the same tank or menu in both games?

Basically, I'd appreciate it if someone who knows World of Tanks intimately could demonstrate that this is actual lifted art assets, not just another "Fighter's History" situation. Thanks.

Rip off doesn't even come close, the best description would be to call it on outright clone.

 

[Doom-Slayer]

People keep saying "rip-off," but I don't know what that actually means in this context. I don't play World of Tanks, so I have no basis for comparison. Are they using models and textures from the first game, or new names or terms that Wargaming made up? Can anybody post side-by-side screenshots of the same tank or menu in both games?

Basically, I'd appreciate it if someone who knows World of Tanks intimately could demonstrate that this is actual lifted art assets, not just another "Fighter's History" situation. Thanks.

The main thing I have heard with totally sums this up. In WoT there is(or are several) made up entirely fictional tanks which they included specifically to fill certain tiers.

Project Tank has the EXACT SAME fictional nonexistent tanks. Same names same everything. Oh and the models are copy/pasted too. That basically should tell you everything you need to know.

 

[exobook]

People keep saying "rip-off," but I don't know what that actually means in this context. I don't play World of Tanks, so I have no basis for comparison. Are they using models and textures from the first game, or new names or terms that Wargaming made up? Can anybody post side-by-side screenshots of the same tank or menu in both games?

Basically, I'd appreciate it if someone who knows World of Tanks intimately could demonstrate that this is actual lifted art assets, not just another "Fighter's History" situation. Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkbm1Vb8rq0&list=PLSPT1I-KtyUGNglI-1KJCB0CnA4Z_Nfl8&index=10

here is a video of world of tanks from the same guy. Not the same tank but you can see how its a basic clone.

 

[Vie]

Hum, why has neither side thought of coming up with a solution that would work for both sides?

These Chinese companies have come up with a working WoT clone that works in a browser, why aren't the guys making WoT offering the Chinese company an opportunity to use the WoT name and have access to future updates in exchange for a cut of their profit's from the clone and a level of creative oversight from the WoT team? Plus an agreement from the WoT guys not to sue them so long as they abide by the agreement.

WoT can continue to be the main version, while WoT Live/Unity/Lite can be a lighter version which relies on DLC for assets. Owners of the WoT's main version can access all the features of Live/Unity/Lite via their account, while users of Lite on its own can play for free with fewer tank/part choices - but can buy the others via DLC, and have adverts for the main game.

Surely something along these lines would be great for both sides?

 

[exobook]

Hum, why has neither side thought of coming up with a solution that would work for both sides?

These Chinese companies have come up with a working WoT clone that works in a browser, why aren't the guys making WoT offering the Chinese company an opportunity to use the WoT name and have access to future updates in exchange for a cut of their profit's from the clone and a level of creative oversight from the WoT team? Plus an agreement from the WoT guys not to sue them so long as they abide by the agreement.

WoT can continue to be the main version, while WoT Live/Unity/Lite can be a lighter version which relies on DLC for assets. Owners of the WoT's main version can access all the features of Live/Unity/Lite via their account, while users of Lite on its own can play for free with fewer tank/part choices - but can buy the others via DLC, and have adverts for the main game.

Surely something along these lines would be great for both sides?

apart from the fact that this company has already copied their game/assets/tanks. Wargaming has a legal requirement to defend their intellectual property, in this case I say they should do it.

Also WoT is also a f2p game, its success is dependent on people buying gold and premium tanks. The existance of this clone means that the game is directly damaging. Anyway given that this company made this game in the first place, how can wargaming trust them to hold to any agreement?

 

[Madkipz]

Wargaming Goes on the Offensive about Chinese World of Tanks Knockoff

A "disturbingly similar" clone copies the game's historical errors as well as everything else.

​

Imitation might be the most sincere form of flattery, but it can still get you sued. China's infamously lax copyright and trademark laws have created modern wonders like the [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122207-China-Opens-Unofficial-League-of-Legends-Restaurant]League of Legends restaurant[/a] and the [a href=http://shanghaiist.com/2011/07/15/joyland_the_blizzard_bits.php?gallery0Pic=25#photo-25]World of Warcraft theme park.[/a] Most of the time, there's little that a company can do besides watch its brand be devalued. When Wargaming.net saw their popular World of Tanks pop up on Facebook, it took action and [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/10/4317870/world-of-tanks-wargaming-sues-chinese-developer-project-tank]sued its creators in court[/a]. Described as "disturbingly similar", Changyou and Gamease's Project Tanks alegendly ripped off most of the game, from the art assets to the fictional and historically incorrect elements as well.

Project Tanks, alternately known as both Tank Ground War and Ground War Tanks, looks and feels just like Wargaming.net's hit title, but runs in a browser thanks to the Unity Engine. Developed by two Chinese companies, Gamease and Changyou, it's a f2p game that (until recently) ran right from Facebook. Changyou is behind many big eastern F2P games, including the [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123917-ESRB-Scolds-Wartune-For-Fake-AO-Rating]not-so-adult Wartune[/a].

From the opening garage, to the tech trees, and even to the camera angles, it's pretty clear that Project Tanks is more than a little similar to World of Tanks. In fact, Wargaming claims that it uses some of the exact same art assets as well. But Wargaming has even better evidence than that. [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/10/4317870/world-of-tanks-wargaming-sues-chinese-developer-project-tank]As stated[/a] in its court case: "Copying is further evidenced by the fact that the designers of Project Tank copied tanks from WoT that never existed in real life, and which included features original to WoT." Busted.

Changyou fired back with their own statement, saying that "we feel truly shocked and bullied by Wargaming," and that it "never intended to pose a threat or compete at any platform with World of Tanks." They go on to claim that getting the Facebook game pulled was part of "a series of underhand [sic] actions" on the part of Wargaming.net.

Source: [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/10/4317870/world-of-tanks-wargaming-sues-chinese-developer-project-tank]Polygon[/a]

Permalink

Copyright is bullshit and china doesn't care for the american versions of it because they want to clone it. This is news?

Lax control gets you sites like Equestria daily and a league of legends resturant. The opposite gets your brand no unorthodox marketing and shits all over the economy while letting stupid companies get monopolies on how they want to use their art assets so that their can cultivate their market niche instead of having the brand name gain mainstream traction by virtue of fair use.

 

[rasputin0009]

I wonder if Zynga is a sister company...

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Found out about it via Jingles, was wondering when the inevitable showdown would occur. Honestly, I expected this a month ago.

 

[King Kazma]

When you are stealing their original tanks. (The ones that were never even drawn up). Ya thats some hard evidence right there. Good on Wargamming, now gimi a discount on my Tiger II please. She's an expensive beast.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

*snip*

Copyright is bullshit and china doesn't care for the american versions of it because they want to clone it. This is news?

Lax control gets you sites like Equestria daily and a league of legends resturant. The opposite gets your brand no unorthodox marketing and shits all over the economy while letting stupid companies get monopolies on how they want to use their art assets so that their can cultivate their market niche instead of having the brand name gain mainstream traction by virtue of fair use.

So, what you're saying, is if you made a game, for a specific market demographic, and someone pretty much copy pasted your game, stealing a chunk of your market share, but "in a browser!" stealing from you by using your hard work to make money for themselves, whilst taking away prospective customers from you, losing you money, that's totally cool.

Equestria daily, isn't taking away "customers" from hasbro, and the league of legends restaurant isn't lowering leag of legends' playerbase, so your comparison is more of an apples and oranges deal, it doesn't work, sorry.

P.S. Capchas telling me to enter specific words about toyota's new camry is pissing me off, it's not going to brainwash me into buying it, in fact, it's doing the same thing to me that the pontiac adds in anarchy online were doing, making me feel almost alergic to their brand name, who the hell comes up with this kind of marketing, they should be fired.

 

[Aeshi]

People keep saying "rip-off," but I don't know what that actually means in this context. I don't play World of Tanks, so I have no basis for comparison. Are they using models and textures from the first game, or new names or terms that Wargaming made up? Can anybody post side-by-side screenshots of the same tank or menu in both games?

Basically, I'd appreciate it if someone who knows World of Tanks intimately could demonstrate that this is actual lifted art assets, not just another "Fighter's History" situation. Thanks.

The main thing I have heard with totally sums this up. In WoT there is(or are several) made up entirely fictional tanks which they included specifically to fill certain tiers.

Project Tank has the EXACT SAME fictional nonexistent tanks. Same names same everything. Oh and the models are copy/pasted too. That basically should tell you everything you need to know.

I admit I'm haven't played WoT in ages, but I'm pretty sure the 'made up' tanks are simply Tanks that never got past the prototype stage/were never mass produced/etc.

Doesn't make this any less of a knockoff though.