Blizzard Doesn't Like Overwatch Porn

[Elvis Starburst]

In an interesting move, Blizzard got the idea to drop the hammer on videos of Overwatch characters that do naughty, naughty things with each other. This doesn't seem to relate to artworks, but more about the videos that use the game's assets to depict the Overwatch characters getting down and dirty. This includes but is not limited to DMCA take downs against several folk like the Reddit user "Spornm," which is but one user cited in the source below.

Obviously because this is the internet, we know for a fact this isn't gonna go anywhere, and you can bet there'll be re-uploads on 100's of sites and blogs across the world within moments of a sexy video being posted. Or at least some GIFs. Silly Blizzard, you forgot one important thing here...

The internet is for porn

Source: Eurogamer.net [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-05-27-is-blizzard-scrubbing-the-internet-of-overwatch-porn]

 

[Fox12]

Well, I can't blame them. I'd be pissed if people did that to my characters too. I probably wouldn't try to stop them, but I'd make it clear that I didn't appreciate people doing. Not that it would make any difference. The internets gonna porn.

 

[Samechiel]

Seems like a silly thing to do, honestly. I know a ton of people who bought Overwatch BECAUSE of the porn.

It's like free advertising, and as we all know lonely nerds spend more money on vidya than anyone else.

 

[Elfgore]

So to clarify, these DMCAs are being issued on videos who are using the in-game models of Overwatch characters doing the nasty? Like the game model I just used to play as Roadhog pulled down his pants and started fucking gently making love to the Junkrat model?

 

[DefunctTheory]

It appears that Blizzard, a colossal mega corps that probably has more executives and lawyers then creative talent, hired an outside company to cover copyright/trademark claims. That company, which is also primarily made up of executives and lawyers, is likely just following a simple contract to the letter of the law, pursuing all copy right claims so they a) don't get sued for not doing their jobs and b) because it's a 'soulless corporate machine' which, because of how the law often works out, is better off squashing every single ant it come come across, rather then just focus on the hills.

I'm fairly certain 'Blizzard The Creative Machine,' the people who actually made the game, don't give a shit. The executives and lawyers probably don't care either. This is just how the world works now.

 

[someguy1231]

Blizzy is only doing this for PR reasons. They know that it's an ultimately futile effort, but it's the gesture that counts. If they did nothing, then some self-righteous moral crusader would accuse them of "condoning" or "encouraging" porn of characters in a "kid's game". Obviously that's a bunch of BS, but Blizzy doesn't want such bad PR.

In a month or so, this whole thing will blow over. Blizzy only cares about this now cause the game just released so they're getting huge amounts of press.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Blizzard has a long history of hating fun. Anyone whose been a WoW subscriber for any length of time knows that Blizz are killjoys of the highest order.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

How exactly did we go from "One guy got a DMCA" to "Is Blizzard scrubbing the internet of Overwatch porn?" to "Blizzard Doesn't Like Overwatch Porn"? The source link is all speculation based around one guy who had a video removed.

 

[IceForce]

First they came for our Tracer butts, now they're coming for our porn.

Is there anything that can stop Blizzard's rampage of SJW-ness?

 

[Wrex Brogan]

...so it's just a case of ripped assets? Why does that mean they don't like porn? Pretty sure any AAA company would be dropping the hammer on people using ripped assets in anything. Unless there's something like 'totally cool to use for non-profit reasons' in the various EULAs or assorted legal novellas that float around these things, ripping assets tends to set off ALL the copyright alarm bells.

Wanna make Overwatch porn and not get in trouble? Just don't reuse the assets, problem solved.

 

[crimsonspear4D]

Blizzy is only doing this for PR reasons. They know that it's an ultimately futile effort, but it's the gesture that counts. If they did nothing, then some self-righteous moral crusader would accuse them of "condoning" or "encouraging" porn of characters in a "kid's game". Obviously that's a bunch of BS, but Blizzy doesn't want such bad PR.

In a month or so, this whole thing will blow over. Blizzy only cares about this now cause the game just released so they're getting huge amounts of press.

First they came for our Tracer butts, now they're coming for our porn.

Is there anything that can stop Blizzard's rampage of SJW-ness?

I highly doubt that's the reason.

But yeah, this does seem like a curious development, I mean they have to know that this is ultimately a pointless exercise in... okay let's be honest here, "censorship", and it'd do more damage to their credibility more than help them get favor for """"moral crusaders"""".

So to clarify, these DMCAs are being issued on videos who are using the in-game models of Overwatch characters doing the nasty? Like the game model I just used to play as Roadhog pulled down his pants and started fucking gently making love to the Junkrat model?

Again let's be honest for a second, most of the sfm gifs and clips, like all other usages of game females, are mostly just depictions of the female characters forcibly getting a train ran on them and more than a few mocking ones of Tracer obviously because of the whole Tracer pose thing. I could see that as reason enough, but yeah, still not helping the situation.

 

[flying_whimsy]

You know, I was thinking about how hot the characters in the game were, but I didn't think of anything beyond that. Now, well, I guess I know what I'll be turning safe search off for.

Seriously, though, I get where blizzard is coming from. It's actually a violation of the terms of use license agreement. That said, though, I doubt they'll crack down on things that don't use the assets, although eventually it'll get hard to tell the difference. This just reeks of overzealous ip lawyers and (as someone else mentioned) possibly a move to stave off criticism about the fanporn.

Can't say I'm surprised: just about every character is waifu/husbando material in a big way. I'm looking forward to seeing what some of the more prolific fanporn sites do: that'll probably really piss off the lawyers.

 

[Seraj33]

I don't get it. That stuff is excelent marketing!

 

[crimsonspear4D]

Can't say I'm surprised: just about every character is waifu/husbando material in a big way.

Yeah, but it's only the waifu material that's gonna be produced. You'll hardly sfm porn featuring any of the male characters; although, there has been an influx of gay porn lately so that might happen, I'm not that curious to find out.

I'm looking forward to seeing what studio fow does: that'll probably really piss off the lawyers.

Same thing he always does, sadly. I don't imagine him coming up with anything other than woman gets caught, women gets raped, women either get's mind broken and submits or barely makes out by the skin of her teeth. Either way, standard hentai fare.

 

[elvor0]

It appears that Blizzard, a colossal mega corps that probably has more executives and lawyers then creative talent, hired an outside company to cover copyright/trademark claims. That company, which is also primarily made up of executives and lawyers, is likely just following a simple contract to the letter of the law, pursuing all copy right claims so they a) don't get sued for not doing their jobs and b) because it's a 'soulless corporate machine' which, because of how the law often works out, is better off squashing every single ant it come come across, rather then just focus on the hills.

I'm fairly certain 'Blizzard The Creative Machine,' the people who actually made the game, don't give a shit. The executives and lawyers probably don't care either. This is just how the world works now.

This makes much more sense than the way it's being pushed. HoTS, WoW and SC have porn using in game models and have done for quite some time and nothings ever been done about that. Suddenly and solely going after Overwatch at this point seems like madness. If Blizzard the creative machine(TCM) wanted to go after the prons, they know where to go, it's easy to find and all heavily directs to the creators.

Obviously there's not much Blizzard TCM can do publicly at this point for fear of endorsing porn, but if they actually had a problem with porn of their characters existing, it would've happened waaaay before now.

 

[Scarim Coral]

They can't stop rule 34, no one can!

I mean what's next, they gonna tackle the hentai and fan comics next?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Yeah, that will work. It's totally possible to remove porn from the internet.

 

[major_chaos]

So to clarify, these DMCAs are being issued on videos who are using the in-game models of Overwatch characters doing the nasty? Like the game model I just used to play as Roadhog pulled down his pants and started fucking gently making love to the Junkrat model?

Ehhh, not exactly. More like someone ports the ingame model over to Source Filmmaker, then another person heavily modifies it to have way more articulation and add naughty bits, so there is fairly significant alteration compared to just 1-1 use of assets.

OT: Title would be more accurate if it read "Overzealous coppyright watchdog company hired by bizzard doesn't like third party use of any Blizzard game assets for any reason and happens to fire off a claim at a semi-well known SFM porn dude just to make sure their paymasters feel like their money is accomplishing something" but I suppose that isn't as catchy. I really doubt this is going to amount to the first salvo in a widespread war against overwatch porn, although the creative portion of Blizzard may be in a awkward spot where they don't approve of legal threats against fan content but can't really say anything because a statement that could be interpreted as directly supporting porn would be seen as just as much bad PR. Although they could have avoided all this by just not using one of those scummy (and often incompetent) outsourced DMCA attack dog companies.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Blizzard, I don't know why you think you should do this, but you're probably going to find yourself way, WAY out of your depth.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

So to clarify, these DMCAs are being issued on videos who are using the in-game models of Overwatch characters doing the nasty? Like the game model I just used to play as Roadhog pulled down his pants and started fucking gently making love to the Junkrat model?

Ehhh, not exactly. More like someone ports the ingame model over to Source Filmmaker, then another person heavily modifies it to have way more articulation and add naughty bits, so there is fairly significant alteration compared to just 1-1 use of assets.

OT: Title would be more accurate if it read "Overzealous coppyright watchdog company hired by bizzard doesn't like third party use of any Blizzard game assets for any reason and happens to fire off a claim at a semi-well known SFM porn dude just to make sure their paymasters feel like their money is accomplishing something" but I suppose that isn't as catchy. I really doubt this is going to amount to the first salvo in a widespread war against overwatch porn, although the creative portion of Blizzard may be in a awkward spot where they don't approve of legal threats against fan content but can't really say anything because a statement that could be interpreted as directly supporting porn would be seen as just as much bad PR. Although they could have avoided all this by just not using one of those scummy (and often incompetent) outsourced DMCA attack dog companies.

Blizzy is only doing this for PR reasons. They know that it's an ultimately futile effort, but it's the gesture that counts. If they did nothing, then some self-righteous moral crusader would accuse them of "condoning" or "encouraging" porn of characters in a "kid's game". Obviously that's a bunch of BS, but Blizzy doesn't want such bad PR.

In a month or so, this whole thing will blow over. Blizzy only cares about this now cause the game just released so they're getting huge amounts of press.

I'm really not sure why people think there would be any significant PR problems if they were seen to be condoning porn. Sure, there might be a handful of people yelling "think of the children", but cracking down on porn would piss off far more customers than allowing it, especially with current tensions over fair use.

Besides, every single game/movie/show/etc that has achieved even a basic level of success has plenty of porn based around it already, yet I don't remember a single instance of this really being a PR problem. Creators get criticized for having sexual content in their work, and people who create porn get criticized for sexualizing certain characters, but I don't think I've ever seen the creators of a work get criticized for not aggressively abusing copyright law to crush porn they themselves never created. I'm sure there's probably some lunatics out there who would do so, but I'm not seeing any evidence of this being a large enough trend that we can assume this to be happening here.

Probably the closest thing I can think is with MLP and Zootopia. Although there might have been some people urging the respective companies to crack down on porn, the criticism was aimed at those creating the porn, and that was really only due to these works being clearly aimed at children. Overwatch may not be adult only, but it's not really aimed at children either.

EDIT: Especially since there's no real evidence for them actually cracking down on porn. One guy got their video flagged by a third party company apparently in some kind of business arrangement with Blizzard. Not exactly what I'd call a trend.