Blizzard Fans Fuse StarCraft 2 and WoW Into Whole New Game

[SextusMaximus]

Love Starcraft II, and I can clearly see these guys have worked beyond hard for this! Looks extremely good!

 

[deth2munkies]

I foresee a C&D letter in their future.

I agree.

I know its a different company but Bethesda did the same for the 'Morroblivion' mod that made a Morrowind equivalent in Oblivion. Bethesda found out and weren't too chipper 'bout it.

Unless Blizzard really is as careless as I imagine it to be sometimes lol

This is closer to DotA in concept than to a "World of Starcraft". It's a CUSTOM MAP with different gameplay than the original game, but all the same elements. They won't shut it down as it doesn't infringe on anything.

If they sue to shut this down, it'd basically be like Valve shutting down Counter-Strike.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I foresee a C&D letter in their future.

I agree.

I know its a different company but Bethesda did the same for the 'Morroblivion' mod that made a Morrowind equivalent in Oblivion. Bethesda found out and weren't too chipper 'bout it.

Unless Blizzard really is as careless as I imagine it to be sometimes lol

And unless I'm mistaken Morroblivion was made using the official Bethesda made and endorsed modding tool too.

 

[John Funk]

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

You say it right there in your second paragraph. They won't get sued by ActiBlizzard for using the SC2 editor to do anything. They will get sued by ActiBlizzard if they try to add persistence that replaces or builds on the armory or bnet accounts or significantly competes with WoW or SC2 without proceeds (how does this pay for hosting hmm?) going to ActiBlizzard for the IP. If they are building an MMO, they will have to tackle that. If they tackle that, they will get sued, IMO.

It's not a value judgment on what they are doing BTW. Just thought you might like to know that.

Or, alternatively, this could be something that Blizzard would roll out as part of a launch of its premium map store.

I really don't see anything different here that would be in any way remotely sueable, to be honest. This is why the SC2 galaxy editor exists; this is what Blizzard has been encouraging people to do ever since they demoed the map editor and showed how you could use it to recreate (kind of) StarCraft Ghost. This is its entire purpose, and to sue them would be incredibly counterproductive. And it "pays for hosting" as much as any of the SC2 custom maps do - that is, they don't.

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

What I'm curious about is if there is any protection afforded to them in the EULA of the maker. Does it say they hold creative rights to anything they make?

Because Blizzard can't sue them, but they probably can shut the project down if it becomes too popular and they get scared.

I'm not sure, but I do know that uploading a map to Bnet using the SC2 galaxy editor means giving the rights for promotion and use to Blizzard.

Again, there's absolutely no precedence or reason for Blizzard to shut this down. "If it becomes too popular"? DotA dominated War3 custom maps, and Blizz encouraged and cultivated that scene tremendously. It isn't like it'd interfere with their own plans, as we already know that Titan is new IP.

I'm trying to look at this from all possible angles, and I can see absolutely no reason anyone would get sued or C&D'd. It isn't like this is copyright infringement, it's using the SC2 map editor - and all the assets that Blizz specifically put in the editor for people to make things with them - exactly as it was intended.

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

I'm not sure how they did it but many Warcraft 3 custom maps allowed the players to save their character by giving them a special code they needed to type every time they enter the map.

Oh, that'd be interesting. And a nice way to offer character persistence without worrying about server-side issues.

 

[Danpascooch]

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

You say it right there in your second paragraph. They won't get sued by ActiBlizzard for using the SC2 editor to do anything. They will get sued by ActiBlizzard if they try to add persistence that replaces or builds on the armory or bnet accounts or significantly competes with WoW or SC2 without proceeds (how does this pay for hosting hmm?) going to ActiBlizzard for the IP. If they are building an MMO, they will have to tackle that. If they tackle that, they will get sued, IMO.

It's not a value judgment on what they are doing BTW. Just thought you might like to know that.

Or, alternatively, this could be something that Blizzard would roll out as part of a launch of its premium map store.

I really don't see anything different here that would be in any way remotely sueable, to be honest. This is why the SC2 galaxy editor exists; this is what Blizzard has been encouraging people to do ever since they demoed the map editor and showed how you could use it to recreate (kind of) StarCraft Ghost. This is its entire purpose, and to sue them would be incredibly counterproductive. And it "pays for hosting" as much as any of the SC2 custom maps do - that is, they don't.

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

What I'm curious about is if there is any protection afforded to them in the EULA of the maker. Does it say they hold creative rights to anything they make?

Because Blizzard can't sue them, but they probably can shut the project down if it becomes too popular and they get scared.

I'm not sure, but I do know that uploading a map to Bnet using the SC2 galaxy editor means giving the rights for promotion and use to Blizzard.

Again, there's absolutely no precedence or reason for Blizzard to shut this down. "If it becomes too popular"? DotA dominated War3 custom maps, and Blizz encouraged and cultivated that scene tremendously. It isn't like it'd interfere with their own plans, as we already know that Titan is new IP.

I'm trying to look at this from all possible angles, and I can see absolutely no reason anyone would get sued or C&D'd. It isn't like this is copyright infringement, it's using the SC2 map editor - and all the assets that Blizz specifically put in the editor for people to make things with them - exactly as it was intended.

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

I'm not sure how they did it but many Warcraft 3 custom maps allowed the players to save their character by giving them a special code they needed to type every time they enter the map.

Oh, that'd be interesting. And a nice way to offer character persistence without worrying about server-side issues.

I understand it isn't copyright infringement, but if it gets too popular maybe Blizzard would be concerned that people might stop subscribing to WoW to play this.

I'm not saying that that idea has any grounding in reality, but with the history of projects like the Zelda movie and being shut down and user boards being told not to post pictures of Pokemon, how far fetched is it really that the company might think this is worth shutting down?

I'm just wondering if they have any right to shut it down, but you said Blizzard reserves the right to use so it sounds like they do.

 

[GoGo_Boy]

Rofl at the amount of stupid haters in here.

People are SUPPOSED TO create maps with the Editor. This will be played as a custom map on BNet. For gods sake stop hating and think about it for a mere second, please.
Ridiculous hypocrites on this site haha.

 

[John Funk]

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

You say it right there in your second paragraph. They won't get sued by ActiBlizzard for using the SC2 editor to do anything. They will get sued by ActiBlizzard if they try to add persistence that replaces or builds on the armory or bnet accounts or significantly competes with WoW or SC2 without proceeds (how does this pay for hosting hmm?) going to ActiBlizzard for the IP. If they are building an MMO, they will have to tackle that. If they tackle that, they will get sued, IMO.

It's not a value judgment on what they are doing BTW. Just thought you might like to know that.

Or, alternatively, this could be something that Blizzard would roll out as part of a launch of its premium map store.

I really don't see anything different here that would be in any way remotely sueable, to be honest. This is why the SC2 galaxy editor exists; this is what Blizzard has been encouraging people to do ever since they demoed the map editor and showed how you could use it to recreate (kind of) StarCraft Ghost. This is its entire purpose, and to sue them would be incredibly counterproductive. And it "pays for hosting" as much as any of the SC2 custom maps do - that is, they don't.

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

What I'm curious about is if there is any protection afforded to them in the EULA of the maker. Does it say they hold creative rights to anything they make?

Because Blizzard can't sue them, but they probably can shut the project down if it becomes too popular and they get scared.

I'm not sure, but I do know that uploading a map to Bnet using the SC2 galaxy editor means giving the rights for promotion and use to Blizzard.

Again, there's absolutely no precedence or reason for Blizzard to shut this down. "If it becomes too popular"? DotA dominated War3 custom maps, and Blizz encouraged and cultivated that scene tremendously. It isn't like it'd interfere with their own plans, as we already know that Titan is new IP.

I'm trying to look at this from all possible angles, and I can see absolutely no reason anyone would get sued or C&D'd. It isn't like this is copyright infringement, it's using the SC2 map editor - and all the assets that Blizz specifically put in the editor for people to make things with them - exactly as it was intended.

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

I'm not sure how they did it but many Warcraft 3 custom maps allowed the players to save their character by giving them a special code they needed to type every time they enter the map.

Oh, that'd be interesting. And a nice way to offer character persistence without worrying about server-side issues.

I understand it isn't copyright infringement, but if it gets too popular maybe Blizzard would be concerned that people might stop subscribing to WoW to play this.

I'm not saying that that idea has any grounding in reality, but with the history of projects like the Zelda movie and being shut down and user boards being told not to post pictures of Pokemon, how far fetched is it really that the company might think this is worth shutting down?

I'm just wondering if they have any right to shut it down, but you said Blizzard reserves the right to use so it sounds like they do.

COULD they? Yes, absolutely - it's a custom StarCraft 2 map made in the Blizzard-created SC2 editor using Blizzard-created art, assets, and IP, running in a Blizzard-developed game, and almost certainly uploaded to and played on Blizzard's proprietary Battle.net service. In other words, there isn't much here that Blizz doesn't ALREADY own even ignoring any terms of the EULA.

I just think that they wouldn't. DotA was as popular a map as they come, and it didn't kill War3 or WoW. Not to mention that WoW fends off full-budget original IP free-to-play MMOs from other studios on a weekly basis - there'd be absolutely no reason to be concerned. Hell, I think the only thing that they'd ever be concerned about was if it stopped custom map development because everyone was just playing THIS game, and that has nothing to do with the form of the project.

 

[gigastar]

I can see this going one of four ways.

1) Blizzard takes the evil path and shuts down the project via lawsuit. Probably not but it can still happen.
2) Blizzard takes a page out of Valves success and hires on the mod developers to help create WoS.
3) The mod devs finish it and nothing significant after that happens.
4) The mod devs fail to complete the mod for some reason. Again unlikely but can still happen.

 

[Callex]

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

Custom maps can store information across games in 'banks'; they're basically small XML-like files. They will be using these to store the character information.

Obviously this has the potential for abuse however; the mapping scene is still working on encryption methods, but they do regularly get broken. It's particularly a problem with maps that use the banks to propagate leaderboards among players.

 

[Aeshi]

WoW AND SCII?

Now all they need to do is add Black Ops to the mix and they'll probably create some sort of mainstream bestseller singularity thing.

 

[Danpascooch]

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

You say it right there in your second paragraph. They won't get sued by ActiBlizzard for using the SC2 editor to do anything. They will get sued by ActiBlizzard if they try to add persistence that replaces or builds on the armory or bnet accounts or significantly competes with WoW or SC2 without proceeds (how does this pay for hosting hmm?) going to ActiBlizzard for the IP. If they are building an MMO, they will have to tackle that. If they tackle that, they will get sued, IMO.

It's not a value judgment on what they are doing BTW. Just thought you might like to know that.

Or, alternatively, this could be something that Blizzard would roll out as part of a launch of its premium map store.

I really don't see anything different here that would be in any way remotely sueable, to be honest. This is why the SC2 galaxy editor exists; this is what Blizzard has been encouraging people to do ever since they demoed the map editor and showed how you could use it to recreate (kind of) StarCraft Ghost. This is its entire purpose, and to sue them would be incredibly counterproductive. And it "pays for hosting" as much as any of the SC2 custom maps do - that is, they don't.

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

What I'm curious about is if there is any protection afforded to them in the EULA of the maker. Does it say they hold creative rights to anything they make?

Because Blizzard can't sue them, but they probably can shut the project down if it becomes too popular and they get scared.

I'm not sure, but I do know that uploading a map to Bnet using the SC2 galaxy editor means giving the rights for promotion and use to Blizzard.

Again, there's absolutely no precedence or reason for Blizzard to shut this down. "If it becomes too popular"? DotA dominated War3 custom maps, and Blizz encouraged and cultivated that scene tremendously. It isn't like it'd interfere with their own plans, as we already know that Titan is new IP.

I'm trying to look at this from all possible angles, and I can see absolutely no reason anyone would get sued or C&D'd. It isn't like this is copyright infringement, it's using the SC2 map editor - and all the assets that Blizz specifically put in the editor for people to make things with them - exactly as it was intended.

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

I'm not sure how they did it but many Warcraft 3 custom maps allowed the players to save their character by giving them a special code they needed to type every time they enter the map.

Oh, that'd be interesting. And a nice way to offer character persistence without worrying about server-side issues.

I understand it isn't copyright infringement, but if it gets too popular maybe Blizzard would be concerned that people might stop subscribing to WoW to play this.

I'm not saying that that idea has any grounding in reality, but with the history of projects like the Zelda movie and being shut down and user boards being told not to post pictures of Pokemon, how far fetched is it really that the company might think this is worth shutting down?

I'm just wondering if they have any right to shut it down, but you said Blizzard reserves the right to use so it sounds like they do.

COULD they? Yes, absolutely - it's a custom StarCraft 2 map made in the Blizzard-created SC2 editor using Blizzard-created art, assets, and IP, running in a Blizzard-developed game, and almost certainly uploaded to and played on Blizzard's proprietary Battle.net service. In other words, there isn't much here that Blizz doesn't ALREADY own even ignoring any terms of the EULA.

I just think that they wouldn't. DotA was as popular a map as they come, and it didn't kill War3 or WoW. Not to mention that WoW fends off full-budget original IP free-to-play MMOs from other studios on a weekly basis - there'd be absolutely no reason to be concerned. Hell, I think the only thing that they'd ever be concerned about was if it stopped custom map development because everyone was just playing THIS game, and that has nothing to do with the form of the project.

I'm fully aware my scenario sounded stupid, it was just the best thing I could come up with at the time, I'm just wondering because it seems like every time a piece of user generated content hits this scale it's shut down by somebody. But it sounds like Blizz has a good track record with allowing DotA to thrive, so I guess they might be the exception.

 

[NLS]

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

Depending on how picky they want to be about this, I could see a cease and desist coming to this project.

I see this as very similar to the Morrowind project for Oblivion that Bethesda slapped down. That still required a copy of Oblivion to play, but it still got killed.

It would be neat to see how this pans out though.

The Morrowind project was shut down because they were re-using assets that Bethesda had the rights to use in Morrowind, but NOT in Oblivion.
This is different, as they aren't using any of WoW's assets or in-game art directly in SC2. (this is SC2 in SC2, not SC2 in WoW)

 

[Scrythe]

I know they say that it's not for profit, but for some reason I want to pitch these guys some cash.

 

[Exort]

Gonna get sued. That is all.

People did in Warcraft 3. So far no one ever got sued.

 

[Exort]

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

Some SC2 RPG map already offer persistence Character. I don't know how they work. But even Map like Desert strike have stat tracking (left top corner, there is a little button that show you everyone stats from every game they played)

But Persistence World is another thing.

 

[Throwitawaynow]

Gonna get sued. That is all.

I'm not sure why you'd think that. This is precisely the sort of thing that the SC2 galaxy editor is supposed to be used for, and it isn't like it isn't going to be used in custom games on Battle.net... which you need a copy of SC2 to access.

I *am* curious how they plan on handling the defining feature of an MMO - character and world persistence. Given that it'll be custom games on SC2, the latter is infeasible. I'm wondering if they could find some way of tying the character progression to your Bnet account somehow?

Some SC2 RPG map already offer persistence Character. I don't know how they work. But even Map like Desert strike have stat tracking (left top corner, there is a little button that show you everyone stats from every game they played)

But Persistence World is another thing.

What they did before is that your account name (The one shown) is saved to a persistant bot in a channel, when you finish or save a game you recieve a code at the start of the next game you -load (code) and your character is uploaded. This has been working on SC and WC3/WC3 TFT for some time. You can't hack the code because it's saved to the account name, and it saves what you have done.

If you lose your code, you can whisper the bot and it will tell you what your most recent code is.

I'm also sure that these codes could then add a persistant world, if you and a group of friends saved before a boss but were too tired you can all save. The match host could then input the map code load up your progress, everyone loads up their char and boom persistant world.

Edit: This has worked with RPG's, Ranked Custom RTS, and ranked styled AOS maps (Map DOTA was based on).

 

[AK47Marine]

This looks awesome, great work and good job to the guys working on this!