Blizzard: Valve Shouldn't Trademark DotA

[Do4600]

Spoiler: I dunno, but I'm feeling a little bit of hypocrisy here.

[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104641-BlizzCon-2010-Hands-On-Blizzard-DotA-Left-2-Die-Starjeweled]

Which is a free game mod, that costs nothing might I add, and doesn't hold any trademarks. No correlation...at all!

 

[klaynexas3]

well it sounds less that they think it should remain free and more like Blizzard want it.
They keep talking about it being available to the "blizzard community" etc.
Valve have Icefrog and it was his idea to get the trademark and make dota 2.
And icefrog is the authority when it comes to Dota, since he did most of the work. Blizz has no say in this since none of their employees were even part of the development process.

Somehow I can't see myself believing Blizzards mentioning this out of love for the community. Feels like an attempt at a "be the good guy" stunt to me.

... though I was a little curious about Valve and the whole trademarking DotA, all things considered (community focused project, etc...)

They seem to be doing the same thing they did with counter strike and Tf and portal.
They hire the modteam and trademark it.
Counter strike was a mod once too. And now valve owns the devs and trademark.

CS TF and Portal were all mods to Valve games though.

DotA is a mod to a Blizzard game, see the difference?

Making a mod to a game doesn't give the team that made the game amny rights on the mod.
Flash games don't belong to adobe.
The important thing is that valve hired the team.
Also Portal a valve game mod? lol
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Narbacular_Drop

ok, my bad on Portal.

But my point is still this:

By hiring the mod makers from their own games, they are just improving on their own product line, and making well established mods to their products even better.

By hiring the mod makers from other games they are doing no such thing. They get good talent.
But what Valve is doing now can be considered an act of hostility towards blizzard.

That said, blizzard should have done the same if they wanted DotA, but they are saying they want it to be a public domain.

and if it doesn't remain public, it could look bad on blizzard's part. business wise, blizzard should've hired the team, and they could've been great. but at this point, it's already too late. unless they wait a few years to let this blow over and then they give it a try.

and yeah, valve is making a mistake on this one. i know blizzard didn't have much to do with the development of DotA, but they made the source code to begin with so in general they've done most of the work on it. now, if valve and blizzard teamed up, they'd be unstoppable, and then valve would have more grounds to copyrighting the name, but i don't see that happening, so this one's really up in the air.

 

[Do4600]

Blizzard would never trademark DotA because they already make more money off their actual franchises than God.

If Blizzard had any intention of trademarking DotA they would have already done it two years ago after LoL came out and actually turned a profit with it.

Riot games the owner of LoL makes quite a bit less money than God

Think about this, since 1995 Blizzard has based EVERY game they have developed on Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. What on earth makes you think they would add DotA to that?

DotA is a very, very, very small property compared to Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo.

Blizzard thinks that this property should belong to the community.

And maybe that's why they have such a

Spoiler: Devoted Community.

I love Valve, but they ain't no Blizzard, and Blizzard is in the right here.

 

[Aurgelmir]

well it sounds less that they think it should remain free and more like Blizzard want it.
They keep talking about it being available to the "blizzard community" etc.
Valve have Icefrog and it was his idea to get the trademark and make dota 2.
And icefrog is the authority when it comes to Dota, since he did most of the work. Blizz has no say in this since none of their employees were even part of the development process.

Somehow I can't see myself believing Blizzards mentioning this out of love for the community. Feels like an attempt at a "be the good guy" stunt to me.

... though I was a little curious about Valve and the whole trademarking DotA, all things considered (community focused project, etc...)

They seem to be doing the same thing they did with counter strike and Tf and portal.
They hire the modteam and trademark it.
Counter strike was a mod once too. And now valve owns the devs and trademark.

CS TF and Portal were all mods to Valve games though.

DotA is a mod to a Blizzard game, see the difference?

Making a mod to a game doesn't give the team that made the game amny rights on the mod.
Flash games don't belong to adobe.
The important thing is that valve hired the team.
Also Portal a valve game mod? lol
http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Narbacular_Drop

ok, my bad on Portal.

But my point is still this:

By hiring the mod makers from their own games, they are just improving on their own product line, and making well established mods to their products even better.

By hiring the mod makers from other games they are doing no such thing. They get good talent.
But what Valve is doing now can be considered an act of hostility towards blizzard.

That said, blizzard should have done the same if they wanted DotA, but they are saying they want it to be a public domain.

and if it doesn't remain public, it could look bad on blizzard's part. business wise, blizzard should've hired the team, and they could've been great. but at this point, it's already too late. unless they wait a few years to let this blow over and then they give it a try.

and yeah, valve is making a mistake on this one. i know blizzard didn't have much to do with the development of DotA, but they made the source code to begin with so in general they've done most of the work on it. now, if valve and blizzard teamed up, they'd be unstoppable, and then valve would have more grounds to copyrighting the name, but i don't see that happening, so this one's really up in the air.

You know Valve and Blizzard together is like putting bacon in your chocolate milk. They are both excellent separate, but I doubt they will be good together.

Besides, you Half Life 2 fans would NEVER get Episode 3 if they merged I mean Woul it ever be "done tm"?

 

[thirion1850]

CS was a mod.
TF was a mod.

What is the connection? They now both are trademarked by Valve. Good thing, too, as Valve expanded on their success to make something even greater than what it previously was. DotA is no different in my eyes.

 

[DSK-]

I don't get it. Everyone is upset that the name of a mod or perhaps, the gametype denoting DOTA will be copyrighted. Why?

There have been plenty of DOTA clones in the past and yet now people are getting upset when someone wants to trademark the name? *shrugs*

I doubt Valve would do anything to annoy it's loyal fanbase or fans of DOTA in general, if their track record is anything to go by.

 

[zero_blahs]

Blizzard would never trademark DotA because they already make more money off their actual franchises than God.

If Blizzard had any intention of trademarking DotA they would have already done it two years ago after LoL came out and actually turned a profit with it.

Riot games the owner of LoL makes quite a bit less money than God

Think about this, since 1995 Blizzard has based EVERY game they have developed on Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. What on earth makes you think they would add DotA to that?

DotA is a very, very, very small property compared to Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo.

Blizzard thinks that this property should belong to the community.

And maybe that's why they have such a

Spoiler: Devoted Community.

I love Valve, but they ain't no Blizzard, and Blizzard is in the right here.

or it could also be that as soon as you buy WoW blizzard trade marks your brain.

 

[IxionIndustries]

So... Blizzard absolutely neglected their fucking community throughout the entire development and testing of Starcraft 2, and now say "Hey man, not cool to take from our fans,".

...Cool story Blizz.

 

[DaggerOfCompassion]

Remove this post please mods. Lulz.

 

[Kyle Main]

I think the majority of the various communities that play all the games of this type from each respective developer would agree with me when I say that "DotA" is a coinage that is fast becoming its own Genre of game, and based on that I don't think any company should be permitted a trademark any more than if they tried to trademark "FPS" or "RPG". It seems like a petty move, like a sucker punch to guarantee publicity regardless of the success or failure of the game they're going to release.

I opt that everyone in the gaming community recognize DotA as a genre and let the issue rest.