Why has Games Workshop never sued Blizzard?

[Arbiter]

Rumors have been circulating for decades that Blizzard attempted to develop an RTS based on Warhammer Fantasy or 40k franchise but the deal fell through and Blizzard had to develop the prototype further as their own IP and release the game as WarCraft or StarCraft. WarCraft 1&2 are set in a generic Tolkien-wannabe fantasy world so it is difficult to prove that they were inspired by Warhammer Fantasy. StarCraft, on the other hand, feels like a 40k ripoff with Terrans = Space Marines, Zerg = Tyranids and Protoss = Eldar. With SC2 it appears they were no longer hiding it, with Reapers and drop pods being blatant ripoffs of iconic Warhammer 40k units.

Why has Games Workshop never sued Blizzard over StarCraft?

 

[RaggleFraggle]

They settled out of court in the late 90s/early 00s. Blizz made several changes going forward as a result, like axing those faceless blob characters who appeared briefly in the first zerg campaign. None of it was actually related to GW IP and none of it would be admissible in court, but the legal agreement is apparently still valid.

GW and Activision can both get fucked imo, along with all these other shitty corporate monopolies.

 

[Arbiter]

those faceless blob characters who appeared briefly in the first zerg campaign

Cerebrates. According to lore Kerrigan had them killed in Brood War.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

those faceless blob characters who appeared briefly in the first zerg campaign

Cerebrates. According to lore Kerrigan had them killed in Brood War.

An in-universe rationalization for GW settling out-of-court. The guy who runs the fandom wiki asked the company and they confirmed it was a legal agreement. Citations and everything.

Think about it rationally. Why would you as a writer waste words on an entire caste of an alien civilization and their vital history within it at all if you plan to immediately kill them all off without any character development and replace them with a psychotic succubus out of left field based loosely on your irl drug-addict ex-girlfriend? The answer is you’re a shitty writer(s) and/or you were forced to.

 

[Vic]

It's still different enough imo

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

What GW unit were the Cerebrates ripping off? I don't remember seeing any giant slugs in the Tyranid roster?
I don't think removing the Cerebrates had anything do with GW. I think Blizzard wanted a human face in charge of the Zerg so they can have a nice pretty leader with personality as a hero unit and represent them instead of a blob or a hydralisk. Having that pretty leader usurp the Overmind and take control is a lot more impressive than just starting as the leader. Similar to how Raynor started as just a marshal and then became a rebel leader.

Blizzard has gone to shit anyway. Their launcher is abysmal and the modern games they release look ugly. Even Starcraft 2 looks better and that's from a decade ago.
FFS, their launcher doesn't even have a ETA for downloads or records time played. Even Galaxy has that. Even bloody Origin has that and that launcher is shit too.

 

[Arbiter]

Why would you as a writer waste words on an entire caste of an alien civilization and their vital history within it at all if you plan to immediately kill them all off without any character development and replace them with a psychotic succubus out of left field based loosely on your irl drug-addict ex-girlfriend? The answer is you’re a shitty writer(s) and/or you were forced to.

Maybe, maybe not. Writing off a group of characters is nothing unusual. After WarCraft 1 clerics and necrolytes were killed off (it is even explained in WarCraft 2 manual) and wolf riders did not return until WarCraft 3.

 

[Arbiter]

Their launcher is abysmal

The downloader that allows you the play a game before all its files are downloaded is a nice feature.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Their launcher is abysmal

The downloader that allows you the play a game before all its files are downloaded is a nice feature.

Not really. I'd rather wait until the game is properly installed instead of running into potential errors.
I think Origin does that too as well.

 

[copebot]

American copyright law protects specific expressions of ideas and not the ideas themselves. The major exception to this is the concept of the derivative work.

Translations, fictionalizations, abridgments, and adaptations from one type of work into another are all considered derivative works. So, if you write a novel about Greenguts the orc and I adapt it into a musical theater production called Greenguts! without changing anything significant, my musical is a deriviative work and you can sue me for copyright infringement. There are multiple doctrines in different circuit courts (the regional separation of federal courts) so it is not the same everywhere. In some, there is the concept that the influence of the initial work must "pervade" the derivative work to be considered derivative.

With respect to Warhammer vs. Warcraft, because the characters are all different, the plots are all substantially different, the art styles are generally different, and the mediums were completely transformed, GW would not have a strong case for general copyright infringement. They would have to focus on something more specific such as if they had an identical story to the Gul'dan story that they had copyrighted that was almost entirely ripped off.

In America, anyone can sue anyone for any reason. In creative industries, this often leads to lots of lawsuits that may have flimsy grounds that are nonetheless sufficient to get into what's called discovery. The Ed Sheeran copyright infringement case that he eventually won is a good example of this: even though the claims from the plaintiff were fairly flimsy, they were still able to drag him into court and compel him through the discovery process to exhaustively document everything he did to produce his albums and to show that the songs were not derivative works. In Hollywood, copyright lawsuits are often launched over plot similarities between movies for the purpose of extracting settlement payments from defendants.

With Starcraft and Warcraft, both were original enough such that a responsible attorney would advise GW that they would not be likely to win on copyright grounds. That doesn't mean that you would not write a letter to Blizzard warning or threatening them not to step too close to various GW IPs. To be safer, you would also probably advise Blizzard creatives to avoid exposing themselves to GW material and to document everything that they do in the creative process. Total lack of awareness of the "parent" material is a defense against a claim of derivative work infringement.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

What GW unit were the Cerebrates ripping off? I don't remember seeing any giant slugs in the Tyranid roster?
I don't think removing the Cerebrates had anything do with GW.

GW didn't have any grounds to make demands, but Blizz obeyed anyway because they didn't want to have a protracted legal battle. Here's a quote: https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Cerebrate#Notes

• The lack of cerebrates in StarCraft II was due to a creative directive from Blizzard, as per it "playing nice" with Games Workshop.[32] As of BlizzCon 2019, the mandate remains in effect, and it has been stated that it is unlikely that cerebrates will be seen anytime soon, if ever.[33]

I think Blizzard wanted a human face in charge of the Zerg so they can have a nice pretty leader with personality as a hero unit and represent them instead of a blob or a hydralisk. Having that pretty leader usurp the Overmind and take control is a lot more impressive than just starting as the leader. Similar to how Raynor started as just a marshal and then became a rebel leader.

You don't say. Wanting a human face in charge of the Zerg is a fundamentally stupid idea that ruins them, just like wanting a human face in charge of the Tyranids, the bugs from Starship Troopers, or the Borg. The way she takes control isn't even impressive because it relies on plot devices and everyone acting like idiots to prop her up. Blizz writers are incompetent hacks who cannot plan and always have been. You need look no further than the nonsensical "lore" recounted on the fandom wikis.

I will freely admit that the Tyranid campaigns in the 40k video games are boring and unmemorable because they don't have Overmind hamming it up. But I think adding a human face is stupid, especially a sexualized succubus design for hideous aliens that don't care about what a human penis finds attractive.

Blizzard has gone to shit anyway. Their launcher is abysmal and the modern games they release look ugly. Even Starcraft 2 looks better and that's from a decade ago.
FFS, their launcher doesn't even have a ETA for downloads or records time played. Even Galaxy has that. Even bloody Origin has that and that launcher is shit too.

I hope they get gutted by Microsoft.

Why would you as a writer waste words on an entire caste of an alien civilization and their vital history within it at all if you plan to immediately kill them all off without any character development and replace them with a psychotic succubus out of left field based loosely on your irl drug-addict ex-girlfriend? The answer is you’re a shitty writer(s) and/or you were forced to.

Maybe, maybe not. Writing off a group of characters is nothing unusual. After WarCraft 1 clerics and necrolytes were killed off (it is even explained in WarCraft 2 manual) and wolf riders did not return until WarCraft 3.

That doesn't mean it isn't bad writing. Blizz is infamous for bad writing. It might be less obvious in their old games because of the limited presentation, but the writers they hire are hacks.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I agree that giving zerg a human face was a stupid idea, but apparently that's good for marketing and your average player seems to want that shit.
GW did the same to Necrons and it was shit there too. Went from a cosmic horror to flanderized space egyptians.

 

[Elthosian]

Their launcher is abysmal

The downloader that allows you the play a game before all its files are downloaded is a nice feature.

Not really. I'd rather wait until the game is properly installed instead of running into potential errors.
I think Origin does that too as well.

Back when I played Starcraft 2 internet speed in my town were laughable so it actually was quite nice to be able to play around while the whole thing finished downloading.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Rumors have been circulating for decades that Blizzard attempted to develop an RTS based on Warhammer Fantasy or 40k franchise but the deal fell through and Blizzard had to develop the prototype further as their own IP and release the game as WarCraft or StarCraft. WarCraft 1&2 are set in a generic Tolkien-wannabe fantasy world so it is difficult to prove that they were inspired by Warhammer Fantasy. StarCraft, on the other hand, feels like a 40k ripoff with Terrans = Space Marines, Zerg = Tyranids and Protoss = Eldar. With SC2 it appears they were no longer hiding it, with Reapers and drop pods being blatant ripoffs of iconic Warhammer 40k units.

Why has Games Workshop never sued Blizzard over StarCraft?

Rumors? Check this art from Starcraft 1:

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I agree that giving zerg a human face was a stupid idea, but apparently that's good for marketing and your average player seems to want that shit.

At least until they don't. They liked SC1 because they played it as children with no taste, then were surprised that SC2's writing didn't grow up with them after they invented a perfect nostalgic vision of SC in their heads. I've noticed that players only ever like these stories if they're introduced to them as children and form irrational emotional attachments and headcanons to plug the many plot holes. All Blizzard stories are derivative garbage. Whenever they do have interesting original ideas, like trying to make the Zerg more talky than your typical faceless ravenous hive, they inevitably botch and butcher the execution.

GW did the same to Necrons and it was shit there too. Went from a cosmic horror to flanderized space egyptians.

I can understand wanting to give the Necrons more personality. As it was, there wasn't really much you could do with the oldcrons as a storytelling tool unless you had really creative writers. They just killed everything in their path and that was it. They didn't have proximate goals or anything like that.

But there are a lot better ways they could've gone with the newcrons rather than outright discarding everything that came before and replacing it with nonsense about all the necrons being butthurt about biotransference and wanting to reverse it so they could once again live short pitiful lives full of nothing but pain. I can understand wanting to experience the pleasures of the flesh, but giving up immortality after all that suffering sounds fucking stupid. The pariahs could've been perfect for this role, an experiment in creating cyborgs who combined immortality with biological sensory organs, but nope they got retconned out of existence.

I see this same stupid shit with every single IP I ever bother to explore. Every single IP turns to shit eventually and loses what drew you in the first place. And that's assuming it hasn't been lost to time because of stupid copyright law lockout. Conversely, big IPs form monopolies over whole fucking genres and markets that prevent anyone else from being creative or competing in the same space, making pop culture bland and homogenous. I now hate the entire concept of IP and I couldn't be happier that corpos are now burning through all their IPs at record rate, leaving a media landscape of nothing but ash in every direction.