Beware the GW legal team

[GalakStarscraper]

Not exactly when it happened, but GW legal strikes again ... gotta love those guys .. I think someone cross breeds humans with pit bulls in their spare time.

This link USED to work:
http://www.alchemy-entertainment.com/ga ... -info.html

It was a link to a company called Alchemy Entertainment which made a game called Bloody Bowl for the PC. It was clearly based on Blood Bowl ... heck their advertisment even admitted that it was based on Blood Bowl.

Andy Hall told us that the lawyers are on it. .... well the sites gone and I cannot find anything on the company on the net now.

GW legal strikes again .... I think all use GW hobby sites fear a letter from GW legal ... but its nice to see them have the ability to protect their rights.

Galak

[Zombie]

Hey, i'm all for it. If this can help them protect their investment and make more money, then we won't have to pay for it in the end with increased prices.

They could even make you take your PbeM toll offline for all i care. It's not like i'm ever gonna use it anyway.

Hide it well and deep Galak!

[Dragoonkin]

The difference with PBeM and SkiJunkie's Java is that they're not selling it...as opposed to admitting that you're "borrowing" from somewhere. (And Alchemy borrowed hard...their Death Roller made my eyes roll.)

[dakkakhan]

Of course the cost of retaining said pitbull-human cross breeds and paying for their legalese courses probably will cancel any of those savings but whatever, it is GW's property, and I'm addicted.

[keith_reed]

Zombie's level of negativism never ceases to shock and amaze.

If you have such a vendetta against Galak, why participate in this forum? It seems it would make more sense for you to associate with like minded individuals.

[GalakStarscraper]

They could even make you take your PbeM toll offline for all i care. It's not like i'm ever gonna use it anyway.

Hide it well and deep Galak!

Don't need to. While GW can never officially endorse the PBeM tool or SkiJunkie's program ... they have no intention of shutting us down at this time either.

Andy was going to run an article on the PBeM tool in BB Mag #4. However GW legal pulled it at the last minute saying that it was too close to the line of appearing to not protect their copyrights. (House Rulez #4 will run that article instead). So GW cannot run an article on the PBeM tool or SkiJunkie's program because it blurs the line of protecting their copyrights, but legal as a result of the article told Fanatic that they don't have any intention at this time in pursuing any of the electronic BB programs distributed for free on the net (IRC, PBeM, SkiJunkie, NetBowl, TowBowl, and CyberNuffle all fall this category).

Nice try Zombie ... try again another day to yank my chain ... this one I've already researched too well for it to work. And I always find it interesting when one man's view of the world includes a throwaway attitude to willingly destroy the enjoyment of so many others if its value is little to their own fullfillment .... must be nice to live in such a myopic microcosmos. There are 15 leagues that I can think of that use electronic BB simulators = 100s of coaches .... glad to see you thinking of them Zombie.

Galak

[Dragoonkin]

I think it's along the lines they realize that all the people who do the Java and PBeM programs are real tried-and-true hardcore Blood Bowl players...and that they're not out to cost GW money or to make money at the expense of GW. Just to make a game they enjoy accessible to more people.

I mean, who's ever heard of someone who plays Blood Bowl EXCLUSIVELY over the internet? Not I.

[Zombie]

Zombie's level of negativism never ceases to shock and amaze.

If you have such a vendetta against Galak, why participate in this forum? It seems it would make more sense for you to associate with like minded individuals.

Keith, you don't know me well at all. I have nothing against Galak, only his ideas. I actually find it's quite a pleasure to argue with or against him, contrary to some other people around here.

[Zombie]

And I always find it interesting when one man's view of the world includes a throwaway attitude to willingly destroy the enjoyment of so many others if its value is little to their own fullfillment .... must be nice to live in such a myopic microcosmos. There are 15 leagues that I can think of that use electronic BB simulators = 100s of coaches .... glad to see you thinking of them Zombie.

How about thinking of the other 10000 who won't use your program or the other ones currently available, but would gladly use a GW made program (if such people exist)?

I didn't say that i wanted them to shut the door on PBeM and others, just that i didn't think it mattered much either way. As long as they replace it with something else, of course, but i thought that was understood.

[GalakStarscraper]

Keith, you don't know me well at all. I have nothing against Galak, only his ideas. I actually find it's quite a pleasure to argue with or against him, contrary to some other people around here.

I try to debate with logic ... logic that differs from your view of BB agreed ... on the same return token, I've always found that the rule arguments by Zombie are good. I used a lot of his suggestions to improve the MBBL2 before he tossed his hands up on the league.

How about thinking of the other 10000 who won't use your program or the other ones currently available, but would gladly use a GW made program (if such people exist)?

I didn't say that i wanted them to shut the door on PBeM and others, just that i didn't think it mattered much either way. As long as they replace it with something else, of course, but i thought that was understood.

Okay IF GW were to replace these products with one of their own, I agree that would be fine. But until then given the popularity of computer play within the normal BB player, I think you'll see the use of free software growing quickly. 2 years ago there was only 1 internet PBeM league, now there are 8. SkiJunkie's tool is growing quickly in popularity as well. One of the next major changes to the PBeM tool that will take a while to add but I'm hoping will work once I dive into the code changes is trying to make it play the game in any language (to get to the other 10,000 players).

I've always said if GW was paying I'd love to see an official version of Blood Bowl that mixed all the best elements from the major free fan based software with decent 3D graphics they'd have a hit. The biggest problem is its a lot of work to keep up with BB rules right now, so it would require GW to be very proactive to release updates each October review if any official rule changes are made.

Galak

[sean newboy]

Of course GW is not interested in an online bloodbowl, no more than they are in online any of their games. They have said this, and the reason why would be? Online games dont sell mini's or any other hard items (terrain, dice, etc). They said this when the first pc warhammer fantasy came out, it was the reason they dint include different races armies (for the player) or multiplayer capacity. If they wont do it for fantasy or 40k, they sure as heck arent intending to do it with bloodbowl, especially since they said they werent pleased with the 1 player pc games they did come out with. Last i knew they still hadnt come out with a console Gorka Morka game like they said was coming out.

[Grumbledook]

Well actually the first warhammer game (shadow of the horned rat) did have multiplayer (or was it dark omen the sequal) because i used to play my mate over the phone line, you were just limited to the troops in the game, so one side was the undead the other was the empire, was a right laugh.

I am looking forward to seeing how warhammer online goes, though its not a conversion of the table top game but more like ulitma online or one of the other mmorpgs.

[sean newboy]

Yes but how much playability is there in a fantasy with few armies and not all the troops? They are only now considering these things now that they can make money online (like eq, ao, eb and such). I still doubt that even if warhammer online makes it that we will see a bb game online from GW.

[Grumbledook]

I don't think we are likly to ever see a straight conversion of any of their games onto the pc, because at the end of the day they are a business and they don't want bite the hand that feeds them. Warhammer online should definatly be coming out, games workshop are working directly with the designers, but as i said its not a conversion of an existing gw game. Anyway i prefer playing BB on the board ;]

[cunningstunt]

what about...

1. firewarrior?

showcased all over the shop was that one, the guys with the flyres at UK gamesday were crazy my friend collected over 10 (4 of wich were from the same guy)

2. warhammer online

see above

3. a propsed project some years back...

they had proposed to introduce an online version of warhammer - with armies, a massive global campaign system etc etc etc (but this was 5th ed time). as far as i can see this has sunk without trace, but some attempt was made.

and anyway, gorka morka was crap. a laser squad style game with necromunda would have been far far better.