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Postal Wins Court Case Brought by USPS
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out a press release announcing Postal developer Running With Scissors has been ruled victorious in a court case brought by the United States Postal Service. This seems to be the culmination of a trademark suit which began in 1997 after the release of the original Postal, as the USPS commented "All of us at the Postal Service have a sense of humor, but there is nothing funny about your game 'Postal'", and then tried to prove the Postal Service has a proprietary use of the word 'Postal'. Running With Scissors have fun with this legal resolution: "With unlimited financial resources comes unlimited ego. POSTAL and POSTAL 2 represent everything the USPS isn't: a successful private enterprise that will never have to rely on an irrevocable government contract to keep its pockets perpetually lined with cash."
successful private enterprise ... crap
Now I don't think anyone that has looked into Postal 2 at all would call it successful, (Read this review
But I suppose it is successful at being a simulation of the USPS, that is
redune.com: The World 3.2 Megapixels at a time
It's like the 2 Live Crew of video games. While greatly appreciative of the fact that they've fought on behalf of free speech, I have to say that neither is all that great once you actually get a chance to purchase it. GTA3 is probably the 'edgiest' game that has managed to provide a good gaming experience (although I'm open to hearing about others).
The game Postal was named such so as to be like the phrase "going postal", which generically refers to getting angry to the point of snapping, sometimes resulting in violence.
The term stemmed from a rash of violent incidents in which postal workers came into their office (their post office) and would shoot up the place - sometimes due to inane stress levels and buracracy, other times because of being fired.
Why this happened mostly in post offices is anyone's guess, but the aforementioned buracracy, the pre-email volumes of mail causing stress, and the fact that since it was a government institution, striking was illegal.
Ergo, the game Postal took its name from a slang term, which took its name from the office where workplace violence was more or less common, and the reasons stemmed from the USPS themselves.
In short, it's the USPS' fault that the game got named that way. This is no different than Google trying to sue for the use of the slang term "google", except that Google's repsonse time is quicker. Oh, and no one gets killed when you go google.
Schnapple
does anyone remember the fact that only months after this suit was filed, more(CNN December 1997) than (CNN September 1997) one postal worker opened fire on his co-workers?
My experience being a contract letter carrier has exposed me to some of the 'behind-the-scenes' action at the USPS. What good times there are, tossing around packages labelled FRAGILE (hey, they weren't insured!) and opening your Playboy magazines before they get into your grabby little hands.
But in all seriousness, postal workers are generally more than happy to let you know that the Post Office is, statistically, one of the safer jobs in America. The fact that they are the largest employer in the country, second to the Armed Forces, explains the prevalence of 'going postal'. Postal workers don't flip out more than normal people, there's just so many of them. And when one goes and wipes out a whole zip codes worth of mailmen, it causes a sensation and suddenly all of those boys in those snappy blue suits are hellbent on destruction and mayhem. In the eyes of the media anyways. But we all know that it's the postmaster who you have to watch out for.
Fun fact: postmasters are all issued M16 assault rifles and flak jackets which they keep in their lockers, just in case.