Slashdot Mirror
Mythic Sues Microsoft Over Mythica MMORPG
An anonymous reader writes "Mythic Entertainment, developers of PC MMO videogame Dark Age of Camelot, has filed suit against Microsoft, arguing that Microsoft's upcoming MMORPG Mythica is too similar in name and content (it 'also employs Norse images and mythology') to its own name and flagship title. Maybe if game developers could dream up a genre other than fantasy, problems like this would be averted..."
Now I know why my Elven Archer was set back to level zero and an 'a' was added to the splash screen.
Maybe if game developers could dream up a genre other than fantasy, problems like this would be averted...
How about this exciting new genre: plumbers, drywallers and electricians duke it out for world supremecy!
I couldn't help but to grin at this:
"We would expect Microsoft to react no differently if someone launched an operating system called Microsofta just as Microsoft did when confronted with an operating system called Lindows," Mythic President and Chief Executive Mark Jacobs said."
While I got a kick out of it at first, it sort of seems to validate Microsoft's lawsuit. It certainly is an amusing twist of irony, though.
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
You meant to say Microsoft is suing Mythica, right?
...direct descendants of King Arthur are suing Mythic for unauthorized use of the his namesake.
Chicks dig my good /. karma.
I hope Microsoft wins this lawsuit.
This is stupid. No other company can make a RPG that features Norse gods?? Its not like they were invented by that company.
Do you realize how silly I'd look with my new "hobbit" foot and ear implants if fantasy becomes passe?
... because when I first heard of it, I was immediately confused, because I didn't remember Mythic making any any MMO of the sort (I play DAoC).
But as far as the content, best of luck to them. DAoC was brilliant in that it didn't rely on some license for the core game (like Star Wars), but they also didn't just make something up out of the blue. Mythic took heavily from already-existing Norse mythology, Arthurian legends, Camelot, etc, and put it all together in a surprisingly good story. If somebody else does the same thing, what sort of legal leg do they have to stand on?
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
Umm, maybe when someone invents a new genre that still gives me a reason to airbrush naked chicks on unicorns onto my van, THEN I will give up on fantasy. Until then, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
sig:
See the "..for smart people" banners Wired runs here? Look elsewhere guys.
I've given that quite a bit of thought... but realistically, what new genre could you devise that would be fun to play?
A Sci-Fi setting is about as close as you can get for that sort of gameplay... and that's stretching it. It's Fantasy-Sci-Fi at that point. As AO amply demonstrated, the whole Sci-Fi themed RPG on a computer doesn't work out so well, and ends up being pretty silly.
Fantasy is really the only theme you can have and be "believable," as far as believability in that sort of setting goes.
Once you move up technologically/time period wise, you have something completely different. Why, you ask? Simply because combat becomes something less personal (which personal is the whole focus of MMORPGs) and more destructive.
Any time period set in current day and the future has the potential to have weapons of mass destruction, making game play decidedly un-fun when a nuke comes in and wipes out your whole city without you being able to do anything about it. The fact is, medieval/fantasy is about the only realm you can safely have interactive person-to-person RPGs (note I said RPG, not FPS) and have them remain fun. That's simply because it's more of a drawn out conflict between people, whereas anything set in modern day or the future is a conflict between equipment and wars of attrition, not skill.
I dislike fantasy books, but love SF books. I would love to see a game based on SF... but the more I've thought about it, there's not one single SF themed multiplayer game that I think would be fun without borrowing heavily from fantasy. It's all about personal combat, in the end, and nothing caters to that like fantasy.
I'm sorry, but Linux was in the wrong that time; MS was in the right.
What "Mickey Mouse" type of thinking is that?
....Or perhaps Microsoft took the name from another fantasy game, Myth. Developed by wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, Bungie, and also employing elements of norse mythology.
It's called SIMS Online
.sigs are for post^Hers.
Microsoft is not being sued because it's making a norse gods game. It's being sued because it made a norse god game that's called MYTHICA. Y'see, to establish trademark violation, you have to establish TWO THINGS. First, you have to establish that the trademark is sufficiently similar. Second, you have to establish that the two names in question are for products which are in the same market and could confuse customers. If Microsoft named renamed Microsoft Word to Microsoft Mythica, it'd be fine. But it didn't. It gave the name Mythica that is very similar to another product with an existing similar trademark. Game set and match -- Microsoft will go down on this one for certain.
doesn't own Myth anymore.
I thought exactly the same as you when I read this at first, except that Bungie divested itself of the Myth "franchise", a less than brilliant move that seemed to be part of the acquisition deal when they were kidnapped by Microsoft.
Actually, I remember vividly that all copies of Myth II for all platforms were recalled by Microsoft within hours of the acquisition. It took several months to locate a store that still had the Loki published Linux version of Myth II, and to this day, you can still no longer purchase a Windows or Mac version of Myth II. Myth III was released by someone else.
Bungie is not referred to on that page about Mythica, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out.
-- Len
But the bigger argument about Lindows vs. Windows is that Windows shouldn't have been given trademark. That would be like Ford trademarking "Car".
News Release
Ford Motor Company has just released Car v4.8. In other news, Ford sues General Motors for releasing a new compact "car".
MS should lose the trademark on the Windows name. Lindows may indeed be playing off the Windows name, but the windows name is far too generic. Many operating systems have for 20 years used "windows" as a primary feature of their graphical interfaces.
.sigs are for post^Hers.
Ok, you got me, that's still fantasy.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
And didn't Microsoft buy Bungie? Seems Mythic doesn't have a tripod to stand on. Maybe Robert Graves, Edith Hamilton, and a few other authors should sue all us fantasy gamers for stealing their thunderbolts. Anyone remember when you had to name your game X&X (ala D&D) to sell your game at all (oh I guess that would be Dungeon or Adventure to the early video game crowd).
The mythology of Arthur puts the time period way before 1200 AD. The pre-romantic story, derived from Celtic mythology, via Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, and Layamon, and appearing in the second book of Malory (in the form of a rip-off of a C14th epic poem, the so-called Alliterative Morte Arthur), tells of the Roman emperor Lucius, who demanded tribute from the Britons; Arthur refused to pay, and invaded Rome instead. But at the moment of his victory he was suddenly called home, his throne having been usurped, and he was killed in the civil war that ensued.
Most of the stuff about damsels in distress was added later by the French, who admittedly applied a liberal coating of 1200-ness to the story, but only because that's when they wrote their versions; that's just like today's modern-dress productions of Shakespeare.
We're always amused as The Next Big Game looms on the horizon.... Did you know that DAoC was going to kill EverQuest's role as the #1 MMORPG? No? Perhaps that's because you were waiting for Neverwinter Nights? Star Wars Galaxies? PlanetSide? Anarchy Online?
;-)
Perhaps you have not learned your lesson and are waiting for WoW?
It amazes me that each new game comes out and again misses the point. It's not the graphics (most long-term EQ players turn off all the bells and whistles they can); it's not the storyline (the EQ storyline reads like Christopher Tolkein on quayludes); it's not the marketing (when is the last time you saw an add for SWG, NWN or DAoc? Now what about EQ? I think EQ gets less press than the Slash engine
So what is it? It's the fact that the game is large enough and growing to absorb enough user-base that there is a community that has real staying power... somehow, THAT is what another game needs to replicate, and it emphasizes all of the things that most game companies do not want to spend money on... Perhaps Sigil will get it right. they did once before....
I used to play DAOC. I used to love DAOC. But a creator of new ideas DAOC is not.
Dark Age uses the most widespread, obvious and well-known cultural and mythological references for its game world.
We must remember that Mythic's case against Microsoft constitutes a claim of ownership over these themes.
For once Microsoft is right.
Mythic: you should have been more original if you wanted something protectable.
Verdict goes to the defendant.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
No, rather it would be like Ford Motor Company releasing a car range called the SteeringWheel (tm). Perfectly fine, another company could not release a car range called the same, but it could still use steering wheel technology within it.
By the way, I just happen to have mod points. Found a comment more constructive, though.
An exciting new genre indeed!
Quack, quack.
roll a 20 sided die to decide this?
->Jeff
The Rocky Horror Picture Show?
The Geek in Black
I know my BCD's (when I'm Sober)
Um. Not an expert in this stuff but awhile back I read an interesting book on the history of dark age England and they mentioned that the Venerable Bede (8th century) and the earlier Gildas (6th century) who lived shortly after the events described how Vortigern allowed the Germanic Englisci into Britain as mercenaries and how a war then ensued between them and the Britons. The writers state that the Britons (really the Romanised inhabitants left high and dry after Rome fell) were pushed back but that a leader arose called Arturus who fought successfully but was finally defeated by internal intrigue. Bede went on and on about how the plotters screwed Britain. Sounds like a model for Camelot. I don't know how accurate this all was, the book was pretty scholarly describing in detail the spread of things like buckle designs of Germanic origin at the time etc. Pretty interesting though showing a very different view of the "Dark Ages".
Google around for vortigern bede gildas arthur and you'll see plenty of stuff. For example.
One little quote on that page (which is later but Bede mentions Arthur too):
Bitter and proud of it.
"Oh, and we could have a new acronym: IANALBIPOO (..But I Play One Online)"
.sig for a long time here and would consider any use of IANALBIPOO an infringement of my IP rights.
I'm sorry, but I've been using a similar
IANAL, but I play one on
Scandinavian countries should combine and sue Mythic and Microsoft over use of their Mythology!
This is obviously getting out of hand...
'King' Arthur was a Romanized, Christian Celt and a damned traitor to his people and his culture.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Geoffrey's dates for Arthur have him dying in AD 542. More likely, the events Geoffrey is adapting took place in the AD 470s, though. Badon Hill might be 542, though; I seem to remember that some authorities think it was, others that it wasn't, related to "Arthur." Really complex problem. See the Penguin edition of Geoffrey of Monmouth, *The History of the Kings of Britain*
Oh no, they are using norse and Arthurian legend in a game? heaven forbid their be more than one game of that out there, next you'll be telling me that some company that puts out a world war 2 fps is gonna sue all the other companies that put out a ww2 fps.
jesus christ people, you didn't invent the legends, you based a game on them. Microsoft decided to do the same, for once in my life I am siding with microsoft.
That is it, from this day forth, let it be known that I created egyption history. My first order of business will be to sue the Toledo Museam of Art because they have an Egyption section featuring a MUMMY, and we all know that I thought of mummification first damnit!
Lawsuits lawsuits lawsuits, I f'ing swear. Companies don't make money by producing anything anymore, they just sue each other all day long. First we kill all the lawyers, then all the lawsuit happy morons in this god forsakken country, then we kill ALL CEO's and anyone who still works at SCO.
I would like to mention, my fever is at 103....
--Nuintari
slashdot : where an opinion can be wrong.