Slashdot Mirror
Rockstar/EA Tit for Tat in GTA/Simpsons Feud
Last week we discussed how GTA parody elements were pulled from The Simpsons Game after some of Rockstar's lawyers got into the act. Apparently, the folks at EA who made the game are a bit peeved about the aggressive lawyering on Rockstar's part and the wussy lawyering on EA's: "The game begins with Bart wanting to play a game called Grand Theft Scratchy. Of course this is a parody of Grand Theft Auto. And Marge immediately takes it away from him. She tries to clean up the town and stop the game from being distributed in Springfield because Marge is against video game violence. She uses horrific violence to stop video game violence... in a video game... That's called irony. The people who make Grand Theft Auto - they spazzed out like little babies."
They got to protect it by law or lose it.
Senior producer Matt Warburton added, "They're supposed to be rock stars; that's not a big Rockstar move - to be afraid of The Simpsons making fun of their game."
Rockstar are not afraid, they're tired of you guys making money by ripping off their game. There's a difference between poking some fun at another game and making large parts of their games recurrently based on copying Rockstar's game franchise.
You just got troll'd!
That free speech and all is a bitch when its making fun of your product isn't it?
There's a difference between humour in free speech and making money off copying what you've invented and intend to keep making money on. Rockstar didn't base a major part of their games on some other games.
You just got troll'd!
Land of the free, indeed!
There's not much I can add to this conversation. It's a ridiculous lawsuit, and even if it's videogame-related, it still says a lot about the current state of affairs..
Is is just me or does everyone allow the simpsons to get away with blatantly unfunny and lame jokes? "Grand theft scratchy"? That doesnt even make sense! Are you stealing a Scratchy worth a lot of money? Its like they didnt even try. Its certainly not funny. If it was in any other game or franchise people would complain. The simpsons has its moments but for a long time (since about season 9 or 10) its only been making jokes that would have flown in the 1980s. Thats why shows like futurama and family guy are much funnier, they have a more modern style of humor. Family guy is now suffering from the same thing though, its been going slightly downhill and when theres a bad joke i see people say "oh lol thats so random", when its not actually funny. Futurama seems to have a bit more longevity as you can watch the first episode now and its still hilarious, mabye because its jokes are more based on language and word plays. Lets hope the new incarnation is just as good.
The only show i know that has kept up well is south park, it has evolved over the years and now makes relevant and funny jokes for todays audience, whereas if you watch one of the first few episodes youl have a hard time finding something to make you laugh out loud. I remember when I first watched them I almost died laughing. then again I was about 10 at the time.
Im going to get modded down to hell for this but we shouldnt be encouraging unfunny things like this. If everyone reviews it saying "OMG simpsons game is the best its so funny, grand theft scratchy see!!1" they'l keep making bad jokes and it will continue get worse.
Oh yeah, rockstar are being compelte hypocrites too. mabye theyre just pissed because the parodys are so lame?
So Skulldilocks threw acid on the schoolchildrens' faces, cause somebody from the bible told her to do it!