[WIP] Standards of Hell (Diablo Tribute)

[Streetboat]

They never responded to my email, but I am working on it regardless.

[Streetboat]

Just a quick note, I know I haven't posted in a long time, but I have been veeeery busy this semester. I apologize to everyone who wants this to be worked on, but for a 22-year old still looking at a year of college, it's not easy to make time for this kind of thing. Between juggling schoolwork and a long distance relationship, I don't have much time for this. I want to make it clear that this does NOT mean the project is dead, but I'm merely taking a break from it until I sort things out with my schedule. Thanks for hanging in there!

[Alex Ros]

Maaaaaan... that's a really dangerous project. Blizzards are very angry at the moment, they are in the process of suing with Valve because of DOTA 2 project. And as you might know at first DOTA was a free mod on MMO Warcraft and Valve just bought the idea and decided to make a self-contained game on their own engine. And that's were Blizzards came out: "What the f**k?!? The DOTA was a mod on OUR game world. It's copyrighted!!!" And they, Blizzards, have already lost some charges. DOTA 2 is going to be released. But suing process is not even nearly finished. As a result at the right particular moment Blizzards are observing their intellectual property kinda extremely aggressively. If I'd be on your place, I'd change ALL the names of the Diablo characters, places, etc... And better not to even think about the usage of original sounds, music, models, etc... Really. Honestly. I have a lot of respect to you personally, StreetBoat. So, please, be very careful. The time itself is not funny for Blizzards, they are really angry and aggressive.

You won't be sued or jailed or whatever of that kind. No, no. It's not like that. They will just ask you (very softly and friendly) to delete your finished (!!!) mod from everywhere. The end of story. And they will NOT tell you anything at all UNTIL the mod will be finished or nearly finished. That's the main problem. You would not even know that something bad is going to happen, until you will be at the stage of a Demo Version. Not earlier.

And, by the way, Diablo characters, story, etc - IS their, Blizzards, intellectual property. And will be theirs for next 50 years, no matter if the company itself will or not exist. Copyrights aren't linked to the company, they're linked to exact persons. It's always that way. And it doesn't matters where do these persons are working at the moment. For example, when you do see something like © 20th Century Fox Pictures it DOESN'T means that copyrights belongs to a company. No. They belongs to a very exact person or persons.

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You just have to change all the characters names, places, etc. And, of course, for good do not use ANYTHING from the original Diablo. And that will be enough. No problems at all! You CAN take the story and ALL twists and turning points. And you CAN take the dialogues (but changed word by word, no exact similarities in words). You don't even need to change anything visually, because all these churches, satanic symbols, knights, etc... aren't charged by copyrights. That's just culture, no copyrights.

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P.S. Don't get me wrong. I'm saying all this with all respect possible to you personally, StreetBoat.

P.P.S. And it's not a joke. It's a very serious things. And it DOESN'T matters if your mod will be for just a few of people-Diablo-fans. It doesn't matters at all.

[Streetboat]

Well that sure puts a hole in my sails. I was planning on going ahead with this regardless, and just say 'go to hell Blizzard', because they aren't even the same company that made the good Diablo games anymore. I did send them an email months ago, and they never responded. I suppose I can keep trying.

Those bastards, stomping all over creativity.

[Alex Ros]

I've read the whole thread. I am not a cheap criticizer, who could came and shit a big stinking pile, without even noticing where am I. And I know you've send a letter to them. Also I know you've got no answer. And as long as I am a copywriter for years I can assure you there will be problems. And worst is that you'll get your problems at the latest stage of the development process.

I have invested some hours to look carefully who're exactly those Blizzards as a company. And I would say without doubt they are a typical money-making-oriented corporation. Very big corporation and very greedy. And most of times such a companies has a separate staff of people, whose only job is to monitor any possible infringement of intellectual property. You have already noticed them by yourself, that you're making a mod, based on a first Diablo game. And they do know about your mod, they would not forget about that.

Finally, there is a simple way to make everything unproblematically. I have already made you an offer how to avoid any of the copyright traps. Why can't you just change the names of the characters and places? Why can't you just create your own music and sounds? Isn't it the creativity you're talking about? And I am not trying to pressure you. Please, do not think that way.

[The chaser]

It's not blizzard, it's activision blizzard, it's not WoW the mmo, it's Warcraft 3, (dota was shit btw). Other than that, I doubt they'd take notice of your project Street, so you shouldn't worry too much. But I would agree with Alex in changing names etc and not using their sounds is the safest bet.

I'm pretty sure mixing completely the names of the characters will confuse the players XD

Now, this is serious. You can do a readme which says "All names, sounds and s**t is changed due to the fu**ing blizzard copyright. Sorry for the inconvenience. Hope you enjoy"

I don't like Blizzard. Not even a bit. I hate them. I won't explain why.

[Streetboat]

I pretty much refuse to change the sounds and names. It's not that I can't, it's the purpose of the whole project that I'm going for. It ruins the feeling of the entire thing for the players to go "I know who that's supposed to be, but... ugh". This is why I've always hated copyright laws; everyone knows what you're really saying, but you can't actually say it so some people's panties don't get further twisted for some reason. I don't care what the paperwork says, the current Blizzard did not make the content of Diablo 1, so I believe they have no right to seize this non-profit modification I am doing entirely for my own enjoyment.

I'm keeping the names, places, music and sounds because of the impact that they have. Any other way would be cheating myself, and I can't do that.

[Adrianis]

A most respectable position to take Streetboat, I hope it works out for you. Frankly you haven't got a whole lot to lose - just time that would have been spent making mods anyway, worst you could get is a Cease and Desist letter, at best you make an awesome Diablo tribute. You might just as well have spent a year making another, original mod that never gets released because of X Y or Z, in that case if Z is a cease and desist letter its a better reason than most have for not releasing, right?

[Alex Ros]

StreetBoat, you've made a decision and I do respect that. I am personally will be waiting for a release with a great patience. Even if conversion would be forced to be an "underground" tribute And most of all I wish Luck be on your side, because a lot of things are in the hands of that tricky bitch. Even copyright laws

I never played Diablo and never will, because I never play 3rd person view games. So for me the whole story will be absolutely intriguing.

Any approx dates of releasing? Maybe not dates, maybe something like... hmm... half-of-year? year? two? I mean maybe there's a decision how much time you're ready to spend on this...

[No Author]

When will it be released ?