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[PA Comic] Monday, August 6, 2012 - Fleamium

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Posts

  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    MuddBudd wrote: »
    Right. And they need to figure out how to deal with that, or they WILL be in trouble. But this lawsuit isn't going to be the thing that takes them down. It will keep their stock price low, though.

    Definitely this. I don't expect it to be a silver bullet, but it's a piece of the puzzle. Credibility is a bigger thing than they imagine and this will hopefully be a humbling experience for them.

  • MuddBuddMuddBudd Registered User regular
    Henroid wrote: »
    MuddBudd wrote: »
    Right. And they need to figure out how to deal with that, or they WILL be in trouble. But this lawsuit isn't going to be the thing that takes them down. It will keep their stock price low, though.

    Definitely this. I don't expect it to be a silver bullet, but it's a piece of the puzzle. Credibility is a bigger thing than they imagine and this will hopefully be a humbling experience for them.

    I hope to god so. I suspect the problem with them making the Zynga version of, well... everything, stems from the top down. With the resources and people they have, they could be making a lot more original stuff. That's riskier though.

    There's no plan, there's no race to be run
    The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
  • mato-andrewmato-andrew Registered User regular
    Henroid wrote: »
    MuddBudd wrote: »
    Right. And they need to figure out how to deal with that, or they WILL be in trouble. But this lawsuit isn't going to be the thing that takes them down. It will keep their stock price low, though.

    Definitely this. I don't expect it to be a silver bullet, but it's a piece of the puzzle. Credibility is a bigger thing than they imagine and this will hopefully be a humbling experience for them.

    Humbling experiences aside, I don't see them surviving long-term without a widely imaginative series of changes to their product catalog. Assuming EA wins the actual suit rather than taking a settlement, this will open up the legal floodgates so-to-speak for all the smaller guys who couldn't afford the costs of long-term litigation before. What was an unlikely chance to win before now becomes almost guaranteed win. The thing I think no one really is considering however will be that we won't hear of a judgement in this case for well over a year or two even after this goes to court. Who knows? Maybe Zynga will fold before the ever trial concludes.

    They're gathered like wolves on the boardwalk below, howling for answers no wolves can know!
  • MuddBuddMuddBudd Registered User regular
    Honestly I don't think EA will win this. Zynga had YoVille out years ago, and probably had The Ville in development long before Sims Social came out.

    We'll see once more details emerge.

    There's no plan, there's no race to be run
    The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    I don't know, the evidence is pretty damning. Using the exact same RGB values for skin tone is frankly hilariously incredible. If anything is a smoking gun, that is.

    Switch: 2143-7130-1359 | 3DS: 4983-4927-6699 | Steam: warlock82 | PSN: Warlock2282
  • MuddBuddMuddBudd Registered User regular
    I wasn't aware EA had copyrighted skin tones.

    There's no plan, there's no race to be run
    The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    Out of 16 billion color selections, Zynga just happened, by complete chance, to pick the EXACT same skin tones as EA?

    Switch: 2143-7130-1359 | 3DS: 4983-4927-6699 | Steam: warlock82 | PSN: Warlock2282
  • MuddBuddMuddBudd Registered User regular
    Warlock82 wrote: »
    Out of 16 billion color selections, Zynga just happened, by complete chance, to pick the EXACT same skin tones as EA?

    Oh, no, I agree it must have been intentional. But still, it's skin.

    There's no plan, there's no race to be run
    The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    MuddBudd wrote: »
    I wasn't aware EA had copyrighted skin tones.

    That's not the point. It's evidence of directly copied values and coding of the game. Like I said, it's not on the level of the Chinese company that copied Torchlight, but it's fucking up there. All the personality types between EA's game and Zynga's are the same, just differently worded. The layout of the starting home is more or less mirror-imaged in Zynga's version. And even the kinds of animations are the same (presented proof was "evil" characters doing the same hand-rub thing).

    RGB values are something where a + or - here and there will still generally have the same color, in a sense. But exact same values for three fields ranging from 0 to 255 is not just coincidence.

  • FandeathisFandeathis Registered User regular
    Henroid wrote: »
    MuddBudd wrote: »
    I wasn't aware EA had copyrighted skin tones.

    That's not the point. It's evidence of directly copied values and coding of the game. Like I said, it's not on the level of the Chinese company that copied Torchlight, but it's fucking up there. All the personality types between EA's game and Zynga's are the same, just differently worded. The layout of the starting home is more or less mirror-imaged in Zynga's version. And even the kinds of animations are the same (presented proof was "evil" characters doing the same hand-rub thing).

    RGB values are something where a + or - here and there will still generally have the same color, in a sense. But exact same values for three fields ranging from 0 to 255 is not just coincidence.

    And this right here is why EA is going to win the lawsuit.

    You fuck wit' Die Antwoord, you fuck wit' da army.
  • TomantaTomanta Registered User regular
    edited August 2012
    So from what I am gathering, not only did they steal from EA they didn't even try to hide it.

    If they go down, think Facebook's stock takes a hit as well?

    Tomanta on
  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    Tomanta wrote: »
    So from what I am gathering, not only did they steal from EA they didn't even try to hide it.

    If they go down, think Facebook's stock takes a hit as well?

    How will you be able to tell? Not like their stock is worth anything to begin with :)

    Switch: 2143-7130-1359 | 3DS: 4983-4927-6699 | Steam: warlock82 | PSN: Warlock2282
  • GundiGundi Serious Bismuth Registered User regular
    To add yet another colorful metaphor Zynga is like that really annoying evil villian in a fantasy story who is neither competent or cool who inevitably does something like try to summon a demon to prevent their scheme's collapse but instead get dragged to hell. Or the fantasy equivalent. Possibly Boston in rush hour. Anyway, it's really satisfying to watch.

  • Chris FOMChris FOM Registered User regular
    'Doing it for the little guy' is clearly corporate PR spin, they're in it for their own reasons and no more. It doesn't change the fact that if they do stick through and get a judgement rather than a settlement it will massively help the little guy.

    I think they know how many eyes are on this case. I can't imagine, with their (relatively) recent attempts to woo the indie scene, that they are entirely opposed to helping out the little guys from time to time.

    They certainly went after Langdell far after their own interests had been satisfied. EA pushed so hard that the final judgment basically required Langdell to send letters to everyone that had licensed "Edge" from him say that a court of law had found him to be a fraud and he owed everyone a refund. EA seriously tore him a new asshole, then tore him three more just to be sure. It was one of the most one-sided legal smackdowns I've seen in a long time.

  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    edited August 2012
    My favorite part of that lawsuit was the computer disks he claimed were from the 80s or something, and someone found them formatted in FAT32/Windows 95 format :D

    Warlock82 on
    Switch: 2143-7130-1359 | 3DS: 4983-4927-6699 | Steam: warlock82 | PSN: Warlock2282
  • MichelanvaloMichelanvalo Registered User regular
    It's entirely possible that for all their giant conglomeration of developers that EA is seeing the next wave of profits to be from smaller budgeted indie games and using their giant legal team to keep that scene intact and thriving could be in their best interests.

  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    Warlock82 wrote: »
    My favorite part of that lawsuit was the computer disks he claimed were from the 80s or something, and someone found them formatted in FAT32/Windows 95 format :D

    It's still hysterical as all hell to me, I can't believe that happened.

  • ShenShen Registered User regular
    "What the hell kind of news post was that? You could have at least double spaced it."

    :lol:

    3DS: 2234-8122-8398 | Battle.net (EU): Ladi#2485
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  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    Shen wrote: »
    "What the hell kind of news post was that? You could have at least double spaced it."

    :lol:

    Haha that's great. Kind of my reaction too. Extremely brief for a Tycho news post :)

    Switch: 2143-7130-1359 | 3DS: 4983-4927-6699 | Steam: warlock82 | PSN: Warlock2282
  • ewokfuzzynuttzewokfuzzynuttz Spanaway, WaRegistered User regular
    two money whoring companies fighting each other, WHERES THE POPCORN!

    XBL-ewokfuzzynuttzz
  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Henroid wrote: »
    I really like this comic.

    Zynga is out of their fucking minds. They already responded to EA's lawsuit announcement saying they're going to fight back. They're pretty much saying, "We're going to court to get smacked down." I actually dislike the company. It's their culture. Buy everything small, copy other people's products. Like not just the premise, it's like copy EVERYTHING.

    How do you expect them to respond? "Mea culpa! YOU GOT US! HAVE A BILLION BOONDOLLARS"?

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • TossrockTossrock too weird to live too rare to dieRegistered User regular
    Henroid wrote: »
    I really like this comic.

    Zynga is out of their fucking minds. They already responded to EA's lawsuit announcement saying they're going to fight back. They're pretty much saying, "We're going to court to get smacked down." I actually dislike the company. It's their culture. Buy everything small, copy other people's products. Like not just the premise, it's like copy EVERYTHING.

    How do you expect them to respond? "Mea culpa! YOU GOT US! HAVE A BILLION BOONDOLLARS"?

    no public statement, out of court settlement?

    sig.png
  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    They can still settle out of court. There was nothing damning about their statement.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    Gabe's newspost about Outernauts makes me think he is discovering facebook games for the very first time. Every complaint he has is the problem with every facebook game.

    What is this I don't even.
  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    Henroid wrote: »
    I really like this comic.

    Zynga is out of their fucking minds. They already responded to EA's lawsuit announcement saying they're going to fight back. They're pretty much saying, "We're going to court to get smacked down." I actually dislike the company. It's their culture. Buy everything small, copy other people's products. Like not just the premise, it's like copy EVERYTHING.

    How do you expect them to respond? "Mea culpa! YOU GOT US! HAVE A BILLION BOONDOLLARS"?

    "No comment" works. It's not necessarily that they said they're going to fight back, it's how they went about it (like saying EA doesn't understand copyright law, or accusing EA of copying a city building game which EA is kinda known for). It's the blend of arrogance and stupidity.

  • HenroidHenroid Mexican kicked from Immigration Thread Centrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
    They can still settle out of court. There was nothing damning about their statement.

    I hope EA doesn't go for it. I don't think settlements necessarily give the impact of establishing that something wrong was done or some violation was made.

  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    This isn't about artistic integrity, it's about money.

    Zynga will try to make the court case last as long as possible to try and pressure EA into settling.

    And to what someone asked earlier: Nothing here prevents Zynga from suing EA, and you can't copyright 'concepts,' you copyright things that are expressed in a tangible medium.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Gabe's newspost about Outernauts makes me think he is discovering facebook games for the very first time. Every complaint he has is the problem with every facebook game.
    He did say that he's not a Facebook person and that created a Facebook account just for this game, so that's sort of right, be he also said that it's "one of those games" that does XYZ which he has a problem with, so it sounds like he knows that other games are like this too. He's just saying he doesn't like it and explaining why.

  • Ryan A. ElliottRyan A. Elliott Registered User regular
    I...I just can't get angry at something that has a dog as being anywhere apart of it.

    Dogs are the greatest.

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