Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps.

My first article on the issues of brand licensing and Bobby Kotick's comments pondering the profitability problems that Star Wars: The Old Republic could potentially have due to the amount of money it costs to license the Star Wars franchise received some nice follow-up emails. Many readers sent in emails about why people hold their licenses to their chests and charge so much, when it would logically be better to get the brand name on anything and everything people touch. After all, more products with your logo on them is good, right? Well ... Not really, and not always.

Last week, I confessed to not knowing the amount of money Lucas was going to be paid for the Star Wars license for The Old Republic, but we could surmise that it would be a hefty fee. Readers pointed to an article by Eurogamer that interviews Michael Pachter, a games industry analyst many people know of. He believes that the cut LucasArts will be taking is around 35% of the revenue split after Electronic Arts makes back all of the cash that it puts into the game itself. If that's true, it's pretty astonishing, since LucasArts has so much faith in EA and BioWare to make this game have some intense staying power.

Where World of Warcraft is concerned, Blizzard lives in a different world where rather than have to choose the perfect partner to make the next StarCraft game, it has to operate as the LucasArts-like party, finding the right people to make everything associated with its brands. Where The Old Republic is another Star Wars product, Blizzard's most popular franchise is a game first and a world of products secondary.

Continue reading How much is a brand name license worth? Part 2

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer

How much is a brand name license worth? Part 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps.

Possibly the hottest story over the last few days has been the suspensions and bans Blizzard handed down after the rampant cheating through the Raid Finder, introduced with patch 4.3. Using a loot exploit, guilds were heading in to the Raid Finder in a premade group, killing bosses 20 to 30 times, and distributing the loot amongst raiders well in excess of what the game had hoped to allow for in both mechanics and spirit of the system.

Cheating and MMOs go together as well as peanut butter and chocolate. The top MMO players have been cheating, exploiting, and creatively using game mechanics since the dawn of the modern massively multiplayer, always butting heads up against developers. When, most notably, DREAM Paragon was caught using this Raid Finder loot exploit and apologized publicly, I didn't understand the shock and awe. Back in the EverQuest days, guilds exploited like crazy to get bosses down and gear up for encounters that had so many gates you'd think you were attending a Microsoft cosplay event.

I know, I totally promised a Lawbringer about licensing and Star Wars: The Old Republic and the WoW Law Enforcement Guide this week. Wait another week. I've banned you all from these topics for seven days.

Continue reading The tainted race to world first

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer

The tainted race to world first originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps.

In an oddly unorthodox manner, I'm going to begin this week's Lawbringer with a teaser for next week's edition. Bobby Kotick recently called out Electronic Arts and BioWare for the potential profitability problems that a game like Star Wars: The Old Republic presents when looking at the licensing requirements for such a franchise product. As someone who very much enjoys talking about licensing and the fun details that go along with it, I wanted to save that topic for its own article, which I think you will all get a kick out of.

Kotick's comments got me thinking about licenses and branding and other related topics. Original properties that don't require a license fee to use, like World of Warcraft in relation to what Blizzard spends to use its own intellectual property, is a huge gain as well as a potential backfire.

Many readers have also emailed in questions about the WoW Law Enforcement Guide that AntiSec released detailing how Blizzard interacts with law enforcement agencies and the information they possess. It's a very interesting read, and I've wanted to take the time to put my thoughts together before I responded through an article on The Lawbringer. So don't worry, intrepid link-senders, your cries are not falling on deaf ears. I'm just taking my time.

For now, we place those thoughts on the backburner. Today we have some interesting emails to get through. If you've got a question for The Lawbringer, please send a message with Lawbringer somewhere in the subject to mat@wowinsider.com with your question. I will hopefully be able to help you out with an answer, if not in the column than an email response. Send in those questions!

Continue reading The Lawbringer: They stole my guild charter!

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer

The Lawbringer: They stole my guild charter! originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play?

The non-disclosure agreement, commonly known as the NDA, is a document that the MMO world has come to rely on as a bastion of secrecy, trust, and tempered information release. As the stakes are raised with every new MMO hitting the market and larger beta tests a new necessity, the NDA has come into a new era all its own. The video game industry has never been a stranger to the NDA and, as you might expect, the MMO industry is definitely a friend to this type of agreement.

With private closed betas of MMOs becoming the new normal, sometimes it's very difficult to keep the lid on all of the information your beta provides to the masses. One of the most important public relations tools is the slow drip of information that comes out to hype a new MMO before its release date. Keeping that slow drip going without your stalwart beta testers leaking screenshots, posting anonymously about content, or taking the conversation to inappropriate venues can hurt the precious hype time you've worked so hard to cultivate.

Blizzard is no stranger to harsh NDA issues and secrecy concerns. Back during the alpha for Wrath of the Lich King, huge amounts of information were leaked about the expansion, prompting Blizzard to make uncharacteristically harsh comments toward the leakers. Many people still have the enormous Cataclysm leak still fresh in their minds, as the friends and family alpha/beta of Catacylsm was fileted on the internet, opened for the world to see from every possible angle.

Continue reading The strange world of the NDA

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer

The strange world of the NDA originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play?

After last week's Lawbringer about what happens to the rewards you've accumulated as part of the WoW Annual Pass, many people began sending in questions and comments about the ability to cancel and the nature of agreeing to a year of World of Warcraft service. What many don't realize or just didn't consider was that the WoW Annual Pass is really, truly, a commitment to WoW for a year that also comes with some extras. While you can pay off the year commitment monthly, the commitment stays in place.

People emailed me many different questions and stories about the WoW Annual Pass that I hope I can help with or at least put into some perspective. The ultimate conclusion, for me anyway, is that the WoW Annual Pass is such a new thing, such a different thing, that many people are not accustomed to the way it works, especially after pressing that button and locking in their account for a year.

Continue reading The morals of the WoW Annual Pass story

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer

The morals of the WoW Annual Pass story originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play?

After last week's Lawbringer about what happens to the rewards you've accumulated as part of the WoW Annual Pass, many people began sending in questions and comments about the ability to cancel and the nature of agreeing to a year of World of Warcraft service. What many don't realize or just didn't consider was that the WoW Annual Pass is really, truly, a commitment to WoW for a year that also comes with some extras. While you can pay off the year commitment monthly, the commitment stays in place.

People emailed me many different questions and stories about the WoW Annual Pass that I hope I can help with or at least put into some perspective. The ultimate conclusion, for me anyway, is that the WoW Annual Pass is such a new thing, such a different thing, that many people are not accustomed to the way it works, especially after pressing that button and locking in their account for a year.

Continue reading The morals of the WoW Annual Pass story

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer

The morals of the WoW Annual Pass story originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play?

The WoW Annual Pass is probably one of my favorite things ever to come from Blizzard. I'm going to be playing World of Warcraft for the next 12 months anyway, right? Now I've got a free mount, guaranteed access to the Mists of Pandaria beta, and a free copy of Diablo 3 waiting for me on release day. It doesn't get much better for a die-hard Blizzard fan like myself. This deal is so awesome that I wouldn't be surprised if more games were added to the bundle at some point in the future.

Many players have sent in questions to me about the legality of the commitment and how binding the 12-month commitment really is. What happens when you cancel your subscription to the WoW Annual Pass before your 12 months are paid for? What happens to your Tyrael's Charger, free copy of Diablo 3, and beta access? Where do these perks go if you fail to meet your commitment?

Continue reading What happens if you break the WoW Annual Pass 12-month commitment?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer

What happens if you break the WoW Annual Pass 12-month commitment? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play?

The WoW Annual Pass is probably one of my favorite things ever to come from Blizzard. I'm going to be playing World of Warcraft for the next 12 months anyway, right? Now I've got a free mount, guaranteed access to the Mists of Pandaria beta, and a free copy of Diablo 3 waiting for me on release day. It doesn't get much better for a die-hard Blizzard fan like myself. This deal is so awesome that I wouldn't be surprised if more games were added to the bundle at some point in the future.

Many players have sent in questions to me about the legality of the commitment and how binding the 12-month commitment really is. What happens when you cancel your subscription to the WoW Annual Pass before your 12 months are paid for? What happens to your Tyrael's Charger, free copy of Diablo 3, and beta access? Where do these perks go if you fail to meet your commitment?

Continue reading What happens if you break the WoW Annual Pass 12-month commitment?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer

What happens if you break the WoW Annual Pass 12-month commitment? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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