Depressing news

[Bones]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I mean to be clear an IP owner doesn't need "easy legal ammo" to enforce their IP. They can get an injunction whenever they want.

The one thing I think that goes against the population argument is that when Green launched there were over 2,000 people on the server and Daybreak didn't try to pull any shenanigans to try to revoke the agreement. Quarm has had a lot of people on it too, and Daybreak just asked them to remove certain custom content and agree not to go past a certain expansion (IIRC). They seem to understand there is a certain amount of goodwill/PR by allowing emulated servers to exist, but they have historically had a problem if they think you're going to try and monetize it.

You have valid points, but DBG has had multiple leadership changeovers since P99's peak who were more friendly toward the EQemu and p99 communities. This is fairly well known. DBG wasnt bought out until 2020 by EG7. Smedly left in 2015, was replaced, and his replacement was gone in 2016. I mean its really not the same situation. Quarm and P99 at the peakest of peaks didnt have anywhere near the same pop as THJs peak and it attracted different crowds. THJ was pulling directly from retail players, where as P99 and Quarm and any other more classic style iteration have only been attractive toward a niche crowd of old school EQ lovers who havent touched retail EQ in a long time. They saw P99 and Quarm or even Al'Kabor was not pulling their players away or affecting their revenue. The whole argument that monetizing it suddenly is a problem just falls flat to me. Why would the company suddenly care if someone else is profiting if its not affecting their revenue at all? Seems like being petty/spiteful more than "protecting their IP". Doesn't make sense, which means it must have been affecting their revenue more than them just being upset someone else is making money.

I want to be clear im not trying to justify their cash shop or making tons of money off THJ, I just outright reject the narrative that it was mainly because of that reason. The P99 community has been vehemently opposed to RMT since the start, and its ingrained in the culture, so when they see THJ getting shut down and one of the key differences is that they monetized it, the players here want to assume that's the reason because of their deeply seeded hatred of RMT. They a corporation, they are calculated. They arent going to stir the pot just out of spite. They could clearly see THJ was affecting their revenue, it was being advertised ALL over the place with multiple EQ content creators on youtube and other social media gushing over THJ while simultaneously trashing DBG for inferior product.

[cd288]

Originally Posted by Bones [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Quarm and P99 at the peakest of peaks didnt have anywhere near the same pop as THJs peak

We don't know that though? THJ's active log in peak record of ~4k was decently higher than P99's peak (which I think was a little above ~3k as the most ever), but typically averaged ~1,700 users online. We know THJ had 30,000 accounts created, but we don't have insight into how many of those were actual unique users vs additional accounts created by one user. We also don't know how many total accounts P99 has (and again, the same problem would occur where we don't know how many are truly a unique player rather than multiple accounts tied to one player).

[QUOTE=Bones;3765322]Why would the company suddenly care if someone else is profiting if its not affecting their revenue at all?/QUOTE]

I'm confused by this question. Basically every company doesn't like it when someone is profiting off their IP. The theory (whether accurate or not) being that if someone is spending money on your IP via that unauthorized third party's monetization of it, then it's money you might otherwise see as the IP holder that you're now losing. Every company looks at it this way. Monetizing another company's IP is basically a guaranteed way to get sued by the IP holder...especially in the gaming industry.

It's why for example mods, even complete overhaul mods, are allowed to exist for games but if you try and monetize it the studio shuts you down.

[sammoHung]

Originally Posted by Bones [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Why would the company suddenly care if someone else is profiting if its not affecting their revenue at all? .

That's how IP works. Only you can profit off of your legally held IP.

I agree with your points, though. But I do think once Daybreak legal saw that THJ was operating a marketplace, their tune might have changed from sending a Cease and Desist to outright lawsuit.

[cd288]

Originally Posted by sammoHung [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That's how IP works. Only you can profit off of your legally held IP.

I agree with your points, though. But I do think once Daybreak legal saw that THJ was operating a marketplace, their tune might have changed from sending a Cease and Desist to outright lawsuit.

Yeah I think if THJ hadn't monetized it, Daybreak might have taken the approach they did with Quarm which was to tell them to make certain changes, remove certain content, and agree not to monetize.

Now, maybe the changes they would've demanded to THJ's content would've made it so that it defeated the point of playing on the server, but the server technically could've continued to exist in the modified form.