Blizzard Wins $88 Million Lawsuit.

[Deathshot]

Here's a tip for you: Unless you are very, very rich, do not charge people money to play an unauthorized World of Warcraft server. This lesson was learned the expensive way by Scapegaming. The one-woman company was recently ordered to pay Blizz $88,594,539.00. You could buy like 45 hamburgers with that kind of money! The 88-million dollar fee is mainly made up of statutory damages, with only $3 million representing money collected by Scapegaming in the form of players paying microtransactions for unauthorized World of Warcraft content.

If I had to bet, I'd put my money on Blizzard never seeing this cash, however. The $88 mil was a default judgment, and I seriously doubt a person/company that would not bother to defend itself against this kind of lawsuit is good for the money. All of this screams: Fly-by-night operation, ready to disappear at a moment's notice to me.
Whether "Scapegaming" will appear again, with a new name, remains to be seen, but with the kind of profit possible, it wouldn't surprise me at all.

Read more: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/706936/Blizzard-Wins-88-Million-Lawsuit.html#ixzz0wuBKTjcR

 

[Prozac]

Well deserved.

 

[Deathshot]

Maybe they will crack down on Private Servers hard finally.

 

[Synth]

I saw this coming.

And it's funny how Blizzard expects someone to pay them 88 million dollars.

 

[Deathshot]

I mean she is kinda forced to now...

 

[Viper]

LOL!!!!
That's the owner of the server where I started playing WOW.
I left it when the server started getting ****ed up. We all knew how much money she was making, yet the hardware for the server never got upgraded. Instead any posts mentioning the issue were deleted and the posters banned.
That was 3-4 years ago and I still can't believe how stupid most of the players there were. Paying more money for items than they would've paid for the monthly subscription.
Well, I'm happy to see Blizzard winning the lawsuit.

 

[MrPlow]

Private servers like that are bad but not all private servers are...
Few years ago i got WoW as a birthday present and i wasn't aware that i have to pay a monthly subscription which i sadly couldn't afford so i quit. After a while i found a blizzlike private server and i could enjoy the game. Sure it was buggy and laggy but even with that i had fun. Now am i a pirate? I don't know. IMO you shouldn't pay a monthly subscription for something you already own. I mean if Guild Wars could do it...

 

[Deathshot]

Private servers like that are bad but not all private servers are...
Few years ago i got WoW as a birthday present and i wasn't aware that i have to pay a monthly subscription which i sadly couldn't afford so i quit. After a while i found a blizzlike private server and i could enjoy the game. Sure it was buggy and laggy but even with that i had fun. Now am i a pirate? I don't know. IMO you shouldn't pay a monthly subscription for something you already own. I mean if Guild Wars could do it...

If you owned Blizzard you would do the same. All about the money.

 

[D2]

Private servers like that are bad but not all private servers are...
Few years ago i got WoW as a birthday present and i wasn't aware that i have to pay a monthly subscription which i sadly couldn't afford so i quit. After a while i found a blizzlike private server and i could enjoy the game. Sure it was buggy and laggy but even with that i had fun. Now am i a pirate? I don't know. IMO you shouldn't pay a monthly subscription for something you already own. I mean if Guild Wars could do it...

Hmmm.. but does guildwars has the same customer support (which is completely free) the immense content, stable servers (World wide) etc etc?

So I don't think its a bad thing askin for a small fee. it's like TV.. you own your TV set but u still have to pay for cable/dish etc. And the choice is yours whether to play or not, they aren't forcing you to play.
I'm al for Fee's if it means a constant quality of service and new content.

 

[Deathshot]

Hmmm.. but does guildwars has the same customer support (which is completely free) the immense content, stable servers (World wide) etc etc?

So I don't think its a bad thing askin for a small fee. it's like TV.. you own your TV set but u still have to pay for cable/dish etc. And the choice is yours whether to play or not, they aren't forcing you to play.
I'm al for Fee's if it means a constant quality of service and new content.

Actually... Guild Wars does have stable servers and... better Customer Support. WoW GM Tickets take up to atleast 4 days to get fixed.... Guild Wars would take maybe an hour or 2 at most...

 

[D2]

I never had to wait 4 days for a ticked XD
EU service maybe better

 

[MrPlow]

Well yea ofcourse it's all about the money, and yea i would probably do the same if i were in blizzards shoes.. but what i was trying to say is that private servers can be a nice alternative. Let's say you like WoW but you're currently short on cash... you can hop on private servers and have a little fun there and then when you resolve your financial problems you can always come back to the better original.

 

[Prozac]

EU and American customer support handle both continents these days.
They also do filter tickets, they push back retarded and stupid tickets and prioritize the important ones. Saving the others for when it's a little less busy.
Basically, don't be a retard, don't contact a gm over trivial stuff you should get a reply within a few hours.

 

[kam!]

Guildwars was free because non-town areas were all instanced, with like 4 players max. Whenever you're not in town, one person in your group hosts the game, so to speak. In WoW everything except instanced dungeons is run on blizz servers. That's what you pay for.

 

[Baaja]

Wow I didn't know that...I have to say that is quite smart by the makers of Guild Wars...:S Probably done many times before, but never figured!