Blizzard vs Valve: Drunken favourite uncle brawl
Required reading: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/10...rs-up-vs-valve/Hmm. This is a tricky one. It's kinda sorta a new precedent. The only similar case I can think about is Counterstrike, but in that case Valve hired up the dev team wholesale before releasing CS as a commercial product.
Who owns the labour of love of an amorphous community? Can anyone? Is Valve calling it "DotA 2" sufficiently distancing itself from the original?
I can honestly see both sides of the argument, but I think two of the most beloved game devs entering into a public pissing match is a shame. I think Blizzard are getting ansy about the name because they want to name their new game/SC2 mod "Blizzard DotA". I'd've thought them respectful enough of eachother to share the name. Let Valve make DotA 2, let Blizzard make Blizzard DotA. Let the world be at peace.
--Scythe--
P.S. Please leave aside the similarities between Valve's character concept art and the original War3 character designs. That's a separate kettle'o'fish.
P.P.S.S. Chris, please stay the hell out of this thread.