They’re all reborn, what’s wrong with being a little more almighty?

Chapter 139 DOTA is a big piece of fat

Rob Pardo is Blizzard's chief designer. He developed StarCraft, Warcraft, and Blizzard's core product World of Warcraft.

Therefore, Rob Pardo has the absolute right to speak when it comes to game content updates.

The purpose of Zhang Wei coming to Rob Pardo is to promote the DOTA map through Blizzard. It is best to add it to the official map library of Warcraft, so that when the next version is updated, players all over the world can download it. Patch and you will automatically get the DOTA map.

However, based on Zhang Wei’s understanding of Blizzard, it is unlikely that DOTA will directly join the official map pool. After all, the current DOTA map is still in its infancy and is not popular at all. Blizzard definitely cannot see the value of DOTA.

What's more, the corporate culture of Blizzard is just four words: arrogance and greed!
Future gamers who have experienced the suspension of the national server of Warcraft must have a deep understanding of this.

A game company that doesn't respect players and only wants to steal money from them deserves its decline.

Blizzard has gone from being an unrivaled game production giant to making money relying on hype, precisely because of their arrogance and greed.

With Blizzard's arrogance, it will definitely not agree to add maps made by players to the map pool, even if the maker of this map is the WCG world champion.

Blizzard's philosophy has always been that players should play games according to Blizzard's design direction. In other words, Blizzard has the final say on how the game should be played!

"As I expected, Blizzard is still the same arrogant Blizzard!" Zhang Wei thought to himself.

Pardo thought to himself: "This is just like a child falling out and quarreling while playing house, it's not a big deal.

"The map editor is public. Anyone can make maps. No one stops you from making maps. Why do you have to ask for official certification?" Pardo asked.

“The thing is, besides me, there are also many people who are interested in the DOTA map template and have also edited this map.

"Thank you, Mr. Pardo! I am very satisfied to get the official certification from Blizzard!" Zhang Wei said immediately.

Blizzard in 2004 did have arrogance. At that time, Blizzard had several hit games, and the epic online game "World of Warcraft" was about to be launched globally. At this time, Blizzard was climbing to the top!
Although he was rejected by Pardo, Zhang Wei was not discouraged. After all, this was the result he had expected.

So Pardo said: "If you made the map, then there should be no problem in recognizing you as the author of the map, and Blizzard can issue you a certification.

If the player is disobedient, I will modify the game to force you to be obedient.

If someone re-edits the map based on my edits, I feel it is an infringement on the fruits of my labor, so I hope to get an official certification acknowledging that I am the editor of this map. "Zhang Wei said.

Some map editors may even think that others are modifying my map randomly and must be stopped!
The map editors did not have a leader who could make the final decision, so they looked for official endorsement.

Zhang Wei's proposal to add DOTA to the official map library is actually a one-shot operation. His real purpose is to take the ownership of DOTA into his own hands.

Pardo felt that this was probably a jealous incident among map editors.

As expected, Pardo responded without even the slightest hesitation: “It may be difficult to incorporate player-designed maps into the official map library!
Our original intention of opening the map editor is also to allow players to design more and more fun maps to enrich the gameplay.

In game development, similar situations often occur. Game planner A wants to make changes in this way, and game planner B wants to make changes in another direction. If there is a conflict between the two parties, in the end they can only go to the superior leader and let the leader make a decision.

Similar incidents will also happen among map editors. If some people are not satisfied with the map, they will modify it according to their own ideas, while another group of people will definitely be dissatisfied, and the two sides will have differences on how to edit the map.

……

But we can only do this. We cannot prevent others from continuing to use the map editor to edit that DOTA map you mentioned. If there are legal issues involved, you need to resolve them yourself. "

"I see, I understand!" Pardo nodded suddenly.

So Zhang Wei continued: "Can Blizzard give me an official certification for the map I designed?"

It's just a matter of certifying a map author, and it's not a matter of principle. Since the other party is the WCG champion, it doesn't hurt to agree. "

However, we still hope to separate the official design concept from the gameplay developed by players themselves, so that we can maintain the independence and openness of the game. "

The name DOTA is familiar to anyone who has played the game. It was originally an RPG map for Warcraft 3, but as a result, a new game type was born: MOBA, which stands for Multiplayer Online Tactics Arena.

League of Legends, Honor of Kings, Heroes of Dawn, etc., which are very popular in later generations, are all games of this type.

It is no exaggeration to say that without DOTA, there would be no League of Legends, let alone Honor of Kings.

The original version of DOTA was also derived from a game map of StarCraft. The map name at that time was "Roc DOTA". Both sides had only five heroes, and the gameplay was very simple. Later, an author integrated the content of other maps, modified the original DOTA, and made a DOTA-allstars map, which was also the prototype of the later DOTA map.

In 2004, an author named guinsoo appeared and began to make large-scale changes to the DOTA map, including opening up rivers, adding wild monsters, adding BOSS meat mountains, adding equipment synthesis, adding kill sounds, etc.

The DOTA map modified by guinsoo is relatively complete in content. The map design and game modes of many MOBA games now originate from this.

And this guinsoo was nicknamed "Guinsoo" by players because he designed the "Guins Knife" prop in the game.

Yangdao's update of DOTA lasted until November 2004. At that time, he was addicted to the online game World of Warcraft and slacked off on the development of DOTA. At this time, another member of the Yangdao team, Bingwa, took over the important task of developing the map. The versions of DOTA starting from 11 and later are all developed by Ice Frog.

Yang Dao, who was addicted to World of Warcraft, quit the DOTA development team in 2005. He later went to Riot Games and became one of the main designers of League of Legends.

Ice Frog hoped to commercialize DOTA, so in 2006, when DOTA was already becoming popular, Ice Frog found Blizzard, hoping to cooperate with Blizzard to produce a separate commercial MOBA game.

How could arrogant Blizzard cooperate with a map editor? Decisively rejected the ice frog. Ice Frog later sold DOTA to another company, V Club, and he also went to V Club to become a game developer and created the game DOTA2.

During this period, Blizzard had of course fought a lawsuit with Valve, but they did not win because the copyright of DOTA did not belong to Blizzard, but to Ice Frog, and Valve also registered the DOTA trademark first.

For example, the filming of Journey to the West was filmed in 86 by CCTV, Zhang Jizhong, TVB, and even the Japanese, but each one is an independent work and has independent copyright.

You can say that the Japanese filmed Journey to the West without Wu Chengen’s consent. But it cannot be said that TVB's filming of Journey to the West infringed on the copyright of CCTV's Journey to the West.

Putting it on DOTA means that whoever makes the DOTA map owns the copyright. DOTA has been made by Bingwa since 6.0, so the copyright naturally belongs to Bingwa.

But registering a trademark is different. Once you register a trademark, others cannot use it.

If someone registers the film and television series Journey to the West as a trademark, then other people really cannot film Journey to the West, otherwise it will be an infringement.

Of course, the Trademark Law does not allow you to register Journey to the West.

Regarding the DOTA incident, since V Club registered the DOTA trademark first, other game companies except V Club cannot continue to use DOTA to make games. The big IP of DOTA is owned by V Agency.

Although trademarks cannot be used, in the gaming field, copying gameplay is not considered infringement. That’s why there are many game developers who are keen to imitate popular games and make a quick buck.

Now Zhang Wei is asking Blizzard for official certification because he wants to keep the copyright of DOTA in his own hands.

DOTA is a big piece of meat. As long as you hold the copyright of DOTA in your own hands, you can make a lot of money even if you sell the copyright to a game company in the future.

There are so many modifiers of the DOTA map. The reason why the final copyright fell into the hands of Ice Frog is because players are playing the version he edited.

Therefore, if Zhang Wei wants to seize the copyright of DOTA, he needs to let more players play the version he edited.

Is there any way for players to quickly recognize themselves?
The answer is simple, find official endorsement from Blizzard.

For example, if you see two maps, one says "DOTA" and the other says "DOTA official certified version", which one will you play?
There is no doubt that you must be playing the official certified version.

With Blizzard's arrogance, it is not easy to get an official certification from them, at least it is difficult for ordinary amateurs to do it.

Blizzard doesn't bother to listen to the consensus opinions of many players in the future, so how can it care about a map editor?
Later, DOTA began to become popular around the world. Ice Frog went to Blizzard to discuss cooperation, but he was left alone!
How can Blizzard take itself seriously? At this time, the title of WCG World Champion will come into play.

At the very least, with this identity, you can meet with Blizzard's senior people, and then give them some appropriate praise and say a few New Year greetings, and you will most likely be able to get this official certification.

With this official certification, the next thing will be much easier.

In November, Blizzard's classic online game "World of Warcraft" will be released in the United States. At that time, DOTA developer Yang Dao will be addicted to World of Warcraft and will not update the DOTA map.

By the time Ice Frog took the lead in DOTA, it was already May 2005.

In half a year, if an officially certified version of the DOTA map emerges, it will easily seize the market and gain dominance in DOTA.

Players have all gone to play the officially certified version, who will play the version edited by you, Ice Frog?
Of course, before that, Zhang Wei still needs to register a trademark for DOTA. This way, with both the trademark and the copyright in hand, DOTA will be completely snatched by Zhang Wei.

(End of this chapter)