I hate blizzard for creating the lousy popularity/publishing systems, and then not listening to their community as EVERYONE told them it sucked.
But seriously dude? Even I have to side with Blizzard on this one, goddamn the ammount of times they said sorry in that email. I mean shit dude, they sounded like they just ran over your dog, and that's knowing you blatantly stole their map's name. I gotta give them props, sure they're a company and probably don't give a shit, but most companies will put the bare minimum in. They really sounded apologetic, and then you go and be a douche. Most uncool, bro. Most uncool.
My feelings exactly. Even if you were simply ignorant and didn't mean to copy the name of their custom map, think of it from Blizzard's standpoint.
If Blizzard announced this BEFORE you changed the name:
"Hey! We announced a new map that we're releasing called 'Left 2 Die' and then a mapmaker changed his map name to the same thing! Oh well, let's just send him a friendly email telling him that he has to change the map name. We could get angry at him for hijacking the name, but it's all good. In fact, let's take it further and apologize for the inconvenience we're causing him even the he probably knew about this in the first place and really brought it upon himself."
If Blizzard announced this AFTER you changed the name:
At any rate, even if you made this name independently and even if you changed it BEFORE Blizzard announced their custom map because THEY SCREWED UP, your rude email is still uncalled for. They are somewhat bullying you into changing your name as you don't have much choice, but they are being apologetic about it. Sure, they didn't scout and they should have, but they screwed up and already made the presentation and announcements for their map 'Left 2 Die'. Then they realized, "Oh. Someone already has a custom map named Left 2 Die". Well, I guess it's too late now, let's politely ask him to change the name. They took the time to make the email apologetic. When they could have just sent you a blunt email.
"We are sorry for the inconvenience but your map will be temporarily banned until the name is changed as we are currently reserving the name 'Left 2 Die' for future use."
But honestly, the way they phrased their email makes it seem like you changed your map name AFTER, so this is irrelevant anyway.
EDIT: okay, I see your post with your image. If you did really create that and come up with the idea for the name before Blizzard announced its map, then you may have a valid point, but your email is not going to convince them as it is still rude. You should have sent them an email explaining the work you and your friend have already put into the name and that you made the name before they announced their project. You should have included the picture for the loading screen as well as whatever part of the trailer your friend had already made. This might have made Blizzard feel more sympathetic for you situation, because honestly, if it were simply a matter of you changing the name of your map (which is what Blizzard thinks) then it's not a major request.
Sending a simple, polite message will always be more likely to be heeded then a lengthy rude one.
No, because they would still shove it out of the way for their own map. Thats just how they function. They = have the support of all the people who went to blizzcon, I just have a small cult following at best. This isn't sparta, either.
I had time to kill and felt like goofing with them. Someone said post it on the forums, so I did. Fuckin relax.
You can see it from my view, while its not a big deal (I still have the layered source of the image and can quickly change it if I feel like it). Its kind of frustrating that this happened this way. For one it makes ME look like the bad guy of course, even though I am being a big prick about it (just cuz I am a big prick sometimes), but its still arrogant of them to go "Oh well, we're Blizzard, move aside".
The fact they're sticking their nose into the custom map scene for no better reason than to flex their gigantic budget and overshadow people who have great ideas and never will see the light of day the way the system works, is just annoying. Typical corporate attitudes I suppose.
You only have a case if you have taken the name Left 2 Die on a net on bnet. It doesn't matter if the idea came up before.
I can argue that I mumbled the words internet when I was 2, and that I should be paid money each time it was used in a conversation, but that doesn't really hold up does it..
If you did have a map named Left 2 Die on bnet before Blizzard announced their maps, I wish you the best of luck. It'd be pretty despicable of Blizzard despite them having the rights to do it.
Fail on blizzard's part, but to be honest I can't believe you didn't see the announcement from blizzard. If you had never changed your name to Left 2 Die and it was already Left 2 Die I would def believe you, but blizzard failed hard here, you should always reserve a name before announcing it. You wouldn't announce to the world that you are making a website and expect it to not be taken.
So you intentionally cockblock one of the few good things that came out of this year's Blizzcon. And then you send them an email that makes mapmakers look like 12 years old asshats. AND THEN you brag about it on forum like there is no shame. Who the fuck are you? Rodrigo's cousin or something?
@BumpInTheNight: Go
I was not rude, nor vitriolic in my reply to the e-mail, nor was I being directly abusive. I am pretty positive no one at their office will be offended, nor go home hurt or cry about it. You guys, on the other hand.
On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 7:47 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
In the professional business world, we usually think ahead of our actions, you know, plan in advance. Er, sorry since you are probably not quite up to that point in your career, (being a GM and all, I know, it's not easy. I once had to work as a customer service representative too) so for your integrity, i'll put this into terms you can understand.
This is offensive.
Anyway, I agree with most people here, Blizzard sent a perfectly valid email of apology and request, which also seems more to think about you (the customer) than most emails they send. I do think that your response (though I did have one or three chuckles throughout it) was uncalled for and immature (even though Blizzard is a big company and can handle it). It's filled with text which on the internet reads as a big pile of sarcasm, and the fact that you "copied" the structure from their email adds to that sarcasm.
It might be all fun and games, I don't blame you for doing this, you clearly had your reasons and you seem to have gotten them through. I'm not going to hate you because of this. I would enjoy your response more if Blizzard sent one of them generic Copy+Paste messages but they didn't which is why I feel this way.
But to be clear: You are free to respond like that, it's your account/game, and you are also welcome to post it on the forum (unless it violates some privacy issue I don't know about), I think there are people who could and will enjoy this, so I'll leave you with these words you've just read.
Blizzard own this game. And the Editor. If they plan to release a few maps (which will obviously happen not that often) under desired name, why would they even care about some nerd-rage person who has so-so map with the same name?
They have even sent nice e-mail to you, meh!
And to be honest, that not very smart to nerd rage reply to Blizzard's e-mail.
Blizzard's Big Boss said: "okay lads, now you go and make sure there is no map on battle.net with such name, now leave.". And then all those community managers and tech support guys went to their rooms and did what they were ordered to do. You can reply anything to them, but they are not able to change anything. Only thing they can do is to politely ask you and send their apologizes with the e-mail.
Stopped reading at the terran and zerg thingy. You're not going to get anywhere by bashing at blizzard. Also, their game, their editor, their maps. Nothing you can do. They seem very polite in their letter at least, offering personal assistance and all!
So you intentionally cockblock one of the few good things that came out
of this year's Blizzcon. And then you send them an email that makes
mapmakers look like 12 years old asshats. AND THEN you brag about it on
forum like there is no shame. Who the fuck are you? Rodrigo's cousin or
something?
Some people just love to talk about me.... and I haven't said a word on this thread!
Some people just love to talk about me.... and I haven't said a word on this thread!
Now you have. Whenever there is a "Blizz does bad things"-thread, Rodrigo will find it! - Theory PROVED
--
I have to agree that it's stupid what they do and I know you changed the name before BlizzCon (hell, seeing how they used shots from mapster for their presentation, I wouldn't even wonder if they read it here and though "Hey, let's use that" - not that it's a clever name to begin with), but at least you could've pulled a more clever approach out of your hat to make them look stupid. Insulting them doesn't serve the purpose, they get that on the forums all day.
You gotta have a new name. Well, let's pull on over on them. They wanna call it Left 2 Die? Call yours "The TRUE Left 2 Die" (yeah, lame haven't slept in 36h) or something. Beat 'em at their own game somehow and more importantly: Kill their damn map off on the popularity. Get fresh Terrain, use the mouse-look to attack, rework the whole Interface to be a lot better, etc.
All in all: PUNCH THAT DRAGON IN THE FACE!
--
Besides that: Everyone cool down a little, or Mr. Evil Mod here will have to pull a little stunt on you *nods*
Oh and if we ever catch the people responsible for BNet 2.0 we'll have ourselves a nice big fire. If I had designed that piece of bullshit, I'd have quit my job and looked for something less-responsible.
Well, I found Mephs' reply to be good for a few chuckles, but yeah, it's not something I would have actually sent them.
You know Mephs, with Blizzard being so apologetic, you could have arranged for a sort of a compromise. Showed them all of the evidence of you having had come up with the name before their announcement, and then asked them "I will change the name to suit your plans, but could you please help me out by putting my map as one of the featured maps in the next round of featured maps please?"
Or something along those lines. Sending them an email like that has basically ruined any chances you ever had of being featured...and you wasted a golden opportunity to make a bargain with them...or at least ask for a compromise. After all, the whole point of the name change was to gain popularity. You even asked for 1000 popularity...so why not just request to be featured and clean up the whole issue?
The email was just for shits and giggles. I am fairly certain it won't even be read, or the guy will just look at it and go -_-.
Anyway the name doesn't bother me that much, as said its not that incredibly creative of a name. If you were to spoof "Left 4 Dead" what are some of the first names you'd think of? "Left 2 Die", and "Left 4 Death".
So naturally...I reserved it already and before anyone at Blizzard tries to dupe me this time, I'm posting it here, with a timestamp'd reply. Either way I don't want it featured until the overhaul is complete.
Beat 'em at their own game somehow and more importantly: Kill their damn map off on the popularity. Get fresh Terrain, use the mouse-look to attack, rework the whole Interface to be a lot better, etc.
In progress ;)
What do you mean by mouse-look to attack though? I'd love to just use WASD and mouse to fire but we all know how shitty WASD is. UI improvements in the works. I'm going to step my game up.
The email was just for shits and giggles. I am fairly certain it won't even be read, or the guy will just look at it and go -_-.
Dont assume anything. You should feel privileged that Blizzard even bothered to email you. Now any hope of a relationship or understanding with the company is lost to you because of your childish attitude. You gained less than nothing from this.
But as you said, You seem the type that does such stuff for the "shits and giggles"...
Now any hope of a relationship or understanding with the company is lost to you because of your childish attitude.
Oh noes. I never went to a Blizzcon, I never followed every footstep they make, I just don't care what they do except release decent games overall (I still play melee sc2 more than custom maps). What they think of me is irrelevant. I do not care to work for them ever, I do not care if they ever feature my map, it's their loss. For starters, California is the last place in the US I'd ever move to, cost of living in Irvine is retarded high. I own a house, I have a job, why do I need their understanding or admiration?
Custom maps are for fun. If I didn't get the game for ladder I wouldn't even have dabbled in making maps anyway.
My feelings exactly. Even if you were simply ignorant and didn't mean to copy the name of their custom map, think of it from Blizzard's standpoint.
If Blizzard announced this BEFORE you changed the name:
"Hey! We announced a new map that we're releasing called 'Left 2 Die' and then a mapmaker changed his map name to the same thing! Oh well, let's just send him a friendly email telling him that he has to change the map name. We could get angry at him for hijacking the name, but it's all good. In fact, let's take it further and apologize for the inconvenience we're causing him even the he probably knew about this in the first place and really brought it upon himself."
If Blizzard announced this AFTER you changed the name:
At any rate, even if you made this name independently and even if you changed it BEFORE Blizzard announced their custom map because THEY SCREWED UP, your rude email is still uncalled for. They are somewhat bullying you into changing your name as you don't have much choice, but they are being apologetic about it. Sure, they didn't scout and they should have, but they screwed up and already made the presentation and announcements for their map 'Left 2 Die'. Then they realized, "Oh. Someone already has a custom map named Left 2 Die". Well, I guess it's too late now, let's politely ask him to change the name. They took the time to make the email apologetic. When they could have just sent you a blunt email.
"We are sorry for the inconvenience but your map will be temporarily banned until the name is changed as we are currently reserving the name 'Left 2 Die' for future use."
But honestly, the way they phrased their email makes it seem like you changed your map name AFTER, so this is irrelevant anyway.
EDIT: okay, I see your post with your image. If you did really create that and come up with the idea for the name before Blizzard announced its map, then you may have a valid point, but your email is not going to convince them as it is still rude. You should have sent them an email explaining the work you and your friend have already put into the name and that you made the name before they announced their project. You should have included the picture for the loading screen as well as whatever part of the trailer your friend had already made. This might have made Blizzard feel more sympathetic for you situation, because honestly, if it were simply a matter of you changing the name of your map (which is what Blizzard thinks) then it's not a major request.
Sending a simple, polite message will always be more likely to be heeded then a lengthy rude one.
No, because they would still shove it out of the way for their own map. Thats just how they function. They = have the support of all the people who went to blizzcon, I just have a small cult following at best. This isn't sparta, either.
I had time to kill and felt like goofing with them. Someone said post it on the forums, so I did. Fuckin relax.
You can see it from my view, while its not a big deal (I still have the layered source of the image and can quickly change it if I feel like it). Its kind of frustrating that this happened this way. For one it makes ME look like the bad guy of course, even though I am being a big prick about it (just cuz I am a big prick sometimes), but its still arrogant of them to go "Oh well, we're Blizzard, move aside".
The fact they're sticking their nose into the custom map scene for no better reason than to flex their gigantic budget and overshadow people who have great ideas and never will see the light of day the way the system works, is just annoying. Typical corporate attitudes I suppose.
@Mephs: Go
pretty epic email to them mephs you have some balls
You shoulda warned them youd send the Fraktalisk after them and giving him a link.
Well Ill help boost your map once you get it back up under old name.
Sucks your luck on the whole naming thing. Its stupid they never reserved the name lol ... but what are the chances really.
You only have a case if you have taken the name Left 2 Die on a net on bnet. It doesn't matter if the idea came up before.
I can argue that I mumbled the words internet when I was 2, and that I should be paid money each time it was used in a conversation, but that doesn't really hold up does it..
If you did have a map named Left 2 Die on bnet before Blizzard announced their maps, I wish you the best of luck. It'd be pretty despicable of Blizzard despite them having the rights to do it.
If not, you shouldn't be QQing.
Fail on blizzard's part, but to be honest I can't believe you didn't see the announcement from blizzard. If you had never changed your name to Left 2 Die and it was already Left 2 Die I would def believe you, but blizzard failed hard here, you should always reserve a name before announcing it. You wouldn't announce to the world that you are making a website and expect it to not be taken.
@Mephs: Go
Don't really care much bout the argument either way.
But the letter's a waste. Not clever. Comes across as someone who just decided to randomly type out uninspired sarcasm. Which is exactly what it is.
So you intentionally cockblock one of the few good things that came out of this year's Blizzcon. And then you send them an email that makes mapmakers look like 12 years old asshats. AND THEN you brag about it on forum like there is no shame. Who the fuck are you? Rodrigo's cousin or something?
Just putting this out there:
This is offensive.
Anyway, I agree with most people here, Blizzard sent a perfectly valid email of apology and request, which also seems more to think about you (the customer) than most emails they send. I do think that your response (though I did have one or three chuckles throughout it) was uncalled for and immature (even though Blizzard is a big company and can handle it). It's filled with text which on the internet reads as a big pile of sarcasm, and the fact that you "copied" the structure from their email adds to that sarcasm.
It might be all fun and games, I don't blame you for doing this, you clearly had your reasons and you seem to have gotten them through. I'm not going to hate you because of this. I would enjoy your response more if Blizzard sent one of them generic Copy+Paste messages but they didn't which is why I feel this way.
But to be clear: You are free to respond like that, it's your account/game, and you are also welcome to post it on the forum (unless it violates some privacy issue I don't know about), I think there are people who could and will enjoy this, so I'll leave you with these words you've just read.
It would been funny if someone came at blizzcon with question "Why did you copy my map name "Left 2 Dead" ? " haha
Blizzard own this game. And the Editor. If they plan to release a few maps (which will obviously happen not that often) under desired name, why would they even care about some nerd-rage person who has so-so map with the same name? They have even sent nice e-mail to you, meh!
And to be honest, that not very smart to nerd rage reply to Blizzard's e-mail. Blizzard's Big Boss said: "okay lads, now you go and make sure there is no map on battle.net with such name, now leave.". And then all those community managers and tech support guys went to their rooms and did what they were ordered to do. You can reply anything to them, but they are not able to change anything. Only thing they can do is to politely ask you and send their apologizes with the e-mail.
Stopped reading at the terran and zerg thingy. You're not going to get anywhere by bashing at blizzard. Also, their game, their editor, their maps. Nothing you can do. They seem very polite in their letter at least, offering personal assistance and all!
Some people just love to talk about me.... and I haven't said a word on this thread!
Now you have. Whenever there is a "Blizz does bad things"-thread, Rodrigo will find it! - Theory PROVED
--
I have to agree that it's stupid what they do and I know you changed the name before BlizzCon (hell, seeing how they used shots from mapster for their presentation, I wouldn't even wonder if they read it here and though "Hey, let's use that" - not that it's a clever name to begin with), but at least you could've pulled a more clever approach out of your hat to make them look stupid. Insulting them doesn't serve the purpose, they get that on the forums all day.
You gotta have a new name. Well, let's pull on over on them. They wanna call it Left 2 Die? Call yours "The TRUE Left 2 Die" (yeah, lame haven't slept in 36h) or something. Beat 'em at their own game somehow and more importantly: Kill their damn map off on the popularity. Get fresh Terrain, use the mouse-look to attack, rework the whole Interface to be a lot better, etc.
All in all: PUNCH THAT DRAGON IN THE FACE!
--
Besides that: Everyone cool down a little, or Mr. Evil Mod here will have to pull a little stunt on you *nods*
Oh and if we ever catch the people responsible for BNet 2.0 we'll have ourselves a nice big fire. If I had designed that piece of bullshit, I'd have quit my job and looked for something less-responsible.
Well, I found Mephs' reply to be good for a few chuckles, but yeah, it's not something I would have actually sent them.
You know Mephs, with Blizzard being so apologetic, you could have arranged for a sort of a compromise. Showed them all of the evidence of you having had come up with the name before their announcement, and then asked them "I will change the name to suit your plans, but could you please help me out by putting my map as one of the featured maps in the next round of featured maps please?"
Or something along those lines. Sending them an email like that has basically ruined any chances you ever had of being featured...and you wasted a golden opportunity to make a bargain with them...or at least ask for a compromise. After all, the whole point of the name change was to gain popularity. You even asked for 1000 popularity...so why not just request to be featured and clean up the whole issue?
I'm sure that burning bridges can be fun, but damn its inconvenient when you have to cross back to the other side...
(Disclaimer: this post does not endorse arson :P)
@ChromiumBoy: Go
The email was just for shits and giggles. I am fairly certain it won't even be read, or the guy will just look at it and go -_-.
Anyway the name doesn't bother me that much, as said its not that incredibly creative of a name. If you were to spoof "Left 4 Dead" what are some of the first names you'd think of? "Left 2 Die", and "Left 4 Death".
So naturally...I reserved it already and before anyone at Blizzard tries to dupe me this time, I'm posting it here, with a timestamp'd reply. Either way I don't want it featured until the overhaul is complete.
In progress ;)
What do you mean by mouse-look to attack though? I'd love to just use WASD and mouse to fire but we all know how shitty WASD is. UI improvements in the works. I'm going to step my game up.
Dont assume anything. You should feel privileged that Blizzard even bothered to email you. Now any hope of a relationship or understanding with the company is lost to you because of your childish attitude. You gained less than nothing from this.
But as you said, You seem the type that does such stuff for the "shits and giggles"...
Oh noes. I never went to a Blizzcon, I never followed every footstep they make, I just don't care what they do except release decent games overall (I still play melee sc2 more than custom maps). What they think of me is irrelevant. I do not care to work for them ever, I do not care if they ever feature my map, it's their loss. For starters, California is the last place in the US I'd ever move to, cost of living in Irvine is retarded high. I own a house, I have a job, why do I need their understanding or admiration?
Custom maps are for fun. If I didn't get the game for ladder I wouldn't even have dabbled in making maps anyway.