-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
King.com also going after The Banner Saga
- Thread starter Xater
- Start date
It's silly and stupid regardless and their games don't particularly strike me as Sagas, but that's a pretty shitty argument. A saga really doesn't have to be about vikings, and their games are arguably more Norse by default anyway
So happy with myself for never spending a penny on any King games. A company with the audacity to call themselves "King" -- a word so common in our society, from film titles to sports teams to restaurants, baked goods, sporting goods, clothing brands... on and on... they are paranoid about other people using the word "Saga" when there is a long and storied history of games of every sort utilizing the word in countless ways. Just get fucked, King.
Also a proud backer of The Banner Saga.
Also a proud backer of The Banner Saga.
Ranger Taffles
Member
What a joke. The guys over at King deserve some real shit for this. I am even more happy that I bought The Banner Saga. Stoic deserves the full support on this.
Haunted
Member
Fucking fuck off king.com
I'm making sure to never play any of their games now and am recommending the same to my family and friends. These fucks and their abhorrent business practices cannot be supported.
I'm making sure to never play any of their games now and am recommending the same to my family and friends. These fucks and their abhorrent business practices cannot be supported.
It's a Bejeweled clone with candies instead of jewels. One of a billion match 3 flash games available.
Oh that's definitely true, that was just throwing salt on the wound really. The point is that if you look at the other definitions it's generally of a long, likely epic story, and I doubt these games even have stories in them. Certainly not likely to be anything that can truly claim to be saga material except maybe the receipts of any poor saps who pay deeply into these games.
Look, I'm not going to defend King.com's giving the guys behind Banner Saga shit because of a single word on a game that's not even remotely close to what they're going for. Sounds like a lawyer going to far.
But they should defend their game against other titles that are obviously trolling for clicks and getting in on some of that Candy Saga money.
I mean look - this is just a small sample of what you get when you look for Candy Crush Saga:
You'll notice in this list is another game called Candy Slot Machine Crush - Jewels Craze Casino Connect: Big Blast Mania Land, which clearly attempts to knock off the worlds Candy and Crush in the name.
Hey guess what? That Ben Hue guy who's Candy Slots game is calling foul of King about how they're grumbling about his game? Well his game was called All Candy Casino Slots - Jewel Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land. Oh would you look at that, it's practically the same as this other one! Oh the innocence!
I imagine King.com went after Candy Slot Machine Crush, which is attempting to get off of Candy Crush Saga, and King.com went after him for attemping to do the same thing by proxy.
But they should defend their game against other titles that are obviously trolling for clicks and getting in on some of that Candy Saga money.
I mean look - this is just a small sample of what you get when you look for Candy Crush Saga:
You'll notice in this list is another game called Candy Slot Machine Crush - Jewels Craze Casino Connect: Big Blast Mania Land, which clearly attempts to knock off the worlds Candy and Crush in the name.
Hey guess what? That Ben Hue guy who's Candy Slots game is calling foul of King about how they're grumbling about his game? Well his game was called All Candy Casino Slots - Jewel Craze Connect: Big Blast Mania Land. Oh would you look at that, it's practically the same as this other one! Oh the innocence!
I imagine King.com went after Candy Slot Machine Crush, which is attempting to get off of Candy Crush Saga, and King.com went after him for attemping to do the same thing by proxy.
At least the TeamLava games look like they had some real effort put into them. More store brand cereal, less cheap Chinese knockoff.
But yeah, I can definitely see why they'd want to be defensive, but that guy was clearly going for overkill. I still have to wonder why they were so obsessed with appending Saga on everything though, it's like if Squaresoft stuck Fantasy on every game of theirs, though I guess in that case it'd apply properly 90% of the time. The last 10 percent pre-Enix would be Front Mission.
But yeah, I can definitely see why they'd want to be defensive, but that guy was clearly going for overkill. I still have to wonder why they were so obsessed with appending Saga on everything though, it's like if Squaresoft stuck Fantasy on every game of theirs, though I guess in that case it'd apply properly 90% of the time. The last 10 percent pre-Enix would be Front Mission.
glaringradio
Member
They're all a rip-off of a 20 year old game called The Balls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8XKS7tLB8w
SloaneRangerSW1
Banned
Aaaaaand that's how you get gamers to hate you. I will now actively argue against anyone DLing/buying any King games compared to previously not really caring.
thelatestmodel
Junior, please.
Literally one of my biggest pet peeves. What a dick move.
Halcyon
Member
I've sorta hated Candy Crush Saga since I first downloaded it. I realized it was another clone of bejeweled and that they made it impossibly hard at a point so you'd have to buy the power ups.
Then my girlfriend got into Papa Pear Saga because she likes Peggle. This King company just copies established games. I hate them.
Then my girlfriend got into Papa Pear Saga because she likes Peggle. This King company just copies established games. I hate them.
EdibleKnife
Member
Pretty much. This is seriously twisted and I can't actually believe the brain trust there thinks this is a good idea. I dunno if it'll matter since alot of my friends already have the game but I'm gonna tell them to stop supporting these guys as well.
DainBramage
Neo Member
Heh I was kind of dissapointed clicking your link, thought there was a funny angle considering you wording with rip-off and the balls
Of course they don't go against the big guys, they are pathetic low-lifes who only bully the ones who are weak enough that they can't or are too afraid to fight against their opression.
To be fair, that's Bethesda/Zenimax. They are cunts, it is known.
Eh? So they know that this whole thing with The Banner Saga is ridiculous and they're making an example of them to defend against future clones? Somehow I hate them even more.
striferser
Huge Nickleback Fan
Well, if that what King said, let see how they handle 'Saga' from Square enix
StoppedInTracks
Member
The Banned Saga
Nostremitus
Member
heh...
The worst part is that Candy Crush Saga is the bastard child of Bejeweled and Candyland... there's nothing original about their IP at all...
Fuck, Card Sagas War is definitely never going to come out now.
Seriously though this is some bullshit. I went to Steam to buy La Mulana but I think I'll support Stoic and grab their title too since it's one I was eventually planning to grab and they could probably use some support about now.
Seriously though this is some bullshit. I went to Steam to buy La Mulana but I think I'll support Stoic and grab their title too since it's one I was eventually planning to grab and they could probably use some support about now.
AltogetherAndrews
Member
See, there is one thing I don't get. Are there no original patent holders for the games that King has ripped off? Obviously graphical changes are done, but I saw one that looked damned near identical to a Popcap game. Is there no pattern protection at all?
PoweredBySoy
Banned
Not surprised to see you take the high road.
Agent Gibbs
Member
and yet Saga isn't, its rediculous and copyright laws in general need an overhaul! with apple suing anyone using "i" in their name, these jokers suing anyone with Saga in their name its utterly rediculous and frankly given their statement a judge should make an example of them and hold them in contempt for wasting court time on atempting to copyright a failr commonly used word/phrase
Candy Crush really isn't a knock off of Bejeweled at all - sure, it's a match 3 game, but that's like saying every FPS is a Doom clone.
If anything, it's a ripoff of Jewel Quest, which has similar objective-based gameplay and strange styles of boards to swap jewels.
Novan Leon
Banned
That's true, but the financial burden of hiring lawyers and fighting the suit can be enough to hurt a small project like the Banner Saga. That's the worst part of this all. It just smells suspiciously of legal bullying, probably done for the attention and controversy as much as anything else.
I wasn't really interested in the Banner Saga previously, being primarily a console gamer, but now I'm tempted to see if the game will run on my eight-year-old Mac Mini. I'd like to support the game if for no other reason than to spite King.com.
I don't get it - how can King argue that they have targeted Banner Saga to keep their right to enforce their trademark in the future, while at the same time admitting that Banner Saga doesn't infringe or build on their brand. How is that even possible?
Also, King's reply against Banner Saga's application clearly states, that they consider a possible registration of Banner Saga as a trade mark would in fact be harmful to King's Saga brand.
First the word Candy, now Saga? Patent trolling at it's finest. It's sad to see how U.S patent law is so antiquated it hasn't moved with the times. This is the main reason why many inventors and creators can't actually CREATE things because some jackass is patent trolling on a extremely vague name or idea.
EdwardTivrusky
Member
I read their comment as dangerously close to admitting that it's a spurious claim due to the lack of overlap between the two games and brands. I hope a judge or whoever oversees this process sees this and throws King's claim against Stoic out on it's arse.
But their game isn't original. Regardless of the law, I find it hard to defend their branding but ignore the actual content of what they make. The current state of things is cloning an actual game is fine as long as you don't step on other company's names or visual identity, which is really strange.
deathkiller
Member
I think that they are arguing that, while they don't care about the name of the game itself, they don't want the trademark "The Banner Saga" to exist since probably the trademark itself doesn't say that only applies to "Viking SRPGs".
Exactly!
Can clones whine about being cloned?
Messofanego
Banned
"This is just a saga now.... "
This is probably the last place I'd expect a League of Gentleman reference, bravo
charlequin
Banned
Unfortunately, they have some legal support here. Unlike copyright (where the holder is explicitly permitted to enforce as arbitrarily as they like, or grant whatever arbitrary license terms they choose), trademarks must be defended or they can be stripped by a court.
This was almost certainly an inappropriate, overreaching interpretation of that principle, but that's what's driving this process.
Besides the personal feelings that they just don't DESERVE it, I think it's a losing battle. Yes, they practically whored the word out for years, but many games came out with that word in them, and their trademark is already suspended. Now I just have to hope their claim gets fully wrenched from them sooner than later, if they wanted to make Sagas they should've gotten into RPGs or something instead.
Similar threads
- x2