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[dave is ok]

Game development is like a prison lunchroom - and Yard Team saw Valve go over to Blizzard's lunch table and steal their juice carton (Dota 2). This let the other prisoners know that Blizzard is a mark ass little bitch and they can infringe on them as they damn please.

 

[Durante]

There is nothing wrong with this. Now if they actually used music or art from the game, that is a different story.

Yeah, I agree. The images in the OP are fine (in fact, I wish that some official remakes were that good about redoing art in the same style at higher fidelity), directly taking assets is (obviously) not.

 

[jshackles]

Yeah, I agree. The images in the OP are fine (in fact, I wish that some official remakes were that good about redoing art in the same style at higher fidelity), directly taking assets is (obviously) not.

I agree that the art itself is fine, but giving the characters the exact same names as the original and updating their likenesses isn't legal. If they gave the characters new identities that were loosely based off the original, it would be slightly more (legally) acceptable.

They're walking a fine line between homage and copyright infringement. But clearly this is copyright infringement.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

I bought it yesterday. The game is alright, pretty much a Rock & Roll Racing remake. The only asset stolen from the original game was the announcer. Everything else is new I think.

PS: By the way, the soundtrack is in ogg format, so you can easily replace them with the original songs if you desire.

 

[nexen]

I agree that the art itself is fine, but giving the characters the exact same names as the original and updating their likenesses isn't legal. If they gave the characters new identities that were loosely based off the original, it would be slightly more (legally) acceptable.

They're walking a fine line between homage and copyright infringement. But clearly this is copyright infringement.

There may be a fine line between these things, but these guys aren't walking it. They're deep in the copyright infringement side, dancing the jitterbug.

 

[Exotoro]

Use paper.

 

[MrCunningham]

You need to read the thread more closely. Plus even if what you said was true, it would still violate copyright. Otherwise we'd be neck deep in indie versions of Sonic, Mario, Megamans, whathaveyous.

Yeah, I failed to mention the stolen music and Larry Huffman voice overs, which were a direct rip from the game. The music tracks in the original game were licensed covers of classic rock songs. Blizzard might own the compositions to these particular chip-tune versions, but the songs themselves are owned by the original artists. The voice over is definitely in violation though.

As for the character art, the art isn't using stolen assets from the original, but the characters may still be copyrighted by Blizzard. Though, if they had an artist that could draw this stuff, it makes me wonder why they just didn't get him to create a bunch of new character portraits that are loosely based on the originals. How hard would it be to change Snake Sanders to Snake Sommers or something?

The vehicle designs in Rock n' Roll Racing were actually based on Tyco RC and Radioshack RC cars. The Tyco RC Hovercraft and FastTraxx are the two most notable designs. The VW Bug 4x4 was based on an old RC car that was made by Radioshack. Blizzard wouldn't have any copyright claim on those.


I think with some modifications, they could easily make this game legal and still be a tribute to R&R Racing.

 

[Durante]

I think with some modifications, they could easily make this game legal and still be a tribute to R&R Racing.

Yeah, considering that this doesn't appear to be one of the usual no-effort ripoffs, I wonder why they didn't just do that.

 

[nexen]

Yeah, considering that this doesn't appear to be one of the usual no-effort ripoffs, I wonder why they didn't just do that.

It seems to me a crime borne of ignorance more than anything else. Looks like this just started as a fan homage and at the last minute they decided to make a real product out of it.

 

[Gintoki]

The game is no longer available to be purchased.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/263260/discussions/0/648814842467456235/#c648814842468508824

 

[Parsnip]

Well, I'm not surprised in the least.

 

[SparkTR]

This is why I bought the game early.

 

[jshackles]

People are reporting that copies of this game have disappeared from their inventory.

Additionally, the Steam API no longer shows that I own the game, although it's still in my library (for now).

This could be an indication that we will all be receiving refunds.

EDIT: it appears that the icon is simply missing in the inventory, but people still have copies of the game.

DOUBLE EDIT: The App ID for Motor Rock (263260) is no longer present in the API server at all. Any request for info is returned as if the game simply doesn't exist.

 

[Mengy]

People are reporting that copies of this game have disappeared from their inventory.

Additionally, the Steam API no longer shows that I own the game, although it's still in my library (for now).

This could be an indication that we will all be receiving refunds.

EDIT: it appears that the icon is simply missing in the inventory, but people still have copies of the game.

DOUBLE EDIT: The App ID for Motor Rock (263260) is no longer present in the API server at all. Any request for info is returned as if the game simply doesn't exist.

It's to be expected, the game had direct rips of assets from Rock & Roll Racing, Valve had to remove it from the database completely. If they had just kept the plagiarizing to NEW assets "greatly inspired by" Blizzards original game then they would have gotten away with it, even if it would have been semi morally wrong. But they crossed the line grossly.

Honestly I'm surprised it ever got on Steam at all, I mean no one at Valve noticed it early on?

The developers originally conceived of this as a free game though, so maybe they will release it for free down the road.

 

[JaseC]

It's to be expected, the game had direct rips of assets from Rock & Roll Racing, Valve had to remove it from the database completely. If they had just kept the plagiarizing to NEW assets "greatly inspired by" Blizzards original game then they would have gotten away with it, even if it would have been semi morally wrong. But they crossed the line grossly.

Honestly I'm surprised it ever got on Steam at all, I mean no one at Valve noticed it early on?

The developers originally conceived of this as a free game though, so maybe they will release it for free down the road.

It hasn't been removed completely. In fact, a patch was just pushed through 20 minutes ago!

18 minutes ago Changed Depots

263261/manifests/public: 96621373284729163 › 4786973724837643300
branches/public/buildid: 162475 › 162623

 

[hymanator]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but this game completely slipped under my radar and to my surprise I was able to buy a Steam key from the devs website for 3 bucks. It activated on Steam just fine, even has achievements. The only thing missing on Steam is the store page for it. The game definitely feels more like a homebrew fan project than a professional title, but I actually had fun and was glued to it for a couple of hours.