Videos, Lawsuit Document, MMORPG article, Contests, Puzzles and More!
Hi everyone! A bunch of good stuff to pass along tonight...
Videos!
Due to some odd glitch with the in-browser web site updater I use, I was unable to embed the videos mentioned in Episode 148 into the show notes over the weekend. Let me embed them here!
First up is Sir Aggravator's excellent, funny and totally unusual DDO video that takes a James Bond movie intro approach to one of his characters:
LINK to an alternate version without titles.
Here's ZeroProbabilityVid's two-parter looking at the DDO experience with nice screenshots set to music:
HERE) has put together a funny DDO parody video of the Lady GaGa song "Poker Face". WARINING: THIS VIDEO FEATURES SOME NSFW - NOT SAFE FOR WORK - MATERIAL: LINK
Hasbro vs. Atari Lawsuit Update:
Thankfully, Hasbro's lawsuit complaint against Atari has been made available online. I've been looking forward to reading this to see how DDO and the Turbine-Atari lawsuits fit into the picture. Ultimately, I don't see a direct tie to DDO in the documents. Throughout, Hasbro's lawyers refer to a "D&D Digital Games", but never clarify about the nature of that game. A few bits from the .pdf:
Videos!
Due to some odd glitch with the in-browser web site updater I use, I was unable to embed the videos mentioned in Episode 148 into the show notes over the weekend. Let me embed them here!
First up is Sir Aggravator's excellent, funny and totally unusual DDO video that takes a James Bond movie intro approach to one of his characters:
LINK to an alternate version without titles.
Here's ZeroProbabilityVid's two-parter looking at the DDO experience with nice screenshots set to music:
HERE) has put together a funny DDO parody video of the Lady GaGa song "Poker Face". WARINING: THIS VIDEO FEATURES SOME NSFW - NOT SAFE FOR WORK - MATERIAL: LINK
Hasbro vs. Atari Lawsuit Update:
Thankfully, Hasbro's lawsuit complaint against Atari has been made available online. I've been looking forward to reading this to see how DDO and the Turbine-Atari lawsuits fit into the picture. Ultimately, I don't see a direct tie to DDO in the documents. Throughout, Hasbro's lawyers refer to a "D&D Digital Games", but never clarify about the nature of that game. A few bits from the .pdf:
33. On or about August 4,2009, Sandrine Dubois, the Printed Materials Project Manager of Namco Bandai in Lyon, France, sent an e-mail to Peter Murphy of Hasbro seeking approval for the outer packaging label and the compact disc inlay for a new 3-title compilation of Italian-language D&D Digital Games. Both the packaging and the inlay clearly displayed the Atari, Wizards and Hasbro logos.
34. The packaging and inlay files, and approval request that the Namco Bandai employee sent was Hasbro's Confidential Information. Namco Bandai was not authorized by Hasbro to be in possession ofits Confidential Information.
The complaint repeats itself, substituting various European nations for the Italy example used above. Ultimately, Hasbro is claiming they caught Namco-Bandai red-handed in working on a "D&D Digital Games" property, which they were not authorized to do (according to Hasbro).
Since there has been so much talk of Atari working on a D&D game, I might conclude that DDO is only peripherally related, to the extent that Turbine's accusations against Atari are seen in light of the overal legal battle surrounding D&D and video games. I have not seen anything that directly says the game in question was DDO.
Thanks to (Note: fixed, sorry.) Zebranky over at Mercuric.net for his work to obtain the court document.
Press Links:
I would like to point you to an article about the lawsuit put together over at MMOFallout HERE. I could not find the name of the author, and I strongly disagree with him that DDO will not exist in 2016. I also highly disagree with his analysis of what Turbine faces in the outcomes of these lawsuits. HOWEVER, I do think that if you strip all of the opinion out, it presents a short, easy to understand overview of the whole TurbAtarBroDai thing.
Also, MMORPG.com has a very interesting chat with Adam Mersky from Turbine about DDO's upcoming release schedule. Here's the LINK. Please, follow the link to give MMORPG its proper support, but I felt it was important to include a key snippet here for archival purposes to us DDO players:
I say go for it, Turbine!
More Links:
Both Turbine and Codemasters are conducting contests right now, one on Twitter and the other from CM itself. Here's a LINK to the Twelve Tweets of Festivult and here's a LINK to Codemasters Festive Trivia.
Also, MMORPG.com has a very interesting chat with Adam Mersky from Turbine about DDO's upcoming release schedule. Here's the LINK. Please, follow the link to give MMORPG its proper support, but I felt it was important to include a key snippet here for archival purposes to us DDO players:
For 2010, Turbine has a total of six updates on the books. They range in size from small dungeon packs and bug fixes to whole new systems. Adam also mentioned that Turbine is planning to add a new class and new races to the game. Craig Alexander had mentioned this back at Austin Game Convention, when he said that their goal is to make DDO as complete of a Dungeons & Dragons experience as they can for the player. The first update is scheduled for February so DDO players will have some new things to look forward to in the cold winter months. Adam did say that some of these updates will be available to paying players but also to free players as well.
I say go for it, Turbine!
More Links:
Both Turbine and Codemasters are conducting contests right now, one on Twitter and the other from CM itself. Here's a LINK to the Twelve Tweets of Festivult and here's a LINK to Codemasters Festive Trivia.
That's it for now, have more later.
Jerry
Posted by DDOcast at 22 Dec 2009, 1:15 AM 
Categories: press,lawsuit,puzzle,Turbine,Codemasters,Hasbro,Atari,videos,contest,video,contests
Tags: DDOcast lawsuit Turbine Hasbro Namco Bandai Ask the Devs Eberron Unlimited DDO Dungeons and Dragons Online Codemasters
Categories: press,lawsuit,puzzle,Turbine,Codemasters,Hasbro,Atari,videos,contest,video,contests
Tags: DDOcast lawsuit Turbine Hasbro Namco Bandai Ask the Devs Eberron Unlimited DDO Dungeons and Dragons Online Codemasters
Omali from MMO Fallout here,
When I said that Dungeons and Dragons Online would likely not be online in 2016 when the license was up, I do not mean to imply that it is a low quality game. When 2016 comes around, Dungeons and Dragons will be almost ten years old. A granddaddy of MMOs, as I call them. Usually by that point they are on life support, dead, or on their way to a grand finale.
As for the outcome of the trial, the bridges are already burned. We saw this with Valve and Vivendi back in 2004, and the two companies are still firing off lawsuits against one another to this day over what's being paid and what isn't. I did write up the part about Hasbro winning before I received the response, so that is out of date.
I can say without much doubt that if Atari wins in the Atari Vs Turbine portion, Turbine will be removed from the Dungeons and Dragons Online equation. Atari will cut them from the license, take the title, and possibly shut down the game (Depending on if you believe Turbine's claim of a Neverwinter Nights MMO in development). So in that situation, DDO players can expect a change of hands at best, and a shutdown at worst. Corporate grudges run deep.
If Hasbro wins, it's smooth sailing for Turbine. From what I was able to get from Hasbro, they really enjoy Dungeons and Dragons Online, and Turbine would simply be licensing the rights to the game from Hasbro, rather than Atari. Publishing and advertising, on the other hand, will have to be dealt with, as that is currently Atari's job.
Anyway, that's my long winded 1:30am comment. I am still trying to get Atari on the line, but they won't talk to me. I might have better luck getting a quote from someone at Turbine.
Omali
Reply to this
Thank you for the response! I will mention this at some point in the near future here, but just wanted to say thanks for writing in. I guess I misinterpreted your article to believe that Turbine faces an uncertain future if Hasbro wins, in addition to Atari. I do think that DDO will be alive and well in 2016, personally.
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