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There are plenty of private MMO servers doing the same thing today, but Scapegaming had a donation/micropayment system set up where players could purchase in-game content. For instance, the company would charge $1 to advance a character two levels or $300 for a pack of rare items.
The operator, Alyson Reeves, was accused of unfair competition, circumvention of copyright protection systems, and more. A US District Court judge granted Blizzard $3 million in disgorged profits, $85.4 million in statutory damages, and $64,000 in legal fees for a grand total of more than $88 million.
User Comments: 12
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Like Blizzard needed $88 million.
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Well, they just earned back all the money they spent on developing Starcraft 2
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flannelwarrior said:
Like Blizzard needed $88 million.
Lol, very true... But I think it's more about making a point: use another company's IP for profit without permission, get spanked by a very expensive lawsuit.
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That's a shit load of money, it must suck to be Alyson Reeves. Seriously how can you even pay that off?... Even if you win the lotto your still in debt, now their family will be debt for a long time.
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teklord said:
I never buy additional content in games, be it from Blizzard or someone running a private server, so this would not effect me. I would rather grind forever getting my mount money or whatever I would need in WoW. I have yet to ever purchase any DLC, although if it was really really good DLC, I would consider it.
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Vrmithrax said:
Lol, very true... But I think it's more about making a point: use another company's IP for profit without permission, get spanked by a very expensive lawsuit.
are you talking about copy of Warhammer(Warcraft) and Warhammer40k(Starcraft) ?
Yes Blizz shoud pay to GamesWorkshop for that!
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ljj1452 said:
Blah, blah, blah, something stupid because I'm a spammer.
Really dude, find a new forum. Nobody cares about you or your spam.
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Can you tell me that with 11 million WoW players paying $15 a month they were losing money? Just look at them making $165Million per month off of monthly game fees. This doesn't include the cost of buying the games they sell or other features they now offer. $50 per expansion multiplied by the 11 million players upgrading is just unheard of. The upgrades should be free after paying $15 a month from the start.
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You have to realize how much blizzard has to pay out.
I can only imagine the amount of money that goes into just operation costs.
Programers, assistants, marketers, even the mail guy....
Then you have advertisement costs. You think Shatner and Mr. T do that for free? I dont think so.
30sec Commercial spots alone on local networks are in the high thousands, imagine what it costs for national campanges.
Then you have things like Blizzcon...I assume they have "some" sponsors, but I bet they still have to put out quite a bit for it!
$88 million probably covered the last few months of op costs..."maybe"
Overall, Im sure their net is still a pretty penny.
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awesome. now they can spawn more cash cow products that prey on and ruin a million nerds and their lives.
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Darth Shiv said:
The private server might have been ok if they didn't charge for anything. Maybe just accept donations and be not for profit.
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Eddie_42 said:
Guest said:$88 million probably covered the last few months of op costs..."maybe"
12 million users on WoW, $15/month = $180,000,000 /month, $88mil is change.
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