Warcraft 3: Reforgedhas finally arrived, giving fans of the series another chance to relive the Burning Legion’s second invasion of Azeroth. But as players across different regionsprepared for yesterday’s launch, a number of problems began to arise such as severe lag, lost data, and being unable to start multiplayer games. In the midst of these issues, the community has noticed Blizzard took steps with this remake that discourages anyone hoping to create the next big hit through their custom-map maker.
Since the original 2002 release ofWarcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, the World Editor feature has allowed players to create custom games using the maps, sprites, and features available. This freedom resulted in the creation of many favorites in the multiplayer community, including the original Defense of the Ancients map which would inspireDota 2andLeague of Legendsyears later. Unfortunately, Blizzard wasn’t unable to capitalize on the success of those mods and have taken measures to protect itself with an updated copyright policy.
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On the official Blizzard forums forWarcraft 3: Reforged, user ThunderPope breaks down what exactly has changed in the new acceptable use policy. The trademarks of any custom maps are now Blizzard’s property rather than the players and there will be no compensation if officially used. Copyrighted material cannot be used for creative content, invalidating many community favorite mods like DBZ tribute. Furthermore, Blizzard can simply remove any content if it so chooses and the newly implemented report function seems like a way to target such offenders.
With these terms, Blizzard is simply trying to prevent further game design ideas from slipping through their fingers. After theprevious legal battle with Valve over the DOTA trademark, the new policy is assurance that a repeat won’t occur in the future. However, this will negatively impact the custom map community which has already started to feel some effects. Anything that happens inWarcraft 3: Reforgedwill stay with Blizzard.
As it stands, if players want to create custom content with theWarcraft 3World Editor, they will have to hit a strict checklist of concerns to avoid being removed. To say nothing of intellectual property belonging to Blizzard, there are better alternatives that allow users to keep the name and idea such asthe case with Auto Chess.
For now,Warcraft 3: Reforged’slaunch is not what many fans expected with their pre-orders. But at the core, it is still the original RTS that players know and love,complete with old cheat codeswhen the campaign gets tough.
