Damnatus forbidden ...

[LoC]

I think the most of you have heared about the mighty film project "Damnatus", the full length first film in the 40k universe?

Now GW forbid it:
http://damnatus.com/seite.php?file=news

Petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/damnatus/petition.html

[Typheron]

damn that sucks, they have been at that movie for ages.

fecking GW IP.

[Tortured_Soul]

Pity it looked like that could've been good.

[[The remarks following, in this post, are mine and mine alone, should anyone wish make contact with me regarding them they may do so at the given e-mail address. I take full responsibility for them and any possible repercussions]]

Above: For GWs legal team, I know they'd love the excuse to shut this mod down too.

Why does GW have to be so Totalitarian about their content. I can understand why they don't want people making money from their stuff, but honestly, such a thing as 'Fair Use' exists. Is it just me that thinks GW are deliberately making it as difficult as possible for fans to extend the WH40k universe into other, let's face it, more fun and easily accessible media, or is that the problem and GW want everyone to spend all their money in the GW stores?

Perhaps it's escaped the attention of the GW brass, but £10 for a piece of cast iron/steel which costs around 15p to manufacture is a bit steep is it not? I stopped playing the TT game after about 3 months because I wouldn't waste my income on something which, at the time, was far too complex for me to play. I enjoyed the painting and modelling parts to it, but that's where it ended.

I'm an avid fan of the associated literature and ideas of the 40k universe however. I'm usually to be found looking at Mods and game associated with 40k material? So why, WHY, do GW have to make it so difficult for everyone else? Perhaps they don't realise what a daunting task it is, setting up and planning a mod for a game WITHOUT the ridiculous amount of legislature and limitation the GW Legal Team bring to bear on "protecting" their content.

I think that the GW top bosses need to remove the set of GW "branded" modelling cutter from their arseholes and see what life's like, 'cause all ANY of us want to do is:
a) Promote your product (because like it or not, that's what we're doing)
b) Enjoy your product
c) Have a good god-damn time.

So, riddle me this, am i the only person that thinks this way or am I just being too damn normal?

[ChromeAngel]

LionHeart of the Battleground 40K mod brought this to the attention of our IRC channel a couple of days ago.  He was concerned that this new ban on 40k movies would impact on the CGI cinematic they had in production.   After further reading GWs "do and don'ts" it appears animations are still allowed though.

This decision is clearly targeted specifically at Damnatus and EU legislation that would force GW to either drop their claimed rights to some of the IP used by Damnatus under the previous allowance or take this this course.  Here's hoping GW and D cant strike a licensing deal.

[migb]

I agree, Tortured_Soul.
GW are gripping every inch of their legal rights, not bothering whether or not their bans are fair - or makes sense at all.
A community-friendly policy would increase the number of fan-made mods and movies. Few people dare risk a project as great as Damnatus, or even Exterminatus, due to the danger of being shut down by GW legal.

So they are shooting themselves in the foot.
I bet that if Warhammer and 40k became a bit more apperant on the popular scenes of gaming and videos, the amount of TT players would easily double.

[Typheron]

It should be noted that GW and relic were talking about a 40k FPS.

if this occurs, were boned as GW will shut us down so there own title gets all the attention (it would anyway but bean counters dont see it that way)

same thing happened to a mod for CnC generals when Halo Wars was announced, and that was Bungie, they have a friendly policy on this kind of thing.

[Tortured_Soul]

Hold the phone, if they shut down you guys they'll shut down UT40k too.

I don't think they'd go that far, it's a stage beyond anal retentive totalitarianism. They'd risk alienating themselves entirely from the Computer Gaming community. Then again this is GW we're talking about.

Anyway, why are they asking Relic to do an FPS. Surely to god they realise that Relic's forte is RTS games, if they do get Relic to go ahead with this, I reckon it'll flop worse than Fire Warrior.

[Typheron]

yeh they could in theory shut down all 40k FPS mods to preserve there own work, and sadly for us in this case they have the right to do so.

Possably, but more than likly relic will just oversee it and it will go out to some 3rd party company.

[Ripperhugme]

Damn I liked the idea of a movie, still I wouldn't worry too much you guys since there's no profit involved and GW probably doesn't expect you to reach a great enough audience.

[Tortured_Soul]

tbph, I'd love to see the outcry if they attempt to shut down BF40k or even RS1, the two longest running FPS 40K mods I know of. Their'd be hell to pay, they'd really have f**ked up their chances if they tried to pull that off.

[Typheron]

actually they would just totally ignore it, a couple of hundred 40k fans are nothing to GW.

[Tortured_Soul]

I reckon you're wrong mate, how many people play the TT and buy the Computer Games? More 'n a couple of hundred at any rate. I reckon if everyone who they screwed over boycotted them, they'd feel the squeeze.

[Typheron]

i think not, global sales of GW products would be unaffeced.

Look at what happened when they blizted the on-line stores a few years back, so many people boycotted then (easily way more than a few mods worth of supporters and fans). Result: absolutly nothing.

the killing of RS2, UT40k & BF40k would be nothing to them, especially given that although people get annoyed at GW they rarly boycott for any lenth of time.

Looking at my experiences with warseer.com and its predecessor portent.net the actual fraction of advid 40k TT gamers and comp gamers is actually very low.

We probably would not even get a foot note.

[Razielk]

I have got to agree with typh on this, GW has in the past held the axe over our heads simply because some forum members were using GW artwork for their avatars.  If we hadnt turned off avatars we would have got the chop.

If they decided to make a FPS, they wouldnt hesitate in closing down mods, when the only alternative is for people wanting a 40k FPS is to buy GW's own creation!

[Brother-Captain Severus, Deserted Legion 3rd Company Master]

I'm going to print this off (this entire thing, that is) and show my local GW Manager. This sucks.

Still, it was going to be an awesome movie. I was really looking forward to seeing it. I did, and still do, believe that this would increase the Games Workshop product sales quite a lot.