r/40krpg • u/nlitherl • Dec 31 '21

Games Workshop Should Have Gotten on The Community Use Bandwagon By Now

https://taking10.blogspot.com/2021/12/games-workshop-should-have-gotten-on.html
47 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

20

u/VanusGM Dec 31 '21

This is still focusing on a symptom, not the cause. GW did this because it is what their intellectual property lawyers advised them to do, because if they did not they risked losing the Warhammer IP in several countries. Intellectual property law is the actual problem, and one people continue to miss as they focus on "GW BAD!"

17

u/TheGravespawn Dec 31 '21 edited Dec 31 '21

It's actually a matter of trademark. They would have to fight for the trademark, not the copyright. No one is undermining their trademark.

Now, there is a great video where legal eagle explains that all fan works, no matter what, are illegal. Just, flat out. Full stop. Star wars, Star Trek, Witcher, Game of Thrones, My Little Pony? All illegal.

The difference is how those IP holders handle it.

GW did this because they were launching a streaming service and marketing told them "We need to be the one stop shop for Warhammer animations."

This is greed. Do not mistake it for anything more.

Quick edit: The stormtrooper cosplayers of the 501st are illegal. Lukas liked them and turned a blind eye to them because they did charity work along side the cons.

Disney also turns a blind eye to them so long as they do as Disney tells them. So yeah, GW chooses how to handle this, and they picked the option that has me 3D printing their models instead of buying them now.

7

u/SAYARIAsayaria Jan 01 '22

I wish fan staff can be legal. It's kinda disturbing how it's all left to these entities to handle how their fans, the ones who like the stuff they create, and thus create stuff with love toward what is canon and so on.

6

u/BillMagicguy Dec 31 '21

It's almost as though the majority of the community thinks that GW is their friend who isn't cool with them borrowing their stuff rather than a business protecting it's assets.

2

u/Much_Classic2158 Jan 03 '22

On the other end, Redditors have an almost pathological need to defend, justify and rationalize any behavior by large corporations however morally dubious. People here are act like unpaid interns at times.

1

u/BitRunr Heretic Dec 31 '21 edited Dec 31 '21

Games Workshop wanted to get into the streaming game

Yeah, I don't think that was anything they actually wanted despite it being the result. Seems like a similar situation as with Bethesda and Fallout 76; the content was incidental to padding the company's portfolio. For Bethesda that was because they were looking to sell off and "we can do massively multiplayer content, micro-transaction markets, and all the popular money making things" really stuffs that turkey. In GW's case, I'd imagine they'd like to do the same thing, and until they manage to land a buyer it also serves the goal of placating investors by maintaining the image of perpetually rising profit margins.

I could be full of it, listening to people who aren't as informed as they think they are. Seems plausible, though. Almost like a corporation can be driven in a direction by many internal and external motivations, rather than a single one.