Actually I never heard of it - I take it someone modded SC2 to play like Warcraft 4?

Nope. The guy (or team, whatever) modded SC2 using the official mod making tool, and created a mod that was basically a MMORPG game set in the SC universe.

Then, Activision Blizzard's lawyers started crying that he was making a game with Blizzard's stuff (universe, characters, francise, whatever). It was all settled for good, eventually, after he visited Blizzard's headquarters.

Ahh gotcha and yeah I can see that being a very fine line to cross - considering that they have given out the materials to work with. I suspect they just didn't want to end up lumped running or having to outsource to another company, a SC WoW game - having already seen what the Defence of the Ancients mod resulted in.

But yeah glad it got sorted somehow

making the mod was fine until he named it he called it "World of Starcraft" and at which they promptly lost their shit.

he wasn't even trying to camp on anything official; he built a replica of WOW's mechanics with the starcraft modding tools .... the name was natural and it's not like he could have legally restricted them from claiming the name back in due time, nor was he was selling it.

and they lost their shit gloriously.

Who lost whos shit? Nobody lost a thing, instead, everybody won, I'd say.

There were no lawsuits or anything, just a simple misunderstanding by Activision Blizzard's guys in charge of the legal stuff.

blizzard lost their minds, is that phrase better?

they were ready to sue the poor guy for nothing, the only reason they didn't is because the guy pretty much assumed the fetal position and started screaming "take it, take it, just go away!"

this baffled them enough to stall up long enough to turn around and notice the seething mob mob that was coming after them in retaliation for how they were attacking him.

the first thing that they could think of was to throw an arm around the guy and start singing "Kumbayah" .... it stopped the pitch forks, but everyone packed up and walked away from the SC modding scene rather than possibly face legal action for what amounted to someone making a mod titled "Unreal Gears" with the UDK.

Funny you should say that, I was thinking about suggesting forum meets, but a GOGcon would be awesome. I'm close enough to the Polish border for it to be worth my while :)

Edit: Where is GOG even based? They conduct business under the laws of California, operate from a registered address in Cyprus yet seem to have most of their operations in Poland.

Probably Narnia.

Facepalm. He didn't give up on anything. They allowed him to continue his work. And they didn't attack him, nor he tried to defend himself or anything. It was a simple misunderstanding.

I'm not trying to defend either side, just that haters make a bigger deal out of this than it originally was.

Umm, do you have a link? He pulled it, if he's working on it now that didn't make any press I read and Blizzard did an about face on it. They didn't just want the name changed (which was a really reasonable request which would have angered few) they wanted it stopped. He took down all his Youtube videos and everything else.

What killed the mod scene was people realizing that Blizzard had veto power over all mods because they had built it in such a way that they had control and that they were willing to fire first, ask questions later. That right there is going to alienate a lot of seriously creative people instantly.

No link, sorry. It's what I remember from RPS' articles. Blizzard first filled for a DCMA (or how that is called) thinking he was building a totally new game using the World of Starcraft name, then both parties had a meeting at Blizzard's offices during which it was presented that he was using SC2's editor, and they then allowed him to continue.

At least, that's what I remember, I could be wrong. I too haven't seen absolutely anything new released about that case, or the mod.

Anyways, mod-related:

Expect to see lots of games like Plants vs Zombies, Peggle, maybe Angry Birds, DotA clones, and similar popping up for Starcraft 2 when they release The Arcade (mod marketplace) with Heart of the Swarm.

For developers, it is another platform to build games upon, which is very welcomed.

I think your memory is playing tricks on you, they threw an epic fit, someone at Blizzard pulled their head out of their ass long enough to see the epic shitstorm brewing and the gargantuan amount of egg on their face. In the end they greenlighted it, but not before he got grilled by Blizz's lawyers, then a project team (iirc), and some other sundry crap. Riot Games took the opportunity to get in a few jabs at Blizzard by offering the kid a job interview.

Blizzard let the mod continue, I did find it, it's at Starcraft Universe (http://starcraftuniverse.org/) which is good, I guess. The shitstorm should have never been necessary and frankly should have been punished by someone over at Blizz HQ.

"Here's some mod tools, use our IP and create something awesome!"

Someone posts a video on Youtube having created something awesome: "Release the hounds of hell, this fucker will burn for eternity for infringing our IP. WE WILL SEND A MESSAGE THE INTERNET WILL NEVER FORGET!"

Yeah, well, message sent and received. Good job Blizzard.

Yea, that was stupid, I agree. Great for him if he got a job.

Thanks for the link. Hopefully the mod will be finished in time for the release of HotS.

According to the FAQ HotS will probably add some extra functionality to the content (such as the ability to drop into a map after the game has been started, etc.) so I think they at least plan on launching before then.