The gaming industry is not only valuable fur the final product, but also three to four kilograms of dietary, easily digestible a considerable number of scandals accompanying its appearance. Suing games and their creators has long become mainstream, and for some, almost the meaning of life. If you don’t like the game, if you’re fed up with the whole company, if you simply have nothing to do in your free time, you can always sue. And not only you, evil corporations do not sleep, and are always ready to trip up someone who is walking, and do dirty tricks to the innocent. All of this, or rather only a small part, will be written in this blog.
One of the last cases "legal"wishes"make money"from the developers, was an attempt by a famous (well, at least somewhere for sure) actress Lynsey Lohan (or Lowen) to be outraged by the illegal use of her image in GTA 5. According to the unfortunate actress, who is being successfully treated for all possible drug and alcohol addictions (THIS IS IMPORTANT!), in the game there is a girl very similar to her. And if so, please pay, dear Rockstar. Lindsay somehow never thought about the fact that several thousand girls, boys, and even dogs could apply for the game in this way. However, there is no need to worry about RockStar – these guys are not used to this, they will be able to stand up for themselves (besides, where is the guarantee that the actress did not imagine her own image in another drunken stupor?).
In November 2001, the Pro Evolution Soccer series of football simulators was born, which was immediately sued by the French Football Association. The essence of the claim was the unlawful (according to the French) use of names, logos, uniforms and even photographs of players in the game. The case was considered for two and a half years (during this time the release of new games in the series did not stop) and ended in the failure of the football association. But the number of people wishing to sue the games has only increased since then.
So someone Mark Gallagher went to court, demanding monetary compensation in the amount of one and a half million dollars from Rockstar North for the fact that it was supposedly his idea for GTA, which was successfully stolen from him. In court, he argued that back in 1993 he created a game about street bandits, in which you were allowed to steal cars and generally behave like a real gangster, and that, while trying to get a job at Rockstar, he handed it over to studio representatives as proof of his own competence. The game was happily taken away from him, but the employee was kicked out the door. In response to this Rockstars They said, “Nice try Mark, but we haven’t seen you before and don’t know anything about you.”.
A young girl originally from America also went to court, accusing the corporation Microsoft in all mortal sins. According to her, in the game "for adults"(whose name I will not give), which enjoyed considerable popularity, turned out to be her photographs, which, in general, she did not sign up for, and indeed she was still underage. And now, they say, life is over, all the guys in the world have already seen it, and you won’t go to college, or get a normal job. Instead of the logical “why the hell did you act naked then if you were so afraid of the public’s reaction?”?", the girl’s claim was satisfied, all her photographs were removed from the game, and rare copies with her participation instantly soared in price at auctions.
An elderly Korean citizen also decided to try her luck and filed a lawsuit against NC Soft, for what’s in their game Lineage managed to waste an unusually rare sword. On a good day at auction, this trinket could fetch up to 28 thousand dollars, so the loss of such a sword almost gave my grandmother a heart attack. The developers sympathized with the unlucky gamer, but refused to pay, they say, you shouldn’t fall into insanity, citizen, you broke the sword voluntarily, trying to improve it to the point of impossibility (to raise the price several times more). As they say, the greed of the fraer ruined.
Well, typical line players.
Game release True Crime: New York could not leave the city police indifferent, whose commissioner publicly accused the game of allegedly discrediting the bright and pure image of the police, presenting them as almost greater criminals than real lawbreakers. Like, cops in real life don’t beat people, don’t break cars, smell flowers and flap their wings. In response to this, the former detective Bill Clark, from whom the developers consulted on various issues, falls out of his chair laughing, and declares that the game is a game, not educational material for future cops, and it would be better if the police thought about increasing the efficiency of their work, and at least about increasing salaries, and not about computer video games. Despite this, the brave commissioner makes every effort to ensure that each box with the game includes a special insert with information. The content of the insert is simple: the New York police have nothing to do with the game, everything is lies and slander, and all doubters will face severe disappointment in life.
Not only police commissioners and girls with dark pasts, but also Hollywood stars are suing. Not knowing how else to promote himself, actor Roger Hill decided to cut the publishing house Take-Two a completely indecent amount of a quarter of a billion dollars. Why do you think? Yes, it’s simple, during the time of the king of peas, young and promising Roger uttered a few words in the film “Warriors", where he was a prominent figure, playing a gang leader. After a certain number of years Take Too releases a game of the same name, which also features the actor’s phrase, which at that time was quite popular. Well, it’s something like "hasta la vista baby» for the nineties. So the actor was so delighted with such a unique opportunity to make money that he hurried to court with irrefutable evidence and the face of the holy great martyr. Besides the loud "Ahaha"However, representatives Take-Two he was never rewarded with anything.
Owners of a PlayStation 3 console probably shudder nervously every time the console starts up and issues an angry warning about possible epileptic seizures. And once upon a time I shuddered myself Sony. A young New Yorker played the game Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly to the green devils, as a result of which his caring mother ran to call… well, not exactly an ambulance, but to lawyers. How not to sue Sony, the game’s publisher, the development team, and even the store where it was sold? The Japanese decided not to argue, because the game did not contain any warnings about possible epilepsy. All those who are indignant at the long loading of their consoles can safely remember the cunning woman, so that she hiccups to victory.
Such things.
Comrade Kevin Singer, whom the government ordered to sit in a cell for 100 years, also managed to sue. He asked to be allowed to play board games Dungeons & Dragons. The court, in response to this, issued a tirade worthy of ward number six, declaring that playing a tabletop RPG would clearly provoke a riot inside the prison, because this is a game, and games are evil, everyone knows that. They even collected a petition on the Internet addressed to the President of the United States, demanding that the unfortunate person spend the rest of his life playing his favorite game.
Do you think that’s all? No matter how it is. What do you think clergymen do in their free time?? That’s right, they’re trying to sue video games and their creators. Thus, one English church was extremely indignant that in one of the episodes of the game Resistance: Fall of Man the main character destroys chimeras in Manchester Cathedral, which cannot but offend the feelings of British believers, and should inevitably lead to an invasion of the horsemen of the apocalypse, in her opinion. Having difficulty removing their hand from their faces, the representatives Sony they are trying to explain that the game takes place in an alternative reality, which means it should not offend anyone. Well, at least it’s a ride here.
Following the English clergy, the British teachers’ association is attacking sellers, urging them to hide copies of the game away Bully: Scholar Edition. “Cruelty in schools is already through the roof, and now they’re letting out this kind of stuff,” teachers are outraged. They can be understood, unlike the church, if something happens they will shoot at them.
Gentlemen creationists are people about whom no one knows anything (in fact, ardent opponents of Darwin’s theory) are indignant about the release of the game Spore. According to them, the world in all its diversity could not have appeared as a result of chance or through natural selection. Of course, listen Will Wright, who, before the release of the game, repeated twenty times that the game was not trying to offend the feelings of believers and religious people, no one did. Well, who would doubt it.
A little more religion. In a thoroughly children’s plush platformer LittleBigPlanet someone discovers a song with a couple of quotes from the Koran. Fearing the reaction of an angry Muslim community, the unfortunate Sony doesn’t even try to justify himself by replacing the entire circulation. True, especially cunning citizens sell their pre-ordered copies at exorbitant prices on ebee, at least someone is happy.
So, who else have we not had?? Oh yes, humane societies. Well, hold on – school (!) Massachusetts Animal Welfare Club is very saddened by the fact that the game Call of Duty: World of War there is an opportunity to shoot poor and unfortunate dogs. Local biology teachers must have been on a severe bender and did not explain to the children that a handful of pixels are still slightly different from a living creature. Aktivizhen reacts to what happened only with hundreds of faces smashed by facepalms.
Sometimes the case does not go to court, although situations happen that are quite clear. Either the Italians are not so cunning, or the situation with the courts in this country is not conducive to long lawsuits, but to the surprise of many, one average dad did not sue evil corporation EA. The point is that his beloved child was peacefully playing FIFA 2009, when parents were minding their own business. The father, who looked into his son’s room for a moment, considered it his duty to notice that his son was somehow not very good at this football simulator, and could have scored more, citing the fact that Italy is actually a four-time world champion, the country Buffon, Cannavaro and others Pirlo. The son calmly listened to his father’s reproaches and with a sweet smile went to the kitchen to get a knife. Dad eventually survived, but the grief-stricken football player was taken into custody. Why EA was not found guilty of the incident still remains a mystery.
That’s how she is – noir and dangerous.
Sometimes entire communities express their outrage at the outrages in video games. Thus, migrants of Cuban and Haitian origin are very dissatisfied with the game GTA: Vice City. Too often it is their compatriots who are killed, which is generally not good. Of course, the Haitians and Cubans did not think about the fact that you can kill anyone in the game. Moreover, many were outraged by the fact that they are allegedly exposed to the whole world as petty swindlers who are at most capable of petty hooliganism, something like local rednecks, but cannot commit serious crimes. It’s a shame, you know?. Rockstar doesn’t pay much attention to these cries, but representatives of the national minority reach all the way to the mayor of New York, calling for at least something to be done. “Imagine that people will take the call to kill our compatriots seriously, and, after playing the game, will go to war against us,” frightened Haitians and Cubans scream pleadingly. The mayor of the city fully confirmed the fears of ordinary people regarding the selection of candidates for various political structures, and pressed Rockstar to the wall. The latter had to release a special censored version, and since then all the smoking rooms in the company have been talking about the mental abilities of politicians.
But the palm in the frequency and absurdity of claims and various types of statements is held by one famous lawyer Jack Thompson. Over the past decade, it has managed to cause pelvic pain in the vast majority of people in any way involved in the creation and distribution of video games. For example, he once published an open letter in which he said that the game The Sims 2 is pornographic and should not be recommended for children over thirteen years of age. Of course, the lawyer did not think about the fact that we are talking not so much about the game itself, but about user modifications, where the “squares” in the causal places are replaced with something more consistent with reality. The game publishers respond to this very sarcastically, noting that with the same success the editors of newspapers should be held responsible for indecent drawings drawn by readers in the margins of these newspapers.
But he looks like such a decent guy!
Thompson I wasn’t satisfied with this https://ssgame350casino.co.uk/games/ and decided to look at my son’s video game collection. And then I came across Bioshock, which is permitted to be sold to persons 17 years of age or older. Since my son was barely 15, Jack immediately ran to court, waving the game disc and demanding that everyone and everything be punished and video games banned.
A little tormented by the constant lawsuits of its members, the Florida State Bar promises Jack the revocation of his professional license in case of further violations of professional ethics. Thompson without any doubt he sends everyone to court, blaming the Bar itself for all the world’s sins, blog Game Politics, Microsoft, Entertainment Consumers Association and even a retail chain Best Buy, in general, everyone who came to hand. Rockstar breathed a sigh of relief, for some reason the lawyer forgot about them.
We were happy early. Realizing that the courts were already openly laughing at him, the lawyer decided to act in other ways. The best way out of the situation was a letter that Jack sent to his mother Strauss Zelnick (head of the board of directors Take-Two, publisher GTA 4). The following phrases could be found in the letter: “Mrs. Zelnik, you know that your son is a damned bastard who corrupts children and provokes them to violence?»
In June 2008, the court finally decides to schedule a hearing to disbar Thompson. Appearing at the hearing, the lawyer laughingly told the judge that she had short hands, and she had no right to decide his fate, after which he proudly walked out of the courtroom. Five months later, the lawyer’s license is successfully taken away.
But the industry does not live on courts alone. Just remember the wonderful PR companies.
I remember when the game came out Turok: Evolution, PR people offered 10 thousand dollars to the family that would be the first to name their newborn child Turok. Later she repeated the trick "Alcove", who promised a bunch of lifelong goodies to the parents of the newlywed Dovahkiin.
Well, the release Burnout 2 generally threatened to become the worst day of the London policemen. On this day, the company promised to pay all fines received by drivers on city roads. Actually Burnout decided to arrange not only in the monitor, but also on the streets of the capital. The mayor of the city and the police, having taken a heavy dose of valerian, stopped the emerging madness. Although it later became clear that the situation with Turok, and chaos on the roads were just clever PR moves of the agency Acclaim Entertainment.
Although I outdid everyone Sony, with her PSP advertising campaign. To think of printing a typical white woman, in emphatically snow-white clothes, who clearly dominates a representative of the Negroid race, is incomprehensible. It’s a no brainer that all the attention wasn’t drawn to the console.
Does anyone think this poster is unequivocal??
And the developers themselves sometimes did such weird things that you could even climb the wall. Strategy fans Knights of Honor with a blissful smile we inserted the disc into the drive, anticipating several hours of pleasure. The game, with a blissful smile, removed programs from the hard drive that emulated CD drives, like Daemon Tools. As a result, several hours of pleasure turned into several hours of acute pain in the tailbone area, and gaming forums were bursting with solemn promises to take all the developers’ relatives, including great-great-grandmothers, on a date. However, the developers were not at a loss and gave an ingenious answer. “We are not to blame for anything, the emulators were automatically uninstalled when they saw our wonderful game in the drive”. Millions of broken faces, hubbub from the developers of the emulators themselves, noise, din, dust and curses. As a result, a patch eliminating unsportsmanlike behavior was finally released.
Meanwhile, the fierce racists from Capcom finally brought their diabolical plan to life. Why do you think the company came up with the series? Resident Evil? Why did it produce several serialized parts, and a dozen branches?? That’s right – in order to one day send the fifth part of the zombie series, completely saturated with racism, intolerance and hatred of people, to float freely around the world blacks African Americans. In any case, American human rights activists thought so, and statements about the total genocide of white zombies in the previous parts, and that zombies are not people, were not taken seriously by them. It is obvious to everyone that the smartest American guardians of morality cannot be fooled by such stupid excuses. The most curious thing was that the most outrageous fact was that players were allowed to kill dark-skinned zombies in the form WHITE MAN. No comments necessary.
As it turned out, actresses of the adult genre also love to act. Mia Rose, young lady who treats with love MMORPG World of Warcraft, decided to transfer this love to the big (and not so big) screens, playing with all authenticity an elf who found adventures in a fantasy world. The guys from Blizzard They quickly discovered creative video cosplay (and what they do in their free time from making games?), and banned the unfortunate girl. The wording of the ban outraged the community to the core, and under public pressure the girl’s account was returned. However, the loving nymph has since been surrounded by an impenetrable crowd of admirers, so there was no talk of a normal game in such conditions.
I need to insert something here into the topic, but then I will be banned. Let it be.
Microsoft does not lag behind, and when she finds a girl in the Xbox Live service with a non-standard sexual orientation (a certain Teresa directly wrote that she is a lesbian), she is happy to send her to a ban, with the excellent wording “Your behavior may offend someone”.
Sometimes what happens in the gaming industry can be very succinctly described by the phrase “both laughter and sin”. Out on the shelves GTA: San Andreas stirred up many, accusations of all sins were generously rained down on the heads of the developers, but one of them, even in this general insanity of moral advocates, stands apart. The Sex Workers Union openly expressed its strong “Fie” to the development team. The reason for indignation was the opportunity to rob and kill prostitutes. Like, what are you teaching children?? Why is this happening to us, then? We are kind, and we bring joy to everyone, and you show that you can use us, and then take back the currency and smash your head with a bat. How many employees Rockstar died of laughter, unfortunately not reported. It’s a pity.
The story of another amateur stands out Warcraft, who really needed one epic item. Apparently so epic that the young lady agreed to do her own honor for a certain amount of money in the game. Both parties were satisfied with the deal.
And of course the countries. Entire states at war with video games in the name of justice and cleansing their ranks of irresponsible citizens.
You can talk about all sorts of North Koreas and our Far Eastern neighbors with a billion inhabitants for a long time and tediously, but who cares?? But did you know that completely uninhibited Brazil, with its hot dances and extremely revealing carnival costumes, suddenly rolled a barrel onto the famous Counter? According to Brazilian authorities, Counter-Strike undermines the laws and democratic foundations of society, incites children to all kinds of violation of order, provokes hooliganism and rampant crime. Stores politely asked to throw away the universally banned game, and promised to reward players with a hefty fine of $3,000 if they were caught doing something illegal (playing counters), or even found it on their hard drive.
And what’s so scary about this game??
Well, how can we avoid the scandal with the famous mission in Call Of Duty: MW 2. The point is that the player is offered to kill a little civilians at Sheremetyevo airport. Russian localizers, offended by their power, withdraw the mission in order to avoid a scandal (which does not in any way affect pirated copies, in which “soak"a couple of hundred fellow citizens can be reached without any problems), but only in the PC version. Unable to cope with the console one, the latter is withdrawn from sale. More precisely, they don’t publish it at all. Everything would be fine, but all the reviews "ON» written based on pre-release versions where the mission was. And at the very moment when the gaming press releases new versions of magazines, people go a little crazy. The main complaint of the community is expressed by shouts of “Hey, return a piece of the game.” Some enterprising citizens from neighboring countries are setting up a clever business of selling Belarusian, Ukrainian and Estonian versions (in which there is naturally no censorship) to Russia, making a considerable profit from this. Admittedly, the rest of the world is a little worried too. Australia, the USA and some others are not particularly happy with the state of affairs. In general, Japan is doing a good job: the name of the mission (“Not a word in Russian”) is translated as “Kill them – they’re Russian.”. Russian MPs are immediately calling for the game to be banned for inciting extremism and terrorism. In general, we buzzed a lot. But what am I telling you about, you haven’t seen this mission, you’re not pirates, right??
The Somali government (if you can call it that, because the government in Somalia is a bunch of dirty ragamuffins, with machine guns and grenade launchers) prohibits video games, internet cafes, consoles and everything connected with them in the country (if, of course, Somalia, with all due respect, can be called a country). Why? Undermining the centuries-old traditions and moral foundations of our society – Somalis explain. Traditions and foundations probably mean assaults, robbery, violence and murder.
According to representatives of Somalia, video games are evil.
Restart Medal of Honor also could not go unnoticed. Let me remind you that the game is about the military conflict in Afghanistan. And in it you can (OH GOD. ) play for the Taliban, killing "innocent" British peacekeepers. The British Ministry of Defense, to put it mildly, is not particularly happy with this fact; they are supported by the Canadians and Danes (their soldiers are also participating in the military campaign). Everything would be fine, it’s a standard situation, isn’t it?? It only becomes funny when the mother of a man killed in IRAQ (!) American soldier calls the game rare rubbish, with disrespect for the memory of her deceased son. Understanding that it is easier to make amendments to the game than to teach an entire nation geography, EA removes the Taliban from the game, replacing it with “who knows, but they’re shooting”.
It would be dishonest not to mention Australia, with its intolerance towards alien anal probes. So, the country of kangaroos has once again unleashed a barrel on game makers. The reason for the buhurt was Aliens vs Predator, replete with scenes of cruelty and violence. Blood, dismemberment, mucus and muck on the screen – the continent’s authorities were rubbing their hands with pleasure, but suddenly something happened “THIS IS THE TURN». The creators of the game, unexpectedly for everyone, roll up their sleeves and show the Australians their arm bent at the elbow. “Our universe is based on cult films recognized in all countries. We created a game as close as possible to the original source – it is tough, scary, nightmarish and bloody. And we will not allow it to be changed to please anyone; if you don’t like it, don’t eat it. The films in the series were made for adults, and our game is in the same category. We don’t make Smeshariki". The most amazing thing is that the taken aback censors, instead of mass genocide of the developers, quietly and peacefully asked the population, what do you think about it?. Among the choice curses addressed to them, the government caught a simple idea – release the game, don’t think. Later the game appeared on the shelves with a rating of “15+”.
But all of the above in no way means that computer games and their creators are all soft and fluffy, and bad citizens are only trying to pin all the world’s sins on them.
Everyone’s favorite steam once banned 12,000 people. We made a small mistake. That didn’t stop them from apologizing and giving each victim two copies of the second part Left 4 Dead.
Well, is it possible to be offended by him??
EA periodically adds wood to the fire. They either fire people en masse, or close entire studios, and once they were caught editing articles in Wikipedia. An enterprising corporation quietly changed the facts, replacing those that clearly showed the company’s wolfish grin with those that clearly indicated the presence of a halo over its head. To my credit EAshnikov, they admitted that they really edit Wikipedia, not forgetting to clarify that everyone does this, and there is no need to blame them all.
Gentlemen from Blizzard in turn, they came up with some good entertainment for themselves. "Do you like to play Starcraft 2 And VoVku? Then write messages only under your real names, and nothing else. This will allow us laugh at you for hours create a more meaningful community". Players are panicking. Top managers playing WoW choose what to throw – work, play or themselves from the bridge into the river? Girls who have barely made it into the guilds are afraid of being expelled from them, and some are seriously afraid of attracting too much male attention. Those who like to fool around with their mothers, and those who don’t like representatives of sexual minorities and people with racial differences, also shake when leaving the entrance in the evening. In general, after betting for four days in a row, Blizzard realizes that he is flying again refuses such a policy.
In January 2010, an open letter from the wives of employees appeared online Rockstar San Diego, whose husbands worked tirelessly to Red Dead Redemption. Wives complained about inhumane working conditions and compared the company to a slave owner. According to them, the men they loved worked 16 hours a day, six days a week, without any additional monetary profit. Rockstar I didn’t really react to this, but it became clear to the whole world that the game would be great.
Soft and Fluffy Corporation Nintendo sometimes it still got to the nuts. Cute kawaii console Wii, aimed at who knows who, but not gamers, has been replenished with a bloody-brutal slasher MadWorld. Grandmothers are indignant, gamers look with interest.
Mario and Zelda are probably shocked by this proximity.
And on Nintendo DC Meanwhile, a game has appeared that supposedly develops the brains of schoolchildren, and everyone else. It is unknown why, one French professor decided to verify the statement by testing Brain Training on several dozen teenagers. Having found out that none of them had become smarter, the Frenchman was offended and spat in the direction of the developers, they immediately apologized, saying that they didn’t mean anything like that and were not to blame for anything.
And finally, releasing it on the shelves Wii Fit, the company never expected to drown in angry reviews from parents. “Madam, you eat a lot!“- a satisfied console happily informs a ten-year-old girl. “My daughter does dancing, swimming and God knows what else, not an ounce of fat – slim and beautiful,” the dissatisfied father says indignantly. Nintendo apologizes, saying the program needs more work and improvement.
However, we should not forget that in exceptional cases, players really go crazy, or cleverly deceive the system, hitting the wallets of their comrades with the help of fraud.
Swear statements in the chat of multiplayer games are not always so harmless. American well, who would doubt it schoolboy fighting fiercely in the fourth part Call of Duty, expressed a desire to shoot a little at his home school. Local authorities appreciated the joke, calculating by IP the juvenile terrorist was found with the help of Microsoft and Internet provider and, laughing and smiling, offered to pay a fine of 5 million dollars, while having fun in a local prison for a year.
The FBI and Interpol conducted a joint operation during which several well-known hackers were caught. The public was surprised by the fact that among those convicted was the editor-in-chief of an online magazine Game Over Online, who received video game sources for reviews, which in turn sold to pirates. They did not stand on ceremony with the guy, and he was imprisoned for 10 years. Don’t worry, Stopgame is against piracy, and Maxim won’t have to wear the gear anytime soon.
Video games can drive even adults. A sixty-two-year-old English man stabbed his wife to death with scissors. The reason is excessive passion for video games on Playstation 3. Criminal sentenced to life imprisonment.
An unlucky trio of security guards thought of bringing a PSP to work. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with that, but they worked at a plant producing atomic weapons. Not the best place to play.
About GTA you can easily write a separate article. One bus driver decided to do as in the famous cartoon, where “your mother is passed on here and there! How far has technology come?!"The technology has reached the point where the bus driver (!), while at work (!!), while driving a real bus (. ), managed to drive a virtual bus, crushing pedestrians in the game GTA: Liberty City Stories, on the console PSP. The poor guy’s employers acted wisely, leaving him the opportunity to do what he loved… drive a bus in GTA, but sending him to early retirement out of stupidity.
Haven’t sued RockStar yet? You’ve wasted your life!
Another resident of America (what is it?!) enthusiastically played casual games FarmVille. At some point, her hobby was interrupted by her three-month-old son, to which the grief-stricken mother responded very simply – she decided to calm the child down by hitting him with his head. The baby died, and the kind mother went on playing. In court, the madam stated that she just wanted to calm the child down, gently rocking him in her arms, but perhaps she miscalculated her strength a little, and lightly hit him. The court thought a little and lightly sent her to the electric chair.
An Australian man named Richard has achieved a lot in his life. At least in an online game EVE online, where he became the head of his own bank. He achieved even more when he robbed his own bank and sold more than 5 thousand dollars worth of in-game currency. The developers responded to the indignation of the players with a ban, but refused to return the money.
Of course, this is only a small part of the endless number of scandals, lawsuits, incidents and crazy actions. However, I sincerely hope that you found it interesting. I don’t dare delay any longer.