4 ms·

What if Humvees become the worst vehicles in the game because of balancing reasons? If I were the owner of the brand I'd be pissed. Even worse in case of other

What if Humvees become the worst vehicles in the game because of balancing reasons? If I were the owner of the brand I'd be pissed. Even worse in case of other vehicles like racing cars. Imagine a racing game in which Porsche cars are slowest and break more often than other cars. You wouldn't want your brand to be associated with that, even if it's a videogame. Or imagine a completely broken game with popular car. Big Rigs level kind of broken. You wouldn't want your luxury car brand associated with broken school project level of games.

Alupis 7y ago
> What if Humvees become the worst vehicles in the game because of balancing reasons? If I were the owner of the brand I'd be pissed. Pretty much exactly what happened with the Glock in the Counter Strike PC game.
- babypuncher 7y ago
  And yet nobody bases their decision whether or not to buy a Glock based on its performance in Counter-Strike. It's a non-issue.
  - WaxProlix 7y ago
    I grew up playing Counter-Strike and have in the past few years bought a few guns; despite their solid reputation and the fact that they do what I want, I never even considered a Glock. Was this causal? Who knows, but I wouldn't rule it out.
    - macintux 7y ago
      Given how effective advertising is, I think it's safer to assume that such a relationship does exist for some. We're all subject to a wide variety of unconscious biases.
    - projektfu 7y ago
      I assume that a gamer would want a Heckler & Koch VP9 just for the appearance.
      - Alupis 7y ago
        Well, there was a noticeable surge of new Mini14 owners at my local range during the peak of PUBG (Player Unknown's Battlegrounds) battle royale game.
  - tomatotomato37 7y ago
    Glock does kind of have a reputation as a low-end plastic Walmart gun. I doubt Counter-Strike is causing that reputation, but it certainly isn't helping
    - Alupis 7y ago
      It also has a reputation of being one of the most reliable, simplistic and easy to use/maintain guns used by military and law enforcement around the world. So much so that other highly reliable Striker Fire handguns all basically cloned the Glock design (Smith & Wesson's M&P line, among others). I'd bet there's influence coming from both ends - those who used them in video games and decided their first gun just couldn't possibly be a Glock, and those who see Special Operations guys using them and decided their first gun just had to be a Glock.
      - kyuudou 7y ago
        Yea I was gonna say, most real gun owners understand that reliability, recognizability and using ammo that's very common and available trump anything else. Glock 9mm is always a good choice.
- alkonaut 7y ago
  They were really concerned about the use of the gun names in the 1.6 era I remember. Guns had alias names for some reason, presumably out of legal concerns.
babypuncher 7y ago
Too bad? I think most people are smart enough to separate entertainment from marketing materials. I think this ruling is great, maybe we can finally get racing games with real cars and realistic damage modeling.
- danbolt 7y ago
  I think it was the television show 24 where the villains weren't allowed to drive Ford cars.
  - babypuncher 7y ago
    I think that is because Ford was paying for product placement. I don't think the first amendment applies when you sign a contract with someone promising to advertise their product in exchange for money. I would go as far as to argue that advertisements in general aren't considered protected speech on either end. Otherwise cigarette companies could still market to children.
- kube-system 7y ago
  Just because people know the difference doesn't mean it doesn't have an effect on people's memories, opinions, and associations. The representation of a product in entertainment does make a difference -- product placement marketing works and has been academically studied.
Jare 7y ago
IANAL but I assume that argument would go into the "confusion / Polaroid" part of the suit. It should have to be egregious to be given consideration, but that's up to the judge.
ummonk 7y ago
Yes, though simulation games (which CoD isn't really) are rather akin to consumer reviews - the problem here isn't that they're depicting the car, the problem is that they're depicting it unfairly. It's like a bad review.
__david__ 7y ago
Imagine a car racing game where when you crash at 100 MPH your car doesn't take on any cosmetic damage… Oh wait, that's all of them, because car makers can't bear the thought of their precious IPs all banged up. It's one of my pet peeves about car racing games with real cars.
- Cyberdog 7y ago
  Yet another reason why Burnout Paradise, which contained cars inspired by real-world cars but different just enough to not invite lawsuits, was one of the best games ever - the manner in which the cars got deformed from simple dents to complete destruction was a major feature of the game. I'm sure they saved a good deal of money not having to license all the brand names too.
- skunkworker 7y ago
  Any cosmetic damage? You haven't played Forza Horizon recently then. While crashes aren't BeamNG.drive-level disassemblies, they do scratch up and can make cars undrivable (especially with full damage turned on). Any they have a fairly comprehensive list of manufacturers and no cars are immune to damage in the game. https://forza.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Manufacturers https://forza.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Manufacturers
LatteLazy 7y ago
Having lost the suit and left COD with a legal bill, it would serve them right if the in fame version were nerfed and all painted pink...

Alupis 7y ago

> What if Humvees become the worst vehicles in the game because of balancing reasons? If I were the owner of the brand I'd be pissed. Pretty much exactly what happened with the Glock in the Counter Strike PC game.

babypuncher 7y ago
And yet nobody bases their decision whether or not to buy a Glock based on its performance in Counter-Strike. It's a non-issue.
- WaxProlix 7y ago
  I grew up playing Counter-Strike and have in the past few years bought a few guns; despite their solid reputation and the fact that they do what I want, I never even considered a Glock. Was this causal? Who knows, but I wouldn't rule it out.
  - macintux 7y ago
    Given how effective advertising is, I think it's safer to assume that such a relationship does exist for some. We're all subject to a wide variety of unconscious biases.
  - projektfu 7y ago
    I assume that a gamer would want a Heckler & Koch VP9 just for the appearance.
    - Alupis 7y ago
      Well, there was a noticeable surge of new Mini14 owners at my local range during the peak of PUBG (Player Unknown's Battlegrounds) battle royale game.
- tomatotomato37 7y ago
  Glock does kind of have a reputation as a low-end plastic Walmart gun. I doubt Counter-Strike is causing that reputation, but it certainly isn't helping
  - Alupis 7y ago
    It also has a reputation of being one of the most reliable, simplistic and easy to use/maintain guns used by military and law enforcement around the world. So much so that other highly reliable Striker Fire handguns all basically cloned the Glock design (Smith & Wesson's M&P line, among others). I'd bet there's influence coming from both ends - those who used them in video games and decided their first gun just couldn't possibly be a Glock, and those who see Special Operations guys using them and decided their first gun just had to be a Glock.
    - kyuudou 7y ago
      Yea I was gonna say, most real gun owners understand that reliability, recognizability and using ammo that's very common and available trump anything else. Glock 9mm is always a good choice.
alkonaut 7y ago
They were really concerned about the use of the gun names in the 1.6 era I remember. Guns had alias names for some reason, presumably out of legal concerns.

babypuncher 7y ago

Too bad? I think most people are smart enough to separate entertainment from marketing materials. I think this ruling is great, maybe we can finally get racing games with real cars and realistic damage modeling.

danbolt 7y ago
I think it was the television show 24 where the villains weren't allowed to drive Ford cars.
- babypuncher 7y ago
  I think that is because Ford was paying for product placement. I don't think the first amendment applies when you sign a contract with someone promising to advertise their product in exchange for money. I would go as far as to argue that advertisements in general aren't considered protected speech on either end. Otherwise cigarette companies could still market to children.
kube-system 7y ago
Just because people know the difference doesn't mean it doesn't have an effect on people's memories, opinions, and associations. The representation of a product in entertainment does make a difference -- product placement marketing works and has been academically studied.

Jare 7y ago

IANAL but I assume that argument would go into the "confusion / Polaroid" part of the suit. It should have to be egregious to be given consideration, but that's up to the judge.

ummonk 7y ago

Yes, though simulation games (which CoD isn't really) are rather akin to consumer reviews - the problem here isn't that they're depicting the car, the problem is that they're depicting it unfairly. It's like a bad review.

__david__ 7y ago

Imagine a car racing game where when you crash at 100 MPH your car doesn't take on any cosmetic damage… Oh wait, that's all of them, because car makers can't bear the thought of their precious IPs all banged up. It's one of my pet peeves about car racing games with real cars.

Cyberdog 7y ago
Yet another reason why Burnout Paradise, which contained cars inspired by real-world cars but different just enough to not invite lawsuits, was one of the best games ever - the manner in which the cars got deformed from simple dents to complete destruction was a major feature of the game. I'm sure they saved a good deal of money not having to license all the brand names too.
skunkworker 7y ago
Any cosmetic damage? You haven't played Forza Horizon recently then. While crashes aren't BeamNG.drive-level disassemblies, they do scratch up and can make cars undrivable (especially with full damage turned on). Any they have a fairly comprehensive list of manufacturers and no cars are immune to damage in the game. https://forza.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Manufacturers https://forza.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Manufacturers

LatteLazy 7y ago

Having lost the suit and left COD with a legal bill, it would serve them right if the in fame version were nerfed and all painted pink...