Science Fiction Game (TM)

There has been some flap in the news (okay, the nerd-o-sphere,) about perennial villain, Games Workshop, demanding they own the rights to the term "Space Marine."

For those of you who aren't familiar (like, 99% of you, who live normal lives that involve regular doses of sunlight,) Games Workshop is a company that makes the most well-known tabletop miniatures war-games.  Essentially, they produce games centered around toy soldiers (scale military models, dammit!) that one assembles, paints, and plays with using the rules they developed.

It is a crazy fun hobby, and when I had more money and fewer children, my wife and I enjoyed playing these games immensely.

But more to the point, GW created the fictional worlds in which the games were set.  These started as backstory for your armies as they fought meaningless battles, but the backstory grew and grew, and became one of the more well-developed (and marketed) brands in the world.  They expanded into novels, eventually forming their own publishing house (whose products fill more than one shelf in our library,) and most especially video games, which is where the big bucks are these days.

Their most popular game is Warhammer 40,000, a science-fiction game that is wildly popular for its very grim, bleak view of a distant future where even the good guys are terrifying (did I mention this is an English company?)  The stars of this setting are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines of the Imperium of Man.  They are genetically modified giants, wearing ridiculously oversized suits of powered armor and carrying even more ludicrously sized weaponry.  They are the single most powerful symbol of the game, and of the company.

And that's where the problem comes in.  I won't bore you with the story of Spots the Space Marine, an ebook some poor shlub posted on Amazon for purchase.  Suffice to say, GW dispatched a squad of lawyers via telportarium to fire a salvo of cease and desist orders to get Amazon to pull that book, because it infringes on their intellectual property (IP.)

Putting aside how silly it is to think you can try to copyright so mundane a term (note to self: see if Disney owns the words 'Space Ranger' when put together,) as well as the fact that this term was in use long before GW came about, what makes this galling is when you consider GW's own proud tradition of drawing (ahem) inspiration from outside sources.

GW's first big game was Warhammer, a fantasy battle game of humans fighting orcs, goblins, wood elves, high elves, trolls, dwarves and dragons.  If this sounds more than a little bit familiar, then maybe you are familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, a topic I've touched on before.

You see, GW started out making minis for D&D, and all the founders were big fans of the game.  They have always freely admitted the debt they owed to the mother game.  And all their early stuff reads as not even thinly-veiled versions of D&D.  It was only after time went by, that they began to strike out on their own creatively, and started to create their own unique style and world.  Finding their own 'voice' if you will.

Then they made Warhammer 40,000, their own, unique creation.  Well....sort of.

You see, the futuristic game retained the orks, elves (Eldar,) and Dwarves (the now vanished Squats,) as well as the demonic forces of Chaos.  Over time, they added their own 'unique' races.  The Dark Eldar (Drow elves from D&D,) the Tau (anime-inspired aliens with robot suits,) and the Tyranids (the aliens from the 'Aliens' films, seriously, there's no way around that, they are complete knock-offs of H.R. Giger's designs, but no one cares.)

This is also where they debuted the Space Marines.  Their backstory is certainly unique, and their appearance (although some have accused them of being far too similar to Stormtroopers from Star Wars,) is distinctive enough, but their name?  'Space Marines' has got to be the most generic name around.

And GW is not just known for the fine quality of the models they produce, they are also known for being evil.  We're talking a Disney or Walmart level of evil.  People love to hate GW.  Partly because they are the biggest name in the game, and that always tends to draw fire (+1 on attack rolls for a large target.)

And I'm not saying that they have not earned some of that rancor.  They have lots of shady practices that annoy their fans, but their reputation for litigiousness is legendary, such as this current case, where they can ruin this one guy, simply because he can't afford lawyers to make his case.

But then again, GW has reason to be touchy.  The profit margin for this business is not known for making people rich.  And whole industries have popped up with the sole aim of profiting off of GW's IP, offering cheaper products as substitution.

And then there's Blizzard, makers of World of Warcraft.  No matter who you are, you've heard of that.  It is the ultimate success story, and they got where they are today by ripping off GW.

WoW is based on the Warcraft series of games, which were real-time strategy games (basically a computer simulation of a tabletop war-game,) set in a fantasy world full of humans, orcs, elves and goblins, all of whom look exactly like GW designs.  It's not a coincidence, or a subtle similarity, it's blatant.

They later came out with another RTS called Starcraft, which followed the same formula that Warcraft had done; imitate Warhammer 40,000 where Warcraft had mimicked Warhammer Fantasy.

Now, over time Blizzard developed its own unique artistic style as well, and it no longer looks quite as much like a carbon copy, but the core is still there.

Does this make GW right for coming down like a drop pod of Ultramarines on anyone who strays too close to their yard?  I can't say.  But I know that the men and women who work for GW (and there really aren't that many,) believe they are protecting what they have worked hard to create.

And I have a hard time finding too much fault with that.

The Emperor Protects.