Proving yet again why he has become an icon amongst developers both independent and not, Markus “Notch” Persson has issued an official – and completely serious – challenge to Bethesda. The Zenimax-owned studio behind The Elder Scrolls franchise have threatened to go to court should the new game from Persson’s studio proceed with its current name of Scrolls. Markus has responded with his own method of resolution, a studio vs. studio bout of Quake 3.
“I challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3,” Notch proclaimed. “Three of our best warriors against three of your best warriors. We select one level, you select the other, we randomize the order. 20 minute matches, highest total frag count per team across both levels wins…If we win, you drop the lawsuit. If you win, we will change the name of Scrolls to something you’re fine with.”
He then emphasized, “I am serious, by the way.”
Bethesda (sister studio to id Software, original designers of Quake and its sequels) has yet to issue a response to Notch’s challenge. To hear the Minecraft maker’s thoughts on the lawsuit itself, check out an earlier blog on the matter posted a few weeks ago.
(via 1UP)
Think Bethesda would ever take Notch up on the offer, EGs? Should this be how all legal disputes are solved in the future? Comment below!
First off Notch doesn’t need to even do that in the first place. Bethesda has a trademark for The Elder Scrolls, and not just Scrolls. Besides Mojang’s Scrolls is a card based game where as The Elder Scrolls games are First Person RPGs. Also not to forget is that most people refer to The Elder Scrolls games buy their subtitles anyways, making this “lawsuit” pointless.
Nonetheless I think this is a cool idea just as long as it is people within the company and not people who said company hired. If all lawsuits or wars for that matter of fact were handled with multiplayer games, then things would be much simpler and cheaper.
So what… Bethesda is basically telling me they’re less human than Bobby Kotick. Kotick’s lawsuits at least make SOME measure of sense.
Hey Bethesda – if Blizzard didn’t sue them for ‘minecraft’ – you probably shouldn’t for ‘Scrolls’. 😉
But anyways… I sincerely respect Notch now for this serious challenge. Pretty epic. I wish that more companies were willing to settle suits with gaming.
Notch is a master of marketing and garnering viral public favor through aligning with gaming culture. Lawyers and suits on the other hand don’t care for charades of this sort. It’s the parent ZeniMax suing anyway, not their subsidiary Bethesda (granted ZeniMax was founded by Bethesda).
Honestly, I like Notch, but this kind of cutesy stuff comes of as a tact to merely garner support so people say, “Bethesda sucks, we won’t buy Skyrim, etc,” so that ZeniMax feel’s pressure to drop the suit out of fear of being the “bad guy.” That or he’s truly naive (doubt that).
Do I think Scrolls should get the name changed? Not really. As Keck said, these are different game types…though both are fantasy based. Is this arena deal a real world way to handle such an issue? That’s also a no.
Activision/Blizzard didn’t sue over Minecraft because it became so big that to do such a thing wouldn’t have been worth the damage control. I’m not sure they own “everything craft” anyways. ZeniMax fears Scrolls will become huge and the word will become synonymous with Mojang’s product, not Elder Scrolls. That’s why this is going down. It makes sense.
That said. Would I like to see such a battle come to pass? I don’t know who wouldn’t :D!
Well Bethesda doesn’t control everything involving the word ‘scrolls’ either…
Not disputing that at all.
so then my comparison works well lol