So it seems Blizzard might never release b.net marketplace (selling user-made maps):

"We're trying to deal with those issues. I don't know how we're going to solve some of the player rights issues. How do players protect their own maps so they don't get ripped off by other players? What are the rules of how much you're allowed to charge? There's just a ton of work for us to figure out."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-21-battle-net-marketplace-may-never-launch

Quote from Lanthanide

How do players protect their own maps so they don't get ripped off by other players?

Digital signatures, centralized version control, attribution licenses, etc. etc.

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What are the rules of how much you're allowed to charge?

However much people are willing to pay? Isn't that what a marketplace is?


Having trouble understanding what makes this a complex problem to solve for a company willing to spend $100 million to make a video game...

Basically, what they're saying is that the effort they have to put into this far outweighs the capital they will earn in doing so.

Good, the marketplace is stupid. Why not just give us "Blizzard Points" to buy different avatars and just switch battle.net to Blizzard Live.

I don't think it would be a success.
Maybe because I've no smart phone and never used some sort of application store.

Quote from Tuxedo-Templar

Quote from Lanthanide

How do players protect their own maps so they don't get ripped off by other players?

Digital signatures, centralized version control, attribution licenses, etc. etc.

That stops someone stealing the actual map. What about stealing the idea/concept and making an identical knockoff that is $1 cheaper? Or taking the same idea and making a better version of it (this is less controversial I guess)?

Blizzard makes more money, they dont give a damn.

If the answer is "Blizzard makes more money", then surely all of these problems will be solvable or ignorable. The fact that they are raising doubts suggests that "more money" is not their only concern.

I think they would make more money, I just don't think they want to risk injection 'risk' into an already good thing.

Quote from Cardinal

Basically, what they're saying is that the effort they have to put into this far outweighs the capital they will earn in doing so.

For once, I totally agree.

And Thank God they're not going through with it. It isn't the best idea to begin with, anyway.
The Pros are a little bit outweighed by the Cons (arguable), but it is definately not something that's worth putting effort into.

Quote from Lanthanide

If the answer is "Blizzard makes more money", then surely all of these problems will be solvable or ignorable. The fact that they are raising doubts suggests that "more money" is not their only concern.

Very, VERY well said.

I didn't say money was the main problem or issue regarding map marketplaces.

There are most likely a whole host of issues which Blizzard are facing, and many more which are only speculative and hypothetical. Legality issues, copyright issues, protection issues, software issues, payment issues, user license agreement issues, disputes and complaints... endless things to consider.

Most importantly, would be the intellectual property of a map concept. How many people post on forums about a concept or an idea which they want to implement, and then they never get around to publishing it (for whatever reasons). Do you then own the idea? What if someone completely unknown to you, on another Realm (US or EU for example) creates a map that is 99% identical to your concept. Where would you stand? What are your rights? Would you just have to take it with a pinch of salt that some other mapper had more motivation and got his map uploaded before yours?

So, yeah, all of these problems require people to spend hours thinking and planning. And this is what costs money. Even if it was implemented, Blizzard would have to hire more staff, maybe even an entire department (comprised of legal, human resources, administrators, liasons, contacts, programmers etc).

It's not just a simple case of making an online market, and letting people upload maps and put a price on them. In reality, that is all that it is. But the fact that Blizzard say they are facing issues, means that they are looking into creating this properly - which is undoubtedly a good thing - that they are not just whacking some piece of shit new code onto battle.net and creating some new splash-screens where you can download maps for money.

Quote from Lanthanide

Quote from Tuxedo-Templar

Quote from Lanthanide

How do players protect their own maps so they don't get ripped off by other players?

Digital signatures, centralized version control, attribution licenses, etc. etc.

That stops someone stealing the actual map. What about stealing the idea/concept and making an identical knockoff that is $1 cheaper? Or taking the same idea and making a better version of it (this is less controversial I guess)?

Patents?


Not sure what Blizzard could (or should) really do about stuff like that in the first place...

I think this was one of better delays <3

Quote from Tuxedo-Templar

Patents?

This would be a copyright issue, not a patent issue.

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Not sure what Blizzard could (or should) really do about stuff like that in the first place...

I think for the marketplace to go smoothly, they would have to come up with some way to address this problem, because it is highly likely to crop up.

Really the most feasible way for this to be solved is for Blizzard to specifically ask members of the community to make maps which they then host for people to buy. That way Blizzard controls exactly who is publishing (and what), so can control copyright issues much more thoroughly. It also means we should get much better content, and it would have an implicit Seal of Blizzard behind it so we could expect the maps to be supported and improved over time.

Copyrights are for specific content. Patents are for ideas.

In any case, with a modicum of decent coding, this ought not to be as bad of an issue as you think. The real issue (as I'm going to guess) lies more in the opposite direction: The few "elite" maps that will invariably dominate the top of the marketplace at the near-total exclusion of the more unique concept maps. Same story with any publisher, really.

Of everything Starcraft II and the new battle.net has to offer, this map marketplace is the one and only thing i am truly and adamantly against. I will be extremely glad if Blizzard implemented no such ting. Besides, it seems like they've already made a huge step in the right direction regarding custom game listings with patch 1.13.

If people truly want to make a profit off their game ideas, why not pursue a career in game design and learn how intricate and complicated the whole theory and logistics are behind any true game designing.

Yeargh! Being the bitch of a publisher for a few years builds character!