Barely any time has passsed since Warcraft 3: Reforged was released and a number of complaints have already cropped up. There are a lot of issues being raised against what many had initially expected to be a game on the same level, or even better, as the classic. It has come to a point that there are those who say that Warcraft 3: Reforged should have been titled Warcraft 3: Refunded instead. While indeed the game has a lot of issues, one of the largest complaints has been on the game's Acceptable Use Policy.
With Warcraft 3 being considered as one of the best games of all time, there was a lot of excitement when the revamp was announced. However, when Reforged was finally released it left many feeling disappointed. Players are saying that many of the features originally promised aren't there. For example, it appears that there were no improvements made to the cutscenes and they look the same as they did in the classic version. There are also no new campaigns and even no new reworked Story Elements.
In an interview by PCGamesN with production designer Kaeo Milker and lead artist Rob McNaughton, it was revealed that during the beta and up to the launch, the development team was "literally fixing bugs directly from Reddit comments.” Yes you read that right.
However, for many fans one of biggest mistakes Blizzard made can be found in the Terms of Service. Under the Custom Game Acceptable Use Policy, Blizzard has snuck in this provision:
"Custom Games are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Blizzard. Without limiting the foregoing, you hereby assign to Blizzard all of your rights, title, and interest in and to all Custom Games, including but not limited to any copyrights in the content of any Custom Games. If for any reason you are prevented or restricted from assigning any rights in the Custom Games to Blizzard, you grant to Blizzard an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, unconditional, royalty free, irrevocable license enabling Blizzard to fully exploit the Custom Games (or any component thereof) for any purpose and in any manner whatsoever."
Then there's also this part:
"To the extent you are prohibited from transferring or assigning your moral rights to Blizzard by applicable laws, to the utmost extent legally permitted, you waive any moral rights or similar rights you may have in all such Custom Games, without any remuneration."
When it comes to copyrights, moral rights are legal obligations given to creators while treating their work with respect. What this means is that any custom map made is automatically owned by Blizzard. When Warcraft 3 was first released, its map editor allowed players to release their creativity in order to come up with their own game modes. In fact, this map editor served as the basis for a game that would later become Dota 2. This same feature is offered in Warcraft 3: Reforged.
With these provisions, it appears that Blizzard may be preventing another "Dota" from being made and them not being able to get anything out of it. For some, this may be okay. However, what turned it around against Blizzard is the part that said the company doesn't need to pay the creator of the map.
There's also another provision that creators are questioning, which states that:
"You represent and warrant that neither the content you use to create or incorporate into any Custom Games, nor the compilation, arrangement or display of such content, infringes or will infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any third party."
What this means is that it's now going to be hard to make a custom map using copyrighted materials. That means no more DBZ Tribute maps, for example, or even something similar to the classic Pimp My Mario map.
As of this writing, Warcraft 3: Reforged has a score of 1.2 on Metacritic, though this is based on users. The Metacritic score from critics has not been posted yet. Comments on Metacritic include the game being a disappointment and that it looks like a "downgraded version of the classic."
What are you thoughts on this? Still think Warcraft 3: Reforged is a good buy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
