World of StarCraft Becomes StarCraft Universe – Modders Rejoice

A couple weeks ago, a group of modders decided to create nice little mod for StarCraft II, introducing MMO elements into custom maps for the venerable game. A pre-alpha demo was posted on YouTube which caught the attention of Activision Blizzard, which was quickly followed by a cease and desist notice. The problem was not with the mod but with the name.

World of StarCraft, as a name, was copyright protected by Blizzard. Though a game of the same name might not be in the works, Blizzard felt that it was better safe than sorry to protect the name just in case. The cease and desist notice took the modding team by surprise and caught the attention of the media as well. The good news is that most of the unpleasantries are now “water under the bridge.” Ryan Winzen; the original creator of the mod, was given the opportunity to visit the StarCraft II development team on the Blizzard Campus – an honor indeed, and he and his team have been granted permission to continue development of the mod but under a new name – StarCraft Universe.

A bit of a misconception about the mod may have lead to this situation being blown out of proportion. StarCraft Universe was never meant to be an MMO, but contain elements found in the genre. The mod will eventually be a collection of custom maps with various rules applied. Units can change and upgrade based on kills, like experience, but using loot, minerals and allocation points which can be used to buy better weapons and armor and upgrade stats. Due to limitations of the custom maps, the maximum number of players per map will be 12. This will result in more of a lobby and dungeon raid approach to game play. There will be a save game feature, bosses, monsters and character classes for units such as special-ops and infantry.

In all honesty, the whole situation could have been handled in a much more delicate manner, a simple and polite email requesting a name change would and should have been enough, but of course lawyers aren’t exactly known for subtlety. As for what’s to become of World of StarCraft – only Blizzard knows…

The group of modders that got impatient with Blizzard and decided to create World of StarCraft are still at it. The project has simply been reborn under the name StarCraft Universe (SCU). The focus is still the same: recreating multiplayer raid battle experiences similar to World of Warcraft. SCU will be released as a series of Starcraft II custom maps and published officially on Battle.net.