A New Chapter for Median XL

[Chooch]

hyped -
However, I'd be concerned with a game studio taking on a blizzard game (even tho it's heavily modded). I just hope blizzard doesn't come here and shut it down. It's different when hobbyists are modding a game, versus a business/company modding a game. I'm sure you've done due diligence to ensure this is "okay" and Activation/Blizzards won't be knocking
Excited to see all the new stuff that will comes from this. When should we expect the first release/patch from this new team?

Your concerns are completely justified.

In addition to just trying to have Median (and for that matter all the TSW servers) shut down, the other very real possibility would be for Blizzard's rent-seeking lawyers to sue LambdaClass for "royalties" based on "original intellectual property" (note that the lawsuit would take place not in Argentina but in the U.S., probably in the East District of Texas circuit court which is notoriously friendly to "intellectual property" suits).

Even if "Median" as we know of it later in 2024 and beyond, were to be completely reverse-engineered (e.g. it had no dependency on the original D2 code), Blizzard's lawyers would still claim that "the code model was originated by us, therefore all derivative works with a similar look and feel are also encumbered by our 'copyright'". Remember we are not talking about fairness or common sense here... we are talking about the litigious, corporate-friendly U.S. legal system, e.g. "multi-billion dollar corporation 'Blizzard Inc.' vs. tiny independent development group 'Lambda Inc.'". Guess who is likely to prevail?

Since the game (except for of course having to use a "legit" copy of D2 LoD on install) is basically free to play, a finding (including a preliminary injunction, which is a favorite trick of rent-seeking corporations) would in turn force Lambda to start charging money just to be able to pay the royalties imposed by a U.S. court on Blizzard's demands. It would cost at least as much to play Median as any other RPG game -- actually likely more, because remember, Blizzard would be quite happy to shut Median down altogether, on the theory that the player base thus marooned, would just have to migrate back to D2R. So unlike normal situations where the party taking over another company wants the latter to succeed, in this situation Blizzard would have a strong motivation to make Lambda, and Median, go the way of the Dodo.

Don't say you weren't warned!

This is an important concern to maneuver around, however the MXL team have done so great to this point. I'm confident that we'll continue moving forward and I will always be a happy supporter. This development team has been excellent and the community is second to none!

[Mr_Bill]

hyped -
However, I'd be concerned with a game studio taking on a blizzard game (even tho it's heavily modded). I just hope blizzard doesn't come here and shut it down. It's different when hobbyists are modding a game, versus a business/company modding a game. I'm sure you've done due diligence to ensure this is "okay" and Activation/Blizzards won't be knocking
Excited to see all the new stuff that will comes from this. When should we expect the first release/patch from this new team?

Your concerns are completely justified.

In addition to just trying to have Median (and for that matter all the TSW servers) shut down, the other very real possibility would be for Blizzard's rent-seeking lawyers to sue LambdaClass for "royalties" based on "original intellectual property" (note that the lawsuit would take place not in Argentina but in the U.S., probably in the East District of Texas circuit court which is notoriously friendly to "intellectual property" suits).

Even if "Median" as we know of it later in 2024 and beyond, were to be completely reverse-engineered (e.g. it had no dependency on the original D2 code), Blizzard's lawyers would still claim that "the code model was originated by us, therefore all derivative works with a similar look and feel are also encumbered by our 'copyright'". Remember we are not talking about fairness or common sense here... we are talking about the litigious, corporate-friendly U.S. legal system, e.g. "multi-billion dollar corporation 'Blizzard Inc.' vs. tiny independent development group 'Lambda Inc.'". Guess who is likely to prevail?

Since the game (except for of course having to use a "legit" copy of D2 LoD on install) is basically free to play, a finding (including a preliminary injunction, which is a favorite trick of rent-seeking corporations) would in turn force Lambda to start charging money just to be able to pay the royalties imposed by a U.S. court on Blizzard's demands. It would cost at least as much to play Median as any other RPG game -- actually likely more, because remember, Blizzard would be quite happy to shut Median down altogether, on the theory that the player base thus marooned, would just have to migrate back to D2R. So unlike normal situations where the party taking over another company wants the latter to succeed, in this situation Blizzard would have a strong motivation to make Lambda, and Median, go the way of the Dodo.

Don't say you weren't warned!

This is an important concern to maneuver around, however the MXL team have done so great to this point. I'm confident that we'll continue moving forward and I will always be a happy supporter. This development team has been excellent and the community is second to none!

I really do hope that you're right, but we have to keep in mind that we are talking here about "how U.S. corporate lawyers behave and what they demand", not "whether the Median developers are smart guys". The history of situations like this is not a very happy one. It's all about the money, you see; who has it, who wants it and how ruthlessly they pursue it.

Personally I think Median's chances in this context are about the same as "making it into Hell Act 5 in Hardcore mode", but that's just me.

[Diaco]

One of the main components of a copyright lawsuit requires the demonstration of a "market replacement", which means that the potentially infringing product is taking a piece of the market that would normally go to the "original" product. In this case this would obviously not be the case, since you necessarily have to buy D2 in order to play Median. This COULD become a concern in the future if Median becomes a standalone product which doesn't require D2 to play, but in its current state I'd say there's no danger.

[metasequoia]

also, who would want to go "back to D2R" IF median wouldn't exist anymore? there was a reason to leave cLoD in the first place, and a remake does not get rid of those reasons...

[AGsniper]

also, who would want to go "back to D2R" IF median wouldn't exist anymore? there was a reason to leave cLoD in the first place, and a remake does not get rid of those reasons...

I read this post 6 times and it still makes no sense.

[metasequoia]

also, who would want to go "back to D2R" IF median wouldn't exist anymore? there was a reason to leave cLoD in the first place, and a remake does not get rid of those reasons...

I read this post 6 times and it still makes no sense.

well resurrected is basically vanilla diablo 2, and as one post said that blizzard might hope to gain more people buying resurrected by eliminating mods (mxl) hypothetically, i was arguing that that wouldn't be a likely development imo because people migrate to median for reasons that make going back to vanilla d2 not attractive. I personally would just quit the game or revert to single player if median got nuked, i'm not going back to vanilla d2, resurrected or not.

[Taem]

also, who would want to go "back to D2R" IF median wouldn't exist anymore? there was a reason to leave cLoD in the first place, and a remake does not get rid of those reasons...

I read this post 6 times and it still makes no sense.

well resurrected is basically vanilla diablo 2, and as one post said that blizzard might hope to gain more people buying resurrected by eliminating mods (mxl) hypothetically, i was arguing that that wouldn't be a likely development imo because people migrate to median for reasons that make going back to vanilla d2 not attractive. I personally would just quit the game or revert to single player if median got nuked, i'm not going back to vanilla d2, resurrected or not.

So true. I'd never ever go back to cLod. Its actually pretty fucking crazy that Median is so good, it revitalizes a 20+ year game and people keep coming back despite cutting edge games releasing annually! I think that speaks volumes to Laz and the curremt MXL team! Its also why I feel if Marcos new company pursues creating their own aarpg and ports over medians mechanics, they have a real chance to be the next orignal Diablo.

[mabumabu9734]

some people here say that it might take until the end of the year to get the version 3.0. If it is that long, they might just continue with the current progression and just make some balance changes, maybe some new items so people have s.th. to do until 3.0

[AGsniper]

I dont expect 3.0 to come out for a loooong time now that marco has his own project now. We should just appreciate 2.9. Its still a great mod.

[Istaryu]

some people here say that it might take until the end of the year to get the version 3.0. If it is that long, they might just continue with the current progression and just make some balance changes, maybe some new items so people have s.th. to do until 3.0

There is 2.9 coming, probably within a month or 2 at most, and possiby there will be a 2.10 too before 3.0. Balance changes are probably not happening much, im expecting more season themes like goblin season and current season instead.