The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so long as they're still enemies with my enemy. That's the current motto gamers are adopting for a new lawsuit being filed by EA against Zynga over copyright infringement. In an interesting twist, EA has picked up a heck of a lot of support from the gaming community and most gamers want EA to bury Zynga under a permanent ban-hammer.
In an official blog post from Electronic Arts and Maxis, it's outlined that Zynga's The Ville is a blatant ripoff of EA's SimCity Social. As stated by Lucy Bradshaw in the post...
As outlined in our complaint, when The Ville was introduced in June 2012, the infringement of The Sims Social was unmistakable to those of us at Maxis as well as to players and the industry at large. The similarities go well beyond any superficial resemblance. Zynga’s design choices, animations, visual arrangements and character motions and actions have been directly lifted from The Sims Social. The copying was so comprehensive that the two games are, to an uninitiated observer, largely indistinguishable. Scores of media and bloggers commented on the blatant mimicry.
In regards to the that “blatant mimicry”, Bradshaw is referring to posts such as this one right here that outlines how EA and Zynga's social games were pretty much copy-offs of each other.
For EA, Lucy writes that it's about principle and setting standards in the gaming industry. I don't know if EA is really one to talk about principle, especially after devising Battlefield Premium to follow behind Activision's Call of Duty Elite. Let's also not forget that Star Wars: The Old Republic was basically a World of Warcraft clone with Star Wars themes and a whole lot of talking. I'd also like to point you to the top reasons people hate EA. It's not like they're all that innocent.
Still, Zynga is worse than EA on every imaginable facet. If they could find a way to charge you for even using the word Zynga in a conversation or online post, they would.
Zynga is the bane of civil society. They're everything wrong with corporate America and a clear disease and cancerous growth in the world of capitalism. This shell of a “gaming company” cares nothing about video games and they'll do anything they can for a quick buck even if it means burying gaming culture for the almighty dollar. They would destroy our hobby for no other reason than to make more money than they would know what to do with. Zynga, as a company, needs to die.
For those of you unfamiliarized with Zynga, take note that their “products” and “services” are everywhere. Have you played Mafia Wars or Farmville? Well, that's Zynga in a nutshell. They buy up companies and milk the products like Draw Something, identical to EA in some ways but far worse in other ways.
The CEO of Zynga was even quoted for saying...
"I don't fucking want innovation," ... "You're not smarter than your competitor. Just copy what they do and do it until you get their numbers."
Oh wow, I'm sure that quote won't bode well if it's used in a court of law.
According to The Next Web, Zynga issued a response to EA's alleged pursuance of legal action, stating...
We are committed to creating the most fun, innovative, social and engaging games in every major genre that our players enjoy. The Ville is the newest game in our ‘ville’ franchise – it builds on every major innovation from our existing invest-and-express games dating back to YoVille and continuing through CityVille and CastleVille, and introduces a number of new social features and game mechanics not seen in social games today. It’s unfortunate that EA thought that this was an appropriate response to our game, and clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic copyright principles. It’s also ironic that EA brings this suit shortly after launching SimCity Social which bears an uncanny resemblance to Zynga’s CityVille game. Nonetheless, we plan to defend our rights to the fullest extent possible and intend to win with players.
That's a “Herp, Derp” moment right there considering that their CEO was all about copying the competition until you “get their numbers”.
I don't really care about fairness or who is right or wrong in this case, but if it were up to me both companies would be buried. Still, I'm hoping the lesser evil obliterates the greater evil and with that said: EA, we hate your online passes. We hate your DRM. We hate how you ruin beloved franchises and studios we grew up loving. We hate how you use marketing to destroy brand identity. And we hate your bloated, anti-gaming, pro-corporate mentality.
Nevertheless, EA you have our blessings...go forth and destroy the cancer known as Zynga. Bury them under your financial ban-hammer. Hit them while they're reeling from their stock collapse and kick them while they're down. Excise the Zynga blight and do so with unfettered vengeance and a determined will. We're rooting for you.
Godspeed, EA.
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