Tera is runied by NCSoft
Hey peeps, some of you already know that TERA had a lackluster reception in Korea, failing to meet the expectation and failing to beat Aion lol… Right now the game is struggling to come afloat in Korea… One of the main excuses is because the game is way too westernized for the Korean taste.
Unfortunately there is a chance that TERA will never make it to the West… Why??? Well, some time ago a bunch of NCSoft employees quit their jobs in NCSoft because Bluehole studios offered them a better job… I mean… Oh rly??? or there is something else behind that???
It looks like NCsoft just filed a lawsuit in January because this employees stole from NCSoft a bunch of artwork, software and a few other things related to the development of Lineage 3… If NCSoft wins this lawsuit, TERA is so screw!!!! Not only because they will need to pay a lot of money for what this employees did but at the same time the game can be shut down because it was made with stolen copyright content lol….
But dont go around crying because TERA is lost ok… So far this is the second time that NCSoft is going against TERA because the first time they tried to sue Bluehole their case was overturned… Who knows if the court forgets about this and send NCSoft packing…
Regardless… The fate of TERA is on the balance, even if Bluehole wins the lawsuit, all the legal expenses can kill the company because right now the company is not doing well and all this bad press!!! I dont want to invest time in a game that can be closed down later on in a friggin lawsuit lol…
Keep your fingers cross if you want to see TERA in the west, or cross them if you want to see the game dead before taking off from the ground lol!
Personally I usually stand to what is right when I see this kind of serious issues… If all of this is true, then TERA should be closed because they made a game with stolen content that doesn’t belong to them… Imagine yourself working hard and then someone else takes your idea and gets all the fame, money and everything else…? It feels bad as hell right???
The NCSoft Will Probably Fail in Lawsuit
The case is EXTREMELY weak. Sure, they tried their best to word it like Blue Hole studios were evil demonic conspirators, but no matter. They argue that the char models look the same yet every mmo out there has something they stole from an MMO that came before it. Humans, elves, dwarves, midgets, rock men, etc. Then they argue that the world and continents are the same. Sorry, that doesn’t fly either because you see that in Blizzard’s WOW as well. You then see yet another shallow complaint that it has a UNIQUE ACTION COMBAT SYSTEM…… GUESS WHAT – Age of Conan did it before you! Wrong again. I mean – everything that they are saying is bullshit. It’s a total crap-shoot and I HIGHLY doubt anything will come of it.
You can’t ‘steal’ something you created. The argument is that evil crap corporation: NCSoft, now OWNS all of the art, creativity and hard work that the BLUE HOLE DEVELOPERS CREATED while they were working for NCSoft. When NCsoft refused to pay Mr. Park more money per year, he left and formed his own company. To me, more power to him. That is Capitalism baby. I wish them nothing but the best and I hope to try TERA soon.
Sorry to say Pela, but what you wrote seems to be a mashup of outdated news…
The way I remember it, even 1-2 years ago MMOsite had a news about the NCsoft Lawsuit, and if remember correctly, they kinda won, making Bluehole have to pay up 200k yen or whatever.
And it wasn’t “stolen artwork from lineage 3” that few employes brought with themselves..
Tera itself is lineage 3… Bluehole was made of NCsoft employes that worked on l2, resigned, started their own company and took the codes for the game with them. However, that was long ago and Tera obviously made it…
Also, i got no idea why you say Tera wont hit western lands…if it’s going to have a cbt in like 7 days for Europe and 20-ish for NA….
NCsoft Corp. v. Bluehole Studio Inc
NCsoft Corp. v. Bluehole Studio Inc. case number 1:12-cv-00172, in the U.S. District Court of New York
This has already been overturned in appeal in Korea, and in the US we have laws on the books that flat out state non-compete agreements are NOT ( REPEAT ) ARE NOT legal and binding. Employers can have you sign them, but they hold no legal standing. US law also states that intellectual rights belong to the creator not the employer, unless contractually specified for an individual concept agreed to by both parties.
So unless NC can produce a contract for each and every item they claim is stolen where the creator signed over their right to that specific creation, NOT a non-compete, but a contract detailing each individual concept or process, then NC has ZERO, nada, no grounds to stand on.
So before posting some BS article with a hatemonger lie filled title, maybe do some research and educate yourself what you are talking about.
The cases were not overturned, like i said in another reply to you in a different comment only the monetary fine in the civil case was overturned the guilty verdict stands in both and further more both criminal and civil cases are currently being reviewed for the final appeal at Korea’s highest court.
Also beware that ncsoft is not just sueing for violation of noncompete agreements which like you say correctly cannot be enforced (and good thing at that, I always so them really unfair)
They are claiming the following:
Copyright infringement both direct and through derivative works
Trade secret misappropriation
Breach of confidence
Unfair competition
Unjust Enrichment
and while egoistically I hope bluehole win and Tera gets released it cannot be denied that ncsoft do have a compelling case both in terms of derivative work and breach of confidence. I dont agree that companies should impose on you that you cannot work in a competing job once you leave the company but just as much I think its wrong for someone to conspire with other employees to leave the company and do the same product you have been working for in the last 3 years for yourself.
I do not think Syii is a troll, I think they are just a fan that cannot wait to play Tera and I cannot blame them to be honest. If you strongly want to believe that your game is safe and any strong fan would, if you read appeal court overturned fine would you really dig deep enough to find out that just the fine was overturned but the guilty verdict still applies. If you dont hear anything after that for 2 years would you think courts are just slow or that the whole thing was dropped? I think most hardcore fans would just think, I knew they were innocent see appeal overturned the judgment and live happily ever after… or at least happily until high court passes an unfavorable judgment.
Tera is an interesting game, It would be a pity if its forced to be canceled even though from what we know some people would definitely deserve some form of punishment for what they did.