Secret World Legends MMO

[Trethowan]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/21528 ... d_Legends/

So, on FB a friend shared a link about a new MMO available to play via one's Steam account. Is this the same Secret World that had closed down before? I'm posting/asking here because I recall (perhaps erroneously) that VV plays/played said game?

[victoriavictrix]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/215280/Secret_World_Legends/

So, on FB a friend shared a link about a new MMO available to play via one's Steam account. Is this the same Secret World that had closed down before? I'm posting/asking here because I recall (perhaps erroneously) that VV plays/played said game?

VV will never play this game. ("Secret World" has not closed down. "City of Heroes" was what closed down and was what I played)

VV will never play this game, because the makers of it stole both the title of "Secret World" (which does not even apply properly to their game) and the title "Secret World Chronicle" (for their "vault" system, and seriously, who calls a vault a "chronicle"???) from the shared-world superhero 5 book series I and my cowriters created. We didn't trademark the name, which pisses me off now (because these dweebs obviously thought they could coast on my reputation). The game was called something else entirely until just before it went into release, right after we got our first finalist nomination for the Parsec Award and then suddenly the game is called "The Secret World", paylaying off our series "The Secret World Chronicle." And if that wasn't enough proof for you that they blatantly stole the name, two years ago they named their vault system "The Secret World Chronicle." Never once have I been contacted to find out if this was all right with me, or to be told "hey, it's a tribute!" which tells me they know they are in the wrong and are hoping I hadn't noticed.

I noticed all right.

[Kirahfaye]

Or they didn't care if you noticed..... which in my book is worse and so typical of the internet mindset.

[Trethowan]

Makes sense then that I'd assume (erroneously) that there was a connection. I got the name of the game mixed up with the name of the book (that they ripped).

[Stormlight]

Wait, wait. I'm confused. Is it the entire GAME that was ripped from the book, or just the title?

'Cause, I'm sorry to say, titles can't really be copyrighted or trademarked. If they could, there'd be far fewer books (or movies, or other media) in the world with the exact same titles. I mean, yeah, it sucks that the game and the book have the same title, but if the game itself has nothing to do with the plot or storyline of the book, then ... what's the problem? :/

Don't get me wrong, plagiarism sucks and I am in NO WAY condoning it, but ... this isn't exactly plagiarism. Disrespectful, maybe. But not plagiarism.

[Kirahfaye]

My assumption on it is - it's the timing of the name change, as Misty mentioned. Really convenient timing.

[victoriavictrix]

Wait, wait. I'm confused. Is it the entire GAME that was ripped from the book, or just the title?

'Cause, I'm sorry to say, titles can't really be copyrighted or trademarked. If they could, there'd be far fewer books (or movies, or other media) in the world with the exact same titles. I mean, yeah, it sucks that the game and the book have the same title, but if the game itself has nothing to do with the plot or storyline of the book, then ... what's the problem? :/

Don't get me wrong, plagiarism sucks and I am in NO WAY condoning it, but ... this isn't exactly plagiarism. Disrespectful, maybe. But not plagiarism.

It was the title, but you are completely incorrect in saying that titles cannot be trademarked. Titles can be trademarked, it is done all the time. Perhaps you are too young to remember when Isuzu was forced to take their SUV called "Rocky" off the market because the producers who had trademarked the name sued for trademark infringement and won. Any word or phrase can be trademarked, which is as I specified was what I should have done.

And since the books were based on characters created in a game, and games are made from books all the time, my case for trademark infringement would have been strong. I have been writing and publishing professionally for 25 years and have over 128 books in print by traditional publishers; it's my business to know what I am talking about.

And I never said it was plagiarism. I know exactly what plagiarism is and I am well aware that this is not plagiarism, it's an attempt to ride on my reputation. Don't put words in my mouth and attempt to make me look ignorant.

[oniakki]

ok, so I hadn't heard of your series until... well this thread, so I went looking for it. It's surprising how hard it was to find information and what I found confuses me on timings. I hope you can provide some more information on your series publishing dates. So here's a pair of timelines I've built after a couple hours research:

I'll start with what I discovered about your series (please verify, as I could find very little cross-confirmation about the dates)

sometime in 2007 you start the podcast series "The Secret World Chronicle" (from a 'ffs fiction podcasts that should be listened to' article written by tor.com in 2016)
2010 the series makes finalist in the Parsec Awards (lots of confirmations of this one)
2011 Invasion: Book One of the Secret World Chronicle (The Secret World Chronicles 1) published
2011 the series again makes finalist in the Parsec Awards


For comparison here's the information I've confirmed from The Secret World MMORPG:

2002 Cabal starts development
2003 Cabal is abandoned/shelved for Dreamfall
2005 Funcom files for the 'The Secret World' trademark (uspto.gov serial 79020076 reg# 3245105 )
2006 Dreamfall is published
2006 The Secret World begins development using Cabal concepts as a baseline. (web.archive.org as original is no longer available)
2007 funcom recieves registration of 'The Secret World' trademark (again the uspto.gov trademark website)
2007 Funcom announces to IGN new MMO game in the works 'The Secret World' (ign.com)
2009(april) first teaser trailers for The Secret World MMO released (gamespot.com, onrpg.com)
2009(september) second teaser trailer released
2011 funcom starts the facebook app 'The Secret War' to continue the hype (only my recollection and the wikipedia page confirm this one so far)
2012 The Secret World MMO releases


To me it looks like The Secret World MMORPG's hype train picked up enough steam for you to notice at about the same time as your series with a coincidentally similar title recieved it's nominations. On the funcom's chronicle thing, the only information i can find on it is that it is similar to WoW's armoury and is a collection of player chronicles through their game (an apt name IMO which doesn't nessisarily have anything to do with infringing on your name, as it was called 'The Chronicle' not 'The Secret World Chronicle' ). Though there is very little information that I could find on the chronicle subsite of The Secret World.

[Kirahfaye]

I know Misty doesn't expect brown nosing in here, but she does expect respect. This appears to be a point of contention for her, and for you to work so hard to publicly negate her feelings on this issue is, in my book, quite disrespectful. There is a right way and a wrong way to address differing opinions and information when it's very personal to one of the parties - and I think this way was, at the very least, inconsiderate.

Misty doesn't interact in this group much any more as it is. I'd hate to see her leave altogether because someone thought it was their place to publicly "school" her.....

[oniakki]

Which would be why I was asking for clarification, I really did set out initially to see what her book series was about. After finding some oddities in the dates and followed up on them as best I could (I enjoy looking things up and collating information), I could've just dumped the evidence I found and accuse her of slander. Instead I assumed an honest lack of information and asked for further clarification from her side as the evidence strongly supports a coincidence.

Granted I could've PMed the information to her, but that would leave all the other people paying attention to this thread in the dark and building uninformed attitudes toward the company. They could've looked this up themselves, but I've found most people don't enjoy looking things up the way I enjoy it. PMing the information would have been rather disrespectful to them.

There could easily be more years of finalist award things that I couldn't find information about and/or the one site could be wrong on when she started the podcast series.