Patent Trolls Attempting To Shake Down Clicker Heroes Dev - YouTube

Playsaurus makes one of the few relatively

popular clicker games, Clicker Heroes. And I say

"relatively" because there's about a million clicker games now,

so no matter how many success stories there are comparatively there's only ever gonna be a fraction.

In my opinion clicker games began and ended with Cookie Clicker, to date still untoppable, but Clicker Heroes

certainly has a fan base, though personally, it's one of the most glaring examples of compulsion based game-play,

with not very much to say for itself and some fuck off all

micro-transactions, if i'm being quite honest.

However while ordinarily the micro-transactions of a game being its downfall might be something I giggle at, the

reason Clicker Heroes is currently in a spot of bother regarding its own

micro-transactions is the reason why I would never celebrate this particular situation because

fuck

patent trolls. And this is the part where I want to say that patent trolls are more disgusting than any in-game

micro-transaction you could imagine,

but I don't want to challenge the game industry to that. They will take me up on it.

Anyway, since this story came out. I've seen some people say 'Good. That'll teach them for putting

micro-transactions in their games.' but even aside from the leniency

I normally give free to play games regarding micro-transactions.

Even if this was a straight-up fee-to-play game instead of a free-to-play game,

I would still be somewhat inclined to take the game's side

because companies that patent things and then just sit on said patents and make their money by suing other people for

implementing vaguely similar ideas are lower than the dirtiest, grimiest, fizziest pond scum out there. I

don't even know why the pond scum is fizzing, but

that's not a good sign! The company in question is GTX Corp. As near as can be told GTX Corp is a

classic patent troll in that it doesn't seem to produce fuckin' anything outside of lawsuits and legal threats.

There's a Wikipedia page for a GTX Corp,

but that doesn't seem to be the correct one, with this particular GTX Corp one of several

having very little in the way of an online footprint. Playsaurus itself believes that it might be the company responsible for

GTX dot com, a website that looks ripped straight out of the fucking 90s. Anyway, GTX Corp is threatening to sue

Playsaurus for having electronic tokens in its game.

Not even Playsaurus is quite clear on what it means by that. They've only guessed that it references

the rubies, the premium currency in Clicker Heroes.

But what Playsaurus does know is that GTX Corp very

kindly offered to let them get away with only paying thirty-five grand for a license fee

so that the quote unquote costly litigation

wouldn't take place. Playsaurus has quite bluntly called this a shakedown and...

Yeah, yeah it pretty much looks like a fucking shakedown. Generally, if you think that your patent has actually been infringed upon, you

don't offer the infringer the chance to pay a

comparatively tiny amount of money compared to what you believe you should be getting. Also, considering Clicker Heroes doesn't do anything with its

tokens that you can't see in a fucking incomprehensible

avalanche of games by now, you'd think that we'd have heard of GTX Corp before, but it seems to be targeting specifically smaller

studios in the hopes of bullying them into handing over cash.

According to Playsaurus, the patent itself, known as the eight three eight patent has been used by several companies

over the years and was primarily used about a decade ago to bilk settlement money out of larger companies.

But their recent trick is to go after smaller ones who can't fight back,

ones more likely to be scared by a lawsuit they can't afford to fight and will buy into the threat at

35 K a pop. With only two years left on the 838 patent, Playsaurus believes that this is a

last-gasp on the part of GTX Corp, their final chance to rake a few extra doubloons out of the thing.

GTX is currently trying to sue Nikkei for the same thing and are also embroiled in litigation against Soccer Manager Limited.

This is ticking all the boxes for a classic patent shakedown.

I don't know fer any of you remember Tim Langdell, someone whose life's work was

trademarking the word "edge" used in video games and then spending a four-year period shitting spurious

lawsuits out of his fuckin' ass. I have an especially fierce contempt for patent trolls, these fucking

grasping little shit bags who somehow do a pretty capable job of making even companies like Activision Blizzard look

straightforward and honest. Whatever you think of free-to-play games,

micro-transactions, or video game companies in general, whatever you might think of Clicker Heroes as a game, though ironically enough Clicker Heroes 2 is going

to be a straightforward premium game without the micro-transaction bollocks.

This is not behavior that should ever be fucking encouraged. To spend your days just

looking for other companies doing similar ideas to an idea you possibly never even had, you just acquired from someone else!

Ideas you've done fucking nothing with is beyond pathetic and despicable and shameless

and it's thoroughly absurd that we live in a world where that is actually viable as a job as a

sustainable bloody

existence, if only for a bit, up until you get too greedy and abusive which seems to be the problem with these fucking little

wankers. I say "the" problem. I mean "the" problem is that they exist in the bloody first place.

But they certainly do seem to have a really good habit of shooting themselves in the foot because they just can't stop themselves.

And I really hope they've bitten off more than they can chew with Playsaurus here, a company that might actually have the reach and

finances to get them to back off. Because, as I say, regardless of how you view micro-transactions

in general or Clicker Heroes' implementation of them, when it comes to the game industry patent trolls are an

especially loathsome breed that deserve a

metaphorical kicking in the throat. In any case, Playsaurus itself is currently standing firm, believing

it would be unethical to support and encourage this sort of behavior.

And they're looking for any other potential victims of this company, this GTX Corp,

so they can put their heads together and help each other fight the fuckers back.

And I honestly think that's a good thing.

I would rather have fewer patent trolls in the world than fewer games with micro-transactions in them,

which should do a pretty good job of telling you how utterly vile

I think patent trolls are. They should honestly get in the bloody sea, and I fully hope Playsaurus fucks 'em up. Case closed.

I mean, I'm not really a judge, so... So I can't actually decide if a case is closed or not.

I just... I just don't have that sort of power.