Agreed. They are still bitter about their blindness with DotA.
It’s being rumor and hyped as a ‘remake’ not a ‘remaster’. All the hackers and their reversed engineer and illegal servers will likely be shut down, as they are criminally drawing players away form bnet. Hopefully Blizzard makes an example out of the current popular illegal servers and smash him with a law suit and sue him and financially ruin him if he doesn’t take down his illegal servers.
Blizzard was always self-centric to care for mods. While after D2LoD v1.10 they provided some support for modders; latest showcase is showing IceFrog, the head guy of DotA, the door by telling him that they’re working on a MOBA of their own.
If they allow mods with D2R, canceling a potential forced online DRM and not send cease and desist letters everywhere, including project D2; color me surprised. Also yeah, since that ain’t an option at the horizon and source code rumored to be missing, I’m going towards a remake instead of a remaster.
Again, Blizzard really doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter.
Modding itself is not inherently illegal, so sending out a bunch of C&D letters is little more than a bullying tactic. They could try to force always online in D2R because they can just ban everybody who tries to use mods then, but they can’t exactly force players to update their game clients either.
So the best case scenario for anti-modding here is that people who want to mod the game just run an old version of Diablo 2.
Despite the way that some people around here think, customers have rights too when it comes to the software they buy.
It’s not a question of allowing modding or not. It’s a matter of it’s gonna happen regardless of what Blizzard wants.
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Which rumors and hype is saying it is a remake?
Yes it is illegal, Diablo products are copyrighted intellectual property protected under federal and international copyright laws, and the game license clearly states that reverse engineering the game is a violation of these laws, and there is no such thing as “inherently illegal”.
The poster of this link and the journalist who wrote the article in the link.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/blizzard/t/theres-mention-of-a-diablo-ii-remake/14614
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The EULA is not law.
They also call Warcraft 3 a remake. It shows nothing except that they are calling everything a remake.
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Well first off the game license doesn’t actually state that, nor does it particularly matter what the game license states because it can’t dictate what is or isn’t illegal.
Secondly, there is an actual legal precedent that modding a game you own is not copyright infringement. Back in the 90s Nintendo tried to sue the makers of the Game Genie and it was ruled that “the consumer may experiment with the product and create new variations of play, for personal enjoyment, without creating a derivative work.”
So sorry but no, the act of modding your game isn’t illegal no matter how much “I don’t like it so nobody should be able to do it” wishful thinking some people engage in.
Trying to replicate a Blizzard server for the sake of online or actually selling the mods are one thing, but the actual making and using of a mod isn’t illegal.
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It’s only illegal if they sell the said mod for money without paying copyrights of game engine. Otherwise they supposed to cuff the maker of DotA and Counter-Strike long ago. If it’s illegal for them, then too bad they called DotA “illegal” and didn’t get the developer arrested when he visited the headquarters. Shame.
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It’s out there. The article specifically mentions a “remake”.`
`Blizzard Absorbs Activision Studio After Dismantling Classic Games Team - Bloomberg
As said, do you consider Warcraft 3 Reforged to be a remake?
Its most recent release, in January 2020, was a remake called Warcraft III: Reforged.
They just dont differentiate between remaster and remake.
Not saying D2R will not be a remake. Only that we cant tell based on current information.
Great, I should start stocking up popcorn. Another debacle seems to be just ahead.
The EULA thoroughly expresses Blizzard’s right as a publicly trade corporation to protect their assets. Diablo II’s Game License does the same thing. They are their documents that they can use in a court of law - whether federal or international court. They are documents to you the user letting you know that the law protects them from hackers and thieves.
Not true, it’s against the law to reverse engineer copyrighted property without permission. It’s also illegal to take that reverse engineered intellectual property and put up servers drawing people away form the very company that owns the IP.
Actually is does. Download the game and read it for yourself.
It probably does! But I think I read somewhere terms of service are not legally binding or something. Maybe that’s a European thing.
This is irrelevant… There is no talk of a remaster, and it’s been said bt Brevik repeatedly that a remaster is near impossible.
Criminal law does protect you from thieves (hackers depends on what you define as hacking). An EULA is still just a contract though.
Not true. I mean, the longer answer is it depends on country.
But you are more than welcome to break copyrights for private purposes in some countries. Heck, the legality of modding consoles, phones etc. have been supported repeatedly in court, even in US I believe?
We are literally in a thread, talking about a remaster 
I did. I also read the new EULA that Blizzard uses for all their games.
They do have a bit about you agreeing not to reverse engineer battle net software, or about how they can ban you from their servers if you modify your game.
They do not say it is illegal because again, a EULA does not get to actually dictate those terms and there is no law that states it is illegal.
Them being legally binding or not is a bit of a grey area, but one thing that’s standard for them is they can’t actually override the law itself.
and the current legal precedent even in the US is that customers can modify their own games. It’s not illegal, so no EULA no matter what it states can make it illegal.
The most that’ll happen is that you can be banned from official servers for breaking the contract that is the EULA. They can’t actually do anything else to you, though.
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