hornstown
patreon
Changes, annoyances and important information
🕑 Added 2018-01-24 11:51:42 +0000 UTC So you guys might have noticed that I have been less active than usual in this last month. This is partially due to Xmas/New Years stuff and partially due to getting close to 1.0.Sadly that's not all it was, I also ran into an annoying problem that has taken up more of my time than I would have liked. Before Christmas I received a letter from Zynga. For those of you who don't know, Zynga is a multi-million dollar company behind 'Farmville' a very successful farming simulator game.
Usually it's nice to be recognized. This was not one of those times. The letter was a long, annoying and arduous read but the important information was this:
" The use of the ‘Ville suffix in connection with the Infringing Game is likely to dilute and to cause confusion with Zynga’s ‘VILLE Family of Trademarks. For example, consumers who encounter the Infringing Game are likely to believe – falsely – that the Infringing Game is published, sponsored or endorsed by, or otherwise associated with, Zynga. Furthermore, the use of a ‘VILLE-formative mark in connection with an explicitly sexual game is likely to tarnish the reputation of Zynga’s famous ‘VILLE Family of Trademarks. Accordingly, the Infringing Game violates Zynga’s trademark rights. "
So apparently now the 'ville suffix is something that is so unique that it's a copyright infringement to use. I am wondering if Nashville and Smallville (as well as several real-life US towns) received similar e-mails but I have no way of knowing. Also, of course sex is evil and having dicks and vaginas in something that shares a suffix with your game tarnishes reputation because of course little Timmy will accidentally download Hornsville instead of Farmville and become a depraved sex maniac within seconds.
Anyway, long story short: I was quite angry about this for a long while and it actually made working on the project hard. In the end however, this project is more than a name and I accomplish nothing by getting mad at some faceless bureaucratic entity.
I have neither the time nor the resources to fight a company like Zynga over this and anything I did would just take time away from actually developing the game. So I decided to suck it up and change the name to suit the whims of the corporate overlords.
Starting from the next update the game's name will be changed to Hard Times in Hornstown.
What will this mean for the project?
The game will be renamed 'Hard Times in Hornstown' and the main website for the game will become http://hornstown.com . The Patreon website will become https://www.patreon.com/hornstown and the TFGamesite listing will change its name as well.
I will make the old site automatically redirect visitors to the new one. Hopefully nothing else will change.
Will this affect my game, my pledges, my saves or anything like that?
No, it shouldn't. The game stays the same, only the name changes.
Will this delay the update or modify its contents in any way?
Sadly I have to delay it a bit. I have a lot of administrative stuff to go through and I still have a lot of work to do on the new scenes as well. The new for the update is the 29th of January (next Monday). The contents stay the same.
Once again, thank you for supporting my project and I hope we can go on as we have before. Having fun with the game whether it's developing it or playing it is far more important than he whole stupid affair.
Thanks,
Unlikely
PS: Feel free to ask any questions you might have about this and I haven't answered above.
Comments
Wulren
May you could name your game ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_TOWN.. so you could attaque any other game witch use any part of your name ....
Chris Whittles
Id like to inform you that I hold the copyright on the use of "Town" Yes Shit Town is where I dwell and the funny thing is Zynga resides south of here at the Bottom of my cesspool in You Scummy. Petty Hack Legal Department Town .What words or parts of words are they going to take possession of next mayb4cane the "FUCK" from fuck you. Call the game anything and Ill still playing .Keep that twisted mind creating sick content.Maybe it time for me to go get a R#! job from a cartoon but sexy s#!$p. From Fa#!$@!#lle.
Mark Pincus, the owner of Zynga, is notoriously sleazy. Maybe a parody of him might show up in the game?
Kalon
Tusken is correct...that a trademark infringement generally only occurs within a similar industry. I wouldn't change anything until you get a court order to do, imo just to keep them aggravated.
Robert Stiteler
That would be the perfect response.
BlueEyedRaven
Unfortunately, changing the name was the only thing you can do without spending a ton of money in court. You should have sent a condescending back to them thanking them for bringing it to your attention along with a copy of the game and an invite to subscribe to your patreon page. Yes, I am a passive-aggressive bitch. lol
RubberBimbo
so confirmed farmville devs are also pervs :p .. but damn thats low for them to do that
You realize their trademark to ville applies to "Entertainment services, namely, providing online computer and electronic games, enhancements within online computer and electronic games, and game applications within online computer and electronic games; entertainment services, namely, providing online virtual environments in which users can interact through social games for entertainment purposes." and as such wouldn't include other forms of media or real life towns, right?
Good job)))
Bal tha mele
It's just greed. It's a shame that it's come to that, but your work is more important!
This is not legal advice but Zynga's case is flimsy at best. Zynga's definitely a trademark troll though. They've been spamming the USPTO with oppositions to any mark that has 'ville' in it for years. In the majority of cases, it looks like Zynga gives up if their opponent files an answer to Zynga's suit. Unfortunately, you would only get a case at the USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board if you you already had a trademark for 'Hornsville' or applied for one. It seems like you don't have a trademark for 'Hornsville' so that means the case would be heard in a US federal district court, which would be a much greater hassle. However, you're right to question the veracity of their claim over 'ville.' It's true that businesses don't need to have an actual trademark for what their claiming to be representative of a "family of trademarks." But, the mark still has to be distinctive and 'ville' is almost certainly definitely generic. Also, it's hard to see how there would be likelihood of confusion because 'Hard Times in Hornsville' relays a very different overall commercial impression from 'Farmville' - primarily because the channels of trade (where the game is found by consumers) are likely going to be fairly separate given the eroticism of your game. And finally, trademark dilution can only be claimed for "famous marks" and it's hard to see how a generic mark like 'ville' can meet the standard of a famous mark for Zynga. Anyways, sorry to ramble. I just wanted to show my support. It's shitty that the court system can be so cost prohibitive sometimes. You've made a great game, much better than that other 'ville.'
Vysirez
Some googling shows that Zynga has filed suit against a bunch of 'ville games over the last 5-10 years, and it sounds like they effectively won at least some of them. Completely retarded IMO, but it is what it is.
Unlikely
This all sounds nice and good but even in the best case scenario a legal fight like this would take up so much time and resources that the game itself would suffer significantly for it. And with the amount of money and lawyers involved on one side (and not my side) I am not at all sure that common sense would prevail.
Varlance Interactive
Not a lawyer but it sounds like a court case would hinge on whether the use of Ville in Hornsville would cause a likelihood of confusion with Zynga’s games. This seems unlikely, so one possible course of action would have been to fight their legal claim, pointing out that the bad publicity for Zynga (in suing an adult game developer) would be more damaging than enforcing their trademark here. Also you would probably get more users after the publicity.
Frosty1979
Right decision from you. No point in wasting time with this bullshit from these Farmville idiots. Also funny that before I didn't make a connection between your game and Farmville. Now I probably will always think of Hornsville when hearing anything Farmville related. ;)
I. Nobes
Stupid corporate developers ruining indie developers like yourself..
