Activision's Lawsuits Renaissance

 Nanomachines, Son!

I guess I like lawsuit news now? I cover it enough. Perhaps through some backhanded way I find this most frivolous yet prevalent of legal challenges morbidly entertaining as it represents a manner through which rare true business-related grievances can be aired publicly. I've heard that humans are naturally voyeuristic creatures, but I've found that to largely not be true on a personal level, yet when it comes to the faceless corporations, oh boy, you bet I'm digging through trashcans and peeping through the downstairs bathroom window; I just can't get enough of seeing the real people who hide behind the abstract names and million-dollar logos. And sometimes I just want to see who has the gall, nay the hubris, to stand up to these titans of money printing; that is, without the protection of company dollars to back them up. I mean that's a true David vs Goliath battle right there, only it's in the real world so we don't automatically have to side with the underdog. That being what it is, I wonder what side you'll take in regards to Activision's recent legal struggle.

So you might have heard of a little game known as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. (No, not that one; the later one) In the manner of ever moving forward, Modern Warfare Junior took it upon itself to further a trend started by Advanced Warfare (Or started by Overwatch/Siege if you're feeling spicy) to have a system called 'Operators' take over online matches to spread a bit more personality than your typical multiplayer loadouts. Now I'll be honest, I haven't played an Infinity Ward multiplayer since Advanced Warfare so I don't know how these systems are playing out in today's COD, but I imagine they're somewhat successful as the project hasn't been abandoned. Activision is putting real effort into creating these operators that work within the Warzone add-on gamemode, so it's makes sense that steps would be taken to put real value and quality into these operators. In fact, I'd even imagine it'd make sense to go the distance and have models come in to be the basis for the operators, to give them that real feeling, you know? Only, that was Activision's big mistake.

Because, you see, one of Warzone/Modern Warfare's most popular operatives, Mara, has recently come under accusations of plagiarism through way of lawsuit. That's right, as reported by Polygon, a writer, photographer called Clayton Haugen has filled a suit claiming that Mara is a direct rip-off of his own OC-don't-steal, Cade Janus. (Urgh. I guess that's Cade to sound futuristic and Janus to reference the two-faced roman god who looks simultaneously into the past and future? Yep, this guy's a writer alright.) But as you can imagine this goes beyond a circumstantial resemblance in concept; actually Clayton's grievances stem from the fact that his Cade character and Mara share the exact same reference model. (Ohh, things are getting interesting!) That's right, the same woman posed for both roles and that lays the basis for what Clayton assumes to be an active effort from Activision to spot his work and try to copy it in as subtle a manner as possible.

And although my gut instinct is "Really? That sounds far fetched." one must always remember that this is Activision we're talking about and they're no stranger to doing incredibly dumb things. Might that have bled over to their developers? It's possible... Clayton, for his part, claims that Infinity Ward hired the exact same makeup professional for the job and instructed them to model her in the exact same fashion that he did. Down to hair, makeup, the whole job. And then, the dastardly villains, forced those involved to sign a Non-disclosure agreement in order to cover up their copyright infringement! Quite the damning story right? Whatsmore, Clayton provided pictures of his Janus character next to the in-game model of Mara. (Because the Infinity Photoshoot isn't public domain. NDA, remember) And the results? Oh man...

They show... a military woman in military gear. Yeah, to be honest there's not really much one can do to make such a generic concept unique. The plaintiff wants to argue that COD copied everything about his photoshot character, but I have to wonder when the only point of potential non-circumstantial crossover is the hairstyle, which are admittedly pretty identical. But maybe that's just how her hair looks best in a decently tactical style? I don't know. I'd imagine if two separate clients asked the same hairdresser to arrange the same woman's hair in a manner that looks 'military-esque' two different times, the results would probably be similar at least. I've never really been one to stand up for Activision, but I really wish there was more actual substance to this suit. It looks a bit frivolous from here. And as for the NDA thing? Is this guy completely unfamiliar with how the entertainment industry works? (I know he's unfamiliar with gaming due to reasons I'll touch on later) NDAs out the windows, NDAs up to your eyeballs, you so much as knock on the studio door and ask to use the toilet, you'll be signing 5 NDAs on your way out. There's nothing particularly incriminating about a studio asking for NDAs. 

But then, the story can't just end there, can it? I was quite interested when I started, but as I went on the lawsuit seemed to lose more and more water until it was totally flaccid. At the end of it I was wondering what the actual point of all this was, although in hindsight I suppose that really should have been apparent from the getgo, no? As I'm sure Clayton wanted, I ended up asking "Wait, what is this Cade Janus and her horrible name a part of again? Some project called November Renaissance? Is that a book?" Well actually no, because you see Porygon left one vital title out of Mr Haugen's name. He is a writer, Photographer- and Director. Oh baby, you know what time it is! It's time to dive down the rabbit hole and check out this movie boys!

Okay, now first of all I have to establish some points. Firstly, it seems that this model's photos were actually shot before this movie was finalised and so she doesn't actually appear on any of the material for the movie in question. But secondly, there is material for this movie because it's actually a Kickstarter project from 2017 which, as far as I can tell, is still in development? Or not in development? (The official website linked off the page is down, so that bodes well.) Yes, peeps, we've got ourselves an honest-to-goodness indie film project headed by Clayton that appears to be something of a Cyberpunk homage? Yeah, judging by the obviously superimposed  purple neon billboards everywhere, the ugly pee-saturation to most shots and criminal overuse of lens flare; this is definitely a Cyberpunk project. (Guess here's a project to remind you that despite their faults, CDPR are still spectacular designers. Imagine if Night City looked like this! >Shudder<) All of which I recommend you look up yourself because ol' Calyton has already demonstrated how he's not above a little lawsuit here and there and though I'm a nobody on the Internet, I don't really want to risk it. (It takes nothing to set up Google alerts, afterall)

Aside from questionable concept shots, however, our Clayton friend has an entire pitch video as Kickstarter etiquette demands; so I wonder what's on the plate here? Well, amateurish camera work aside, the effects are certainly- effecting. Yeah, I came away not too impressed, but curious as to what this was all about. What was this November Renaissance about anyway? Well, as Clayton himself helpfully explained, it's about a world wherein nanotechnology has progressed to the point where it can rewire humans to a molecular level. A society wherein technology can bridge the gap between the poor and the rich- only for the idea to immediately be stolen and then integrated into the capitalist economic hierarchy because- duh. So basically it's transhumanism 101. No thrills or frills, it's just a basic transhumanist plot. That can't be right because I just got through a video of people gushing over how unique of an idea this is and how brilliant the script is. Except, this idea isn't unique. Bladerunner exists where a world like that makes up just the background for a much more relevant conversation about what it means to be living and how the very inevitability of death fuels us. Deus Ex made a concept like that it's very forefront in exploring how a world without technological limits can be exploited to divide society much more than it already is. Both those projects are masterpieces that wrote the book on how to address these topics. But here's November Renaissance with it's biggest contribution to the conversation being the use (and slight, if common, misunderstanding) of the term 'nanomachines'. (I hate to do this to ya, but 'Metal Gear' did it first.)

So yeah, I went a bit offtrack. This started with a lawsuit and ended off bashing an indie film project like a hero, what a ride. Although when you put something this goofy in front of me, I can't help but point and laugh a little bit. Hey, I'm involved with my fair share of cringey indie stuff too, it's just a natural human response. That being said, I hope this November Renaissance gets made because I would absolutely love to watch it. Oh, and I pray that they never hire a proper cinematographer too! Keep the crappy shots with the blinding lens flares, they literally make the whole thing come together. (In many ways, the shoddiness of it is the single most endearing quality. Like your garden variety Neil Breen flick, except not quite as magical) As to the lawsuit? I'm no lawyer but it seems pretty weak, focus on your movie, my man, that's where the real glory is at!