People News GrimoireGate: Cleve Blakemore in trademark dispute with impostor Grimoire

[Lagole Gon]

Bros, the best we can do for now is to lay low and let it die.

Bunker style.

 

[DwarvenFood]

These OmniConnection bozos can't even spell the name that they're trying to steal (sorry, "trademark"). Look at the blue graphic near the top of the Kickstarter page:

LOL or maybe they are changing their name in face of the Neanderthal ? Always bet on ...

 

[TeknoBM]

Did some people forget that Cleve used to regularly mock and insult the Codex, leaving it a few times "forever," because it wasn't worthy of his affabulated Neanderthal presence? If memory serves, he even declared that Grimoire was too good for us and wouldn't allow any Codexer to purchase it. And then he came back, as if that was the most natural thing in the world, right before he started his first fundraising campaign, realising that the Codex was the only place on the Net that would accept him and provide some kind of support for Grimoire. And now some consider him as practically family, akin to a wayward sibling, but still family—so much even that apparently the rest of the Net associates Cleve with the Codex despite his past virulence for us.

I don't know about the real state of Grimoire, although all the bragging with little to show makes it look like a classical speculative case of "too good to be true," but I find it convenient that this would happen so close to the end of the bug countdown that signifies the real release of Grimoire—opposed to the numerous missed deadlines "Come ITZ or blackpocalypse, it'll be released" of the past years. On one side you got a group of unknown developpers, working on a derivative and uninspired game, who suddenly enjoy a burst of publicity and sympathy for their clash with the aggressive, arrogant, and racist snake oil salesman, and on the other side Grimoire gets postponed to a later date while Cleve deals with this problem, spending both time and money while the Golden Baby was so close to fly this time. Yes, it's probably too far-fetched, but not as fanciful as the various doomsday prophecies Cleve used to post here on a monthly basis.

Its amusing how you hold Codex in such a high regard that you think it shouldn't be mocked or insulted. Like a mother that thinks her little bastard is beautiful when it scares the living shit out of every other kid in the kindergarten.
Please do go on, entertain us.

 

[commie]

Pfft. Cleve created Omniconnection himself in order to give himself an excuse to not finish Grimoire. Isn't it convenient how it comes out right now when Cleve was 'about to finish' his 'masterpiece'?

A third IndieGogo wouldn't fly so what better way to try and scrape up some funds and at the same time have a reason not to finish the game than by creating a fake KS campaign?

After all, it's just as much a fraud as the two IndieGogo's for Grimoire.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Cleve should team up with Manuel Noriega for fighting the Good Fight. Only by binding together as a single force will they manage to defend their intellectual property.

 

[:Flash:]

Did some people forget that Cleve used to regularly mock and insult the Codex, leaving it a few times "forever," because it wasn't worthy of his affabulated Neanderthal presence? If memory serves, he even declared that Grimoire was too good for us and wouldn't allow any Codexer to purchase it. And then he came back, as if that was the most natural thing in the world, right before he started his first fundraising campaign, realising that the Codex was the only place on the Net that would accept him and provide some kind of support for Grimoire. And now some consider him as practically family, akin to a wayward sibling, but still family—so much even that apparently the rest of the Net associates Cleve with the Codex despite his past virulence for us.

The first part is true, and back then I was quite shocked - shocked, I say - about Cleve's behaviour. Now, I'm just entertained by it.
The second part, not so much. It was the Codex that talked him into working on the game again and starting a fundraising campaign. People practically begged him to go to kickstarter.

 

[Delterius]

Wow, Calis is still alive.

Imagine the sort of thing that will come back one Grimwah gets released. The masses of insane trainwrecks that will return to Glorious Codexia to witness the return of the RPGesus.

 

[DwarvenFood]

point B is kind of moot, there will be no game.

 

[MicoSelva]

I had no idea about this GrimoireGate before reading your post, Infinitron, because I do not follow the game, but I would have wasted a lot of time if I accidentally heard about it and curiosity got the better of me. Thank you for wasting that time instead.

 

[Whisky]

ORIGINAL TITLE! DO NOT STEAL!

 

[Gragt]

Its amusing how you hold Codex in such a high regard that you think it shouldn't be mocked or insulted. Like a mother that thinks her little bastard is beautiful when it scares the living shit out of every other kid in the kindergarten.
Please do go on, entertain us.

Well, shag me twice! Dr. Jeddler thinks he got it all figured out!

The first part is true, and back then I was quite shocked - shocked, I say - about Cleve's behaviour. Now, I'm just entertained by it.
The second part, not so much. It was the Codex that talked him into working on the game again and starting a fundraising campaign. People practically begged him to go to kickstarter.

Cleve never stopped working on the game, according to him at least, and not just one game but several that would show the rest of the industry what a lone determined superhuman can do with willpower alone. It was always this close to being released, and he apparently didn't mind losing sales back then—remember when he stated he would make sure Grimoire would be available for purchase only for high IQ people like himself? While he did receive some encouragements from here, and after all he did promise much, it was clear that he wanted a slice of the crowdfunding pie back when you'd have a very strong chance of getting backers for every pipe dream you'd care to describe in bullet points. It might be that the Codex was the catalyst for him to go with crowdfunding by showing him some people were ready to pay for his promises and from there he could reap some more, but at this point, and given what he has delivered compared to what he has received, I see no other motivation than greed.

 

[:Flash:]

It was always this close to being released, and he apparently didn't mind losing sales back then—remember when he stated he would make sure Grimoire would be available for purchase only for high IQ people like himself? While he did receive some encouragements from here, and after all he did promise much, it was clear that he wanted a slice of the crowdfunding pie back when you'd have a very strong chance of getting backers for every pipe dream you'd care to describe in bullet points. It might be that the Codex was the catalyst for him to go with crowdfunding by showing him some people were ready to pay for his promises and from there he could reap some more, but at this point, and given what he has delivered compared to what he has received, I see no other motivation than greed.

That's not the impression I got. People were so entertained by his description of the going-ons with the development of that they asked him for a kickstarter. Here's his first reaction:

Cleve, why don't you do a Kickstarter for Grimoire? You have a full working demo and screeshots/videos of gameplay. You could certainly earn $ 1 million at least, enough to work on Grimoire full time.

Do you really think this would be a good idea? Wouldn't people say, "Isn't that the severely retarded guy who has been working on that game for 17 years? Do we really want to give a person like this more encouragement? Why not initiate a separate Kickstarter where we agree that upon reaching a certain target amount, Cleve will commit himself to a mental institution in Australia permanently? Now there's a Kickstarter I would get behind!"

Also, if greed was the motivation, working for 20 years on an obscure niche title would be the worst way to go about it.

 

[Infinitron]

GrimoireGate update:

A search on uspto.gov that I did just now reveals that the Grimoire trademark was rejected today:

Looking further at the documents, it seems the reason for the rejection was that it may be confused with Final Fantasy Tactics: Grimoire of the Rift.

 

[felipepepe]

 

[EG]

The second part, not so much. It was the Codex that talked him into working on the game again and starting a fundraising campaign. People practically begged him to go to kickstarter.

There was a time when Cleve wasn't working on, and had abandoned, Grimoire?

I don't recall that, having lurked around this board since 2006-7 . . . But brains, faulty .etc

 

[Gragt]

That's not the impression I got. People were so entertained by his description of the going-ons with the development of that they asked him for a kickstarter. Here's his first reaction:

Cleve, why don't you do a Kickstarter for Grimoire? You have a full working demo and screeshots/videos of gameplay. You could certainly earn $ 1 million at least, enough to work on Grimoire full time.

Do you really think this would be a good idea? Wouldn't people say, "Isn't that the severely retarded guy who has been working on that game for 17 years? Do we really want to give a person like this more encouragement? Why not initiate a separate Kickstarter where we agree that upon reaching a certain target amount, Cleve will commit himself to a mental institution in Australia permanently? Now there's a Kickstarter I would get behind!"

Sure, crowdfunding was all the rage back then; every has-been and never-was came out to start one, so it's only natural some people here asked if he planned to go that way—if I'm not mistaken, that's Andhaira in your quote. Just because the idea was thrown here, an online community Cleve used to despise and apparently from one of the less stable members, doesn't mean he hadn't considered it before. Every promising project would get cash thrown at it.

And he did not go for Kickstarter in the end but Indiegogo, which is interesting when you consider that you get to keep the money even if the goal isn't reached. But ok, since, funding or not, the game will absolutely be released in May 2013, that's acceptable.

Also, if greed was the motivation, working for 20 years on an obscure niche title would be the worst way to go about it.

And you trust Cleve when he says that he has been working on it for the past 20 years. Cleve who repeatedly pushed back the release of Grimoire, who initiated not one but two crowdfunding campaigns, has missed all the deadlines despite being so close to release for years now, has yet to release any of his other games he has been boasting about, makes doomsday prediction every first Saturday of the month, and claims to be a Neanderthal with titanium bones—and that's just skimming the surface.

I do not claim that the development of Grimoire started with greed—ego looks like a better explaination from what I learned of Cleve over the years—but considering the recent events, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't fuelled by it now.

 

[RK47]

keep money when fail hit target or lose money when fail to hit target.
such a tough choice to make, gentlemen.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS LOLOLLOL WE ALL NEW CLEVE WAS BORDERLINE RETARTED

FIRST HE THINKSN HE IS A SPECIES WHOCH IS OBVIOUSLY EXTINCT

NOW THE GAMR HE STOLE FROM SIRTECH MIGHT BE EXTINXT

 

[Makabb]

The Saga ends, after successfully defeating Omniconnection, Cleve goes to settle old scores with former Sir-Tech agents, Brenda Romero and Robert Sirotek.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

GrimoireGate update:

A search on uspto.gov that I did just now reveals that the Grimoire trademark was rejected today:

Looking further at the documents, it seems the reason for the rejection was that it may be confused with Final Fantasy Tactics: Grimoire of the Rift.

Cleve vs Square Enix?

 

[felipepepe]

Cleve vs Square Enix?

]

 

[twincast]

FIRST HE THINKSN HE IS A SPECIES WHOCH IS OBVIOUSLY EXTINCT

Now, now, Neanderthals' limited dexterity (wrists, fingers) could explain why it takes him so long; computer mice and keyboards ought to be a real pain in the ass after all.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Square Enix? For real?

Well, it seems that only after the machete apocalypse Cleve will finally have rights to the name Grimoire.

 

[Murk]

My god, the developments are beautiful.

I remember when cleve was threatening legal action against the neogaf guys making dudebro 2 cuz they called themselves 'grimoire assembly forge' tho i believe nothing actually came out of it other than an amazing letter written by goodman cleve

 

[taxalot]

After all the shit Square-Enix has been pulling lately, pretending these to be games instead of tools of massive retardation, I would be happy if in the Ultimate Battle of Incline and Decline, Cleve sues Square-Enix into Bankruptcy.

I now have a mental picture to wank to tonight.