Tim Langdell: The EDGE of Insanity?

I want to know why the article was pulled from GameSetWatch. Will the real Simon Carless please stand up

His legal actions notwithstanding, Tim Langdell is on the IGDA Board because he won the election to get on the Board.

“Right, I was just pointing out that it must’ve been a mutual benefit thing, unlike Langdell’s adventures in edge-based extortion”

It depends how you define mutually beneficial, I guess.

“Langdell has been lead producer, designer and writer on all of EDGE”

Which in the game industry means he was part of meetings, made the dev staff’s life miserable with his ‘suggestions’ and was incidently the only team member with more than enough free time to self-promote his career to the press and throw in a couple of empty buzzwords and theories about how to make games. If his ego had stayed in this harmless, classic god’s gift to gaming stage we see too often with big-head designers today, that would be unremarkable. But hindering others in their own endeavors is really appalling. Just goes to show how the IGDA is becoming nothing more than a podium for these superstars to stroke their miserable all-important selves.

I have acquired the rights for the word “the”.
Henceforth anyone wanting to use the word “the” in any of their game titles, please contact my lawyers and we can arrange a monthly payment settlement.

Thanks.

Just checked out his Wiki entry and obviously the anger has finally/already reached his page as the first line reads:

Tim Langdell…is a video game producer, game programmer and game designer as well as a university professor and a **douchebag**

You should see what is says now. Just

“Tim Langdell (born ~1653 in Oxford, England) does not deserve a wikipedia page. Good day.”

“Occupation: Video game designer; massive douche”

I’d like to draw people’s attention to the fact that Tim Langdell is now posting on the forums, using the nick “mopius” (he’s not doing that “cheridavis” mistake again!)

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6456.45

this is taken from the wiki entry for Edge Games:
“Edge Games is a British video game developer and publisher headquartered in Pasadena, California and with offices in London, England. It has not created a video game in over a decade, and is now primarily concerned with rehashing old “hits” to make a quick buck while they focus on stamping out young, talented developers under their heel of the EDGE copyright.”
lol, somebody should temporarily name their baby Tim Langdell, and then buy the copyright for that name.

Incredible. What a guy :D

I love how he claims to own everything with the word edge in. I thought trolls were just 12-16 year olds who believe they are funny, But I guess some people stay immature.

Tim Langdell ( tim at edgegames dot com )
Independent Game Designer & Developer / Lead Game Professor, National University
Tim Langdell

This is going to be a tough year ahead — never a greater need for the IGDA to serve its members even more fully, and if elected I will help.

I am passionate about the game industry and fortunate to have been part of it since the late 1970s when I founded EDGE Games. Having worked on over 200 games, from AAA games through to mobile games, I am currently designing several original console games, an MMO which I am really excited about, and an original TV-Series/game tie-in where I will also be producing the TV show as well as designing the game.

Since 1990 I have been doing all I can to “give back” to help build the game industry:

* Co-founded the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in the early 1990s — my original vision was for it be a vehicle to standardize game industry credits through an annual awards show.
* Instigated game classes at USC’s Film School in 1992, taught there 14 years, and am now lead game prof at National University where I run the MFA program in game production out of San Jose , LA and San Diego . I’ve been working to find ways to use games to motivate at-risk kids and help young adults with learning disabilities.
* Been working tirelessly to integrate the efforts of the IGDA with film/TV industry by liaising with the Producers Guild (member of its New Media Board), the Writer’s Guild (Vice Chair of its Videogame Writers Caucus), and the Television Academy/Emmys (member) to coordinate game credits and advocate games. I was very proud to chair the WGA committee which launched the first 2008 WGA Award for Videogame Writing, and am now working on the first ever Producers Guild award for game producing.
* I’ve been an active member of the IGDA, written books on games, and given numerous conference papers.

If elected to the board I would have three key goals:

1. 2009 is going to be a rough year and I if elected I would urge the IGDA Board to help its members through these tough times.
2. Further empower the IGDA special initiatives like Credits Standardization, Quality of Life and Games Curriculum – great progress, but we need to do more.
3. Advocate equally for everyone in the game industry from indie developers to AAA studios.

Feel free to check out a more in-depth bio here.

Tim’s volunteer contributions:

* Member, Writers SIG Steering Committee
* Advisor, Los Angeles Chapter
* Liaison Committee Chair, Game Writers SIG
* Contributor and sub-editor, Writing SIG book “Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames” (2007)
* Contributor, Game Education SIG
* Advisor, Student Game Development Club at National University

What a fucking joke.

@Not me guv, honest:”It depends how you define mutually beneficial, I guess.”

Well, no, it depends on what really happened. Langdell demanding that they use his typeface is implausible to me. Them using his typeface after shovelling over money to use the word “edge” is also implausible. Langdell stealing the typeface from Edge magazine after the fact is possible but not the most likely case. But who cares? It’s not important in the face of everything else this twat’s done.

Mopius is probably Langdell- I can see someone disagreeing with the consensus, but why would some random guy register just to throw around insults at people who don’t like another random?

Edge game competition, anyone?

You can copyright a word, given a specific range. What about “Tide” detergent?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_distinctiveness

“Edge” related to Games is not generic. “Edge” for shaving cream is suggestive. However, courts really have been slow on IP. They’ve been especially slow on the internet and probably extremely slow on video games. One thing they should realize is that with video games, the producer’s name has very little to deal with the products they create.

awesome deconstruction of someone who sounds like a total asshole. just like those domain squatters really.

How about a TIGS Compo where all the games have to have Edge in the title and also some gameplay mechanic involving edges and such. :P

Absolutely – the EDGE competition must happen immediately!

Throwing my support behind the EDGE compo. Hell, we should all just storm the IGF with EDGE games this year. That ought to set Langdell’s teeth on, err, EDGE.

Does this mean we won’t get any more *Phoenix Wright* titles in the states? There’s a character named Edgeworth, fer chrissake!

We can’t call innovative games “cutting edge” anymore? (though on second thought, that might be refrshing)

And what of GameStop’s infamous EDGE card? Sweet Raptorchrist, IS NOTHING SACRED?

On a more serious note, however, this is fucking ridiculous. If I find that he’s trolling the TIGS forums with a fake username, I may have to call him out at GDC 2010. How childish and unprofessional. At least *I* think through my venom enough to feel comfortable using my real name.

What the hell kind of standards do we have in this industry? And to think we were all SHOCKED when Heather Chaplin called us a bunch of little boys. With guys like Langdell running amok, I’m amazed she didn’t just flat-out explode during her rant. Even *I’m* furious right now, and my level of maturity is highly suspect.

I don’t know who should be more ashamed: Langdell for being such a maniac, or all of us for somehow electing him to the Board without knowing what he had up his sleeve.

God, this guy makes me almost as angry as the Houser brothers.

http://digg.com/gaming_news/Trademark_Troll_Gets_Mobigames_EDGE_Taken_Down

Digg it, let’s get this out there

click on my nick above for a functioning digg link

what a scumbag

im all for an edge games competition

Someone needs to slashdot this.

I am speaking now for myself and NOT on behalf of the IGDA or as an IGDA Board member. But as me, Tom Buscaglia, The Game Attorney.

This dispute relates to a company enforcing its properly registered Trademark. While you or I may not agree with the laws related to Trademarks, they are what they are. Moreover, the IGDA represents the individuals who make games, not the companies that make them. So, although no one is more committed to independent developers than I am, this is a legal dispute between two companies regarding an alleged Trademark infringement. So, while I laud your efforts to fight for the little guy here, these matters are for the court of law, not for a public opinion.

I think this matter is a bit more complex that it has been presented too…As someone who has litigated intellectual property cases, I can tell you that these cases are never as simple as they might seem, especially when one only has access to one side of the story. I suspect that is you had spend 20 odd years building a Trademark to brand your studio and games, and paid to have a Trademark registered, you might also feel compelled to enforce your trade name. BTW, if you do not enforce your Trademark, you may lose it. So you may want to also take that into account in your analysis!

Trade and service marks, usually both called “trademarks”, are words, symbols and other things use to identify the source of a product in commerce. Some little know trademarks are Kodak Yellow and the sound of a Harley. Both are protected. But usually trademarks are names and logos. This description of a trademark from the U.S. Patent and Trademark office may help:

“A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms “trademark” and “mark” are commonly used to refer to both trademarks and servicemarks.

“Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. Trademarks which are used in interstate or foreign commerce may be registered with the Patent and Trademark Office.”

I personally do not think that lobbying the IGDA to intervene or even take sides in a legal dispute is the right approach. If Tim’s position is correct (and I do not have enough information to determine that issue one way of the other) you are recommending that the IGDA potentially support a party who has infringed a legal and enforceable Trademark..and that’s just nutty!

So, I just do not see that as a viable position for the organization under any circumstances. In any case, I do not see any Board member vigorously enforcing his legal rights as contrary to the code of ethics in any way. I regret that Bob’s thoughtful response did not satisfy you…but I agree with his position on this matter.

Tom B

The problem is that normal words can be trademarked, which as far as common sense goes is fucking retarded.