Games Workshop gets aggressive with C&D

As a long time Blood Bowl fan it's sad to see Games Workshop (GW) continue to carry out unfathomable acts towards it's gaming community.

GW has always fought hard to protect their Intellectual Property (IP), which is well within their rights, but it's starting to get out of hand.

Numerous Blood Bowl websites have received Cease and Desist (C&D) letters demanding the ceasing of operation due to IP infringement.

The Blood Bowl community is probably one of the largest tabletop gaming communities. The NAF (named after the fictious league in Blood Bowl lore) is the unofficial ranking system with nearly 7,500 players registered.

There is a tournament somewhere in the world nearly every week. The NAF staff also organised the Blood Bowl World Cup in 2007 where 276 coaches from around the World took part.

Since Blood Bowl dropped out of circulation the fans have worked with its creator, Jervis Johnson, to update, amend and improve the rulebook.

In fact, without the fans, Blood Bowl would have long disappeared, and GW would have made little revenue from it.

Now forums, such as TalkBloodBowl, once recommended on GW's specialist games website, have received C&D letters.

It's a big slap in the face to Blood Bowl players everywhere. It's a disgrace to treat your gaming community, and therefore your customers, in such a manner.

Other GW related fansites, such as Librarium Online have received the same treatment.

Again, I agree that they are perfectly entitled to protect their IP but why do Games Workshop, which have no active forum of their own, work with these fan run sites instead of against them?

If you're listening Games Workshop, learn to listen to your community rather than doing your utmost to plunder their pockets!