The War Z has received flack for being very similar to Day Z, some calling it a simple clone. Whether or not that’s the case, it looks like they’ve been copying Riot, makers of League of Legends. The War Z’s Terms of Service make explicit references to League of Legends’ currency system and there’s evidence suggesting Hammerpoint have redacted even more explicit mentions of the game since their copy/paste job was discovered.
Read on for further details.
Reddit user Sesquip noticed the copy/paste job yesterday and posted his findings to the site:
I downloaded to double check and found that the references to League of Legends in the “Requirements” section now read as The War Z:
Meaning either Sesquip had tried to fool the community or that Hammerpoint Interactive had tried to cover their tracks. It seems it was the latter because although the explicit mentions of Riot’s game had disappeared, there were some more subtle points:
Yup, Riot Points. One of League of Legend’s two in-game currencies.
If that image isn’t too clear, here’s that text copied and pasted:
“FURTHER, OP PRODUCTIONS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE IN ANY WAY FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE TO PLAYER CHARACTERS, VIRTUAL GOODS (E.G., WEAPONS, SPELLS, ARMOR, SKINS, ETC.) OR VIRTUAL CURRENCY, RIOT POINTS, ACCOUNTS, STATISTICS, OR USER STANDINGS, RANKS, OR PROFILE INFORMATION STORED BY THE GAME.”
You may also notice that, as well as Riot Points, there’s a reference to spells. Not something to fit in with Hammerpoint’s vision of thezombie apocalypse.
In The War Z’s FAQ, Hammerpoint explicitly say “The game will be available at launch as a single-purchase download with no payments required to play after that. No subscriptions or hidden fees. You’ll be able to spend money in the game for items of convenience or to rent game servers.” So there is no need to talk about a virtual currency system in their Terms of Service.
In short,it would seem that Hammerpoint originally copied their Terms of Servicewholesale from Riot and then, on being discovered, redacted any mentions of League of Legends that they could spot but didn’t search for ‘Riot’ itself.
We’re contacting Hammerpoint to see if they can respond to our findings.