The last couple of weeks were rather tumultuous in the StarCraft II modding community.

First, everyone was delighted by the exposure being given to World of StarCraft, a mod which had been under development for quite some time. The mod was still in a pre-alpha state, but the developer had enough content working to begin proudly showing off his work. A video surfaced on YouTube.

Looks awesome right? Well, the legal drones nesting in the Activision legal department didn’t think so, and soon they began swarming all over any videos touting the ‘World of StarCraft’ name, having them removed from services such a YouTube. They also sent a ‘cease and desist’ letter to the project’s developers.

The project spokesperson was rather bemused by this state of affairs, since Blizzard had provided tools and assets with StarCraft II and encouraged the community to develop modifications for the game. The Internet community in support of the modification was soon up in arms about the matter.

Blizzard weighed in soon enough, posting an open letter that explained the whole thing was a bit of a misunderstanding and that they only really wanted the name of the mod changed.

One might think that the Activision legal department and public relations department should have a meeting occasionally to discuss how to treat their customers with respect. A polite request made to the developers may have been a far better choice in this matter.

Now, as reported by Ripten, World of StarCraft creator Ryan Winzen has decided to team up with a German modder working on a similar project. They will combine their ideas and the new project is to be called StarCraft Universe. Blizzard has apparently given the go ahead for this name.

Despite all the negativity, Winzen has received a great amount of exposure for his work and it is reported that he has had a job offer from Riot Games (League of Legends), and he will also be taking a trip to visit Blizzard and the StarCraft II development team. Perhaps we should keep an eye out for the name ‘Ryan Winzen’ in the credits for Blizzard’s next big thing.

Discuss StarCraft Universe on the MyGaming forum.