Blue Memento Mori Playing Cards - Murphy's pushing the limits?

[Maaz Hasan]

Ok, so we all know, and probably love, the Memento Mori cards produced by Murphy's last year (or whenever, can't remember). However, some of you may not know that Murphy's released that deck with there then Employee, now relatively famous YouTuber - Chris Ramsay.

Murphy's recently released a Blue Memento Mori deck without the permission of Ramsay. This sparked controversy, and when Chris Responded, he was insulted - basically demonized by Murphy's. Now, before you respond to me, I want you to watch the full story behind it here:

Obviously, Chris made this, but he was surprisingly unbiased. Watch the whole thing, before replying to this thread, because Chris actually goes over some very important things at the end.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on this, and the overall ethic and moral trusts that seem to have been broken here?

Also, do you think Chris or the artist should have copyrighted the design, as opposed to Murphy's?

 

[010rusty]

The reason Memento Mori were so beloved.
1. They were made by a catfish, Chris Ramsay.
2.they were colorful
3.they were original


Blue Memento Mori
1. Were not Ramsay's Creation
2.They are just blue
3. They are a V2


So.......
I'm a magician, not a catfish. So, I've never liked Memento Moris. However, every review I've seen Have said " I love these colors.". Without that, why?

My belief is:
Catfish probably will not like the lack of colors.
Magicians will not like the faces.
Card collectors will not like the price for a forgettable V2.
Chris's fans will not enjoy it.

What is the demographic? I don't understand how a product like this could come out of such a great company. Its very lazy. They didn't even bother to change the jokers......

 

[Maaz Hasan]

Wait, they didn't change the jokers? CR has those as a TM though (I think)...

Does that mean he can sue them? If so, should he? I say no.

 

[010rusty]

Wait, they didn't change the jokers? CR has those as a TM though (I think)...

Does that mean he can sue them? If so, should he? I say no.

I looked it up to be sure....

And there is no tm Or r after the logo so i'd say it not Trademarked.

 

[ChrisJGJ]

Chris, I assume, is under contract that anything he produces (in this case the Memento Mori deck) will be for and owned by Murphys Magic. Are they within their legal rights to recolor and sell the deck as long as they don't use Chris' brand? Yes. Are the jokers trademarked by Chris or even his logo anymore? I don't think they are.

It probably went down like this. Chris has an idea for a deck that he wanted to be his own. He pitched the idea to Murphys and they gave him the green light and funds to go ahead and produce a deck. They believed in him and his vision that it would make a profit. Chris goes to work and makes the Memento Mori deck FOR Murphys. They probably paid him a bonus or a percentage of any profits form that deck. I don't know. Either way, the deck isn't owned by Chris. It's owned by Murphys.

Is it ethically wrong that they didn't consult Chris about any changes they would make for the V2? In my opinion no. It would have been a nice courtesy, but they DIDN'T have to. Is Murphys riding off of the success of Ramsay and the success of the original version of the deck? Maybe. Good business move.

Look if I was a popular youtuber and made a deck like "Tally-Joe Tricycle Rounders by ChrisJGJ" for Theory11, funded by Theory11, then I'm expecting that they have control over whatever happens with the deck after that. Even if I leave the company. Chris is being whiny here in my opinion. Even if he is trying to give the illusion that he is not.

 

[010rusty]

Chris, I assume, is under contract that anything he produces (in this case the Memento Mori deck) will be for and owned by Murphys Magic. Are they within their legal rights to recolor and sell the deck as long as they don't use Chris' brand? Yes. Are the jokers trademarked by Chris or even his logo anymore? I don't think they are.

It probably went down like this. Chris has an idea for a deck that he wanted to be his own. He pitched the idea to Murphys and they gave him the green light and funds to go ahead and produce a deck. They believed in him and his vision that it would make a profit. Chris goes to work and makes the Memento Mori deck FOR Murphys. They probably paid him a bonus or a percentage of any profits form that deck. I don't know. Either way, the deck isn't owned by Chris. It's owned by Murphys.

Is it ethically wrong that they didn't consult Chris about any changes they would make for the V2? In my opinion no. It would have been a nice courtesy, but they DIDN'T have to. Is Murphys riding off of the success of Ramsay and the success of the original version of the deck? Maybe. Good business move.

Look if I was a popular youtuber and made a deck like "Tally-Joe Tricycle Rounders by ChrisJGJ" for Theory11, funded by Theory11, then I'm expecting that they have control over whatever happens with the deck after that. Even if I leave the company. Chris is being whiny here in my opinion. Even if he is trying to give the illusion that he is not.

Well yes what you've said is correct but Murphy's magic pulled a Micheal Bay. What they have done is taken an idea and changed what people loved about, and just turned into a "cash cow". This is a common business move. In fact the company Bluesky is a movie company completely built upon the idea of Milking every penny out of a successful project.
Does it make since? YES! They are a company! They only exist because of money, but when Micheal announced transformers,TMNT, ect. fans were upset. Original creators were mad and the movies got awful reviews (in cases like Jem and the Holograms it lost up to 15 million dollars and was pulled from theaters due to upset fans).
I expect better from Murphy's.....

Is how Chris acting okay? Not really, he needs to calm down. Especially, when LITERALLY weeks before this happened he said "I'm releasing a my first deck. MY OWN DECK! Not with any company... I don't get paid for those, I don't own the rights to those."
(

at about 1:37) But it is understandable when something you've put your precious time towards something and it turns into money making vacuum.

Is Murphy's Magic handling the situation correctly? NO!!!!! They got one of their employees to call chris a "Whinny magician" is not the way a professional company should handle a situation. Name calling should be left at a kindergarten Playground, not at a professional company.

I believe this deck is a lazy, controversial, forgettable deck of cards. Like Erdnase x Madison, except a nice book and DVD.

 

[ChrisJGJ]

Well yes what you've said is correct but Murphy's magic pulled a Micheal Bay. What they have done is taken an idea and changed what people loved about, and just turned into a "cash cow". This is a common business move. In fact the company Bluesky is a movie company completely built upon the idea of Milking every penny out of a successful project.
Does it make since? YES! They are a company! They only exist because of money, but when Micheal announced transformers,TMNT, ect. fans were upset. Original creators were mad and the movies got awful reviews (in cases like Jem and the Holograms it lost up to 15 million dollars and was pulled from theaters due to upset fans).
I expect better from Murphy's.....

Is how Chris acting okay? Not really, he needs to calm down. Especially, when LITERALLY weeks before this happened he said "I'm releasing a my first deck. MY OWN DECK! Not with any company... I don't get paid for those, I don't own the rights to those."
(

at about 1:37) But it is understandable when something you've put your precious time towards something and it turns into money making vacuum.

Is Murphy's Magic handling the situation correctly? NO!!!!! They got one of their employees to call chris a "Whinny magician" is not the way a professional company should handle a situation. Name calling should be left at a kindergarten Playground, not at a professional company.

I believe this deck is a lazy, controversial, forgettable deck of cards. Like Erdnase x Madison, except a nice book and DVD.

LOL. Okay I didn't know they hired a guy to call Chris a whiny magician. That's hilarious and unprofessional, but he is whiny though.

The whole lost millions movie example thing is different than our deck of cards here. It's a recolor. Takes literally seconds to do. Print a small amount of copies of them and see how it does. People want to complain and be upset about it? Fine. At least it only took 5 minutes to do a recolor and we only printed like 2-500 copies. It doesn't cost a lot. They won't lose much if anything at all, but the amount of money to potentially be made is worth that small risk. And if this recolor does well, then fudge man, make a bunch of recolors.

I also think the deck is trash. Wouldn't buy. Wouldn't buy the originals either though. So there's that.

 

[010rusty]

LOL. Okay I didn't know they hired a guy to call Chris a whiny magician. That's hilarious and unprofessional, but he is whiny though.

The whole lost millions movie example thing is different than our deck of cards here. It's a recolor. Takes literally seconds to do. Print a small amount of copies of them and see how it does. People want to complain and be upset about it? Fine. At least it only took 5 minutes to do a recolor and we only printed like 2-500 copies. It doesn't cost a lot. They won't lose much if anything at all, but the amount of money to potentially be made is worth that small risk. And if this recolor does well, then fudge man, make a bunch of recolors.

I also think the deck is trash. Wouldn't buy. Wouldn't buy the originals either though. So there's that.

Yeah didn't quite enjoy the originals either. But what I was mentioning about the Jem movie was: the orginal Jem was honestly a stupid cartoon. It was bland and odd and not for everyone. But when Hollywood saw it they "ruined childhood memories"(I now how absurd that sounds).
That reminds me of this deck. Chris says he has put over 50 hours of time into this deck (If that is a Hyperbole or not, IDK). And when he and many others saw it they were upset and complained about it. And like the Jem movie fans talk. When they talk they complain and the company was forced to take the movie out of theaters despite the fact it was no where near earning its money back.
So that's what i meant. In the age of the internet where anyone can pick up a device and pitch a fit, you really need to know the consumer matters and you have to think about them before anything else.
Like you said, its just a deck no big deal. One mistake isn't going to break them, and they wont really have a long term effect. They need to learn from this moving forward, and think about the consumer first and know changing things that are already ''perfect" will do the opposite of making those people happy.