Oh dear. Wait a second by reading their fine-print does that mean any further gaming products/mods/maps you make yourself ZehDon will have to have activision written in the most abrasive colours all over it?

Guys, if you are making a game, this is worth a short to you, because it gives you funding, and for folks who just want to get started in the gaming industry, and a lot of these will have some Computer science/game programming background from a respectable college, than, they probably don't care.  I mean..if you are enrolled in an acting school, do you care if Paramount or Warner Bros sponsor an acting/talent competition, and the winner gets to sign on with the studios in one of their big budget films. 

But it does matter. These are the same guys that are screaming foul about others treading on their rights to their IP. And they are doing the exact same thing to the new guys, just in a legal (and more disgusting) way because they place it in the fine print and don't just come out and say it. Granted your own damn fault for not understanding what you are getting into. But that doesn't change the fact that legal jargon is dileberately confusing and deceptive for that very reason. Coimpare it to making someone who doesn't have water give you everything he has to get acsess to your well. A more extreme analogy i'll admit but perfectly legal and absolutely morally bankrupt.

Not only that, but think about this. There will be mabey 1 2 or even 3 winners. But they retain the rights to EVERY bit of subjected material. So yeah while it will be great (mabey) for a couple of people. Alot more will get raped out of their IP. So in essence these asshole are pirating (or taking advantage of if you have problem with the term pirating being used this way)alot of people who are just trying to make a good game and provide a lifestyle for themselves. God the thought of them actually legally being able to get away with this just sends me fuming...

We all know game production is a expensive proposition. Not only is there the time and cost of making a game. But there is the production of the medium, the negotations with retailers and a hundred other stops in the way. These guys are the gatekeepers. And as the gatekeepers they maliciously and dileberately keep the process as complicated/expensive/inaccesiable as possible to retain their control over the industry as a whole and their profit margin as wide as possible.

 
Actually, we do care.  Anything we make for this competition becomes the property of Activision Blizzard.  The music, the art, the textures, the mechanics; everything.  And unless we present them with a polished and completed fully functional game of current industry standards they're simply going to ignore it and steal from it what they like and make money off of our hard work.  If you can actually produce that kind of game, then you should be sending resumes out coupled with your portfolio to developers, releasing that game on the digitial distribution channels such as Impulse or Steam and make some money, or enterting into one of the other major independant competitions where you can win some money, get some press coverage and retain all the rights that Activision steals from you.
The competition Activision has two clearly visible intents.  The first to supply Activision with the ideas and concepts that they can't get because no self respecting person works with them.  The second is to supply them with the kind of talent they are able to control; namely, developers interested in making a lot of money.  Signing up to competition voids control over your own creation, but can net you a sizeable prize pool if you win.  People willing to give up their art, their creations for cash are the kinds of people Activision employ and are the kinds of people they need to stay profitable.


Your comparison isn't even close, and comparing a performance to a produced work is a terrible comparison to begin with.  To alter your comparison to make it closer to the situation:
Warner Bros. uses unknown actors to make a big budget movie which goes on to be very, very successful.  They don't pay anyone for anything.  Not the actors, the set designers, the sound guys - no one.  The three actors in the staring roles get around 0.0001% of the total profits of the film between the three of them.  Everyone apart from these three actors is not allowed to put the film role on their resumes and are uncredited for the film.  They're not allowed to offer their acting services to any other film studio until Warner Bros. says that they can, and Warner Bros. has reserved the right to use their likeness in any future film, marketing campaign or any other form of medium without paying them.
Uncredited and unpaid work for an unknown Actor is a waste of time.

the only thing worse than what activisions doing is if some poor soul of a indie dev signs up thinking this will be their ticket out without reading the fine print posted above:(

In a national socialist state, this kind of business behaviour would never be allowed.

Admiral Ackbar was right.