I walked into my local bookstore for the latest x-men comic and also wandered to the so called "games section" when I found this. (http://members.lycos.nl/arboris/scan.jpg)
(A adventure demo cd) (sorry for the size!!!)
As you can see it contains some AGS games (and some rpg's as well).
Rob blanc, Tulle world, kings quest and some others.
I was just wandering if the members who made these games gave permision or got money for this.
If not...it's illegal (I think) because the games have non-profit intentions. Therefor can not be sold.
Does hero 6 work?
I remember once signing and faxing some sort of contract, but I can't recall for what magazine or company or whatever.
Not that I care, and not that I think Tulle's World is worth such a fuzz....
it's fun anyway
I think it's kind of cool that our games are getting reached by a non-internetty bunch.
I mean.. so what if evil, ruthless companies are getting money for other peoples hard work...That's just their nature. It's like prosecuting cats for eating rodents.
So I say; w00t to all who got their games featured on a CD!
Not sure how legal it is, but at least they're people trying to get adventure games noticed a little more.
It depends on the individual license terms. For example, the documentation for all three
Rob Blanc games state
QuoteThis game is FREEWARE so you can distribute it as much as you like among your
friends without nagging twinges of guilt.
So those are definitely legal (depsite the misspelling).
Or the Readme for
King's Quest VGA says
QuoteThis game may be distrbuted as long as long as it remains in it's original executable (.exe) form, with all files intact.
And as
KQ1VGA technically violates other people's copyright, it might have a hard time defending its copyright.
Larry Vales doesn't state anything, so it is theoretically protected by copyright, meaning that Phil Reed would have the exclusive rights for reproduction, however, as he put it up for free download, this is debatable at least.
To sum it up. It would have been common courtesy to ask for permission, but they aren't obliged to. I doubt that any of the featured authors would object tough. So, congrats on your 650 MB of game. ;)
LOL! Rob Blank !
Yey, Rode Quest's got on there too :)
m0ds
Heh - If I'd see any of my games in store like that, I'd be *very* pissed for sure.
But here -- even if some games ARE illegaly sold - It's just an opportunity for fellow AGSers to sue the magazine and gain a fat sum. (Which they undoubtly deserve) :D...
Quote from: Anym on Thu 09/10/2003 18:08:51
various thoughtful things
Hey, n00b, why are you making sensible posts at a reasonable rate. Are you some kind of freak? You should be posting 20 times a day in the wrong forums and starting threads about r0x0Rs sites that you have found.
j/k, btw
What I'm surprised to see on there are Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and the two Zelda games.
Those can't be legal, surely - particularly since there are no copyright messages...
And a web search for "Trendy Games"+"Adventure" doesn't show up much.
Steve
no need to worry fellas...
they'll put the cd in and try and play Rode Quest 1 and immediatly start crying and take it back....
THE FOOLS!
eric
[muah rodekill]
why would somebody pay for these games when you can download them for free. I am sure you could find all these games on the net somewhere. (The other games not made with AGS.)
shawn :)
Well they left out Apprentice. Dang. So much for the publicity.
Man, this annoys me.
I make a point to give these games away for free, at my own expense, and some jerkstores come along, put together some compilation, not even bothering to do some nice package design, and start making money off me.
My games are free. If you want to put them on a cd with a magazine, then fine, at least you actually produced the damn magazine. At least it's not a shallow attempt at scamming people out of money. More or less.
They didn't even ask me, for f's sake.
I have a feeling my text files will be much less forgiving in the future.
I also have a feeling Nintendo will be getting an interesting email soon.
eric -> :-*
The other potential problem I see here is that if say, Sierra gets wind that KQVGA and KQ2VGA are being sold anywhere, they may not be so relaxed about shutting down fan projects. >:(
edit: Hmm, on second thought, would bringing this to light perhaps cause the shutdown of more independent projects? I wrote up a nice email to Nintendo, but I think I'll avoid sending it until I get feedback from you guys. What do you think?
Hehe I know what you mean Rode, my games have been included on a couple of magazines/compilation cds by now and I've only be informed of it directly by the publishers once or twice, the rest of the times I hear it from someone who's bought or seen the magazine/cd.
That's too bad about games being sold without your permission.
Good thing Herculean Effort Productions has such a remarkable legal department, otherwise those fools would undoubtly have their greasy mitts all over Apprentice.
Heh.
Hmm... but isn't selling Rob Blanc under false name illegal by itself?
Huh? Why do you want to tell
Nintendo about
Open Zelda http://openzelda.sourceforge.net/ and
Zelda Classic http://zeldaclassic.armageddongames.net/ ??
Both are freeware fan-projects and I can't see how they are different from the
KQ remakes. Also, what do you have to gain from reporting them. The developers of those two have probably as little to do with the makers of that CD as you do. Similarly,
Warrior Dragon is an unofficial remake of
Enix'
Dragon Warrior.
I mean most people here would be pretty pissed off I someone sent a letter to Sierra telling them to shut down Tierra. And while they're at it shut down AGS as well. After all, the Roger and the Fonts are also by Sierra, are't they?
Also, the commercial titles such as
Avernum,
Harry Potter,
Freedom Force or
Crusaders of M&M are most likely just demos, otherwise I doubt they'd even fit onto a single CD, and the publishers and just threw in some freeware titles so that they could brag with 58 titles for only 15 â,¬ (even if most/all of them can be downloaded for no cost at all over the internet).
SSH: U SuXx0r!!!!!!!!!! j/k ;) Better?
Shawn Well, I can understand that you're pissed off that someone is selling your work without asking you, BUT:
QuoteYou can distribute this game in any way, but the contents of the zip file must not be altered.
This note is included with all three Rode * games, so unless they modified the archives (which I doubt, since that would require actually DOING something), "any way" seems to include "pressing it onto a CD with lots of other stuff and selling it for a ridiculous price". :(
InCreator might have a point with the "false labelling" tough. If the demos are just demos, there's no mention of that and several titles (Rob Blank, Rodekill, Kings Quest,...) were misspelled, which isn't a legal offence against the creator of the game, I think, but might be one against the customer, as there is no game on the CD called "Rob Blank with a k"...
I would report the company that produced the cd to Nintendo so that these asswipes who are ripping people off would be stopped.
Notice how I also pointed out that it may raise other problems.
What I have to gain is satisfaction in knowing that my games, which I intended for people to get for free, are actually getting to them that way.
Unfortunately, all these fan projects are now in my way of doing that.
I like fan games. Sometimes. I'm even helping out with one now. I don't want them to get shut down.
So what do I do? I guess ignore it, right? Yahoo. Another victory for lazy assfucks who want to make a quick buck off of other peoples work and take some cash from those silly people we call our fanbase.
Yes, my distribution terms thing was shortsighted. I blew it on that one, I'll admit it. I guess it was naive to think that my giving things away for free wouldn't turn into a business opportunity for some cockroach poofter fucks.
I've learned my lesson.
I'd say ignore them. It's not worth the trouble. I don't think they asked me for permission either (could be wrong though) and to be honest, i don't really care.
But... "Trendy" games...? This cracked me up :D
The CD did't came with a magazine.
There is a whole serie of these: Racing, puzzle, sport and more.
The next time I'm there I'll chech if they contain freeware as well.
Well I got nothing to worry about because my games are literally crap ^_^
I'd say sue them! Get a lot of cash, and get a new life ;)
This game is released and distributed as tellmeware. It means you can do whatever the hell you want with it, just so long as you TELL ME FIRST! Untill then, don't do shit!
top 5 rejected names
5. notifymeware
4. i-gots-ta-knowware
3. letmeknowware
2. recognizemeware
and the number 1 rejected name is
1. askmefirstware
This Game is Lickmysweatyscrotumware
Lickmysweatyscrotumware is a response to people who think they are being smart by making a quick buck off of other peoples work without said other people knowing about it. It is not meant as an insult to the good people out there that just want to make it readily available to the masses. Those people are cool. They promote free stuff, which is great, so go and click on their web banners and junk. Let it be known that they don't have to lick my sweaty scrotum. Unless they really, really want to. Which I wouldn't if I were them. Even I don't know where it's been.
This game may be distributed freely, provided the following:
- The contents of the game are not modified in any way.
- The contents of the original distribution package (The original one that I put together, I being Shawn Guzzo, and not you, being, whoever) are not modified in any way, including adding your own little crappy text files.
- You are not a greedy whore just trying to make a quick buck off my work at the expense of unknowing consumers who are unaware that you can download it free on the internet. This does not include websites that make money from advertising (like www.the-underdogs.org), even though pop-up ads are annoying.
These rules may be circumvented by contacting the author (moi) and discussing it like intelligent people. If deemed a non-asswipe, the author (moi) will then grant you permission to do whatever it is you want to do with the game. In fact, there's a good chance he will, just because you were nice enough to ask.
If you purchased this game as part of a compilation or whatever, I can only hope that the distributor made it clear that this game is in fact free. You paid for a cd or download or something, not the game. If this is not the case, feel free to let me know, and I'll do what I feel is appropriate. I will not refund your money. I didn't get any of it in the first place.
If reading all of this has annoyed you, well, you can blame that lovely entity known as Greed. I don't think the simple courtesy of asking permission to include someone else's work with your own is much to ask or unreasonable. Some people seem to think otherwise.
Thanks for understanding.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, did I miss anything here? Any blatant loopholes?
put something small like "This is freeware, if you paid for it you've been suckered, please contact blah blah blah" INTO the game, they can always take out a TXT file but i'd like to see them try and delete code from the game itself
that's why i always make sure to edit the question mark text to give full credit to me and to CJ
Yeah, I'll probably add more in-game things like that as well.
I'm not totally against these compilation things, I just feel that the authors should have some say in it.
This compilation is a blatant cash-in. They obviously don't care about the fact that half of the content is illegal. They obviously don't care about the authors of these games. Their cover artwork is garbage. Try to find some info about them on the web. Good luck. I would have told them to go to hell if they would have contacted me.
Seems like our community has reached the point where we have to start protecting ourselves. Fine with me.
Quote from: rodekill on Fri 10/10/2003 22:50:27
This Game is Lickmysweatyscrotumware
Lickmysweatyscrotumware is a response to people who think they are being smart by making a quick buck off of other peoples work etc ....
Yep - we'll have to release FoY as Lickmysweatyscrotumware. ;D
I think what we should do is create an in game readme file, which states:
"If you paid money for this game then that is illegal, this game is distributed as freeware and should NEVER be sold for profit"
but then people would't want to put it on the magazines at all, so we could add:
"... unless my strict permission is given, If you paid money for this game please e-mail me at me@myworld.com"
but e-mail address' change?
I think we need to start thinking about security of our games. I make games for anyone, FOR FREE, I'd hate to see someone pay decent, or even ANY, money for my games.
I'd feel better if it was on a cover CD, as they're paying for the magazine with a free distribution copy of my game, but that would never happen with my game :'(
C'est la vie
p.s how about j00arestehg4yf4gg0tware
I'm very pissed off about this! I read the games list and there's not one game made by me in that darn cd! Damn you :(
What about magazines? You do pay pay the game if it's on the cover cd. The licensing really ought to reflect this.
Come to think of it, a whole lot of other intelligent people must have had this problem before us, there's bound to be a nice license written up by those people which we are only silly not to use. I'll go look.
Hey jet?
Get the phonenumber to those who are delivering the PC-games from the store, call them, and get more info. In any cases, make them stop distrubating (or mastrubating) that game to stores.
Quote from: Esseb on Sat 11/10/2003 15:35:43
What about magazines? You do pay pay the game if it's on the cover cd. The licensing really ought to reflect this.
But do freeware developers receive money for getting their game on a demo cd? I don't think so..
Just more popular.
No they don't, but a lot of freeware developers don't mind when their games are on a cover cd, even if they don't receive money or get contacted. So the license text should reflect this so it allows the game to be on a coverdisc but not a gamepack.
You know a product has High quality standards when it say on the box: "Ne pas installation requis" which is almost as badly translated as the phrase "Do not installation require"
What I have to say to them is:
If permission has not given author, selling do not required.
I just would like to say what these people are doing is so $*#@ed up, I don't even know where to start. But, I guess my feelings are about the same as whats already been stated. Rodekill has the right idea. There are very few communities of gamers who share their work for free, and it never occurred to me some group of fat cats would cheat people of this awesome concept. I guess the best we can do is learn from this and better protect our work in the future and make sure more people know about this. LMAO. I would love to see a new trend of games with "This Game is Lickmysweatyscrotumware" messages and the begining. ;D
Cool. I'll have to let my fellow Hero6ers know that the game we haven't finished yet is already being sold...
QuoteCool. I'll have to let my fellow Hero6ers know that the game we haven't finished yet is already being sold...
I'm sure your fellow Hero6ers will be thrilled to hear that the project is being publically represented by a 2-years old demo which was mainly produced to keep the fan-base quiet. (and not to attract any "outside attention")
This whole thing feels like a deja vu to me. It happened before. At that time, I was able to convince the guy to put a disclaimer on his website with the homepages of the featured games, which was acceptable to me. (I mean, if somebody is aware that he can download something off the web and he STILL wants to buy that CD, it's his money)
Rodekill, I understand how you feel, but let me assure you you can save yourself the trouble of typing up any complicated readme's containing disclaimers about what you want and don't want to happen to your game, because frankly, those CD distributors don't care a schnitz. How I'm able to tell? KQ1VGA and KQ2VGA already had lines in the readme saying that the game shouldn't be distributed for money and the more recent versions of both games even have a disclaimer that appears when the game is started that says something like "this game is a non-profit production and is not to be sold or rented under any circumstances whatsoever." You can safely assume that if these lines were even noticed (I doubt it myself), they were ignored or payed no attention to.
This looks like just another typical shareware CD to me like the millions of Doom-CD's that flooded the shelves of the book and record stores when the game was first released and internet was hardly public territory. You think the makers of those "Quake + 1000 extra levels + 40 utils"-CD's ever paid a dime to the 1000 level creators and 40 util creators whose work was included? Do you think they were even asked? Do you think any of those util programmers ever was able to succesfully stop the production of those CD's? Three questions, one answer. The concept of distributing shareware is years old, actually. I don't think there's disclaimers regarding the removal of contents from the CD if it's there against the author's wish. The only disclaimer in there is probably that the buyers shouldn't contact the distributor if your game messes up their computer. :P
I must admit, though, that when I was still into FPS's (they were new at the time) I enjoyed those "Doom + 40 utils + 1000 levels" CD's because I didn't even have the means to obtain those things through another way, nor did I have the time to scout BBS's for them.
Having seen the price of that CD, I find it ironic to see that AGS' first commercial game was offered for a similar price and has lots of work put in it, yet the same amount of money can be made by grabbing share/freeware off the internet and distributing it.
(http://httpd.chello.nl/c.vanempel/Nashswt.jpg)
Quotethose CD distributors don't care a schnitz
Yeah, but imagine buying a game and the first thing you see when you load it up is something along the lines of "This game is freely available for download at XXX.HU.EO.WOO. If you paid for it, then someone just stole from you."
I'd be annoyed.
QuoteYeah, but imagine buying a game and the first thing you see when you load it up is something along the lines of "This game is freely available for download at XXX.HU.EO.WOO. If you paid for it, then someone just stole from you."
I'd be annoyed.
If it was the only game on the CD, I'd feel ripped off. But that's not the case here. Perhaps you could take this into consideration.
8 years ago, a classmate of mine bought a CD with "30 games" for about 8 dollar. (in dutch florins of course) The main reason for buying it was the picture of the PC version of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo on the cover. When he got home and installed it, he was quite annoyed to see that he could only select Ryu and Chun Li and that there was only one available background. From that moment on, he knew why games were so expensive individually and so cheap when stuffed together. He also knew what to expect when buying those compilation CD's without manual or disclaimer that went into detail about the contents. So anyone who buys a compilation CD and expects plenty of full products is bound to be annoyed anyway because frankly, the contents of those CD's are obtainable through other means regardless. Looking at the price, I think someone with a 33K modem would be gaining money this way.
So, don't worry about the customers. They got more than they paid for in this particular case.
(http://httpd.chello.nl/c.vanempel/Nashmean.jpg)