KQ9 is no more

blueskirt · Sun 28/02/2010 23:22:22

The folks behind The Silver Lining sent their near completed fan sequel to Activision for approval only to receive a C&D. More info on the official website:

http://www.tsl-game.com/

I was not really interested in that game but what a major bummer.

May it be a lesson to whoever is currently working on a fan game: When your project is doing fine, remove your web appearance a bit, keep a low profile, and release your game when it's ready and on all channels so it can't be stopped anymore, and for the sake of your fans and everyone who invested countless hours on your project, stop looking for official approval.

xenogia · Sun 28/02/2010 23:35:12

Damn Activision, for a while a now I haven't agreed with their business protocols. All they care about is money, they are currently worse than Electronic Arts. At least Vivendi had the heart to let them develop the project. All Activision cares about his churning out Guitar Hero games.

tzachs · Sun 28/02/2010 23:51:15

This is really sad news

They worked on it for years, I really hope it's not the end.
And I don't see how, even if all Activision cares about is money, how will they lose money if they let the game to be published?
I simply don't understand their decision...

Snarky · Sun 28/02/2010 23:51:36

This might be a good time to download the AGDI KQ and QFG remakes, just in case...

Yeah, this is a shame, even if the game didn't exactly appeal to me, and even if they'd already decided they were only going to make the first third of it. (Why anyone would play the first third of a story-driven game that you know will never be completed is beyond me, but whatever.)

Stuff like this is the consequence of trying to play in a sandbox that belongs to a big media company. Fan-game-makers should pick the approach they are comfortable with and be prepared to deal with the consequences: one possible consequence of asking for permission is that they'll say no.

One point, though: when they got permission from Vivendi, the guys behind the KQ9 project bragged that their strategy had worked. Create so much buzz around the project that Vivendi wouldn't dare to shut them down for fear of bad press. At the time I thought that was a pretty underhanded thing to do. Maybe Activision thought so too and decided not to play along. In that case I would say they got what they deserved. Of course, it's the fans whose anticipation was built up and exploited who pay the price.

xenogia · Mon 01/03/2010 00:00:11

I didn't realise the developers did that. Either way eight years of production down the drain. That would leave me rather tainted, and well there is the lesson to be learnt in not making fan made sequels.

Igor Hardy · Mon 01/03/2010 00:06:45

Indeed quite a bummer to waste 8 years of making the game and then it ends like this.

I still think there is a good chance for getting away with fan made sequels (even for Sierra games). They just need to be short, simple , done quickly, and without any media buzz. With a bit of luck the IP holder won't even notice the game exists (or just lets it be).

LimpingFish · Mon 01/03/2010 00:09:39

Devoting years of work to a project you don't ultimately have any right to be making seems like an awful waste of time. They could have easily made a game in the spirit of King's Quest, and done so safe in the knowledge that no one could take it away from them.

blueskirt · Mon 01/03/2010 00:33:22

It's no rocket science:
1 - Reduce or remove your web appearance when your team is self-sufficient.
2 - Looking for official approval is begging to get your work crushed.
3 - When the game is done, release it, nothing will ever stop it, if you receive a C&D, it will simply appears on rapidshare and torrent websites.
4 - If you're so scared of legal actions, stop putting your real name all over your game and website in the first place.

Why nobody is doing this I have no idea.

Igor Hardy · Mon 01/03/2010 00:41:50

Quote from: blueskirt on Mon 01/03/2010 00:33:22
2 - Looking for official approval is begging to get your work crushed.

The TSL team didn't look for an official approval until Vivendi demanded they either hand in the final version just for that or the project is screwed. But it's the media buzz aroudn the game that led to that I think.

deadsuperhero · Mon 01/03/2010 00:51:35

It's things like this that really makes me wonder why no one will launch some kind of Public-Domain or Creative Commons based game series franchise. Launch their own original majestic works, so that large projects like these don't get shut down.

Space Quest 7, now this.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Mon 01/03/2010 01:01:54

Like Reality on the Norm, you mean?

xenogia · Mon 01/03/2010 01:12:35

Most video game publishers will hold onto the rights for many older games purely so they can keep re-releasing them to make more money out of them. Nostalgia will always lead to more sales. Or you get reboots that turn to absolute crap like the Larry series (poor Al Lowe).

Frodo · Mon 01/03/2010 01:16:49

This is such a shame.

I was so looking forward to this game, and the KQ9 team must be devastated after all the years of work the poured into it. :'(

I really don't understand why Activision have done this. They have shown no interest in making an 'official' KQ sequeal, so what possible harm can this freeware game do?

Matt Frith · Mon 01/03/2010 02:09:15

It's a very difficult situation as you can see it from both sides. As much as I hate to see freeware projects like these get C&D's, the original developers are well within their rights to do so, not that I could see Activision doing anything with this series. Baffling.

You should all make Star Trek games, no one seems to care about them

xenogia · Mon 01/03/2010 02:50:52

Joystiq.com have also put an article up about this sad story.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/28/activision-shuts-down-fan-made-kings-quest-sequel/

Phemar · Mon 01/03/2010 04:40:23

Simple solution: Change all the character's names

Jared · Mon 01/03/2010 04:47:05

Was talking to a guy involved with the project on MSN this morning. His summary was that the TSL crew were way too keen on trying to get their project endorsed as the official KQ9, following the SQ7 path (after THAT went so well :

) and had even been pursuing a contract for a commercial release with Vivendi and then Activision. If that isn't asking for trouble, I don't know what is.

It's a damned shame, but I find it hard to see the TSL team as blameless. Activision are the same guys who cut loose titles they had halfway through development with the excuse that they weren't 'titles that could be exploited every year', in those exact words (!). For people who haven't been following the mainstream gaming news too often, Activision have taken over EA's place as the 'big bads' of the marketplace, the Microsofts of game publishing.

So to present them with any choice of a) Impart some effort into helping us with our project or b) Getting your lawyer to send a fax that has 8 million precedents, you shouldn't be surprised when this happens.

I have to say Vivendi were unusually reasonable, and nobody should make the assumptiont that that somehow signalled a shift in the viewpoints of publishers out there. I think if anything they were the exception that proved the rule. If you've got a fangame project, keep it under wraps. Just like I do.

Quote from: 'Phemar'Simple solution: Change all the character's names

There's already talk about that, funnily enough...

LRH · Mon 01/03/2010 05:22:07

Quote from: Phemar on Mon 01/03/2010 04:40:23
Simple solution: Change all the character's names

Honestly...
It would be such a waste to throw it all out. Change what needs to be changed and I'm sure they'd still have a very nice game, unofficial as it may be.

blueskirt · Mon 01/03/2010 06:35:29

Interesting post, Jared.

I don't know for you but I suddently don't have any sympathy left for the TSL crew or at least whoever thought it would be a good idea to play russian roulette with other people's hope and work in exchange for endorsement from Activision.

On the subject of changing the character names, while it's better than trashing the entire thing, it's not that simple, they would certainly have to change some character design and record new lines to fit the new names. But if they went out of their way to be recognized as official KQ9, it's very unlikely they'll opt for that solution.

Snarky · Mon 01/03/2010 06:49:19

From what I remember of the snippets of the story that were posted years ago, it was so closely tied in to the "mythology" of the KQ universe that it would probably be hopeless to extricate it.

It would be like if Lucas had somehow lost the rights to Star Wars in the middle of filming the prequel movies. Sure, he could probably have rewritten the story and made it not be about Obi-Wan and Anakin and Palpatine and Luke & Leia's mom, but what would be the point?