Activision shuts down fan made Kings Quest project (AKA CT:CE discussion take 2)

[Kroze Gamegod]

Original Article:

The team of King's Quest enthusiasts who had, since 2002, been working on an unofficial continuation of the seminal adventure game, have complied with a demand by Activision to cease all development of their game.

The Silver Lining has a long and unusual history, even for fan-built games. The final official installment of King's Quest came in 1998. Two years later, enthusiasts started their first attempt at coding their own sequel, starting over with the current development volunteers, Phoenix Online Studios, in 2002. From the beginning, the team asserted a right to the project under U.S. fair use copyright law.

In 2005, Phoenix Online survived its first cease-and-desist order from the rights holder at the time, Vivendi Universal. Outcry and backlash over the project's termination led to an extraordinary non-commercial "fan license" granted for The Silver Lining.

However, Sierra's intellectual property has since changed hands from Vivendi to Activision. And Activision is not interested in continuing this license or crafting another non-commercial agreement. Says the developers:

After talks and negotiations in the last few months between ourselves and Activision, they have reached the decision that they are not interested in granting a non-commercial license to The Silver Lining, and have asked that we cease production and take down all related materials on our website.

As before, we must and will comply with this decision, as much as we may wish we could do otherwise.

We cannot say enough how much we appreciate the support we have had over these years from our fans. Without you, we would never have gotten this far. There would be no game to develop, and no one to develop it for. You have been amazing and steadfast, and we will always remember that and appreciate it more than we can say.

Sadly, after eight years of dedicated work and even more dedicated fans, The Silver Lining project is closing down.

What's more, the C&D requires closure of most of the forums set up to support the project's development. Phoenix Online says it is building a new, empty forum so fans brought together by the project can stay in touch.

Now, when you wanna talk about dick moves to fan made games, I don't think you can go lower than what Activision is doing here.
I mean not only are they saying "Fuck fan made games completely!" by this but this new game being made as the unofficial sequel to Kings Quest which has not been touched as a series since 1998 but also fuck the fans.
Unlike the CT:CE fiasco, this uses a completely original engine, own art design and was only sharing some names in common with previous things that have happened within the Kings Quest world AND on top of it all, was originally given the go ahead by Sierra games and got an unprecedented licence to make said game.
And now after 8 and a half years of this thing being made and close to release, as soon as Activision got the licence they demanded it just go away?
And not just the game either and not just the forum that was attached to it... but SEVERAL DIFFERENT forums used to discuss this fan made game that was in development.

Wait, so fans are not allowed to even talk about things and their love for a long slumbering franchise?
Great job there Activision!
Why don't you just demand no fans are allowed to discuss your games at all?

I'm really interested to hear what Blues has to say about this one considering his whole stance on the Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echos project.

[Kim]

I guess this sucks or something. I'm not really a King's Quest fan. I'm a bit more supportive of this one since they're using their own stuff instead of modding someone elses rom, so any arguments of "Activision should have just hired them" are slightly less stupid. And it looks like story ties were more tenuous instead of bad fanfiction but I'm not too sure because I don't really care about the franchise. That and I'm too lazy to be angry at fan games anymore. Far too lazy. So yeah, I guess if you were looking forward to another King's Quest game that sucks for you.

[Krylo]

Man, could we just like... start linking to the last few threads with a game being C&D'd every time it comes up now?

That'd be great.

[bluestarultor]

Ask and you shall receive. I agree it is a dick move. Really, what I most question is why the license wasn't honored from the previous rights-holder, despite its revolutionary status, when Activision likely has no plans for the series due to the poor market for the genre at the moment. Actually, scratch that, I wonder what the fuck kind of legal precedent allows Activision to close the forums.

To put it this way, if Activision didn't tell the team to delete all resources, I think the next step would be to change out the references to King's Quest and use those 8 years of work to simply build an amazing original title. Not throwing the baby out with the bath water and all. The references to the series are really all Activision has to go on, and with how loosely-related the KQ games are, there's not much reason to think that they re-tread enough old ground to prevent the project from being salvaged. And if they did, well, fuck them. You shouldn't be making a totally new engine just to wank off all the stuff the series has already done. It makes for a sucky game.

Besides, I have a personal bias against King Graham for being such a skinny little wafer that he can't so much as trip over a rock without dying. The Sierra style of punishing the player for exploration really put me out as a kid when Lucas Arts made for such an enjoyable competitor. Let some other poor sap fall into a river for trying to take a drink and drown like an ass for a change. If you're going to earn players' ire, you may as well do it on your own merits, rather than rely on 20 years of built-in hatred.



Translation: I think it was a total dick move of Activision to pull this because the project had already gotten advance permission, but I also happen to hate King's Quest, so if they make it into an original title, I will be more likely to play it and then judge it based on its own merits.



Edit: I bet nobody was expecting that one, were they?

[DarkDrgon]

I agree with Blues, If I'd have already done all that work building and engine, Id just get rid of all the links to the Kings Quest IP.

[Kroze Gamegod]

Originally Posted by bluestarultor

To put it this way, if Activision didn't tell the team to delete all resources, I think the next step would be to change out the references to King's Quest and use those 8 years of work to simply build an amazing original title.

Sadly, just like Activision demanded all the forums be shut down for the title, they also wanted it all destroyed as well...

They fully C&D'd em hard.

But I too would like to know how they have the power to demand for the forums to be killed as well.
Maybe Activision decided to follow up the unprecedented move of Sierra giving those guys a non-commercial license with an unprecedented move of their own?

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Kroze Gamegod

Sadly, just like Activision demanded all the forums be shut down for the title, they also wanted it all destroyed as well...

They fully C&D'd em hard.

Source on this? The article says they only were obligated to take the materials down, not that the resources had to be destroyed.

[Mirai Gen]

Wow. Way to be an asshole, Activision.

This kind of goes beyond the usual C+D considering they got the IP from the last company but now Activision decided they didn't feel like it.

I'm also willing to bet money they don't want to make a new game either. Jesus Christ.

[Yumil]

Originally Posted by Krylo

Man, could we just like... start linking to the last few threads with a game being C&D'd every time it comes up now?

That'd be great.

The only difference is this one was supported by the rights holder at one time, which makes it a different animal than the CT ones.

[Kroze Gamegod]

Originally Posted by bluestarultor

Source on this? The article says they only were obligated to take the materials down, not that the resources had to be destroyed.

Read their website

Also it was discussed on their forums which I was a member of before it got killed... I've been following the project now for a long while.
Its been one of the longest in development fan made games.