ActiVision Reconsidering KQ9's Release

[url]http://kotaku.com/5529809/the-sequel-th ... rise-twist[/url]

Due to "overwhelming fan response" apparently. It's unclear whether this is a negotiation for the game's release or the sale of the King's Quest IP.

Comments

  • edited May 2010
    Lets say for a moment those guys were able to buy the rights to Kings Quest for $75,000... and then got the right to sell their work... They would then have to hope that they made the money back... AND that all the "volunteers" that worked on it.. 150 people according to that article wouldn't sue them for a piece of the pie. Its a mess.
  • edited May 2010
    Indeed. Buying the IP is a bad idea.
  • edited May 2010
    This is great news. I haven't even played the King's Quest games (don't kill me), but I will be very happy for these guys if they are allowed to move on with a project that they are obviously passionate about.
  • edited May 2010
    The best thing Activision could do was take them under their wing and host the game as a free download on their own site.... Good press, drums up interest in the Kings Quest franchise that Activision is currently selling on steam for $20.. Everyone wins... Activision would then get a game to pretty much give fans for free with no loss from them.. get traffic to their site and games....
  • edited May 2010
    Oh, they better do this right. They better be changin' those ways.
  • edited May 2010
    In b4 "Roberta Williams is the Devil's hellspawn".
  • edited May 2010
    As if Activision, of all companies, are going to sell an IP such as King's Quest for very little money anyway. They're still selling the collection bundles. Even on GOG.com.
  • edited May 2010
    StarEye wrote: »
    They're still selling the collection bundles. Even on GOG.com.

    And how much do you think they make with that?
  • edited May 2010
    Well, at least someone is benefitting from the IW/Activision scandal! They're trying to gain some good publicity for once.
  • edited May 2010
    I like King's Quest, but I don't really care about fan games and I wouldn't like to see official King's Quest franchise to end up at the hands of non-professional team. I don't have anything against fan games, but I think that if there's ever going to be official sequel to King's Quest it should be made by professionals.
    In b4 "Roberta Williams is the Devil's hellspawn".

    What does this b4 (whatever it is) have against Roberta? She did some decent adventure games back in the day. I wish that Activision would re-release her Laura Bow series on GOG or somewhere else.
  • edited May 2010
    I really liked the fan remakes of Kings Quest 1-3.
  • edited May 2010
    I like King's Quest, but I don't really care about fan games and I wouldn't like to see official King's Quest franchise to end up at the hands of non-professional team. I don't have anything against fan games, but I think that if there's ever going to be official sequel to King's Quest it should be made by professionals.

    I agree.
    What does this b4 (whatever it is) have against Roberta? She did some decent adventure games back in the day. I wish that Activision would re-release her Laura Bow series on GOG or somewhere else.

    b4 = before

    And no, she didn't do any decent adventure games back in the day. She did a couple ok ones and all the really good ones that are credited to her were actually made by other people (Josh Mandel designed LB2 and Jane Jensen designed KQ6, for instance).
  • edited May 2010
    KQ6 was the first adventure game I had ever played... it was also the first CD-Rom I had ever owned... I didn't even have a cd player at the time.... it seemed like alien technology to me...... I remember opening the package and the plastic smell like it was yesterday... Then when I actually played it I was amazed how everyone talked and it talked when you clicked on things.... it was great.
  • edited May 2010
    b4 = before

    Oh, my mistake. I didn't understand his meaning, because I'm not native speaker. I'm used to seeing expressions like "in the past", but I don't remember seeing "in before" earlier, so I didn't get his meaning and all I could think that he was speaking about some place or group and not about time.

    (Also my first thought about b4 was that it's a coordinate on a grid, just like in Battleship or Chess. So no wonder I was confused.
    And no, she didn't do any decent adventure games back in the day. She did a couple ok ones and all the really good ones that are credited to her were actually made by other people (Josh Mandel designed LB2 and Jane Jensen designed KQ6, for instance).

    Making an adventure game is often a team work and not work of a single person. Jane Jensen has said in an interview that she learned a lot from Roberta while they worked together.
  • edited May 2010
    And no, she didn't do any decent adventure games back in the day. She did a couple ok ones and all the really good ones that are credited to her were actually made by other people (Josh Mandel designed LB2 and Jane Jensen designed KQ6, for instance).

    No. Bruce Balfour was the primary designer for The Dagger of Amon Ra. It was stated in interviews that Roberta's primary purpose on that game was making sure Laura Bow was consistent as a character and that was basically it.
  • edited May 2010
    You sure? I remember Josh Mandel himself listing all the games he desigined (including Freddy Pharkas, which wasn't designed primarily by Al Lowe). Sierra had a messed up star-designer system which flat out lied just to get their games more popular.
  • edited May 2010
    I've always seen Bruce Balfour credited as the designer of The Dagger of Amon Ra. This includes actual interviews with Sierra employees and current credits on sites ranging from Wikipedia to Adventure Gamers. However, if you look at sources like MobyGames and IMDB, Bruce Balfour is listed as the producer or director while Josh Mandel is listed as a writer (as is Lorelei Shannon). I think the problem here the interchangeability of a lot of terms when it comes to those working on a game.
  • edited May 2010
    Irishmile wrote: »
    I really liked the fan remakes of Kings Quest 1-3.
    Me too.

    Yes, there are a lot of fan projects out there that don't have the level of quality.

    But the fan remakes of KQ 1 and 2 with full voice and modern graphics are a huge upgrade and don't lose anything.
  • edited May 2010
    Oh, my mistake. I didn't understand his meaning, because I'm not native speaker. I'm used to seeing expressions like "in the past", but I don't remember seeing "in before" earlier, so I didn't get his meaning and all I could think that he was speaking about some place or group and not about time.
    It's internet slang. Probably a poor judgement on my part. Anyway, I meant "Possting in this thread before people start dissing Roberta Williams", because LucasArts fans(and thus many Telltale fans) tend to dislike Roberta Williams. I'm not talking about Adventure fans as a whole group, but people who seem to exclusively enjoy LucasArts adventures, while not enjoying games from Infocom, Sierra, and others because they contain game over screens.
  • edited May 2010
    LucasArts fans(and thus many Telltale fans) tend to dislike Roberta Williams. I'm not talking about Adventure fans as a whole group, but people who seem to exclusively enjoy LucasArts adventures, while not enjoying games from Infocom, Sierra, and others because they contain game over screens.

    Indeed.

    KQ4 was the first adventure game I ever played, and I figured that dying in some games for waiting too long or for clicking on the wrong pixel, or getting permanently stuck because you didn't pick up the right item at the right time was just part of the game (ie. GET OVER IT.)

    The experience of these things happening taught me 1) there's nothing wrong with reading a walkthrough and 2) save early, save often and rarely overwrite.

    I think many post-Maniac Mansion LA fanboys/girls are spoiled by the inability to die or get stuck.
  • edited May 2010
    Chyron8472 wrote: »
    I think many post-Maniac Mansion LA fanboys/girls are spoiled by the inability to die or get stuck.

    I don't think it has anything to do with being spoiled. It's just a matter of taste. I dislike adventure games where you die too often and for reason that seem illogical. I just end up not wanting to try anything because it might kill me. Adventure games should be about experimenting with stuff.
    I'm okay with games where you can die in some logical situations, like the first two Broken Sword games for instance.
    Of course, I don't see a point in complaining about Sierra games. I just don't play them.

    Another thing I dislike is games where you can't save whenever you want. I gave Metroid Prime a try a while back, and I enjoyed it, but when I wanted to stop I couldn't save. I had to find a save point. If I stopped I'd have to start over the whole game! I ended up rushing to find a save point, and half my session was just that, trying to get to the first save point and not enjoying any of the game.
    Needless to say I haven't touched it since.
    I've also been playing New Super Mario Bros for the Wii, and I end up playing the first castle like every other level. It's extremely annoying. Plus I couldn't stop until I reached the first castle so same thing, I didn't get to enjoy the last few levels because I was just rushing so I could save.
    At least they have a "quick-save" thing though so that's better, but I don't like using these things. Half the time I play a bit, then go "oh well, actually I'll play it another time", turn it off and the quick save is just deleted. That sucks.

    As I said, it's a matter of taste. But something that takes the fun out of a game for me isn't something I'm going to like. If it doesn't take the fun out of the game (or if, indeed, it makes the game more fun) for you, then good for you, keep playing them. But I don't think it fair to say that people with different tastes are spoiled.
  • edited May 2010
    It's internet slang. Probably a poor judgement on my part. Anyway, I meant "Possting in this thread before people start dissing Roberta Williams", because LucasArts fans(and thus many Telltale fans) tend to dislike Roberta Williams. I'm not talking about Adventure fans as a whole group, but people who seem to exclusively enjoy LucasArts adventures, while not enjoying games from Infocom, Sierra, and others because they contain game over screens.

    I'm old geezer, so I don't always get the Internet slang, but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't use it. There's always someone who don't get the joke, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
    Avistew wrote: »
    I don't think it has anything to do with being spoiled. It's just a matter of taste. I dislike adventure games where you die too often and for reason that seem illogical. I just end up not wanting to try anything because it might kill me. Adventure games should be about experimenting with stuff.
    I'm okay with games where you can die in some logical situations, like the first two Broken Sword games for instance.
    Of course, I don't see a point in complaining about Sierra games. I just don't play them.

    Another thing I dislike is games where you can't save whenever you want. I gave Metroid Prime a try a while back, and I enjoyed it, but when I wanted to stop I couldn't save. I had to find a save point. If I stopped I'd have to start over the whole game! I ended up rushing to find a save point, and half my session was just that, trying to get to the first save point and not enjoying any of the game.
    Needless to say I haven't touched it since.
    I've also been playing New Super Mario Bros for the Wii, and I end up playing the first castle like every other level. It's extremely annoying. Plus I couldn't stop until I reached the first castle so same thing, I didn't get to enjoy the last few levels because I was just rushing so I could save.
    At least they have a "quick-save" thing though so that's better, but I don't like using these things. Half the time I play a bit, then go "oh well, actually I'll play it another time", turn it off and the quick save is just deleted. That sucks.

    As I said, it's a matter of taste. But something that takes the fun out of a game for me isn't something I'm going to like. If it doesn't take the fun out of the game (or if, indeed, it makes the game more fun) for you, then good for you, keep playing them. But I don't think it fair to say that people with different tastes are spoiled.

    Deadends can be annoying, but in old Sierra games you could avoid deadends by saving often and paying attention. Most of the time reason for deadend was doing something stupid.

    In old games I actually sometimes killed my characters to see if there's some funny dead animation or joke. Saving often reduces the pain and in later Sierra games you died rarely and there was retry button. It was also possible to die in early LucasArts games. I have died several times in both Indy adventures because a Nazi was better in a fist fight.

    But I agree with you that it should be possible to save whenever you want. I don't have much time for playing and if I have to spend 15-60 minutes I have for trying to find next save point it takes fun out of the game.
  • edited May 2010
    I spent so long dieing in Indy (Last Crusade) because I didn't have a grail diary and didn't look at the picture of the grail at the beginning of the game. As a result, I had to play the three trials portion about twenty times as I tried out each and every grail until I found the right one.

    After that, I don't think I would survive in an old Sierra game without a walkthrough.
  • edited May 2010
    I agree with what Olaus Petrus said about Sierra dead ends. You really just have to save a lot and pay attention. For instance, it'd be second hand nature for me to save after an important event like returning from the desert in KQ5 and then when I come across the cat and mouse sequence and fail at doing anything I instinctively know I missed something and would have to load back until I figured out just WHY that sequence took place in the first place and what I could get out of it.

    Sierra games are for perfectionists. LucasArts games are for everyone else. ;)
  • edited May 2010
    Sierra games are for perfectionists. LucasArts games are for everyone else. ;)

    Hey, I'm a perfectionist and I enjoy both! I resent your generalizations! :D
  • edited May 2010
    Well, so do I. Er....don't ruin my joke!
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