I was really upset to get the e-mail saying it was shut down this morning. Stupid Activision. I can't boycott them though since most of the star trek games I want are made by them.
I love this sort of attitude. Especially since it's all moot and we'll all be grabbing Starcraft II (all three parts).
I'm not going to, actually. More of a turn-based strategy guy, and Civilization V will scratch that itch. And if I wanted real-time strategy, well, there are other avenues for that as well. I just never got into Starcraft.
Well, I won't either (RTS games aren't my thing), but it was more a generalization than an actual fact, or something similar that means I'm right and you're wrong.
Well, I won't either (RTS games aren't my thing), but it was more a generalization than an actual fact, or something similar that means I'm right and you're wrong.
Either way I'm screwed. Or at least, I would be if I didn't want to give Activision any money. They publish games with Spider-Man on the cover. If anything can sell me on a mediocre game, it would be the ability to swing through New York as Spider-Man.
I suppose I could buy them used just out of spite, though?
About ten years ago LucasArts was notorious for shuttering fan projects. They lightened up after a while, though, and entered into "official hosting" agreements for fan projects with places like LucasFiles and AtomFilms. I don't know the state of that stuff at this point though.
About ten years ago LucasArts was notorious for shuttering fan projects. They lightened up after a while, though, and entered into "official hosting" agreements for fan projects with places like LucasFiles and AtomFilms. I don't know the state of that stuff at this point though.
Looks like they are still supporting some fan projects: LucasFiles Fan Projects
Most of those are mods for no-LucasArts games and all of it is Star Wars, but still...
Also, projects like Darkness of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and Fountain of Youth or Shadows of the Empire (the adventure game) are still living and (I hope) doing well.
Just guess much has changed after Jim Ward left.
First of all, can someone change the topic title to IX instead of XI?
Phoenix Online Studios should have been more prepared for this. After all, when Vivendi acquired Sierra, they received a C&D which required that the name be changed. They should have been prepared a plan to avoid future legal issues if Vivendi was acquired by another company, such as allowing the King's Quest rights to be sold to someone else, such as, say, Telltale games. TSL was planned to be released in episodes, so it would have been a good fit.
Game has received a Cease & Desist from Activision. Unlike Vivendi, who has been bought by Activision, I doubt the TSL team could work out any deal to get this game released.
Think about this for a second: 8 years of hard work, ALL FOR NOTHING! This is a sad, sad day for Adventurer gamers
If Activision sells the license I hope its bought by a company that have the skill to treat it right.... that fan game is all good, as a fan game but as an officially licensed game? No thanks.
NO WAY do I want that to happen! I DO NOT want the King's Quest license in the hands of a bunch of fans! Then all the decisions are not based on business views but on personal views. They could keep anybody from doing anything KQ related even if they held a personal grudge.
And besides all that, I despised the KQ9 project when I heard what the story entailed and how it RUINED King's Quest. I'm glad it was axed. Don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for all the devs that put a lot of hard work into the project, but in the long run I'm happy.
But the King's Quest license in the hands of these people would destroy King's Quest forever.
NO WAY do I want that to happen! I DO NOT want the King's Quest license in the hands of a bunch of fans! Then all the decisions are not based on business views but on personal views. They could keep anybody from doing anything KQ related even if they held a personal grudge.
Seriously? There's no possible way they're going to be able to afford it.
No, I didn't say they would kill it. I said they would destroy it. They'd revitalize it then disfigure it in such a way as to leave a horrible taste in everyone's nostalgia which would ruin the name of King's Quest forever afterwards for those who remember it.
No, I didn't say they would kill it. I said they would destroy it. They'd revitalize it then disfigure it in such a way as to leave a horrible taste in everyone's nostalgia which would ruin the name of King's Quest forever afterwards for those who remember it.
It would just be ruined for like a decade. At that point everyone would forget how much they hated the new one, make a sequel that ignored the plot holes of the last, and achieve glorious success.
NO WAY do I want that to happen! I DO NOT want the King's Quest license in the hands of a bunch of fans! Then all the decisions are not based on business views but on personal views. They could keep anybody from doing anything KQ related even if they held a personal grudge.
And besides all that, I despised the KQ9 project when I heard what the story entailed and how it RUINED King's Quest. I'm glad it was axed. Don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for all the devs that put a lot of hard work into the project, but in the long run I'm happy.
But the King's Quest license in the hands of these people would destroy King's Quest forever.
What's with all the hate for Phoenix Online Studios (aka the KQ9 dev group) and TSL? Who are you to say the game will have a bad plot when hardly any of the game's plot has been revealed? I'd say they've done a great job at keeping the plot of a 10-year long project quite secret!
What is wrong with giving the KQ series a conclusion? I've lurked their forums for a few years now, and I've heard Phoenix Online Studios say they weren't interested in making a "KQ10" after TSL is done, but making their own original project.
Let's just let there be one more King's Quest, that way Mask of Eternity isn't the last KQ of the series
I had a few inside sources. Very reliable ones. I did NOT appreciate the tone they were taking King's Quest in. I don't think a lot of others would have either. It was just very dark and very not King's Quest at all. It was not the King's Quest you remember. And they kept defending that by saying that they wanted the series to mature like the players themselves have matured over the years.
I'm not bashing the work of the dev team. In fact I mentioned I was saddened that all their hard work went to waste. And I have nothing against the series having an ending. I just don't want one with those writers.
I had a few inside sources. Very reliable ones. I did NOT appreciate the tone they were taking King's Quest in. I don't think a lot of others would have either. It was just very dark and very not King's Quest at all. It was not the King's Quest you remember. And they kept defending that by saying that they wanted the series to mature like the players themselves have matured over the years.
I'm not bashing the work of the dev team. In fact I mentioned I was saddened that all their hard work went to waste. And I have nothing against the series having an ending. I just don't want one with those writers.
Alright, I'll admit that when I played the demo I was disappointed in the overly-serious tone that didn't fit the other games (well ok, MoE took a pretty serious tone as well ... but its the black sheep of the KQ family for a reason ). I mean, yeah Graham's daughter (and I think son too, been a number of years since I played the demo) was kidnapped which would make anyone kinda sad, but even when Graham's ENTIRE family was kidnapped by Mordack in KQ5, he seemed to keep quite the positive upper lip. All that demo really needed was a little more positive Graham (and a few bugs fixed) and I'd have 100% confidence in Phoenix Online Studios.
All the same, I'm intrigued about how POS plan to tie the whole series together. I've had my own ideas of how the series should end, and I hope that TSL's is even half as epic as I'd imagine they should be.
Even if POS isn't able to buy the KQ license, or even just a commercial license (not saying that either chances are very high), I think all fans of KQ should help keep their support, even if its just signing their fan petition (not that I think that will do much good either ... but it can't hurt).
Daughter getting kidnapped? You think that's dark? That's nothing. I'd even accept that if that's all it was. No, it goes deeper and darker. Twisted dark.
Daughter getting kidnapped? You think that's dark? That's nothing. I'd even accept that if that's all it was. No, it goes deeper and darker. Twisted dark.
No no, I wasn't saying Graham's daughter being kidnapped was dark, I was merely mentioning that Graham acts all mopey about it, when yet his whole family has been kidnapped in the past and he stayed quite positive his whole adventure in KQ5. Just noticing some inconsistency in Graham's character in TSL is all
I've had my own ideas of how the series should end, and I hope that TSL's is even half as epic as I'd imagine they should be.
I only played part of the demo, but I don't know what anyone means by "how the series should end."
Truth be told, I never played KQ8:Mask of Eternity. I've heard too many bad things about it, not to mention seen plenty of depressing screenshots.
From where I'm standing only the point and click (and parser) KQ games count, and as such, the series (without TSL) ends with Graham having many years ahead of him, thanks to some magic fruit, and both of his children move away and get married, intending to start families of their own. Happily Ever After: The End. Where's the need for wrapping things up further?
MOE gets too much flak. It's a great game on its own. It's just a very weak King's Quest title.
Just so you know, I actually enjoyed Mask of Eternity as more of a standalone title. Its just that it was considered a King's Quest game, and the last one at that. Also the game suffered severely for being an incomplete game. It could have turned out A LOT better imo.
Oh, and just so you all know, TSL might not officially be dead yet! Still, the KQ rights always has the chance of changing companies again before TSL is released and the new company will issue a cease and desist ... its an Ouroboros, a dragon that eats its own tail, a never-ending cycle
Comments
I don't recall LucasArts killing off a fan game.
They shut down LucasFan as far as I remember, even though you can still find their games across the net.
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/savetsl/
I suppose I could buy them used just out of spite, though?
About ten years ago LucasArts was notorious for shuttering fan projects. They lightened up after a while, though, and entered into "official hosting" agreements for fan projects with places like LucasFiles and AtomFilms. I don't know the state of that stuff at this point though.
Nice try, but I have about zero interest in starcraft.
Looks like they are still supporting some fan projects:
LucasFiles Fan Projects
Most of those are mods for no-LucasArts games and all of it is Star Wars, but still...
Also, projects like Darkness of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and Fountain of Youth or Shadows of the Empire (the adventure game) are still living and (I hope) doing well.
Just guess much has changed after Jim Ward left.
Phoenix Online Studios should have been more prepared for this. After all, when Vivendi acquired Sierra, they received a C&D which required that the name be changed. They should have been prepared a plan to avoid future legal issues if Vivendi was acquired by another company, such as allowing the King's Quest rights to be sold to someone else, such as, say, Telltale games. TSL was planned to be released in episodes, so it would have been a good fit.
http://www.tsl-game.com/
Game has received a Cease & Desist from Activision. Unlike Vivendi, who has been bought by Activision, I doubt the TSL team could work out any deal to get this game released.
Think about this for a second: 8 years of hard work, ALL FOR NOTHING! This is a sad, sad day for Adventurer gamers
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/27/silver-lining-devs-want-to-purchase-kings-quest-license-from-ac/
And besides all that, I despised the KQ9 project when I heard what the story entailed and how it RUINED King's Quest. I'm glad it was axed. Don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for all the devs that put a lot of hard work into the project, but in the long run I'm happy.
But the King's Quest license in the hands of these people would destroy King's Quest forever.
No, I didn't say they would kill it. I said they would destroy it. They'd revitalize it then disfigure it in such a way as to leave a horrible taste in everyone's nostalgia which would ruin the name of King's Quest forever afterwards for those who remember it.
What is wrong with giving the KQ series a conclusion? I've lurked their forums for a few years now, and I've heard Phoenix Online Studios say they weren't interested in making a "KQ10" after TSL is done, but making their own original project.
Let's just let there be one more King's Quest, that way Mask of Eternity isn't the last KQ of the series
I'm not bashing the work of the dev team. In fact I mentioned I was saddened that all their hard work went to waste. And I have nothing against the series having an ending. I just don't want one with those writers.
All the same, I'm intrigued about how POS plan to tie the whole series together. I've had my own ideas of how the series should end, and I hope that TSL's is even half as epic as I'd imagine they should be.
Even if POS isn't able to buy the KQ license, or even just a commercial license (not saying that either chances are very high), I think all fans of KQ should help keep their support, even if its just signing their fan petition (not that I think that will do much good either ... but it can't hurt).
I only played part of the demo, but I don't know what anyone means by "how the series should end."
Truth be told, I never played KQ8:Mask of Eternity. I've heard too many bad things about it, not to mention seen plenty of depressing screenshots.
From where I'm standing only the point and click (and parser) KQ games count, and as such, the series (without TSL) ends with Graham having many years ahead of him, thanks to some magic fruit, and both of his children move away and get married, intending to start families of their own. Happily Ever After: The End. Where's the need for wrapping things up further?
Oh, and just so you all know, TSL might not officially be dead yet! Still, the KQ rights always has the chance of changing companies again before TSL is released and the new company will issue a cease and desist ... its an Ouroboros, a dragon that eats its own tail, a never-ending cycle