PirateNeilsouth: As an act of defiance i think i'll go pirate some kings quest games , shutting down 8years worth of hard work is just plain nasty!.
Putting 8 years of work into a project like this is just plain crazy!
I do appreciate all kind of fandom and fan activity in general, but if I were an owner of any IP, I would sure close down all kinds of fan projects for sure. There is just too much to lose with unauthorized use of IP's, (for instance, many people don't have a slightest idea of the difference between SCUMM and ScummVM, even if that's not really comparable to this case).
An even better example would be the King's Quest remakes. There are comments on GOG forums too, that there's no point of purchasing original KQ1-3, as fan remakes offer better graphics, better sound, more flexible controls, and are available for free. So from business point of view, it's better to shut down all such activity.
As much as I appreciate certain fan stuff [url=www.startreknewvoyages.com/]Star Trek Phase II[/url] being one of my favorites in that area, often those leave me feeling somewhat troubled too.
If some people are talented enough to create quality content, why bother to borrow or steal (depending on one's POV) something that is not your own creation? Is it just a matter of trying to get some free publicity based on the success of originals?
There are fine examples of how you can come up with something clearly original, while still being clearly fan stuff too. To mention just a couple of these:
[url=www.starwreck.com/]Star Wreck[/url] is a good fan movie, which is influenced by mainstream science fiction (Star Trek/Wars, Babylon 5), but is still unique and original as such.
In games, [url=www.bugfactory.fi/?page=bingwood]The Tales of Bingwood[/url] is obviously a Monkey Island (and a bit of Sierra too) fan game, but still at least 99,9% original creation.
Projects like these give much to fans of the original franchise, but don't violate any IP's, and can safely exist as their own selves.
The only surprising thing about The Silver Lining is how that project was able to live as long as it did. Too bad that I probably won't ever be able to play that game, but they should have seen that coming even before they started the project. Had they created something original, which is only strongly influenced by King's Quest, they wouldn't have any legal problems, and could sell the game commercially to cover whatever developing costs there may be.
Hopefully they can still revive the project somehow, change all features which are taken from King's Quest into something they created by themselves. I would buy a copy of that game, if they could do that.
But I really don't understand the crying and whining that's going on on the net over this. They knew what they were doing, so they should have realized that this can happen any day. After so many previous examples (and their own legal problems earlier), it's easy but misplaced to blame Activision for this. Better to ask question: why didn't anyone come up with legally safe content for the game during the last 8 years?
