Very, very disappointing. I've played it and was incredibly impressed every step of the way. For Hasbro to wait so long before sending the cease and desist is simply baffling.
Fighting is Magic gets ordered to Cease and Desist from Hasbro
- Thread starter Darren716
- Start date
I think the issue here is that neither side subscribes to the idea of moderation. I'm sure this should be fixed soon, heck, this game is going to go ahead. Don't believe me? The developers spent two years working on this, it is a considerable chunk of their lives, and I'll be damned if I found one group of people who listened to people giving orders expecting not to have to give anything in return.
Even if the remaining devs on Mane6 have to go directly against Hasbro, they're going to do it. It doesn't matter how difficult it is, there is going to be a release of the full game.
And I do support both sides in this, because both of them are simultaneously at fault and protected.
Hasbro, in their defense, were forced to do this. I'm glad they did, because the results of their failure to do so would have been disastrous. Every man and his dog could have pointed to this and said "Well they can do it, I can too!" (Or in the dogs case, "Arf!").
In the Mane6's defense, that was a metric shit ton of time they put into the game. Love and care was put into it, and so much support, and money, and time and hours were put into it that the lawyers must be blind to the facts. I almost think Hasbro didn't get all the facts from their legal division. Hasbro execs have approved an episode with Derpy (briefly), and toy lines with several Fan-named characters, if they had all the facts this would be par for the course.
I reckon this is going to blow over soon when Hasbro yanks the leash on their legal division and looks for themselves. Either way, this game is definitely seeing the light of day, something I'm happy about. Kinda sucks that LF had to get involved, but what can you do.
Once more, I think both sides could learn from a certain saying, "Moderation in all things."
Even if the remaining devs on Mane6 have to go directly against Hasbro, they're going to do it. It doesn't matter how difficult it is, there is going to be a release of the full game.
And I do support both sides in this, because both of them are simultaneously at fault and protected.
Hasbro, in their defense, were forced to do this. I'm glad they did, because the results of their failure to do so would have been disastrous. Every man and his dog could have pointed to this and said "Well they can do it, I can too!" (Or in the dogs case, "Arf!").
In the Mane6's defense, that was a metric shit ton of time they put into the game. Love and care was put into it, and so much support, and money, and time and hours were put into it that the lawyers must be blind to the facts. I almost think Hasbro didn't get all the facts from their legal division. Hasbro execs have approved an episode with Derpy (briefly), and toy lines with several Fan-named characters, if they had all the facts this would be par for the course.
I reckon this is going to blow over soon when Hasbro yanks the leash on their legal division and looks for themselves. Either way, this game is definitely seeing the light of day, something I'm happy about. Kinda sucks that LF had to get involved, but what can you do.
Once more, I think both sides could learn from a certain saying, "Moderation in all things."
So they shut this thing down but won't hunt down onto pornography of their characters? I am confused.
I always mix those up, so I guess they feel they have to stop them in case they give the brand a bad nameNewtonyd said:
Well, My Little Pony is marketed to young girls. Having a game associated with the brand where their favorite characters kick each other in the face until one collapses in an unconscious heap is probably not a message they'd like to be associated with.chris11246 said:
Well, that sucks. I was really looking forward to playing it when it was complete, too.
I supposed I can't blame Hasbro for doing what they need to when it comes to protecting their IP's, though.
Still though, pretty bummed.
I supposed I can't blame Hasbro for doing what they need to when it comes to protecting their IP's, though.
Still though, pretty bummed.
Well, that was expected.
Seriously, this happens to every ambitious fan game project that looks like it's about to actually produce something, and everyone acts like the C&D is a complete shock every single time.
If someone wants to actually get one of these games completed and distributed before the rights holder brings the hammer down, they need to keep it secret until it's actually finished and ready to be played and then throw it up on a bunch of torrent sites.
Seriously, this happens to every ambitious fan game project that looks like it's about to actually produce something, and everyone acts like the C&D is a complete shock every single time.
If someone wants to actually get one of these games completed and distributed before the rights holder brings the hammer down, they need to keep it secret until it's actually finished and ready to be played and then throw it up on a bunch of torrent sites.
Heard of it, didn't really care. I expected it to happen, and I wasn't interested in playing the game.
In defense of my argument the minority is the people who feel what you mentioned. Most of the posts are "Hasbro are dicks I was looking forward to this."Caramel Frappe said:
In the end not even Valve allows this kind of stuff because of IP issues, if they see a very promising project they do occasionally hire the team so it is released as a Valve product though which is pretty awesome.
This is JUST what I was looking for! but how to I run it? I cant unzip it without all the files not being extracted. Do I need a program or something?chadachada123 said:
OT: Hasbro definitely could have told them earlier not to waste their time. Or they could have pulled a Gabe Newell and signed Mane6 up to make Fighting Is Magic as a game on steam. I guess not all companies can be as cool as Gabe Newell and Valve.
It's strategy, and I comment all the time that I expect fan projects to get hit at the finish line, a lack of initial dispute when something like this starts means nothing.Hazy992 said:
The basic idea is that if a big company goes after everyone just starting to make a potentially worrying infringement they are going to run themselves ragged, and find themselves battling on so many fronts that it's not even funny. Especially seeing as fans are capricious, and the number of fan projects that actually survive long enough to amount to anything are few and far between.
Going after the developed ones right before release helps cut down on potential targets, as well as discourages similar projects since nobody wants to put thousands of hours into something and god knows how much personal money, only to have it wiped out at the finish line. People are going to look at this game for years to come and be reluctant to mess with the MLP liscence.
Also given their ownership of the property they can probably also claim the work on the game for free, being a nearly complete product, it means they can potentially steal that code and use it for something else later. Whether they do or not, it becomes an asset.
It's slimey yes, but it's the most beneficial way to do things from a corperate perspective, the most potential gain, for the least actual work. Besides all those failed projects and the things you ignore until they get to this point allow you to lull the fandom into a sense of security, that your not being a copyright nazi. You want to encourage the fandom to talk and produce harmless stuff... just not anything that could potentially infringe onyour bottom line, limit your options, or create a potential conflict of interests (even an obscure one).
As I've said before, on many occasions, if your going to do a fan based project on anything like this scale, hide. Make annoucements, but no way to contact you. Use a pseudonym or handle for all communications. Circulate builds and information entirely through anonymous sources like torrents, if your project requires a server (like an MMO or Emu) find one that is outside of the US in country that doesn't follow US copyright and protection laws, and plan ahead to deal with attempts to hack/shut down/lock out your server ahead of time.
It sounds like a lot when your dealing with fan projects like this, but it's pretty much nessicary nowadays, at the very least you make yourself too much of a pain in the arse to bother with. Your by no means untouchable, but it does make companies wonder if your fighting game/emu/minor MMO is worth the time and trouble, for the potential gains. In general a big company with a copyright will crush anyone they can easily at the most optimum (for them) time, and to make an example, assuming they can do it with what is for them minimal effort.
The way this went down I'm guessing the options of "Fighting Is Magic" have limited options since they are apparently known well enough to find and contact officially. The only real move they could potentially pull at this point would be to "leak" a late copy claiming it was sent to testers... puttting it up by torrent, and then claiming any further developments appearing by torrent were simply the work of unknown third parties based on that build while they had indeed complied with the desist order.... and that ones touchy depending on the specifics of what's going on right now.
Because their target demographic is young girls, and I doubt parents would like them playing a game where their TV role models beat the shit out of each other.Evil Smurf said:
...Isnt that completely fucking retarded?MetalMagpie said:
Who designed the united states copyright system? Monkeys high on meth? It allows complete freedom in some areas but in areas like this it feels like whoever came up with these laws wasnt even thinking about long term consequences in the slightest.
