I’m not a regular on any of the other boards mentioned in this thread. For that reason, I have zero insight to offer on the highly prevalent animosity in this thread.
I do have a few comments and suggestions though:
1. Regardless of how it started, or what the related parties have done or said in the past, I don’t see any reason why your verbal tirades needed to be carried over on to this board. If Ben believes he can make an online, multiplayer adventure game with a murder mystery setting, then by all means at least let him try. If in the end, he fails to produce a game, then so be it. He will simply have joined the rank and file of the hundreds of other small, independent, and under-/non-funded developers who have failed to bring their product(s) to the market.
2. Ben, I’d advise that you drop the whole “Laura Bow” thing. You don’t need it. If you guys are indeed successful in completing your game, and in the case that it is commercially viable, having a non-official (i.e. illegal) Laura Bow license attached to hit will go some way towards tackling any commercial aspirations. If at a later stage, you want to reattach the name, and the game is at a suitably impressive and advanced state, then surely you can approach Vivendi Universal (or whoever owns the property at that time) in order to make a deal.
3. I’ve visited the site and seen the pics. Good luck and keep on trucking!