- This topic has 32 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 18 years, 9 months ago by
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(re: Kq9) Yes, for that matter I would also been interested in knowing what you think of Sq-7 (
Link: http://www.Sq7.org(http://www.Sq7.org)
) and the whole fan-revolution in general. It’s really testimony to the quality of your games that when the fans could no longer get new games, they took it upon themselves to make their own. -
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(re: Kq9) AHa … I looked at the site .. it’s not an “official” Sierra project.
The problem with these is that Sierra will never (or, at least, I would be shocked) give approval to a non-Sierra project with Kings Quest. That means the game only has two possibilities; fail (and, Sierra won’t sue because who cares), or succeed (and, get sued)
-Ken -
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(re: Kq9) Thank You, Ken
These guys looked to me like they were trying to do the right thing and they said they wern’t going to try to sell the game. So I just thought you might like to see it was out there because if they put out a bad game it might not be good even though it will be a free game. Like I said before I am one of your’s and Roberta’s major fans.Jim
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(re: Kq9) Exactly, this KQ9 isn’t about selling or profits so there’s no legal issues to worry about. It’ll be released as an “unofficial, fan-designed ninth episode in the series”.
I’d also like to personally thank both you and Roberta for the King’s Quest series. They definitely made a major impact on my life and the gaming industry at the time. It’s a shame that the games of today are purely based on violence or sex and barely have a storyline or plot. I’m hoping that KQ9 will impress both old fans of the series and entice gamers of today into this genre of gaming.
Yonkey -
(re: Kq9) To be technically accurate: Whether or not Tierra charges for KQ9, if Sierra decides it violates their copyrights they could shut it down. There doesn’t need to be a profit (or, even a revenue) motive on the part of Tierra.
The key issue here is whether or not Sierra cares, or, if they do care, if they would hire lawyers to shut Tierra down. Given that the Tierra group has been around for over a year, and that Sierra almost certainly knows about their project, I’d be very surprised to see Sierra get aggressive in attacking them. If they were going to do so, I would think they would have at least sent a nasty letter by now.
I don’t know the people at Sierra anymore. In fact, I’ve only been back in the Sierra offices one time in almost seven years (and, that was years ago). I’m not sure how they think, or what kinds of issues they care about. My hope is that they have better things to worry about that a KQ9 game.
I did hear, a couple of years ago, that they were starting a KQ project. I never heard anything else about it though.
-Ken W -
(re: Kq9)
the people at tierra have said many times that they’d shut down immediately if sierra asked them to. they’re very respectful of sierra as the copyright holders and i’m glad that sierra has let them peacefully coexist (so far, anyway). tierra’s king’s quest 2 remake was the best game i played last year.
i don’t know as much about the KQ9 team (a different group), but i hope they take the same approach — i’ve been hearing bits about their project for a few years now, and am looking forward to what they produce.
as disappointed as i was that sierra abandoned its roots, i have to admit that allowing these fan games to continue is really good of them. at least, if sierra never gives us another oldschool adventure, they’ve “allowed” the release of tierra’s two KQ remakes and hopefully will do the same for Quest for Glory 2. (unlike lucasarts, who is vigilant about shutting down fan projects…) and the tierra team plans to use what they’ve learned doing remakes to go on to make original commercial games… which might help fill the hole for a lot of fans who miss sierra’s good old days.
-emily
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(re: Kq9) About sueing, I don’t think you’re right, Ken. Colin Davis, the SQ7 team leader got a threat from Vivendi. He tried to contact them on and on to talk with them about it. I’m working on a fangame myself (
Link: http://www.greenghoulie.com/sqvsb/(http://www.greenghoulie.com/sqvsb/)
) so I was prepared for the worst. But Vivendi never gave a response and hasn’t even bothered to contact Colin ever since. So I assume this is their way of saying “We don’t care!”. Besides, their project bearing the Space Quest name got cancelled not so long ago. -
(re: Kq9) Well exactly, SQ7 probably received that exactly because Sierra was planning on doing some SQ stuff, I mean, there was tons of hope in the SQ community when Sierra made a SQ product page, and all the official SQ7 rumours. I guess they never pursued the SQ7 team further, probably because they stopped working on their own. Therefore, the SQ7 team was no longer an immediate threat.
I guess if Sierra had any thoughts about reviving any of their other series, such as KQ, then they would go about and want to shut down the KQ projects like KQ9 and Tierra.
I think the threat is always there for shut-down, but these teams won’t stop their passion just because of a possibility. They will keep going until it’s a reality. And so far their luck has been with them… -
(re: Kq9) Since I’m a member of the unofficial KQ9 team, I thought I should comment a bit on this.
First of all, the game itself – if it will be completed according to current plans – will be awesome! Unlike Tierra, we’re developing our own game engine, so there’s lots of work to do but we’re also free to do more or less whatever we want. And the game design will be something really fresh and unique. Of course I cannot tell you more details at the moment. 😉
As for Sierra, their attitude to fangames has been ambiguous so far. To me it would seem sensible to have a consistent approach to them, but there’s no such thing it seems. The KQ7 fangame could indeed have been targeted only because there was an official KQ7 project in development. Tierra on the other hand has only produced remakes of old games so far, and the charts seemed to indicate that the release of KQ1VGA boosted sales of the then already old King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity, so it might be that while they really didn’t like what Tierra was doing, they decided not to contact them because there was economic profit in it. They could hardly gain much from taking legal actions against fans working for free. Indeed, they would be better off treating their fans well, like Sierra used to in the “good ol’ days”. But when you’re basically nothing but a a puppet under a huge conglomerate like Vivendi I guess it’s hard to keep a personal touch on your business…
Anyway, if Sierra would contact our team, I believe they would at least have the decency to warn us first. And if they do so, we might just change the name of the characters and locations in the game and release it anyway. At the very least, the ambition is not to give up on our game creation just because Sierra puts spokes in our wheels.
This whole thing makes me think of the PacMan/Jawbreaker lawsuit way back in 1981. It’s a funny thought to imagine us in a courtroom arguing that Sierra did more or less the same thing back then as we do today. 😉 -
(re: Kq9) Leisure Suite Larry: The Motion Picture
Now that would be a totally awesom movie, Who would play Larry though thats a though question, a combo of Steve Buscemi (kinda looks like a older Larry), Jerry Seinfield (he´s funny like Larry) and John Travolta´77 Version (Looks good in polyester like our man Larry) would do the trick.
Anyhows, Since this is my first post here just like to say Hi 🙂 -
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(re: Kq9)
New screenshots are out of KQ9 go to http://www.justadventure.com and read the newest Inventory magazine
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(King’s Quest IX Uncovered) In the latest issue of the adventure magazine The Inventory that you can download from
Link: http://www.justadventure.com(http://www.justadventure.com)
you can see the first in-game screenshots of the most ambitious fan-made game to date, and as it seems it looks like it is going to be a worthy sequel to the King’s Quest saga.
uploaded 5/26/2003 9:18:13 PM -
(re: Kq9)
I guess it’s up to me to ask to most evil question ever. After reading about how Al Lowe and Freddy Pharkass are working on SQ7. Is there anyway Mrs. Williams can slip some storyline tips and puzzle suggestions to the KQ9 team? Of course, I don’t want you guys to get in trouble with Sierra or anything. I guess this game could be called fan fiction.
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(re: Kq9)
I guess it’s up to me to ask to most evil question ever. After reading about how Al Lowe and Freddy Pharkass are working on SQ7. Is there anyway Mrs. Williams can slip some storyline tips and puzzle suggestions to the KQ9 team? Of course, I don’t want you guys to get in trouble with Sierra or anything.
P.S. I guess this game could be called fan fiction.
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(re: re: Kq9) LOL Freddy Pharkas is a fictional person, you mean Josh Mandel who’s creating SQ7!
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(re: re: Kq9) I guess it’s up to me to ask to most evil question ever. After reading about how Al Lowe and Freddy Pharkass are working on SQ7. Is there anyway Mrs. Williams can slip some storyline tips and puzzle suggestions to the KQ9 team? Of course, I don’t want you guys to get in trouble with Sierra or anything. I guess this game could be called fan fiction.
Posted by: skcll on 10/17/2003
I’ve tried to talk her into this MANY times, but she always refuses. The problem is that it never works to have multiple designers on a project. If she were kicking in “some ideas” – it would just confuse the project.
-Ken W -
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(re: Kq9)
How would Sierra be hurt by KQ9 being successful when Sierra has basically abandoned KQ. If Sierra decided to continue the KQ series, would a fan based KQ with a different story line hurt the official game. I can see how Tierra’s games would hurt sales of KQ games if they started selling them again. But a game with a completely original storyline can’t be hurtful to business, can it? I think creating this game is exactly like creating fan fiction. Technically, its copyright infringement but Sierra doesn’t get hurt by it, considering this product isn’t actually competing against its products.
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(Kings Quest 9)
I realize you all know about Tierra and its remakes but do you know about Kings Quest 9. It looks amazing. Many people actually flew/drove to New York city to attend the voice auditions. Looks pretty professional. Its a completly new plot, what do you (Ken) and Roberta think about this?
The KQ9 website: http://www.kq9.org/
A PDF magize article with screenshots:
http://www.justadventure.com/TheInventory/Inv7.zip -
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(re: re: King’s Quest 9) I was just on the KQ9 website. You are right — I had previously thought it was being done by Tierra.
The game looks interesting. It looks like they’ve been doing this long enough that if Sierra were going to try to shut them down, they would have already done so.
I’m looking forward to seeing the game.
-Ken W -
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(re: Kq9)
It’s too bad people are so narrow-minded about these things. I hope KQ 9 is as good as the Tierra remakes. As for “Sierra”, I hope they aren’t petty enough to sue. From what I’ve read, KQ 9 will be freeware, so they aren’t making a profit on it, plus Sierra no longer has anything to do with Kings Quest, so why should they even care? If it wasn’t for fans, they’d probably forget all about it. I really hate seeing companies turn bad when new management does things like this, I know, I worked for one. As far as I’m concerned, the new owners aren’t deserving of the Sierra name.
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