Gotta Go Fa(n/st)!
December 26, 2019 7:07 PM Subscribe
Sonic the Hedgehog is unique. Not only is Sega one of the only two companies with a fangame community that it tolerates (the other being Capcom via Mega Man fangames), but it can be argued that Sonic IS its fandom - a fandom that thrives despite multiple unpopular games while other franchises can be killed by just one. Will there ever be a good 3D Sonic game? The answer: Sonic Robo Blast 2, the Genesis-inspired 3D Sonic fangame (over 20 years of devtime - begun before Sonic Adventure came out!) using a modified Doom source port, recently getting its biggest update yet. In addition to the main game, with its action, exploration, SA-style emblems, Chaos Emeralds and unlockables, mods have been made for it, too - see a bunch after the jump, plus instructions for running them.
INSTRUCTIONS:
To play the mods below, unless otherwise specified, you'll need the last pre-2.2 version, 2.1.25 (scroll to the bottom to find it), and a program that can extract .rars (such as 7-zip). Almost all 2.1-series mods below are full campaigns from the Mods section here (the Levels section contains a larger selection of individual levels); 2.2-compatible mods, both new ones and any that get ported from previous versions, can be found here. (Any mods that get updated will also remain available for previous versions, so don't worry about any links dying.) Unless a mod is stated as being standalone, select Addons from the main menu in-game and choose a mod. You'll need to quit and run the game again to unload a level mod and load another to avoid potential conflicts. BAT files included with some mods date from before the Addons screen was added. Skip to the section at the bottom for other DOOM mods entirely, based on other franchises.
THE STANDALONE ONE YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD OF:
SRB2 Kart: This epically big kart-racing standalone mod (SRB2 itself not required) is actually better known than SRB2 itself thanks to YouTubers and Twitch streamers. ScottFalco lays it out - it has an online function and anyone can host (as long as they use port forwarding). The only thing it's missing is AI, so singleplayer consists of time attacks with earnable medals that unlock more content. It has its own modding community, which means there are mods for a mod of a Doom mod.
FULL CAMPAIGNS FOR 2.1:
Mystic Realm: An early full campaign whose creator later took over as lead dev of the main project. Look for the secret altars that unlock the secret levels containing the Chaos Emeralds. (The main campaign has emeralds too, of course, but those are unlocked by finding hidden Emerald Tokens that, after the current level is complete, grant entry to a Special Stage that may seem strangely familiar.)
SUGOI, SUBARASHII and KIMOKAWAIII: Increasingly ridiculously large collaborative hacks featuring a Super Mario 64-esque level-unlock system using the emblems (which are part of SRB2's engine, and can be viewed on the pause screen and in Statistics and can be more easily sought in beaten levels via Record Attack), Chaos Emeralds and other secrets. (Note: variables besides lives the Emblems and Emeralds used to track game progress, like the Emerald Token counter, are not saved between game sessions.)
Acid Missile: Another early full campaign.
Dimension Glaber: A hefty collection of the author's formerly separately-released levels.
The Emerald Isles: Yet another campaign with a long dev history.
SRB2 Heroes: A full demake of Sonic Heroes, complete with hero-swapping mechanic.
Sonic 2006 Mod: A full demake - and perhaps redemption - of the notorious 2006 Sonic game.
Boss Mayhem: An epic battle against the 7 bosses from 2.1's main campaign and a whopping 14 bosses from other mods. (For 2.2, there's The True Arena, featuring the updated versions of the bosses and, currently, 8 fan-made bosses, including a one-hitpoint joke boss based on an infamous placeholder from much older versions of SRB2 - there are two versions of the mod with True having both the main and fan-made bosses - select the 'play without saving' save slot.)
Chaotic Earth: Short unless you explore - has tons of secrets, including hidden entrances to other strangely familiar Special Stages.
SRB2 The Past: An interactive museum showcasing levels from SRB2's massive development history. (For 2.2, there's the better-received Final Demo Zone - the main campaign includes a secret level that crams all the acts of a zone from Mystic Realm into a single map that almost hits the map size limits, but Final Demo Zone goes even further, cramming the entirety of SRB version 1, aka Final Demo, into a single map.)
Tortured Planet: And one more full campaign, replete with secrets and custom bosses.
CAMPAIGNS FOR OLDER 2.1.X VERSIONS:
Top Down: Over three years in the making, this mod features an entire adventure with a top-down camera view. It has its own EXE, but needs to be extracted in the same folder as version 2.1.20.
Sonic Dumbventure Volume 1 - Donkey Kracken's Disasterous Quest[sic]: A single epic level with eight sections and a very silly plot. Requires version 2.1.14.
MEANWHILE, IN OTHER FANDOMS:
Want more Sonic fangames and Sonic-inspired game projects? Visit Sonic Fan Games HQ.
Want a massive, still-growing Doom mod that lets you fight bots and bosses as you FPS your way through the Megaman series (currently 1-8, R&F and 9) and battle other players online? Look no further than Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch.
Want to play DOOM campaigns in the style of the Franchise That Must Not Be Fangamed? Then you want DOOM: The Golden Souls One (and its Super improvement mod), Two and the first demo of Three. (All require GZDoom. Ignore GS1's instruction to use the latest development build of GZDoom - by now, the latest release version will likely do.)
And for a deep cut, there's Hocusdoom, the DOOM version of the Apogee DOS game Hocus Pocus. (This one requires GZDoom and the wad from Doom 2, or possibly the free fan-made replacement for it, Freedoom Phase 2.)
Want even more DOOM wads? Check out the the best WADS from every years 1994 to 2018 plus 2019 (incorporating the annual Cacowards), and to leave no stone unturned, DoomWiki's list of notable WADs, the Top 100 Memorable DOOM Maps and the Top 25 Missed Cacowards.
INSTRUCTIONS:
To play the mods below, unless otherwise specified, you'll need the last pre-2.2 version, 2.1.25 (scroll to the bottom to find it), and a program that can extract .rars (such as 7-zip). Almost all 2.1-series mods below are full campaigns from the Mods section here (the Levels section contains a larger selection of individual levels); 2.2-compatible mods, both new ones and any that get ported from previous versions, can be found here. (Any mods that get updated will also remain available for previous versions, so don't worry about any links dying.) Unless a mod is stated as being standalone, select Addons from the main menu in-game and choose a mod. You'll need to quit and run the game again to unload a level mod and load another to avoid potential conflicts. BAT files included with some mods date from before the Addons screen was added. Skip to the section at the bottom for other DOOM mods entirely, based on other franchises.
THE STANDALONE ONE YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD OF:
SRB2 Kart: This epically big kart-racing standalone mod (SRB2 itself not required) is actually better known than SRB2 itself thanks to YouTubers and Twitch streamers. ScottFalco lays it out - it has an online function and anyone can host (as long as they use port forwarding). The only thing it's missing is AI, so singleplayer consists of time attacks with earnable medals that unlock more content. It has its own modding community, which means there are mods for a mod of a Doom mod.
FULL CAMPAIGNS FOR 2.1:
Mystic Realm: An early full campaign whose creator later took over as lead dev of the main project. Look for the secret altars that unlock the secret levels containing the Chaos Emeralds. (The main campaign has emeralds too, of course, but those are unlocked by finding hidden Emerald Tokens that, after the current level is complete, grant entry to a Special Stage that may seem strangely familiar.)
SUGOI, SUBARASHII and KIMOKAWAIII: Increasingly ridiculously large collaborative hacks featuring a Super Mario 64-esque level-unlock system using the emblems (which are part of SRB2's engine, and can be viewed on the pause screen and in Statistics and can be more easily sought in beaten levels via Record Attack), Chaos Emeralds and other secrets. (Note: variables besides lives the Emblems and Emeralds used to track game progress, like the Emerald Token counter, are not saved between game sessions.)
Acid Missile: Another early full campaign.
Dimension Glaber: A hefty collection of the author's formerly separately-released levels.
The Emerald Isles: Yet another campaign with a long dev history.
SRB2 Heroes: A full demake of Sonic Heroes, complete with hero-swapping mechanic.
Sonic 2006 Mod: A full demake - and perhaps redemption - of the notorious 2006 Sonic game.
Boss Mayhem: An epic battle against the 7 bosses from 2.1's main campaign and a whopping 14 bosses from other mods. (For 2.2, there's The True Arena, featuring the updated versions of the bosses and, currently, 8 fan-made bosses, including a one-hitpoint joke boss based on an infamous placeholder from much older versions of SRB2 - there are two versions of the mod with True having both the main and fan-made bosses - select the 'play without saving' save slot.)
Chaotic Earth: Short unless you explore - has tons of secrets, including hidden entrances to other strangely familiar Special Stages.
SRB2 The Past: An interactive museum showcasing levels from SRB2's massive development history. (For 2.2, there's the better-received Final Demo Zone - the main campaign includes a secret level that crams all the acts of a zone from Mystic Realm into a single map that almost hits the map size limits, but Final Demo Zone goes even further, cramming the entirety of SRB version 1, aka Final Demo, into a single map.)
Tortured Planet: And one more full campaign, replete with secrets and custom bosses.
CAMPAIGNS FOR OLDER 2.1.X VERSIONS:
Top Down: Over three years in the making, this mod features an entire adventure with a top-down camera view. It has its own EXE, but needs to be extracted in the same folder as version 2.1.20.
Sonic Dumbventure Volume 1 - Donkey Kracken's Disasterous Quest[sic]: A single epic level with eight sections and a very silly plot. Requires version 2.1.14.
MEANWHILE, IN OTHER FANDOMS:
Want more Sonic fangames and Sonic-inspired game projects? Visit Sonic Fan Games HQ.
Want a massive, still-growing Doom mod that lets you fight bots and bosses as you FPS your way through the Megaman series (currently 1-8, R&F and 9) and battle other players online? Look no further than Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch.
Want to play DOOM campaigns in the style of the Franchise That Must Not Be Fangamed? Then you want DOOM: The Golden Souls One (and its Super improvement mod), Two and the first demo of Three. (All require GZDoom. Ignore GS1's instruction to use the latest development build of GZDoom - by now, the latest release version will likely do.)
And for a deep cut, there's Hocusdoom, the DOOM version of the Apogee DOS game Hocus Pocus. (This one requires GZDoom and the wad from Doom 2, or possibly the free fan-made replacement for it, Freedoom Phase 2.)
Want even more DOOM wads? Check out the the best WADS from every years 1994 to 2018 plus 2019 (incorporating the annual Cacowards), and to leave no stone unturned, DoomWiki's list of notable WADs, the Top 100 Memorable DOOM Maps and the Top 25 Missed Cacowards.
The topic's a bit niche which is probably why it's gotten so few comments. But still, I love posts like this. Good work, BiggerJ!
A couple of other prominent 3D Sonic fangames are Project Utopia and Green Hill Paradise Act 2.
posted by JHarris at 2:21 AM on December 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
A couple of other prominent 3D Sonic fangames are Project Utopia and Green Hill Paradise Act 2.
posted by JHarris at 2:21 AM on December 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
This isn't my particular jam when it comes to gaming, but I am so here for the fact that this exists and the community that surrounds it. Such amazing work, dedication, & love being put into the Sonic franchise. Great post and maybe some day if I have the patience to fiddle with these types of emulators/mods, etc. maybe I'll throw it on. But for now, I'm just happy knowing it exists for those that want to enjoy it. Cheers.
posted by Fizz at 4:43 AM on December 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 4:43 AM on December 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'm confused by the part saying Sega tolerates the fanbase...which sounds reluctant. Why would they be reluctant?
posted by agregoli at 5:26 AM on December 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by agregoli at 5:26 AM on December 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
While I appreciate the idea of a 3D Sonic, it just never seems quite right to me. For whatever reason, the side-scrolling format of Sonic is part of the game's strength and appeal.
I'll be back...gotta chase some kids off my lawn...
posted by Thorzdad at 5:45 AM on December 27, 2019
I'll be back...gotta chase some kids off my lawn...
posted by Thorzdad at 5:45 AM on December 27, 2019
this is a helluofa post, good job! gonna have to dig in this weekend.
posted by wires at 6:09 AM on December 27, 2019
posted by wires at 6:09 AM on December 27, 2019
I'm confused by the part saying Sega tolerates the fanbase
Tolerates fangames. Most companies guard their IPs jealously, and suppress even free fanmade games. For example, Them's Fightin' Herds was born out of a My Little Pony fighting game that Hasbro cease-and-desisted.
posted by explosion at 6:23 AM on December 27, 2019 [4 favorites]
Tolerates fangames. Most companies guard their IPs jealously, and suppress even free fanmade games. For example, Them's Fightin' Herds was born out of a My Little Pony fighting game that Hasbro cease-and-desisted.
posted by explosion at 6:23 AM on December 27, 2019 [4 favorites]
One thing that always occurs to me when I see timelines like this: it's an interesting way to "uncollapse" the time it takes to make games. A handful of people, working part time, adapting an existing franchise into a game engine with excellent tools support? Twenty years sounds about right, maybe even a little fast.
For comparison: a team of twenty-five people working full time for four years is a century of labor. Triple-A monsters? Probably over a thousand "years" of work compressed into less than a decade, split up over hundreds of participants.
posted by ®@ at 11:07 AM on December 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
For comparison: a team of twenty-five people working full time for four years is a century of labor. Triple-A monsters? Probably over a thousand "years" of work compressed into less than a decade, split up over hundreds of participants.
posted by ®@ at 11:07 AM on December 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
Re: agregoli's question: Trademark rules often require companies to visibly crack down on unlicensed usage of their IP, or the companies risk losing ownership of the IP. It's actually a lot more complicated than that, but that is the short version.
I used to work as a marketing contractor for publishers, and this topic came up a lot. Internally, the discussion was often
"Ok, how long can we pretend not to notice this thing? Because when it is provable that we know about it, the Legal department will probably have to grind it into the dust, and we would rather not do that."
posted by ®@ at 11:20 AM on December 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
I used to work as a marketing contractor for publishers, and this topic came up a lot. Internally, the discussion was often
"Ok, how long can we pretend not to notice this thing? Because when it is provable that we know about it, the Legal department will probably have to grind it into the dust, and we would rather not do that."
posted by ®@ at 11:20 AM on December 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
agregoli: I was talking about fangames. But Sega is definitely at least a little weird about the franchise's long, storied, complex and, let's face it, bizarre legacy. For example, the people making the Sonic comic for IGN are forbidden from using any characters from the DiC cartoon like Archie did (despite Sega owning all those characters) and aren't even allowed to call the setting Mobius.
posted by BiggerJ at 4:46 PM on December 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by BiggerJ at 4:46 PM on December 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
*making the Sonic comic for IDW
posted by BiggerJ at 4:53 PM on December 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by BiggerJ at 4:53 PM on December 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
I deliberately avoided mentioning the actual fandom just now out of respect for them. I dabbled in cringe culture once and, gawd, 'backing away slowly in horror' doesn't begin to describe what I ended up doing. It's a dangerous path to go down.
posted by BiggerJ at 5:24 PM on December 27, 2019
posted by BiggerJ at 5:24 PM on December 27, 2019
I stumbled upon Sonic Utopia earlier today, and I'm really impressed by their open-world take on the Sonic formula. It manages to make 3D Sonic work without making things either linear or slow, the two traps that most 3D sonic games fell into, and it puts you in a wide open area with lots of movement options. Unfortunately it seems to only consist of a single area with no real objectives, but hopefully that will get expanded upon in the future. They also got the look and feel of Green Hill Zone down perfectly! Video below:
Sonic Utopia Gameplay Demo
posted by Green Winnebago at 6:05 PM on December 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Sonic Utopia Gameplay Demo
posted by Green Winnebago at 6:05 PM on December 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
apparently i have way more pent up sonic nostalgia than i realized because that sonic utopia video looks so fun i literally teared up
posted by JimBennett at 10:47 PM on December 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by JimBennett at 10:47 PM on December 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
®@: Ryan Morrison, aka Video Game Attorney, has claimed that many companies, rather than cease-and-desisting, actually sue fangame makers and only settle for almost completely life-ruining sums of money after they agree to sign NDAs, which is why there's no evidence of such lawsuits. Thing is, there's no way I know of to cover up that a lawsuit and settlement have occurred. The theory is that he's lying in order to scare fangame makers and get them to pay for his advice so they can change just enough of the game to not get sued (he was, for example, in contact with the maker of a knight Rider fangame). He has argued that he can't be in it for the money because he has represented multiple fangame makers during lawsuits pro bono - but if he's lying, those lawsuits never occurred (not to mention that his track record, most infamously his getting dumped by H3H3 Productions mid-lawsuit is not consistent with his claim). He was also quite flippant about the lawsuits in a tweet that he seems to have been deleted, stating that if your life is ruined by such a lawsuit, you will die and your amnesiac ghost will haunt the Earth forever. What do you think about his claims?
Also, is it true, as a lot of commenters on video game news sites claim whenever any of them posts an article about a fangame, that those news sites unintentionally play a large role in fangames getting cease-and-desisted (especially Nintendo ones)?
posted by BiggerJ at 11:22 PM on December 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
Also, is it true, as a lot of commenters on video game news sites claim whenever any of them posts an article about a fangame, that those news sites unintentionally play a large role in fangames getting cease-and-desisted (especially Nintendo ones)?
posted by BiggerJ at 11:22 PM on December 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
@BiggerJ - I don't know enough about that fellow to comment in their specific claims, and I'm certainly not all-knowing, but I never saw or heard about anything like that. Frankly, the clients I worked for didn't view fangames as worthy of that level of thought or time. Fangames simply weren't high enough up on the radar, certainly not on the level of a threat. At worst it was 'ugh, legal is going to have to tell these kids to stop, I don't have the time for a meeting with legal right now, we've got another round of keyart revisions...' A lawsuit and NDA threat would have been laughable, and a waste of time.
That said, I didn't work for every publisher, or certainly not on every property, so maybe something like that happened? But on its face it sounds odd to me. Does this Morrison name any names?
As for the Nintendo thing: that's a good article, except it doesn't address the very real issue of how many person-hours it takes to work out deals like in their Microsoft example. I can only speculate on what's going on at Nintendo, but given the specific *way* they are cracking down on certain games (especially the clear loopholes they are leaving in place), I think they are attempting to lighten up a bit these last few years, at least within the rigid rule structure they appear to have set up for themselves (again, just speculation). I have pet theories on why their threshold for punitive reaction is so much lower than many other companies, but once again... Just theories, so probably not worth getting into.
posted by ®@ at 12:04 PM on December 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
That said, I didn't work for every publisher, or certainly not on every property, so maybe something like that happened? But on its face it sounds odd to me. Does this Morrison name any names?
As for the Nintendo thing: that's a good article, except it doesn't address the very real issue of how many person-hours it takes to work out deals like in their Microsoft example. I can only speculate on what's going on at Nintendo, but given the specific *way* they are cracking down on certain games (especially the clear loopholes they are leaving in place), I think they are attempting to lighten up a bit these last few years, at least within the rigid rule structure they appear to have set up for themselves (again, just speculation). I have pet theories on why their threshold for punitive reaction is so much lower than many other companies, but once again... Just theories, so probably not worth getting into.
posted by ®@ at 12:04 PM on December 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
®@: Ryan Morrison isn't just saying 'something like that happened', he's saying it happens all the time - that it's the industry norm. His claim about NDAs conveniently prevents him from naming names; the only time he mentioned a company NOT doing it was when he said that Sega's tolerance of fangames has ruined many lives, and someone misinterpreted it as Sega suing people, causing him to clarify that Sega never does it. (If he's lying, then of course he'd back down from specifically accusing a specific company of shitty behavior, in case they ever notice.)
posted by BiggerJ at 3:42 PM on December 28, 2019
posted by BiggerJ at 3:42 PM on December 28, 2019
®@: Actually, I just found a quote from Ryan Morrison (bolded emphasis mine): "No, you can't make a damn fan game. Yes, it's infringing. No, it doesn't matter others do it. O.J. got away with murder, don't try to do it yourself though. I've seen so many developer lives ruined (lost home, wife, kids, etc) all because of a silly fan game. These companies are brutal about protecting their IP. The reason you never hear about it? All settlements come with an NDA that makes it so no one can write or talk about it."
posted by BiggerJ at 4:50 PM on December 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by BiggerJ at 4:50 PM on December 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
@BiggerJ -
Found the thread with that quote. Yeah, if there are companies skipping the C&D's, that could lead to unpleasant situations like he's describing. His general advice of "just don't make fan games" is good. It doesn't sound to me like he is exaggerating for effect, at least not in a way that would drum up business.
Maybe the folks I worked with were just abnormally chill?
posted by ®@ at 5:49 PM on December 28, 2019
Found the thread with that quote. Yeah, if there are companies skipping the C&D's, that could lead to unpleasant situations like he's describing. His general advice of "just don't make fan games" is good. It doesn't sound to me like he is exaggerating for effect, at least not in a way that would drum up business.
Maybe the folks I worked with were just abnormally chill?
posted by ®@ at 5:49 PM on December 28, 2019
®@: I don't mean any disrespect, but based on his reputation and the evidence I've listed, I'm going to side with Bertrand Russell rather than Blaise Pascal on this one. I admit I've got a personal bias on the matter because if, as I believe, Ryan Morrison is trying to scare people, ultimately for his own gain, I don't want him to win.
posted by BiggerJ at 6:06 PM on December 28, 2019
posted by BiggerJ at 6:06 PM on December 28, 2019
Also:
"[...]at least not in a way that would drum up business."
I personally believe he's being careful in this respect. If he made it obvious that he's offering paid services to fangame makers, then more people would accuse him of lying to drum up business. But he's worked with multiple fangame makers, including the guy behind the Knight Rider mod I mentioned and the makers of the Super Smash Bros. mod Project M. His strategy seems to be to scare them by speaking out in public and then quietly approach them and/or wait for them to approach him.
posted by BiggerJ at 8:01 PM on December 28, 2019
"[...]at least not in a way that would drum up business."
I personally believe he's being careful in this respect. If he made it obvious that he's offering paid services to fangame makers, then more people would accuse him of lying to drum up business. But he's worked with multiple fangame makers, including the guy behind the Knight Rider mod I mentioned and the makers of the Super Smash Bros. mod Project M. His strategy seems to be to scare them by speaking out in public and then quietly approach them and/or wait for them to approach him.
posted by BiggerJ at 8:01 PM on December 28, 2019
@BiggerJ - No disrepect taken, that seems like a reasonable way to approach things.
Re: business: I guess that's possible, but I'm not clear on how it would make more money than what he's advertising. The risk vs reward of "hire me to write your TOS before you are sued for 15k" is very clear (though admittedly, to my non-lawyer brain, does sound a little scare-tactic-y). I don't know what kind of work he does behind-the-scenes for fangame teams, but given that they are unfunded fangame teams, I can't imagine it's as hour-to-effort-profitable as writing contractor agreements.
The scope of my knowledge is narrow enough that I'm not confident assessing how much of his rhetoric is "scary but exaggerated" vs "scary and sadly true", but I would definitely agree with him that making a fan game without permission carries real risk, and that fan game creators are (knowingly or not) betting on the goodwill of strangers.
Also, I think the notion of 'fair use isn't protection, it's a defense' is worth reinforcing, because a lot of people are unwittingly putting themselves into scenarios which could potentially put them in court. Unless you're a huge company, even a surefire-definitely-would-win-it* court case can still be a ruinously expensive undertaking. That part isn't a scare tactic, it's an unfortunate reality at the moment.
*also, these are pretty rare, even seemingly clear-cut cases carry a lot of unknowns.
My personal experience tells me that even in my fairly rosy view of things, 'the company will decide to publicly recognize you and work with you' is the least likely outcome, though it is possible. I think the most likely outcome is 'the company will ignore you for as long as they are able to, because dealing with you is a hassle, then you'll probably get a C and D, but if you fight it, you will be utterly destroyed.'
Now that's not as bad as 'the company will skip the C and D and secretly ruin you and bully you into silence', but it's not great, either.
And that last scenario isn't implausible to me. I've never seen a company who would have hesitated to take down a fangame if they felt the need to, so my not-a-lawyer advice to creators would always be "ask permission, not forgiveness," regardless of whether they think the IP holders are friendly, beneignly disinterested, or malicious.
I'm not a fan of scare tactics either, but it seems like there's plenty of money to be made on the services he's actually advertising, and the more I talk about it, I find myself coming around to his defense. IP law is a scary place, and a lot of fans appear to have an overly rosy view of how far creative expression is *actually* protected in the US, especially after factoring in the cost of a trial (even one that you win).
But again, I am talking off the top of my head. I haven't researched this topic, and I appreciate getting your insights into it.
posted by ®@ at 9:30 PM on December 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Re: business: I guess that's possible, but I'm not clear on how it would make more money than what he's advertising. The risk vs reward of "hire me to write your TOS before you are sued for 15k" is very clear (though admittedly, to my non-lawyer brain, does sound a little scare-tactic-y). I don't know what kind of work he does behind-the-scenes for fangame teams, but given that they are unfunded fangame teams, I can't imagine it's as hour-to-effort-profitable as writing contractor agreements.
The scope of my knowledge is narrow enough that I'm not confident assessing how much of his rhetoric is "scary but exaggerated" vs "scary and sadly true", but I would definitely agree with him that making a fan game without permission carries real risk, and that fan game creators are (knowingly or not) betting on the goodwill of strangers.
Also, I think the notion of 'fair use isn't protection, it's a defense' is worth reinforcing, because a lot of people are unwittingly putting themselves into scenarios which could potentially put them in court. Unless you're a huge company, even a surefire-definitely-would-win-it* court case can still be a ruinously expensive undertaking. That part isn't a scare tactic, it's an unfortunate reality at the moment.
*also, these are pretty rare, even seemingly clear-cut cases carry a lot of unknowns.
My personal experience tells me that even in my fairly rosy view of things, 'the company will decide to publicly recognize you and work with you' is the least likely outcome, though it is possible. I think the most likely outcome is 'the company will ignore you for as long as they are able to, because dealing with you is a hassle, then you'll probably get a C and D, but if you fight it, you will be utterly destroyed.'
Now that's not as bad as 'the company will skip the C and D and secretly ruin you and bully you into silence', but it's not great, either.
And that last scenario isn't implausible to me. I've never seen a company who would have hesitated to take down a fangame if they felt the need to, so my not-a-lawyer advice to creators would always be "ask permission, not forgiveness," regardless of whether they think the IP holders are friendly, beneignly disinterested, or malicious.
I'm not a fan of scare tactics either, but it seems like there's plenty of money to be made on the services he's actually advertising, and the more I talk about it, I find myself coming around to his defense. IP law is a scary place, and a lot of fans appear to have an overly rosy view of how far creative expression is *actually* protected in the US, especially after factoring in the cost of a trial (even one that you win).
But again, I am talking off the top of my head. I haven't researched this topic, and I appreciate getting your insights into it.
posted by ®@ at 9:30 PM on December 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
it has probably happened enough to validate the basic story of a self-promoting fabulist (such as some dude who's gone to great lengths to cultivate himself as "the Video Game Lawyer") but the idea that it's both super prevalent and super secret is pretty jolly. one or the other, guys.
posted by rotten at 12:34 AM on December 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by rotten at 12:34 AM on December 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
« Older Cooking and healing 🦐 🐖 | Early portraits of African American Activists in... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:08 PM on December 26, 2019 [6 favorites]