[Jeysie]

Originally Posted by Josho

If I remember correctly, I believe she said at the time that, for legal reasons, she could NOT look at or comment on the game itself. I don't think she had a choice in that matter.

But she still chose to give them good wishes regardless. I personally wouldn't have made such a choice myself, but she did basically say "I'm not going to shut down a fangame based on my work."

Originally Posted by Josho

But not every fangame or fanfic purports to be the rightful next entry in its series. It's one thing to say, "This is the next King's Quest game," and another to say, "This is a game that uses settings and characters inspired by King's Quest."

I do agree that the KQIX team felt to me to be too arrogant sometimes. Nonetheless, any fangame that puts a number in its name is at least partially claming to be a next or previous game in the series.

I'd be interested in exploring that notion. I think one can very readily design a fangame (or write fanfiction) with the notion of "clean hands," leaving canon untouched. In the case of SQ7, at least for the story I wrote, everything that occurs does so AFTER all recorded canon. The only place where -- arguably -- events occur before recorded canon is that the action predates the whole "married to Bea" affair. I simply don't touch those events and therefore do not interfere with their development.

In the case of KQIX, though, last time I saw the docs, there were a great many events that intentionally reframed canonical events, changing, for instance, characters' motivations for their original actions, changing the nature of their relationships, etc. I think that's a clear show of disrespect to the original designer (whether or not that designer publicly comments or objects), and one definitely sees a lot of it in fangames.

That's a fair enough point to take, but it still doesn't exempt AGDI's KQ2 remake which definitely did rewrite, reframe, and add to canon. (And that by changing and replacing an existing game, for that matter.)

And I do agree that I doubt a company is legally required to specify what and what isn't acceptable to its fans. But it's certainly a sign of good faith towards your fans (since any PR person that hasn't been under a rock knows that if there's a creative work, sooner or later somebody's going to create fanworks based on it).

I mean, for instance, if I want to go and write and post/play a Harry Potter fanfic or RPG or website I know ahead of time what is and isn't "acceptable" without having to worry about it. I don't have to get all paranoid.

I do agree that the KQIX team should have addressed the issue since it's such a big and notable project, and it's a very good idea for any fangame team. But I still think it would be a sign of good faith if Vivendi acknowledged the desire of fans to create works and made some kind of official statement.

Peace & Luv, Liz