Quote:
Remind Virendi they gave AGDI to release their King's Quest remakes
and clearly inform them you are going to hold off buying their's games
until they make a deal with Phoenix Online Studios (http://www.kqix.com/)
|
It would actually be appreciated if people did
not take this approach. It won't do anything to improve KQIX9's situation, and it definitely doesn't help us at AGDI either. Resorting to this type of corporate blackmail will only convey to the company that they need to stand firm, lest any future fan-based project resort to using the same strategy whenever Vivendi tries to protect their IP.
The agreement between VU and AGDI cannot be discussed publicly and we're not allowed to elaborate on why we're allowed to remake their games. However, dragging the subject of AGDI's agreement into this situation as a means to bolster the argument as to why KQIX should be released potentially causes more harm than good to the entire fan game community. So let me stress again, please don't do that. If you feel that you must write VU, please base the letter on KQIX's own strong points. Being a worthwhile title, it can easily stand on its own merits.
Boycotting Vivendi's products is also not likely to help the situation. The best way to show that adventure games are still popular is to purchase the compilations and let the sales figures do the talking. If nobody buys their compilations (due to everyone trying to make a point to VU), then the lack of sales will just make VU think adventure games really
are dead. This will only harm the chances of those franchises being revived in the future, which is contrary to the goal of what fan games like KQIX are all about. Also, Vivendi's new Quest compilations have not exactly been given high publicity. The majority of their modern customer base is probably unaware that Vivendi even has any connection to Sierra's classic Quest titles whatsoever -- and if their small pocket of loyal adventure gamers boycott them this won't really effect the sales of big-budget titles like "50 Cent Bulletproof" or "Fear". These highly publicized titles will still be purchased on a large scale by buyers who are apathetic to (or don't even know about) the KQIX C&D situation.
That's just the way these things usually go; the viability of a product is measured by its commercial success. Given the low-key nature of the new compilations, it seems that a boycott would only result in the adventure game community shooting themselves in the collective foot (feet?) at this most crucial time. Consider this: with this release of the new compilations, it may well be a final opportunity to show VU how popular these classic titles still are. With a boycott in place, the lack of sales will not be an accurate indication of the popularity of the games... but VU won't deduce that. They'll simply see it as a dead genre that's gone belly up.
