Adventure Gamers - Forums

Bill Tiller is currently trying to organize a petition to convince Steven Spielberg to buy, as the title indicates, the Lucas’ classic IP’s:

The Petition

Dear Lucas Arts Classic IP Fans (that was a mouthful!)
As many of you know Disney shuttered o Lucas Arts today and probably shut the door on Guybrush and Elaine, Ben Throttle and Maureen Corley, Bernard Bernoulli, Purple Tentacle, Dr Fred and Zack McKraken, Boston Low and Bobbin Threadbare just to name a few.
I loved these games and was hoping some day they could be revived. Monkey Island did, but now that probably won’t ever again happen either. But I feel that one of the fan in particular who has great monetary power and clout in the movie and game biz could approach Disney with a serious offer to buy those IPs back. He could set up a new company or licenses the IPs out to third parties so that these great games could get a much needed face lift or new chapters added to their sagas. This fan would need to be famous, have billions of dollars, be fan of Lucas Arts games and see value in their IPs. And the only guy to fit the bill is ....Steven Spielberg.

I don’t have his email address nor his cell phone number, and I am not sure my arguments alone would persuade Mr. Spielberg at all. But maybe, just maybe if all of us fans of the classic LEC games spoke up we could make a good case, and possibly convince Mr. Spielberg this crazy dream of our is worth considering.
So if you agree with me, please sign this online petition and maybe we can make this ‘long shot’ a reality.

Sincerely,
Bill Tiller

Former Lead Artist on Lucas Arts’ Steven Spielberg’s The Dig, Curse of Monkey Island and Full Throttle II: Payback.

So rather than just sitting around, speculating on whether we`ll ever see another Guybrush or Bernard, we can do something active that may or may not lead to something good. With Bill Tiller himself as the frontrunner, hopefully, this petition will carry some weight. Go sign Bill’s petition here:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/speilberg-should-buy-classic-lucas-arts-ips/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=button

I’ll quote Lambonius here:

Lambonius - 05 April 2013 01:03 PM

Nothing says “take my ideas seriously” like a misspelled internet petition! 

Besides, Spielberg is nowhere near the top of my list of “people who I want to buy classic LucasArts IPs”. In fact, he’s not even ON the list…

Well, if you have a better idea, I’d be happy to hear it

Well, fortunately, grammar and spelling contests isn’t what Bill Tiller does for a living… One would think that this is the one place where you would find people willing to do anything and everything to help the genre move forward, but, somehow, I anticipated this post would be met with pure negativity.

I doubt Spielberg would do that, despite he has been attatched on game projects previously. He’s first and foremost a movie/TV series producer and to jump in game production would most likely take more time from him than he already has to spend. He always has multiple TV or movie proects in the making, so I don’t think he really would have time to start running game business on the side.

I agree with TimovieMan and tomimt, it is not very likely that Spielberg would start producing adventure games.

Dag - 08 April 2013 01:23 PM

Well, fortunately, grammar and spelling contests isn’t what Bill Tiller does for a living…

Sure, but this was in the title. That’s not a minor oversight.

One would think that this is the one place where you would find people willing to do anything and everything to help the genre move forward, but, somehow, I anticipated this post would be met with pure negativity.

Well, I approve of what he’s trying to achieve with this, but I doubt if it’ll have any effect at all. It’s not like we can force either Disney or Sp ei ielberg into reaching an agreement, even if we can get a million votes.
And even if it does happen, Spielberg is not the most viable candidate, imo. He may be a game enthusiast, but he’s not a developer, and he has very little to no experience in video game production.

Dag - 08 April 2013 01:13 PM

Well, if you have a better idea, I’d be happy to hear it

I wouldn’t mind if the IPs stay at Disney.
I’d rather have a petition like this to convince Disney that they should license out the IPs, and that they should do so cheaply because adventure games are a niche genre that lacks budgets.

But on the other hand, do we really NEED new games based on LucasArts IPs?
The rights to Sam & Max went back to Purcell, so that’s not a concern.
Nothing good has been made with the Indiana Jones name in over 20 years now.
Maniac Mansion / Day of the Tentacle don’t really need a sequel, and apart from Green and Purple Tentacle, just about any “mad scientist” game could do as a spiritual successor.
Zak McKracken, The Dig and Full Throttle are stand-alone stories that need no sequel.
Grim Fandango could use a game in the same universe but with different characters. But a spiritual successor would work just as well for that.
That leaves Monkey Island and Loom. And Monkey Island’s been done to death by now…

Is it all really worth it?

If we want to help push the genre forward, I’m not convinced we need to do so by constantly looking back…

That’s the spirit! It’s just a couple button clicks, what have you got to lose?

TimovieMan - 08 April 2013 02:42 PM

Dag - 08 April 2013 01:23 PM

Well, fortunately, grammar and spelling contests isn’t what Bill Tiller does for a living…

Sure, but this was in the title. That’s not a minor oversight.

Lol, I actually copy pasted the title from Bill’s post, so the typo was all on him, hehe

The idea wasn’t to have Spielberg himself designing new games from Lucas IP’s.

if Spielberg would have wanted to be more active in the game business he’d have created his own Amblin Game studio ages ago. I doubt he’d stat buying licenses of his old pals dead company just because people petition it.

Bill Tiller’s heart is in the right place. That said, I think most folks on this thread have successfully pointed out the problem with petitioning one movie exec to spend good money buying up another film producer’s IPs without a stated intent to use said IPs himself. I don’t think Spielberg is by any means the worst person to helm a gaming project, at least in an executive producer capacity, despite his relative lack of expertise; He is a consummate storyteller and a great scriptwriter, which are two faculties much needed in the AG industry today. However, I suspect that, if he had any real interest, we probably would have seen him make a move on LucasArts a long time ago.

All that said, I’d sign the petition, if for no other reason than to get some more buzz behind the LucasArts properties, which might inspire Disney to do something with the idling franchises they’ve bought and ostensibly retired.

Lee in Limbo - 08 April 2013 06:47 PM

All that said, I’d sign the petition, if for no other reason than to get some more buzz behind the LucasArts properties, which might inspire Disney to do something with the idling franchises they’ve bought and ostensibly retired.

Thank you. I wish more people would think like that.