AGDInteractive - Sierra Adventure Game Remakes Forum

If certain fake-projects received C&D's in the past, why wouldn't it be possible for SQ3 to get one? Hybrid studios have been advertising themselves quite a bit.

We did post in the official Sierra forums, but that got removed, other than us being on FanVentures & being mentioned here and there, thats all there is to it. I htink KQ9 did attract more attention but its not impossible for us to have gotten the letter. But we need to know facts.

Perhaps VU is getting the links from Ken William's site.  :lol

Alias wrote:Unless someone from SQN played a prank on our project, and khaveen fell for it.  :(

No.

It seems highly unusual that SQ3VGA would receive the letter before SQ7.

@Alias: Alright then. Hoax or lie, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that the C&D letter, if exists, is bogus. Therefore it's your responsibility to make sure this lie goes no further, and inform the rest of the forums who posted this announcement of that fact. If indeed this is a hoax, you and your friend should have been more careful rushing and annoucing shut down without verifing the letter's authenticity.
This is a delicate time for this community, and the last thing we need here is more panic spreading around. So, you're either guilty of speading lies or just getting everyone worked-up over an unsubstantiated claim... I hope for your sake it's the latter

I'm going to bed right now, I'll pick up on this tomorow morning. Good night.

This is crazy! If a team doesn't want to finish making a game, just say so...don't blame it on a company. I admit, VU isn't my company at the moment, but blaming them for something they didn't do just isn't right.

End of story:

I have the phone number of Khaveen. I'm calling him tomorrow, in the morning, and I'll ask him about this.

I already know his reply. He will say NO C&D letter was sent to him. Then, it will mean Alias lied.

Brainiac wrote:I read in another thread about how the BS and Runaway fangames have been in agreement with the license holders.  Is that just thoroughness similar to AGDI's or could it be because of copyright laws are different in Europe (relative to LA and VU stateside)?

I think it would be the copyright laws that are different in Europe or how the copyrights are handled or even the tolerance. Maybe a "diplomatic" approach explains how two parties can benefit more from a positive cooperation rather than an aggressive behavior since making a fangame isn't pointed to disrespect the copyrights; hence the free download. The fangame is a homage and a wish about what gamers wish to have. The companies should know about how many downloads of the free games, it will show them a reliable hint about the gamers interest ( and possibly if the company can earn interest in the game ). Then, the free "downloads" should be considered as a "poll" to find out if a game is interesting or not.

( I'm not sure if this idea is good enough for a letter I'm not sure to send )

Another way to avoid getting hit is to host the game in a completely different country, knowing it will be impossible or too costly for the company to chase. ( P.M me if I should remove these lines ) or the company will try to avoid any conflict and try to find arrangements out of courts and discussing a way that could benefit both for the companies and the fangame makers.

( I'm sure I won't send the second idea )

SOAP OPERA!!


Perhaps the letter is imaginary and only the person who has it can see it?    

The most depressing part of this is that Erpy felt he had to say that AGDI didn't rat anyone out.  Have things gotten that bad in the community where that kind of thing is necessary?  Come on, Erpy, do you really think we'd suspect YOU of sabotage?  That's ridiculous.

Parhelion wrote:The most depressing part of this is that Erpy felt he had to say that AGDI didn't rat anyone out.  Have things gotten that bad in the community where that kind of thing is necessary?  Come on, Erpy, do you really think we'd suspect YOU of sabotage?  That's ridiculous.

I know what you mean Parhelion, but there's some people out there who just love to bash AGDI because of their success...

In the big thread on the KQ9-forums, someone posted a link to a thread where he insinuated indeed that we took it upon ourselves to rat KQ9 out to VU. So I figured it was better to simply state we had nothing to do with it.

That is stupid. Didn't the KQ9 make clear that they've e-mailed Sierra/VU about their project (without a reply) a few years ago? And KQ9 has been very vocal about their FANTASTIC game, so how can anyone miss it.

The lawyers were probably registered on their mailing list all this time!  :p

The release anouncement was probably just what they needed. Heck.. considering the time that past since their anouncement, and the time it take to get a C&D (and get all the paperwork in perfect order), this is more than a possibility.

The point still stays: VU had full right to do this. The question is whether they shouldn't consider making use of the fan-game to promote themselves. Yeah... it will require more work from their side, but it will benefit the Sierra products in the long term.


KQ9 shouldn't have used the title. Yeah... it is still illegal to have a similar game even if the name is different, but it is more work (especially paperwork) because they have to find proof that the game is similar to theirs.

People only believed it was AGDI because they've done it before to a project. Only a small project anyway where sex was the main content, it recieved a C&D and was closed down.

But that is what I've been told anyway, it's spread to a few people aswell. Forgive me if it's a lie but it's what I've heard.

You mean the 'project' that was aimed at discrediting AGDI by using a similar name and the same webpage layout, but with edited AGDI screenshots?

Yep. I don't know if it's true or not that AGDI did close them down, but if they did why would they close down excellent projects like KQIX? They wouldn't, they were even looking forward to it from what I've seen. AGDI would never have done that so that's the bottom line in this.

A great disaster in the world of fan games.
All I hope is that our game will not be shut down

Bountice wrote:A great disaster in the world of fan games.
All I hope is that our game will not be shut down

I'd say your safe, both Space Quest 0 - Replicated and Space Quest: Lost Chapter were similar in unofficial sequels and haven't had any problems. Plus being made with AGI graphics may have something to do with it. So I would say your project is safe.

Erpy wrote:In the big thread on the KQ9-forums, someone posted a link to a thread where he insinuated indeed that we took it upon ourselves to rat KQ9 out to VU. So I figured it was better to simply state we had nothing to do with it.

That's a shame that anyone would believe it. I believe that right now, so many fans are still so upset they want to blame someone. I'm sorry they're hinting that AGDI may have had anything to do with it.

I still cant believe KQ9 is no longer coming out!

It'll hit me one day soon.

People only believed it was AGDI because they've done it before to a project. Only a small project anyway where sex was the main content, it recieved a C&D and was closed down.

But that is what I've been told anyway, it's spread to a few people aswell. Forgive me if it's a lie but it's what I've heard.

You've actually heard it correctly, but what was probably omitted was the exact background info. That little game would still be around if the creator would have published it on the website where he offered his other games at. Unfortunately, he chose to take the html-code of our website and upload it with slightly modified text and illustrations (illustrations with X-rated content, I might add), yet the exact layout, style and color scheme. (plus a forum made to look exactly like our own) In addition, he created fake testimonals under our names while posing as an AGD himself. One of the guidelines we're expected to follow is to avoid associating ourselves with adult content and this site went out of its way to do just that. Since a request to offer that game somewhere else would fall on deaf ears and since said game maker started making efforts to push his site into the public spotlight (ironically enough it was deleted at KQ9.org and the admin there mailed us saying he was disgusted and wished us good luck in dealing with it), we figured it was time to officially distance us from said site. Had VU said: "no probs", that would have been okay with us. Spite was not a factor here. The verdict, however, was "problematic", which if logic is applied to it, would mean us being falsely associated with it would be "problematic" as well. The assumption we did this because we felt we had to get rid of the "competition" is false. It was never even about the game.

I'm very well aware said game creator believes we're out to destroy the competition and he may actually believe we're ready to report his projects to their copyright holders when the time for their release is near, but that is an assumption that totally misses what this was all about.

With this all said, KQ9, nor any other fan project we know of, has ever attempted to draw us into something like this, thus we have absolutely no reason to take any sort of action whatsoever. We consider copyright issues a matter between the copyright holder and the concerning project.

In other words, he attempted to put you (AGDI) in a bad light and it could have affected your negotiations with VU? Was that about the time you were talking to VU?

Actually, they were just about rounded up around that time. Still, it would be easy for someone who knows nothing about the fangame environment to jump to the wrong conclusions upon viewing said site. That was our main concern.

That said, the site itself was created because said gamemaker was frustrated with us. Near the beginning of the whole deal, when we took all official Tierra-content off the web and changed our name, the person in question simply assumed the name change was done because we were stupid and he took it upon himself to reupload our entire old site back onto the web on his own webspace to make that point clear to us. (and then posted the links on our forum, announcing that "Tierra was still alive") Since we were going through an "evaluation" at that time, I figured it was in the best interests of our team to remove the thread holding the links from the public forums . Outraged that a humorless admin like myself destroyed several hours of his work within a matter of minutes, the game maker created the other site eventually as an act of oppositional defiance.

ok, I guess it was not that simple. A friend ran a "whois" checkup on Khaveen's site (not Hybrid Studios), but the phone that was writen was of the provider, not his own number.

I was informed that it means that he does not own the domain.