FMs to be distributed exclusively through Eidos? (LOOK OUT! IT'S A PRANK!) - by Gingerbread Man
Renzatic on 1/4/2005 at 20:46
Yeah, comeon now...even though GBM is playing his part to a T and making it that much harder for us to figure out, I doubt that Eidos would do anything even remotely as stupid as this.
The editor is out and about and isn't really harming Edios in any way whatsoever. Plenty of games have SDK's packaged in with them, and they've never put a dent in their future commercial revinue.
sparhawk on 1/4/2005 at 20:47
Quote Posted by mol
And I don't give a shit about Doom 3 itself, but I'd still buy the game to play whatever can be built with the Dark Mod.
Well, we already have one mapper who is working with the tools outside of the TDM team. I must say that I'm pretty impressed with what he created so far. :) We can use more serious mappers because we also want to get some early usabillity feedback. That's why he was not made member to TDM.
OrbWeaver on 1/4/2005 at 20:53
Quote Posted by Renzatic
Yeah, comeon now...even though GBM is playing his part to a T and making it that much harder for us to figure out, I doubt that Eidos would do anything even remotely as stupid as this.
Indeed. Are Eidos going to start suing FM creators, who almost by definition have purchased a copy of TDS (unless they pirated it)?
They only have to look at SCO to see what happens to companies that sue their own customers.
sparhawk on 1/4/2005 at 20:53
Quote Posted by mol
Of course, if you feel that this request by Eidos (if indeed such exists) ...
I'm still not 100% sure if this is really the truth or just an aprils joke by GBM, but I would say that it would be pretty lame of GBM if he wouldn't have cleared it up by now.
Quote:
... is perfectly justified and in the spirit of good will towards the customer/fan base -- you're of course entirely entitled to your opinion.
Nobody, in his right mind, can seriously consider it like that. :) But I'm not as hard hit by this, it is indeed true, as some others, because I don't really care for T3 anyway and I have yet to see what the FM authors will create. T3 never inspired me to even think about replaying it. That might be changed by good FM missions, but if this statement is really true and pulled through in full, I guess it will have a severe impact on the modding community for T3.
mol on 1/4/2005 at 20:54
Quote Posted by Renzatic
Yeah, comeon now...even though GBM is playing his part to a T and making it that much harder for us to figure out, I doubt that Eidos would do anything even remotely as stupid as this.
The editor is out and about and isn't really harming Edios in any way whatsoever. Plenty of games have SDK's packaged in with them, and they've never put a dent in their future commercial revinue.
Yeah, I hope you're right there, Renz.
As I said before, this is turning out to be a colossal mind-f***. Thing is, in your average April Fools you throw the lure in the water, and see who bites. You don't actively fish after you've cast your bait. It's been a bit different here, which makes people like me slightly nervous.
sparhawk on 1/4/2005 at 20:55
Quote Posted by OrbWeaver
Indeed. Are Eidos going to start suing FM creators, who almost by definition have purchased a copy of TDS (unless they pirated it).
They certainly wont sue FM creators, but they can easily prevent any reasonable distribution of FMs. You can use the editor for your own private enjoyment and Eidos can not do much about it, but they can do something about a distribution network. Of course there is always p2p but it would still be illegal, and a big server, serving as a central like TTLG would be busted quite easily.
Renzatic on 1/4/2005 at 20:58
Quote Posted by OrbWeaver
Indeed. Are Eidos going to start suing FM creators, who almost by definition have purchased a copy of TDS (unless they pirated it)?
They only have to look at SCO to see what happens to companies that sue their own customers.
Just to clarify, I doubt this is true so this is just a what if situation, but...
They wouldn't sue individual FM creators, they'd go after distrubution sources. In other words TTLG or The Keep wouldn't be able to host them without risking being shut down.
Edit: Damn, Spar beat me to it.
Renzatic on 1/4/2005 at 21:00
Quote Posted by mol
Yeah, I hope you're right there, Renz.
As I said before, this is turning out to be a colossal mind-f***. Thing is, in your average April Fools you throw the lure in the water, and see who bites. You don't actively fish after you've cast your bait. It's been a bit different here, which makes people like me slightly nervous.
We'll know for a fact at 12:01 tonight. ;)
mol on 1/4/2005 at 21:11
Right you are ;)
And hey, at least some good news amidst this whole sorry affair -- just noticed that it's your birthday today, Renz! Congratulations, taffer. :thumb:
Edit: Well, at least it was until a couple of minutes ago ;)
SlyFoxx on 1/4/2005 at 21:12
Quote:
As you are probably aware, Eidos Interactive is undergoing
some fundamental restructuring at this time.
Translation: We're getting bought out and everybody is running around all higgly piggly trying to cover their asses.
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In compliance with our investors' wishes it has become necessary to reclaim certain assets determined to be crucial to future development
possibilities.
The Flesh engine (developed by Ion Storm and used to create
Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows) is one of
these assets, and Eidos is forced to reconsider the decision to
make the editing tools freely available to the fan community.
Translation: We're taking out ball back and going home before the game is over!
Quote:
We can't realistically guarantee that all distributed copies of
this engine and the editing tools are deleted,
This whole idea is a step in the right direction!
Quote:
and we can't
collect a retroactive download fee from members of the
modding community who have the tool set.
Translation: We'd really like to charge you taffers but we can't think of a way how.
Quote:
We also recognize
the contribution made by fans of the Thief series through the
free distribution of a very impressive catalogue of fan-made
missions and modifications.
Translation: I know this news is not making your day so here is where I kiss your ass a bit and give a good atta-boy back slap.
Quote:
As a compromise to our investors, we have decided to recover
potential losses by requesting that all modifications, maps, and
resources created with the Flesh engine and its editing tools
be evaluated by Eidos Interactive.
Translation: Our investors are dumber than a sack of Zylon Bane's hair ...we're not really sure if anything in production is going to be worth a damn...and this is all somebody could think of as a stall tactic. We know that T3 is selling for 14 bucks nowadays.
Quote:
High-quality submissions will
be released exclusively through Eidos as part of a series of
annual expansion packs which will be available for download
through our website for a nominal fee.
Translation: Some of the big heads have smoked enough hash to actually think that mission designers will work for nothing while we collect the money for their efforts.
Quote:
This is also a condition imposed by Epic Games, because the
Flesh engine includes significant amounts of unreleased code
relevant to their Unreal 3 engine which is not yet available to
the public.
Epic Games is furious with us and their board of directors buys their hash from ours.
But serioulsy...at least this Lipsor fellow was decent enough to drop GBM a note.
:sly:
