Cease & Desist Letter

[Mikisho]

psh, technicalities.  I still feel like whining about it xD.

[Lord J Esq]

Most people over 15 posts don't have much of a fondness for details or substance either...

[Mr Bekkler]

Interesting. Care to go into more detail?

If you want to know what I was referring to, it's the posts from people who all have +1 posts and come on the forum and say "Hey you should still release the game because blah blah" When apparently all copies of CE have already been deleted, which has been stated many times.

The joke up there was a nice, refreshing change.

[lockgar]

Even though square has ever right to do this. Is there any actual legal weight to this though? I am familiar with other C&D letters, sent to other groups. For example, the fan subbing community "people who are actually giving the real product on their sites at times" receive theses and no legal action is ever taken.

I know lawyers are expensive, but you should ask one to look over your situation. Since you did spend 5 years of your lives on this.

BREAKING NEWS: God Issues Cease-And-Desist Orders To Dante, John Milton

That was great, seriously, awesome.


About the only thing good from this is that Square actually still cares enough after 10 years of inactivivity, "not counting the DS release" to actually do this. About the only thing that could even partially make up for this is if they announce a new sequel to Chrono "something I doubt completely by now" at e3 this year.

[Acacia Sgt]

About the only thing good from this is that Square actually still cares enough after 10 years of inactivivity, "not counting the DS release" to actually do this. About the only thing that could even partially make up for this is if they announce a new sequel to Chrono "something I doubt completely by now" at e3 this year.

Well, if they do have a new game planned and it's a midquel, then it makes sense to send the C&D to CE.

However, it wasn't just CE. Still, nothing is certain until the time comes.

[Mr Bekkler]

Square isn't making another Chrono game. They just don't want other people making more Chrono games. If they were going to do it, then yes, a C&D would be appropriate. However, this would have come way earlier, and would be specific to CE. While I'd like to stay optimistic, I'd rather not get burned again, after every fan made Chrono game falls apart, all SE wants is for us to buy the DS versions of their stuff and then pretend nothing else existed.

[Mikisho]

Most people over 15 posts don't have much of a fondness for details or substance either...

.....  Oh you're lucky I'm in a good mood.  But you know, are substance filled posts really necessary?

Anyway, I should probably stop derailing the topic.  So to try and get it on track, are there any further details on what is happening with CE?  Have we tried contacting Square for a possible work around?  If this has been answered else where I apologize, I am tired and am trying to give my post a little substance

[RySenkari]

If you want to know what I was referring to, it's the posts from people who all have +1 posts and come on the forum and say "Hey you should still release the game because blah blah" When apparently all copies of CE have already been deleted, which has been stated many times.

Well, I was thinking of doing that, but it wouldn't help anything. Even if one of the people who worked on it was willing to go out on a limb and martyr himself for CE, he'd also be martyring everyone else. I'm surprised no one thought of that so far. It's not like it'd be one guy jumping on a grenade and taking one for the team, it'd be one guy throwing himself and all his comrades on the grenade, and I don't think anyone wants to sell their friend down the river like that.

I wish there was just a way to pass all the heat onto someone who could take it. I'm sure there's one CE fan out there who'd be willing to take the legal/financial burden. I can't say I would, but I'm sure there's some insanely stupid person out there who would. A Dark Knight of sorts. But no matter what happens, it's Zeality and everyone else who worked on it in the crosshairs.

[Mr Bekkler]

I just wish Square never bothered to look at fangames. Why would anybody who hasn't already bought the game want to play a fan sequel? No sense. For no cents. Either way, if and when the time comes, I would love to see video of a playthrough. I would watch the entire thing. It sounds like a great idea, just don't show the Crimson Echoes title screen and Square might leave it alone long enough for at least some of us non-betas to get to hear and see the epic tale, and perhaps, at just the right hour of the night after a day or two of no REM cycles, just perhaps it might even feel like we're playing it.

[Enigma Outlaw]

It's not like it'd be one guy jumping on a grenade and taking one for the team, it'd be one guy throwing himself and all his comrades on the grenade, and I don't think anyone wants to sell their friend down the river like that.

Heh....most like one person picks up the live grenade, calmly walks over to his buddies and says "Hey guys....where's the pin?"

In any case it's currently May 14th where I live. Seeing that Square's deadline was suppose to be yesterday I'd imagine we're going to be hearing more about the situation sometime this afternoon. Right now the only thing that those who didn't work on this can do is sit back and wait. It'll blow but hopefully we'll have a better idea where everything stands by the end of tonight.

[Happy-Dude]

Slashdot:

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/12/0643208

Happy it got to the main page.

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1230077&cid=27921497

The timing of this does indeed make Square Enix look just about as callous as they could possibly look.

This is only a personal anecdote -- get enough of them and maybe you can call them data -- but back when they were still Squaresoft, they weren't like this. As an intermediate-level student of Japanese in college, I translated a large amount of dialogue and other material for games of theirs that never got any release outside Japan, and put the stuff on my web site. When Square found out about it, they invited me to interview with them, paying what was to me an insane amount of money to get me to their offices and meet the staff.

I didn't get chosen to be a translator -- and there's no shame at all in losing out to the genius that is Alexander O. Smith -- but it was a great thrill for an ordinary undergraduate like myself, and at no time did they ever issue any stern warnings about putting my translations into ROMs, or selling anything I'd created; they were interested in what my abilities could do for them, not in stamping out the creative force of their fans.

I'm surprised -- well, maybe not anymore -- that these modders didn't get better treatment from the game maker that they so admire, and that the significant abilities they demonstrated in making this hack were, it seems, totally ignored. Instead, the Big Corporation sat on its hands for five years watching these fans work their magic, then dropped the hammer, giving them five days to unconditionally surrender to their demands. And without even the courtesy of putting an individual person in position to answer possible questions and arguments from the Compendium! No, SE just left a generic phone number, and no name, at the bottom of a legally-binding letter. They couldn't have been more insulting if they'd tried.

I'm still a little unclear about how the North American branch of SE is involved in this -- the game was made by Squaresoft in Japan, and the only thing added to it by the North American team is the translation, none of which, obviously, is being used in a fan-made game with a totally new script. The copyrighted material that's being "borrowed" was made in Japan, where doujin material is a standard part of game/manga fandom. I know things are looking bleak for the Compendium, but I wonder if an appeal to Square Enix KK (Japan) might save the project. The way things are now, it certainly couldn't hurt.

[mav]

Thanks for that post Happy-Dude: that comment over at slashdot was quite enlightening, especially about his personal experience as a translator. I've often wondered whether the CE guys should try and appeal to SE in Japan, since it really applies more to them...

Blah, it's such a complicated situation.

[Agent 12]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10240371-1.html

Wow CNet.   I honestly didn't see this one coming.

--JP

[Mr Bekkler]

It's a too many chiefs and not enough indians situation. So many people have "ideas" (or the same idea over and over) who can't really do anything to try them out. The project leaders are the only ones who will make these decisions and no matter what we suggest, what they say is set in stone as far as we are concerned. I've accepted that. The fact that I've accepted it is the only reason I'm back here. I still love Chrono Trigger, and I still like Cross, but if the two groups responsible for this situation say that's all there is to it, then that's all there is to it. At least I still have my games.



If this C&D had happened like two weeks earlier, I would NOT have bought the DS I got recently. I got it mostly for CT, (and FF6A) so I could give it a full playthrough and check out all the extra stuff and be done RIGHT BEFORE the release of CE. If I had known there would be no CE, Nintendo would not have my 120 bucks and Square would not have my 50 or 60 bucks or however much that damn game cost.
I don't know how other fans in similar situations feel, but I'd imagine most of their feelings are identical to mine on this point.




Edit/Additionally:
That article is a really good find, Agent12! Really good.

[FaustWolf]

Ah, Christ. Any way we can submit corrections to the CNET story? They make it sound like we were releasing ROMs. Which we were not.