Cease & Desist Letter

[FaustWolf]

Hah, I've always suspected the Alienat0r letter was fake anyways. I mean, how do we know he actually sent that to Square Enix? There's absolutely no proof that it was real, and there is some evidence that even points to it not being real ("Neill" for example). If it was fake as I suspect, what a ridiculous attention grab that was.

Lord J is right, SE is the one who issued the C&D. I do have hope that some kind of statement will be issued eventually; this is an unprecedented matter for them as well, so they're apparently taking their time and thinking things through.

[Dark3mx]

Hah, I've always suspected the Alienat0r letter was fake anyways. I mean, how do we know he actually sent that to Square Enix? There's absolutely no proof that it was real, and there is some evidence that even points to it not being real ("Neill" for example).

The reason why Neil was misspelled is because Neil is not a bot, if you notice, he used horrible grammar in OverlordMikey's email:

Thank you for contacting SQUARE ENIX Customer Support,

We appreciate your feedback. We apologize that the announcement you are referring to do not meet your expectations. Your information will be forwarded to my superiors. We do cherish the support and opinion from our customers and look forward to hearing your remarks regarding our upcoming games.

Thanks,
Neil- SQUARE ENIX Customer Support
www.square-enix.com

[Happy-Dude]

Hah, I've always suspected the Alienat0r letter was fake anyways. I mean, how do we know he actually sent that to Square Enix? There's absolutely no proof that it was real, and there is some evidence that even points to it not being real ("Neill" for example).

The reason why Neil was misspelled is because Neil is not a bot, if you notice, he used horrible grammar in OverlordMikey's email:

Thank you for contacting SQUARE ENIX Customer Support,

We appreciate your feedback. We apologize that the announcement you are referring to do not meet your expectations. Your information will be forwarded to my superiors. We do cherish the support and opinion from our customers and look forward to hearing your remarks regarding our upcoming games.

Thanks,
Neil- SQUARE ENIX Customer Support
www.square-enix.com

Well, it can just be a bot with bad grammer/ person writing it with a auto-insert signature (this is my email:)

From:
"Square Enix Customer Support" <support@square-enix-usa.com>
To:
*****************@yahoo.com
Thank you for contacting SQUARE ENIX Customer Support,

We appreciate your feedback. We apologize that the announcement you are referring to do not meet your expectations. Your information will be forwarded to my superiors. We do cherish the support and opinion from our customers and look forward to hearing your remarks regarding our upcoming games.

Thanks,
Nathan- SQUARE ENIX Customer Support
www.square-enix.com
 

anndd a more recent one:

Thank you for contacting SQUARE ENIX Customer Support,

We appreciate your feedback. It will be forwarded to my superiors. Thank you for taking the time to contact us today and we look forward to your opinions of our upcoming titles.

Thanks,
Neil- SQUARE ENIX Customer Support
www.square-enix.com
 

[kattrali]

...We apologize that the announcement you are referring to do not meet your expectations. Your information will be forwarded to my superiors. We do cherish the support and opinion from our customers and look forward to hearing your remarks regarding our upcoming games.

Thanks,
Neil- SQUARE ENIX Customer Support
www.square-enix.com

All of the robots I've met have terrible grammar.

[Vehek]

Parts of that email are apparently generic too, with a little fill-in-the-blank.

http://board.gulli.com/thread/1264898-the-last-remnant-ruckelt/#4
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=946860&topic=47793153 (Around message #24)

Thank you for contacting SQUARE ENIX Customer Support,

We appreciate your feedback. We apologize that the announcement you are referring to do not meet your expectations. At this time we have not made any announcements of Star Ocean 4 on PS3. Your information will be forwarded to my superiors. We do cherish the support and opinion from our customers and look forward to hearing your remarks regarding our upcoming games.

Thanks,
Neil- SQUARE ENIX Customer Support

There are some other people's names used (at least in the past), and so far I've found one response with the correct "does not meet".

[KingKongFu]

I don't understand why SE had to do this. I don't know if this is a good idea, but instead of companies like Square Enix bordering on hostility towards game hacks or game projects based on their original idea by issuing C&D letters, why don't they instead reach out to these hack developers? I mean, the creators of these hacks or fan games can seek a partnership with SE by selling their ideas to them, have SE approve them, and both SE and the fan developers can profit from Crimson Echoes or any fan game or hack of the like (say $5-$10 per game), so they can BOTH benefit from that. Any Chrono Trigger hack can easily be ported onto the WiiWare games part of the Virtual Console for instance. Both the company and the fan base would win this way, instead of one winning over the other with C&D letters.

[FaustWolf]

KingKongFu, I'd personally love to see that happen. The makers of the King's Quest series actually played through the fan-made King's Quest IX to impose their own level of quality control, which is only fair. It would be great if there were some compromise that could be reached; Anne McCaffrey even has a list of rules and guidelines for Chronicles of Perth fanfics. A far better solution than Anne Rice's actually siccing lawyers on fanfic authors (true story to my knowledge).

[kattrali]

...A far better solution than Anne Rice's actually siccing lawyers on fanfic authors (true story to my knowledge).

I found a link detailing Anne Rice's position on fanfics:
http://www.fanworks.org/writersresource/?action=define&authorid=102&tool=fanpolicy

Its hard to understand why someone would feel this way, especially since she never read any of it. How can fan homages (in any format) amount to anything other than publicity and continued love for a franchise?  If its "bad" fanwork, its easily ignored, and it reflects on the author, not the company owning the franchise, in the eyes of other fans or possibly someone who just comes across it (who reads fanfic and isn't already a fan?). I can remember some LotR fan fiction that an old friend wanted me to proofread for her involving Legolas and complicated romantic schemes, and I quickly discharged that stuff from my brain (and never finished reading it).

However, if its a "good" fan work, it has the possibility of drawing more fans and energizing the fanbase, as is the case in the ethereal world of Chrono fandom.  A good work can in turn reflect goodwill on the franchise, as it shows its strength to support the premises of new works.

Even satirical and comic adaptations serve a purpose; if they become strong and visible, it shows that at least somebody is paying enough attention to your franchise to give a nuanced or tongue in cheek analysis of it and make someone who knows about it chuckle.

The number of fans dedicated to this or that franchise usually balance things out anyway. There's a few good works in with the bad, and maybe a great one or two.  If all fanworks of your franchise are terrible in your eyes, perhaps the quality of your original work needs to be reevaluated. O_o

[Dapifer]

kattrali, I agree with you 100%, actually, this is what angers me the most, CE is concidered by the previews alone, a very good fan fic(rom hack or whatever), I have palyed the demo 2.0 and it is very promising, it only made me want to fire up my SNES just to play CT once again and rekindle the flame of my love for the Chrono Series, after I finish with CT I am going to tackle CC again, so... CE only made me want more of teh Chrono Universe, whatever happens with the patch, I am more interested in the Chrono series than I have ever been before, that's why I am so upset by SE behavior, CE could only benefit their previous work (CT and CC), also it is my understanding that CE would add publicity to CT:DS(for free I may add), just like the Red VS Blue series did for Halo, Crimson Echoes could only promote the love for the Chrono series, being CT(in any format) and CC, so regarding the IP stuff aside, I would love to see SE take the stand that Bungie took regarding Red VS Blue, but sadly, this wasn't the case, and they even demanded the Compendium made other fan projects such as Prophet's Guile to be brought down, this anger me further, Prophet's Guile was great, it give me a better insights on Magus and the Zeal realm, and the only bad thing I could attach to Prophet's Guile is that it was just too short, and having said that, I don't think that's a bad thing though...

Anyways, sorry about my ranting, but I just don't get SE's actions... even if they are in their legal rights, it just seem like they are just bullying the fanbase they have neglected from about a good 10 years or so...

I really, really hope our Planet's dream is not over yet...

[Corpse69]

I really, really hope our Planet's dream is not over yet...

my 1st post and im drunk sorryi had little to say lol

[Mikisho]

.....  so, still no sign of any news (I'm very impatient...) coming in the near future?  The only reason I ask, is because reading post after post after post, of people whining about how the don't understand how SE could C&D CE (No offence to all you people) get's a little boring after a while, and I figured we could use a little conversation starter.

[Corpse69]

yes we could i found it hard to post about anything erlier then my first post

[Happy-Dude]

Speaking of Fanfics... I remember reading some awesome Power Rangers ones... (Okay, okay, not the best franchise example, but when you look back -- they were pretty awesome.) These fanfics almost always had their own character designs, morphing sequences, and artwork. And, they would take the existing characters and tie them in somehow.

Best part of it all was that it was actually mature. Death, blood, gore, cursing, desires -- all there. Makes it a more realistic read if you ask me .

[FaustWolf]

Mikisho, there will probably be front-page news midweek sometime, if only to announce some goodies the CE team will make available in the near future.

[Eske]

Shouldn't this topic be locked until further developments have been made?  I haven't seen a real update for several pages now, just spam.  Though it is a real shame that we lost CT:CE, it's an even bigger shame that all of our attention is focused on it - even without updates.

I always found this site to be special because it was comparatively spam-free.  I thought it was amazing that the forums never broke down into useless debates over "omg who would win this fight" but actually attempted to understand the game while producing and displaying amazing artwork, fan fiction, and displaying a strong community of mature fans.

While I understand that the C&D is important, most of us cannot add to the discussion, which reduces the thread to spam. 

Let's move on and keep the site alive and active!