The Silver Lining - Ceased and Desisted

[Datadog]

It's all on our home page.

The short version - with Activision now holding the IP rights, the non-commercial license situation has changed, and they're revoking all the rights that Vivendi gave us to make the game. And not just that - we have to take down the forums, and pretty much erase all existence of the game from the internet.

As you can imagine, this pisses me off to no end.

I still think the worst part is how mind-numbingly close we were to release a few months back, until the lawyers showed up and told us not to work on it until they've had time to review it. The way I picture things, when they finally got around to it, they just brushed aside eight years worth of work because they didn't want to bother faxing a couple pieces of paper. It felt like a big impersonal "eff you" from Activision.

Maybe I should continue this in the "neck to wring" thread.

[MusicallyInspired]

You know, many complained about Vivendi but the monster (in both senses of the word) ActiVision is much worse.

[Rudy]

I'm just speechless...

[Collector]

I'm not sure how much right that they have if the name "King's Quest" is not used, but Activision's legal resources go far beyond anything that a fan group could muster. I suspect that GOG has shown that there is still profit in the old IPs, but they will probably realize not enough to invest in making a new one. Not that we would want anything that they did, anyway. "BOB" anyone?

[Jules]

I haven't kept up with TSL for a while. Did they come out with a full, playable game?

The last thing I remember was playing a demo that took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to render the 3d effects which made it almost unplayable on my machine. Back then, my computer was brand spankin new and it still lagged.

[Datadog]

We had a playable game, but couldn't put it online until Activision had a chance to review it (which I'm guessing they didn't.)

You would've been happy to know that the 3D graphics were the first bug they set about correcting after the demo's release. I think it was mostly any room with reflections in it that crashed my computer.

[mateo360]

Petition for the game made by someone on the tsl board:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/savetsl/

[Jules]

Yeah, same here. The mirror in Graham's room and the floor's reflection downstairs. I had to giggle when you could see the bottom of Graham's feet in the reflection when he was standing on the stairs.

Even though it's shutting down, I would take the good that came out of it and amplify it. Something good for the resume, more online friendships, a better understanding of game production, etc. You know what they say, there's always a reason when something happens. And for a lack of a better cliche, when a door closes, another one may open.

[Tawmis]

Related to the TSL thing - check out what remains of the TSL Forum where there is an online petition as a last string of hope.

Pass the word around.

[MusicallyInspired]

Petitions do nothing. Especially when ActiVision is concerned. They're wasting their time.

[Collector]

As nice as it has been to have the Sierra games become available through GOG, now that the Sierra IP is once again generating profit, no matter how small, it makes it that more likely that Activision will try to protect it and not let it go.

[DeadPoolX]

Yeah, the best we can hope for is that Activision recognizes these games for what they are and make some new ones. Maybe they'll actually pay attention to the content and avoid making more awful games like the new LSL titles.

[Rudy]

Yeah, the best we can hope for is that Activision recognizes these games for what they are and make some new ones. Maybe they'll actually pay attention to the content and avoid making more awful games like the new LSL titles.

Sorry DPX, but Activision wouldn't know what a King's Quest game (or any other Sierra classic) is if it would hit them in the face...

[AndreaDraco]

Still, I'd like to hope!

[Qbix]

And maybe if they are working on it, they could add some way to play the earlier versions as well.

Like the maniac mansion playable in DOTT.

Did activision produce any good adventure games themselves ?