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Square Enix and Amazon.com announce Thief Mod Contest


Springheel

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If it turns out contest submissions get IP clearance, it makes sense to start a Thief flavored FM, or even an original mission remake, make enough for a video for the contest, and then you still have time to finish it up afterwards and it keeps the clearance. If it turns out later the FM itself doesn't get clearance, then I think it's easy to just pull out the Thief-IP parts and have it a normal TDM FM. My point is, I think it's worth trying for anyone thinking about it.

 

Edit: That isn't legal advice, BTW. I'd repeat the 'at your own risk' until something is in writing, but I think as a tactic it could be clever to start something now to take the opportunity, even if it'd take longer than the time to submit, and you can finish it later or easily change if the IP becomes an issue.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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biker did you read the legal mumbo jumbo about how TDM team members, family of, and affiliates cannot win the contest?

 

could have changed though. with all this adding and removing garbage thats been going on, its possible that it was only a clause when the team was supposed to be part of the judging.

Edited by ungoliant
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Except that NuThief is not good for the THIEF community, and NuThief will never be embraced by the THIEF community...and is likely to become the laughingstock of the franchise. So why would TDM be happy to be a part of it?

 

Even if the above were true, so what? The contest has nothing to do with the new Thief game, other than the fact that Square Enix obviously wants to grab some media cycles with it. The contest is recognizing and rewarding work done with the original three games and TDM. It's giving people free copies of Thief: Gold. It's informing people about the existence of a vibrant thief modding community they might not otherwise know about.

 

Those are all positive things, regardless of your thoughts about Square Enix or the new Thief.

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Yeah, that's a bummer.

 

 

Why can't people outside the US enter?

 

I agree that's unfortunate. The Thief community is world-wide. As far as I know, the limitation is due to the involvement of the US division of Amazon, who is providing a lot of the prizes. It seems that different divisions of Amazon support contests only in their own regions. There may be future announcements on this point, however.

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I'd certainly say the contest is a last-minute effort to drum up interest in their game among the community that has spent more than 15 years with Thief. That doesn't mean it's all bad or all good in terms of intention, and in fact it seems a little desperate, but in the end, their game will stand, or not, on its own two legs, independent of the Thief series and TDM. I have a feeling it will sell enough that they'll be justified in the eyes of the publisher. Early videos with over a million hits (and thousands of likes) suggest it, as does the reception of DX:HR. Many of the 15+ year players might not like it at all, though (from video previews, I currently have no interest in it), but there will be a ton of console players wanting their first bite of it.

 

What confuses and bugs me a little about this contest, though, is the premise of it. It's nice to acknowledge modders of T1,2, and 3 and TDM (although it's not needed -- the community has accomplished far more for Thief than they have or ever will). It's great to stir up activity in the modding scene (if it succeeds in doing that). However, I feel it's very strange to use modding of a game that's 15 years old (with free copies handed out of the game that is not even the one most edited -- T2 holds that distinction), to drum up interest in their new game which will be for a different audience and almost definitely will not include a level editor and likely will not be very mod-able. Has that policy changed recently? Or might the contest help them to decide whether or not they officially support editing of Thief 4? If there's been any word on it, I don't know it. It can only help their cause in the end, I'd say. Those interested will still buy the game and DLC regardless of FMs, and FMs are what kept Thief so hot for so long.

 

It'll be interesting to see where this goes, whether it prompts the release of editing tools, or whether it's just an attempt to align themselves and their game with successful modding communities.

Edited by SneaksieDave
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It says "Your entries may be based on Thief Gold, truly a great source of inspiration." It doesn't say anything about using Thief 2 or The Dark Mod. Then, at the bottom, it just says "To get the Dark Mod, voted PC Gamers Mod Of The Year in 2013, or for more information on how to create a mod, visit thedarkmod.com." Whoever put this press release out made it sound really confusing. Tbh, if you're going to use Thief over TDM, you're more than likely going to use Dromed 1.21, because that's the most recent version, and it's for T2. So why are they pimping Thief Gold?
Because it has the word Gold in it, and they attracted to that like a moth to a flame?
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I feel it's very strange to use modding of a game that's 15 years old (with free copies handed out of the game that is not even the one most edited -- T2 holds that distinction), to drum up interest in their new game which will be for a different audience and almost definitely will not include a level editor and likely will not be very mod-able.

 

Remember when you're dealing with large companies like this that there can be a significant difference between the original intention behind something, and the end result after it goes up the ladder through the legal department, the marketing department, and various levels of bureaucratic oversight, not to mention another big company (Amazon) who gets its say as well.

 

The Thief:Gold element was a surprise to me too. They were originally going to provide something different, which would have generated a lot more excitement.

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The Thief:Gold element was a surprise to me too. They were originally going to provide something different, which would have generated a lot more excitement.

 

Are you at liberty to disclose what was originally planned to be provided?

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I don't know.

 

But anyone with any history in the Thief editing community could guess.

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A representative actually made a kind of announcement a few weeks ago, which is why I think it's public information now, but it's ambiguous enough I don't feel like testing it. But yeah, you could guess what they'd release that would give them the idea to have a modding contest (as opposed, e.g., to just an FM contest).

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Yeah, but... Thief Gold kicks ass! I like some of the aesthetics in that game much better than T2, for example the sounds, the guard vocals, the different enemy types, etc. I would love to see some more Thief Gold *missions*, not video clips...

--- War does not decide who is right, war decides who is left.

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//A representative actually made a kind of announcement a few weeks ago, which is why I think it's public information//

 

Where was this?

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So... how many submissions have their been into this contest?

Has anyone here signed up for it? I couldn't even if I wanted too, since I don't live in the US.

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Is this really for US only? They gotta be kidding, right?

r5kUTuG.png

 

I'm part of THEM, sadly.

 

I have a neat idea, and could maybe do it, but without incentive... Well no.

 

Like the finnish saying goes: "Pitäkää tunkkinne."

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Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Hm.

 

I, on the other hand, would love see the foolish exclusion of the rest of the world to backfire and result in a ridiculously low amount of interest in their contest.

 

The exclusion really is sort of a middle finger to the international community, don't you think?

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Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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It is not a real surprise after region-coded DVDs and content owners locking much of the world out of looking at their crappy Youtube videos (!).

 

OTOH, you should always build fan missions because you want to build them, not because someone offers you some toy for it. Even if I have won two custom titles and a boxed copy of Thief Gold in the bargain, what matters is the missions I have created.

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Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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