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Duke Nukem 3D Reloaded - Gearbox Boycott


TheUnbeholden

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With DN3D Reloaded put on hold, I'll tell you the story in case anyone isn't up to speed.

 

In the fall of 2010 DNR received a "personal non-commercial license" from Gearbox and impressed 3D Realms Scott Miller with their screenshots & enthusiasm. Schreiber posted news about a big upcoming update to the project & sent numerous emails to Gearbox about a response for releasing the game and received copy pasted responses "We will get back to you guys after all 3 DNF DLC packs have been released ".

 

Finally Gearbox said "We can’t give you an answer to that. Ofcourse you can keep working on it, if you

want to. But we can’t tell you if we will allow the game to be

released.".

 

Forums.duke4.net

 

So Fredrick "Fresch" Schreiber responded

"You know – I have spent a year in total on this

project. Ever single day, working full time. For free. And so have most

of my team members. I have spent my life savings on this project.

 

I can in NO way justify having them continue working on this project,

if you don’t want to see it getting released. So I’m afraid i have to

put the project on hold, until you can give us a definite answer."

 

Position of GBX is pretty simple: "Work as hard as you can, but we won't let you release it".

I really really hope GBX will give in on this matter and grant the DNR team rights to releasing info, the beta, and then the game.

 

So come on people, let Gearbox hear what you think about this (without swearing or letter bombs or smearing poop on their company cars), and how much you'd like to see DNR get released, and that what they need to do is work out a better compromise with the Interceptor guys than a essential "we won't tell you whether you can release anything" bs.

 

DNF has a pretty rocky development cycle so GBX did the bare minimum to shelve it out and have decided not to release any mod tools. Instead to very very slowly release DLC. You rushed out this game and kicked a lot of fans in the butt, what where left with (no manual saves, the same old weapons, linearity, no jetpack in single player, lame puzzles etc.) and now this, I like any disappointed fan, won't buy no Duke Begins nor anything else from you if you keep treating the fans like this.

Have some balls and let Interceptor release their game. Your way of dealing with the license & relationship with Interceptor led to this consequence, and it lies in your hands to fix this... sometimes you have to bow to public pressure.

You push them around by ignoring their questions & providing half answers and deleting their posts on your forum and banning members who speak out, you push enough and the people will push back. 'Nough said. Join in on the Boycott here

post-5642-0-94697000-1358945358_thumb.jpg

Edited by TheUnbeholden
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It goes without saying that Gearbox didn't even create this character, nor the series. That's just an example of how ****ed up the system is.

 

However, many of us are happy with Eduke32 and Polymer. All we want is a TCP/IP stack to be integrated which is as good as Quakeworld, and an in-game server browser to make finding fragbait/partners for co-op trivially easy.

 

Like Doom, the multiplayer base for Dn3D is fragmented. Some use source port a, some use source port b, etc. That's because there's no official TCP/IP implementation. With Quake engines on the other hand, everyone tries to comply with the standard to be network compatible so we can all play together.

Edited by lost_soul

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

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There are friendly and downright hostile IP owners. While I sympathise with the project, fanmade total conversions are always at risk of being taken down on legal grounds.

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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Huh? What is this fuzz about, clearly I did not understand what is going on. :S

 

If they own the IP, they own the IP and it is just foolish to spend your life on a project that violates other people's IP and is doomed will get shut down from the start.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Huh? What is this fuzz about, clearly I did not understand what is going on. :S

 

If they own the IP, they own the IP and it is just foolish to spend your life on a project that violates other people's IP and is doomed will get shut down from the start.

 

Yeah, god I wish some people would understand this logic. Hundreds(probably an overestimate, could be much much less) of indie game developers get f00ked through C&Ds every year but they never understand that you can't create a sequel to final fantasy, zelda or super mario no matter how free a game it'll be in the end.

 

Mods and total conversions however are a bit of a gray-zone for me. I don't really think a fanmade extension, reimagining or remake as it is would hurt an IP in any way as long as it is clearly pointed out that it's just that and not an official licensed product. (It's just sad if the IP holder is genuinely scared that the mod will by far surpass the original game :P)

So in most cases it just seems like corporate wet-blankets come along and ruin the party for some ambitious project.

 

But. Still- since everything about IP is wrapped so tightly it's often not even the game companys legal right to make any decision like that, and yeah. It's a damn bummer, but I guess there's no real point in arguing it.

 

(... I'm not the greatest at these things, so maybe I'm waaaay off here. This is how I've come to understand it anyhow.)

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From my understanding, Gearbox initially gave them permission by way of some non-commercial license but changed their mind after the thing had been well into production. It's understandable that the mod team would be pretty upset with Gearbox after this.

Yeah, that's a different kettle of fish -- and considerably shittier behaviour than nastygramming a project that had just started.

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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Huh? What is this fuzz about, clearly I did not understand what is going on. :S

 

If they own the IP, they own the IP and it is just foolish to spend your life on a project that violates other people's IP and is doomed will get shut down from the start.

 

For every action there is a reaction, they are about to find out what treating free fan made projects and modders as threats will get them.

What they think we are competition to triple A titles? they think it will impact their DLC sales? If anything more duke nukem mods and fan projects will encourage people to get the games to see what the fuss is about, a happy community will bring in more people ect

They have found themselves with a big IP, it carries with it expectations & responsibilities, mistreatment like this unacceptable, what ever hands it falls into we have the right to speak out & criticize, not be silenced. Vote with your wallet and that will tell them what you think. When they lose money they will hear you.

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I like how Gearbox doesn't even shut this down, the guys who made it put it on hold because they weren't sure when GBX would let them release, and now we have to boycott gearbox?

 

I don't see anyone hating on 3D Realms, who would slap you with a C&D the moment that you made anything duke-related that wasn't on the build engine. They wouldn't even entertain the idea of somebody else working on a duke project.

 

They or their publishers may be responsible for not having mod tools, but they had absolutely nothing to do with DNF's problems. Nearly every single questionable design decision on that game, from the HL2-copy-pasted level pacing to the 2 weapon limit, was done by George Broussard.

Edited by BloodShot
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From my understanding, Gearbox initially gave them permission by way of some non-commercial license but changed their mind after the thing had been well into production. It's understandable that the mod team would be pretty upset with Gearbox after this.

I agree that this is in fact very bad behaviour. On the other side the mod makers may have make sure that the really get a licence (in form of a contract or so).

On the other side I'm not quite sure what is really covered by the licence. If it is only the name and maybe the look of the player why not change that and distribute it under a different name? "Nuke Dukem" for example.

Edited by Obsttorte

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I think that information is a bit off. I recall reading from their own website(when it was still up) that from the beginning any form of 'release' needed to be approved from gearbox(or not approved) and that they new this. Publicly they put it on hold because as they continued to work on the project they still couldn't get an official release approval from Gearbox who wasn't saying yes or no. Unfortunately the mod team's site isn't up anymore as this was all explained there and they even said not to hate on Gearbox. Gearbox was just going by their initial agreement that they can work on it, but a release would be ultimately decided by Gearbox.

 

What really hurts fan projects in the end is when a fan project, or fans of the fan project, go on a rampage with boycotts or other attempted outrages at an IP holder. If every time a fan project is given a friendly "OK" to work on an IP, and then fans hate on the IP holder at some point in the future if that project fails or has it's "OK" taken away then it makes it even more difficult for IP holders to grant free use of their IP in the future. It becomes more risk of boycotts or bad press than is worth it.

 

/rant

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I'm in with the folks who say "these boycotts never accomplish anything". Let's face it, DNF was not so great, but if it weren't for Gearbox, and if 3D Realms had remained in charge, DNF would still be nothing but hot air, now with Amnesia-style physics.

 

I would love to see the original version of DNF released (on the Quake 2 engine). It was the coolest looking version of the game, showing nothing but gameplay.

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

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