WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE FAN GAMES HERE AFTER WHAT HAPPENED TO THE METROID 2 PROJECT

Could you perhaps explain what did happen? I've no idea.


We've had games pulled before by companies. That's what happened with Marvel Brothel. We got a Cease and Desist and had to remove it from the site. No big deal and it's understandable that they wouldn't want their characters shown in such a light. It's also happened to other promising projects in the past - a few Chrono Trigger fangames got the C&D treatment, too.

It's just a case of saying "Alright, I don't own this copyright/etc so I have no say in the matter." Everyone knows there's a risk of a C&D when you make a fangame.

I am going to play the mean poster here but I agree with sentiments already posted.

Companies have to do that. As dumb as we see it. It is their IP even if they sit on it and do exactly NOTHING with it. Bunch of lazy snobs.
The lesser evil would be striking a deal with the guy and promoting the game as well. Nintendo practically got M2 remake for FREE during times when people seriously ask for a new Metroid game and have been pretty vocal about the current direction since Other M.

Imagine you release your cool game, it becomes fairly popular and then someone takes it without asking and makes their own game with the potential to overshadow your own product. You would proooobably feel a bit annoyed.
But this is a rough comparison.

When it comes to companies, I do see it as a d-move but I understand somewhere deep down why they do it. Still, they should at least use the fact they got their game in a sense...

Currently playing it. Amazing work, really.
I honestly did not like the original M2 that much and this up to date revision is much more welcome.

I think developers are better of calling it their own thing but make it somewhat obvious.
Like call it Space Hunter, write the plot the same but call Metroids something else along with upgrades and other stuff and release it. Sure, it is not Metroid 2 but everyone knows you wanted to remake the game :D

Thanks for mentioning Mother 4. I finally checked the progress again and it still seems to be worked on. Hm.

I'm sure it's not against the rules to point interested people to reddit right? They've posted the magnet link there and right now it's got plenty of seeders.

Can you guys not?

Like yeah, I know it's a shitty thing, but Nintendo doesn't have a choice, here. This kind of content threatens their own copyright on their product, so they HAVE to take it down, and they have a right to do so.

It sucks that we probably have to search for more obscure download links to the game, but I think this sort of thing should have been anticipated.

author=Ratty524
Can you guys not?

Like yeah, I know it's a shitty thing, but Nintendo doesn't have a choice, here. This kind of content threatens their own copyright on their product, so they HAVE to take it down, and they have a right to do so.

^^ this.

If a company fails to adequately protect their copyright, it sets a precedent that can and will be used against them in court, which will lead to groups outside Nintendo being able to sell their own Metroid games. It's a snowball effect that Nintendo is preventing by squashing the ball before it grows too large to squash Nintendo.

Whether it's morally right or wrong to shut down a passion project by a group of dedicated fans is completely irrelevant in the eyes of copyright law. Nintendo doesn't have a choice on the matter if they want to keep their rights to Metroid.


... as for my opinion on the matter: If I were in any position of power in Nintendo, and considering the quality of the fangame, I would have hired the team on the spot to make a professional polished Metroid game instead of shutting them down.

The team probably could have avoided this by making it a spiritual successor to Metroid instead. Renaming it to Zetroid or something and making some slight modifications to the sprites and design might have avoided being slapped by a C&D.

Make a Metroid-like game and base the hero off the faulty Samus Amiibo!



I saw what you did there, Pizza, and have been trying to think of a clever rad pun on your name. I'll get back to you on that!

author=Kaliesto
I fear for them too. In this day, and age I think fan works need the help from gamers to talk about this to update the copyright law where both parties can be happy because really Fan-works don't really hurt anyone in my opinion (unless it's something grotesque).

Fangames absolutely hurt the original products because a consumer can choose to play a fangame INSTEAD of playing the official game, thereby hurting sales of the official product.

Fan art and fiction, while still not legally protected (unless exempted by Fair Use, which is a whole different can of worms), is less damaging because is does not devalue the original work nearly as much as a 1:1 recreation of said work. Seeing a picture of Samus generally wouldn't stop someone from buying a Metroid game.

A point I rarely see brought up is with stuff that's very clearly going to cause problems if not stamped out immediately. What I'm talking about here is illegal stuff being distributed under the guise of a legit product. Marvel Brothel was a blatant case of this to the point that it's almost not even a case of it. The Grand Theft Auto "Hot Coffee" mod is closer to what I'm talking about but was still put in by the people at Rockstar and doesn't entirely fit the bill.

What I'm talking about is stuff that wasn't put in by the IP's copyright owners that blatantly goes against the law. Imagine if AM2R had a secret password locked away that allowed you to access child pornography stored in its code. Ridiculous, surely, but not outside the realm of possibility. If something like this ever came out and a concerned parent wrote an angry letter that went viral in this modern technological age, suddenly Nintendo has a very real and very damning case on their hands, one that might do irreparable damage to their family-friendly image.

Surely they shouldn't be expected to take any chances for the sake of some random fans with far too much time on their hands. Closing down a promising fan project would do far less harm to public relations than what might've otherwise occurred, no matter how unlikely it'd be. They can guarantee with 100% certainty that something that was developed and licensed by them wouldn't contain something they don't feel comfortable promoting. When they don't have access to the raw data, it's impossible to know if something unintentional might occur.

-----------------------

For the other side of the debate: the people working on this AM2R very clearly knew what they were getting into when they sunk over a decade into this project. Like Sated, I feel absolutely no sympathy for them being shut down.

It's pretty safe to say that fan projects fall into two neatly defined categories: amateur and imposter. Amateur fan projects are things like Chrono Alter and Final Fantasy: Blackmoon Prophecy. It's incredibly clear that these are very simple projects created by people with little to no expertise in game development. Imposters are things like AM2R and Chrono Resurrection that so closely resemble the original that they're almost impossible to tell apart. These clearly had a lot of thought and reverse engineering put into them to make sure that everything works almost perfectly.

Amateurs typically do it for the love of the game. Imposters do likewise but really open themselves up to greater criticism behind their intent. With so much obvious talent, why didn't they just make their own IP? Is branding such a herculean task that they had no other reasonable option but to infringe the copyright?

Was their talent not enough to sustain on its own so they had to rely on brand recognition, or were they looking for an easy way to appeal to the masses and get themselves known? Either way they're riding coattails, but one is more underhanded.

author=PepsiOtaku
you can only get it via torrents now.

Don't fucking do this. It was shut down for a reason. Protect the indie developers by not keeping it open and distributed after Nintendo's cease and desist. They don't know who these people are or who they know. This could get them into some serious trouble.

Ah well. I have the file and I am sharing it with whoever feels like playing the game :D

author=Kaliesto

author=Red_Nova
Make a Metroid-like game and base the hero off the faulty Samus Amiibo!

I saw what you did there, Pizza, and have been trying to think of a clever rad pun on your name. I'll get back to you on that!

author=Kaliesto
I fear for them too. In this day, and age I think fan works need the help from gamers to talk about this to update the copyright law where both parties can be happy because really Fan-works don't really hurt anyone in my opinion (unless it's something grotesque).

Fangames absolutely hurt the original products because a consumer can choose to play a fangame INSTEAD of playing the official game, thereby hurting sales of the official product.

Fan art and fiction, while still not legally protected (unless exempted by Fair Use, which is a whole different can of worms), is less damaging because is does not devalue the original work nearly as much as a 1:1 recreation of said work. Seeing a picture of Samus generally wouldn't stop someone from buying a Metroid game.

Then what am'I to make of Street Fighter x Megaman, and all those other MM fan games that came after? Capcom for the most part pretty much accepted that scene, and it has not damaged Capcom's image in any way. What am'I to make that fan project called Black Mesa that was for Half-Life that got worked to be part of the story? What am'I to make of Sonic Mania that actually was a Fan-project gone official? What am'I to make of the RE2-fan team that got hired by Capcom to do the real deal?

The only thing doing the damage is Draconian Trademark laws, and their army of lawyers that puts a official company at gunpoint because they are pissing off their Shareholders (where the developers are gagged to accept with their procedures), and attack their fans left and right?

I'm not arguing against you, and I see your point of view as well, but I just disagree this stuff is actually harming anything. I'm just pointing out how draconian trademark has become as of late.

I'm telling you if this keeps happening that fan-games won't be a thing anymore, and tarnishes the fan spirit. The PR damage is done, and now Nintendo is going to have to deal with their fans even though it was some random Lawyer in California that did it independently which tells me some Shareholder when after him.

I've been pretty sore about the whole thing last night, but I got a better perspective what actually happened. Nintendo didn't actually do anything, but some butthurt Shareholder who couldn't get his four-course meal out of it. In a way I've grown tired of the corporate world, and it makes me feel like it's not worth being a fan of a video game company due to the amount of controversies that has been piling up over the years, and seeing their true colors (like mistreating their employees, the suits get most of the income, etc). It is not even the developers fault, but who works over them, and the draconian laws.

I hope that counter-claim that AM2R might actually do ends up winning because it would be a major blow to the suits. It's about time someone stood up to them. If it ends up pissing off people who like to follow those draconian laws then so be it, I think a change needs to happen.

Who shit in your cereal? And where did you get your information that the big bad boogieman is taking everything that's pure from the world, and that a band of reactionary normies have to stand up for integrity and The American Way © in the wake of big business trying to shut them down? 4chan? 8chan? 420chan? I wouldn't take anything they have to say at face value. Remember how well this worked last time?