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If EA decided they wanted to...


R315r4z0r

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  • Totem Arts Staff

I think that depends on what they want to do with the mod. We're here to remake and revamp C&C Renegade and we've got very specific plans as to how we want the final product to turn out. If EA were to come to us and want us to trash certain aspects of Renegade that we loved, and replace it with things we don't want, I don't think I'd be in favour of that decision.

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QUOTE (R315r4z0r @ May 18 2009, 04:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
If EA came over and decided to purchase this Mod's assets and turn it into a full fledged game (giving a hefty sum to the dev team), would you guys do it? Take the money and give EA all creative rights to the mod? Or tell them to get lost? (Obviously in a nicer way lol)[/b]


if it werent for the rights to the Unreal engine costing a lot, especially for a competing company to use, EA probably would.
if the rights were free the RenX team could release it as a non profit standalone.
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QUOTE (R315r4z0r @ May 18 2009, 03:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
If EA came over and decided to purchase this Mod's assets and turn it into a full fledged game (giving a hefty sum to the dev team), would you guys do it? Take the money and give EA all creative rights to the mod? Or tell them to get lost? (Obviously in a nicer way lol)[/b]

If EA was smart they would hire them and have them make a sequel say in 2 or 3 years
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QUOTE (JeepRubi @ May 19 2009, 02:43 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I wouldn't care what they did with it, I would take the hefty sum and start my career.
A game is one thing, my life is a more important thing.[/b]


I think this is the most realistic and smart thing to say. Especially as they would only throw away money if they changed the game. All the people that are watching this mod are watching it because it will recreate a game, minus the bugs. Not watching it because it will create a new one.
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I'd only take it if the following conditions were met:

EA could offer advice, but the final game decisions would be down to us. In other words, we still control the direction of the project and make ALL the decisions.

They paid a competitive salary and offered every member of the team a full-time job.

Allowed us to work from home without relocating.

They wouldn't take a huge cut of the profit.

If I'm honest? I can't see any of those crtierii being met. Publishers are generally bullies, EA is no exception. They have strict deadlines, pay pitence, and then take 90% of the profit and own all the rights and your soul (well, they'd like to).

I'm aiming to work in the industry having just finished my BEng (Hons) degree in Computer Games Design. I'm in games design for designing games, not money or sales. Id much rather work for minimum wage, on a small, friendly, independant developer than work in a team of hundreds, making cups of tea, for a big sales-pusher any day.

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QUOTE (maty @ May 19 2009, 06:36 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
If I'm honest? I can't see any of those crtierii being met. Publishers are generally bullies, EA is no exception. They have strict deadlines, pay pitence, and then take 90% of the profit and own all the rights and your soul (well, they'd like to).

I'm aiming to work in the industry having just finished my BEng (Hons) degree in Computer Games Design. I'm in games design for designing games, not money or sales. Id much rather work for minimum wage, on a small, friendly, independant developer than work in a team of hundreds, making cups of tea, for a big sales-pusher any day.[/b]


Amen. :lol:

I don't like what EA has done to the C&C series. It's been downhill since Westwood was bought out :(
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QUOTE (scensorECHO @ May 19 2009, 09:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I don't like what EA has done to the C&C series. It's been downhill since Westwood was bought out :( [/b]


Don't get me wrong, EA isn't the only sales-pusher. Ubisoft and other companies are just as bad. There are a few nice companies to deal with, Valve in particular :) .
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I dont know, I think the prices would be outrages for copyright stuff. Yes, Tiberium had right to use the engine, but this is something totally different. They have to ask Unreal again for the rights. It is a countermesure against people saying "hey we are going to make tiberium" and then make a porn game out of it for example. So they still need the rights!

But if the Prices would be decent, why not?

offtopic: Tiberium wars was good imo. The only thing it lacked (and that sucked big time) was the feel of tiberium dawn. Tiberium was more like a resource and a small hazard for your walking units in wars. In dawn it was a worldthreatening and worldchanging thing that corrupted everything. You can see it in the red zones that they tried, but it just isnt the same feel as the dark murky tiberium waters in dawn...

Ban4life

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QUOTE (Ban4life @ May 20 2009, 06:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I dont know, I think the prices would be outrages for copyright stuff. Yes, Tiberium had right to use the engine, but this is something totally different. They have to ask Unreal again for the rights. It is a countermesure against people saying "hey we are going to make tiberium" and then make a porn game out of it for example. So they still need the rights!
But if the Prices would be decent, why not?

Ban4life[/b]


Not so. You don't licence the UE3 per title, its a single license for whatever you want comercially. If EA have a license, they can produce as many games as they want - its only if they use companies contracted in that those smaller companies would need licenses.
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QUOTE (cinzcodeX @ May 20 2009, 12:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
^^ I also - not like this kind @EA[/b]



hell EA... when i hear that name im getting SICK.... look at CnC TW ... i spend 40€ for this bad patched shit... it would be better done if i bought the game later when 1.9 came out... the same they did with RA3 ( dont bought it, my luck^^) they already about 1.10 if i was seen it right... and i really think they would do that shit if u sell them the mod.... just Cheaters win at EA games.... not just CnC... NFS pro street is the same...

EA = only cheater games... if u a bad cheater u get banned lool dont give them the MOD!!


damn.......
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QUOTE (ManiacMac @ May 20 2009, 10:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
hell EA... when i hear that name im getting SICK.... look at CnC TW ... i spend 40€ for this bad patched shit... it would be better done if i bought the game later when 1.9 came out... the same they did with RA3 ( dont bought it, my luck^^) they already about 1.10 if i was seen it right... and i really think they would do that shit if u sell them the mod.... just Cheaters win at EA games.... not just CnC... NFS pro street is the same...

EA = only cheater games... if u a bad cheater u get banned lool dont give them the MOD!!


damn.......[/b]


Think so... Just financial adviser and marketing managers work at EA... *;o)
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A demo still requires pretty much ALL the bugs to be fixed. Demos aren't normally "unfinished" products, they're almost completely finished games to give a taste.

Bugfixing takes more time than perhaps most of the art and design work. Even with half the characters in, bug fixed would still be a long way off.

I would not be happy releasing an unfinished product here. Betas are for internal use or limited use. Many mods have died a slow, painful death before they were even finished thanks to public betas turning people off.

We're getting there. I don't see any reason why we can't be most of the way there towards the end of this year :) .

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QUOTE (R315r4z0r @ May 18 2009, 07:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
If EA came over and decided to purchase this Mod's assets and turn it into a full fledged game (giving a hefty sum to the dev team), would you guys do it? Take the money and give EA all creative rights to the mod? Or tell them to get lost? (Obviously in a nicer way lol)[/b]


HEll No don't let them fuck this great mod up, simply tell them to go fuck themselves!
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QUOTE (thrash300 @ May 28 2009, 09:34 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
HEll No don't let them fuck this great mod up, simply tell them to go fuck themselves![/b]



technically, they could tell you guys to stop what you are doing, EA actually doesn't require to pay anything.

If they were really interested, they would create their own and tell fobby and the crew that they must stop all development.
Its kinda two sided thou, if EA really liked it, they probably would want everything you have done so far so yes they would pay.
But if they felt really stingy they probably create there own without paying, but this results in more money needed to be spent on recreating everything we have seen so far.

If i recall something like this happened with Halo, group of people were making a Halo RTS, and Microsoft came in with their lawyers and told them to stop or face court.

At the time everybody was wandering why a mod had to be cease, but in the end its because they were creating there own game "Halo Wars"

EA owns the rights to the game
If EA goes and recreates c&c renegade using payed licenses on UT3 they probably have the right's to tell you to stop.
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We've had EA's blessing on this, they wouldn't close us.

And actually all we could do is just remove all the CNC-related stuff (nod logos, character names) but we could keep the gameplay identical and not be forced to shut!

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Even if they said you couldn't make the mod and told you to stop, they can't do anything about you not actually stopping. The only time they can actually step in with lawyers and sue them is if they were making money off the mod.

But since it is something they are doing for themselves, in their free time, without any physical personal gain, there is no legal way they can actually stop them from doing what they are doing.

It would be like suing a person for righting a fan-fiction novel about a movie they just saw. It's not copyright unless you either:

- Somehow end up with profit from someone eles' idea (similar or not to the original)

- Take and redistribute an identical or vastly similar product/idea to something that is already on the market. (Like if someone made a mod that completely remakes a game on another engine for free while the actual game the mod is based on is still sold in stores.)

Not only that, but just because you are making something for fun in your own spare time, doesn't mean you will ultimately share it with others. If EA said to stop making the mod, they could just make it for themselves to play and "accidentally" "leak" it to the public.

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  • Totem Arts Staff

And leak some patches too ;)

We're in EA's good books - they allowed us to work on the mod since the beginning, and we've been mentioned on their site a number of times, and twice in Battlecast Primetime. Heck, Apoc even talks about us in his Twitter. There's no sensible case against the mod, unless of course, we sold it.

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QUOTE (R315r4z0r @ May 29 2009, 04:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Even if they said you couldn't make the mod and told you to stop, they can't do anything about you not actually stopping. The only time they can actually step in with lawyers and sue them is if they were making money off the mod.[/b]


Incorrect. Either way its their Intellectual Property and we're lucky enough to be permitted to use it. for non-profit or not, they can close us. Its happened to mods before.
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QUOTE (Demigan @ May 30 2009, 11:30 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Yeah, you start the game, pick a difficulty, start playing, and then...
Your first enemy!
You carefully take aim and press fire, succe...?

'are you certain you wish to fire?'
Y/N[/b]


lol and when you choose yes, the game crashes :P

when game restarts it says:
Renegade X hasn't been shut down properly would you like to:

Run renegade X in safe mode
Run renegade X in low config mode

Run renegade X normally

^^
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QUOTE (maty @ May 30 2009, 11:55 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Incorrect. Either way its their Intellectual Property and we're lucky enough to be permitted to use it. for non-profit or not, they can close us. Its happened to mods before.[/b]

Explain to me how I'm incorrect.

If I decided to write a fan fiction story based off a few characters in their Need for Speed series, what's stopping me? If I decided to create a bunch of drawings of C&C units, what's stopping me? If I decided to make and distribute my own fan wallpapers of things in their Battle for Middle Earth series', what's stopping me?

All of those things are exactly the same as what this mod is doing.

Copyright is only infringed when you take the credit for someone else's idea. If I'm not getting any sort of compensation for using their work and nor am I explaining that it was all my original ideas, there is nothing I'm doing wrong, legally and therefore, nothing they can hold against me.
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QUOTE (R315r4z0r @ May 28 2009, 10:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Even if they said you couldn't make the mod and told you to stop, they can't do anything about you not actually stopping. The only time they can actually step in with lawyers and sue them is if they were making money off the mod.

But since it is something they are doing for themselves, in their free time, without any physical personal gain, there is no legal way they can actually stop them from doing what they are doing.

It would be like suing a person for righting a fan-fiction novel about a movie they just saw. It's not copyright unless you either:
- Somehow end up with profit from someone eles' idea (similar or not to the original)
- Take and redistribute an identical or vastly similar product/idea to something that is already on the market. (Like if someone made a mod that completely remakes a game on another engine for free while the actual game the mod is based on is still sold in stores.)

Not only that, but just because you are making something for fun in your own spare time, doesn't mean you will ultimately share it with others. If EA said to stop making the mod, they could just make it for themselves to play and "accidentally" "leak" it to the public.[/b]


They'll send agents that work for EA

revenge-of-the-nerds.jpg

and force you to stop developing it.
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like i said, (noxblade here)

if they actually wanted you to stop they can, Microsoft did it to a group of modders who were making halo RTS free mod, but due to halo wars was in development that's why they got funny.

We all know EA, and that are happy with this mod, but to the point, EA can technically close this mod down if they really really wanted to. But thankfully they don't :)

And there is no point saying a we just have to take out all key content linking it to Renegade, as basically all you will have left is the maps, i think the models of vehicles and buildings will come under it.

It doesnt amtter now anyway as we all know EA are happy with whats going on :P

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I fail to see how they have any say at all as to whether or not this mod can continue. Sure the story line and units used are there property, but this mod isn't doing anything that could be considered illegal in the first place.

Them asking you to stop is more like a suggestion rather than a demand.

However, thinking about it, if they really wanted to stop the mod, then I suppose they could play the card that they would be "losing money from Renegade sales because this mod's main goal is to basically copy that game." Since the mod is free, and overall better, people would be more attracted to that rather than the original Renegade itself.

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I believe we're violating that little EULA thing of Renegade by making this mod by using the IP. And I think technically we might be violating the EULA of UT3 as well. That's reason enough for them.

Trust me, the legalities are not on our side if EA hypothetically ever wants to press the issue, I've read about this stuff. But they wuvs us. ^__^

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