MechWarrior Living Legends releases final update – forcibly shut down by MechWarrior rights holders - Polidicks

Yes we did get permission from Microsoft. Sorry that its all over guys; it was a fun ride! Unfortunately we couldn't put our already functional Mechlab in-game because they blocked us from doing that also and stole my design of the weapon modules

[QUOTE=Mechwarrior;39241226]Yes we did get permission from Microsoft. Sorry that its all over guys; it was a fun ride! Unfortunately we couldn't put our already functional Mechlab in-game because they blocked us from doing that also and stole my design of the weapon modules[/QUOTE] it sounds like that they could sue them back easy enough, as from the looks of things they stole from MWLL also [quote][B]F[/B][B]inal Public Release[/B][/quote]key word is public

Viperfan would you really want us to go into legal battle with these people that have money..? We'll lose terribly because money speaks louder than words now-a-days. We're 100% free so we don't have the money to deal with hiring lawyers and going through the whole legal process.

*Forget it, i´m gonna buy Crysis Warhead*

[QUOTE=viperfan7;39241247]it sounds like that they could sue them back easy enough, as from the looks of things they stole from MWLL also key word is public[/QUOTE] IP rights are going to win over what would amount to verbal permission.

[QUOTE=usaokay;39241322]I remember when there was a Halo fan-mod for Command & Conquer: Generals in the works, but it got shut down by a cease & desist from Microsoft, who in turn announced Halo Wars the following week.[/QUOTE] Yup, I think it was slipstream studios. The mod had enormous potential and looked amazing, then they sent a c&d their way and announced "Holo warz : because consoles are gud fer RTS'in version" :(

AKA Your game is better than ours, we can't have that

I hope the copyright owners games burn out, they lose tons of money, sell the IP, fans buy it, make their own. [QUOTE=Mechwarrior;39241276]Viperfan would you really want us to go into legal battle with these people that have money..? We'll lose terribly because money speaks louder than words now-a-days. We're 100% free so we don't have the money to deal with hiring lawyers and going through the whole legal process.[/QUOTE] Kickstarter to sue.

[QUOTE=usaokay;39241322]I remember when there was a Halo fan-mod for Command & Conquer: Generals in the works, but it got shut down by a cease & desist from Microsoft, who in turn announced Halo Wars the following week.[/QUOTE] We had written permission from microsoft though.. Piranha or whatever was filing for cease and desist

Shutting down fan games/mods is really dumb, it's like taking down a you tube video that has a copyrighted song in it. As far as I can tell, no, MWLL wasn't commercial, it's not leeching you of your money (if MWO was better than MWLL then they'd be making lots of profit), so why bother? At the end of the day it's just really greedy and childish.

[QUOTE=Mechwarrior;39241226]Unfortunately we couldn't put our already functional Mechlab in-game [/QUOTE] I am about a 15/10 on the mad scale right now. With a mechlab Mw:LL would've been the greatest mechwarrior game ever and nobody would've touched MWO.

[QUOTE=Phycosymo;39241449]Shutting down fan games/mods is really dumb, it's like taking down a you tube video that has a copyrighted song in it. As far as I can tell, no, MWLL wasn't commercial, it's not leeching you of your money (if MWO was better than MWLL then they'd be making lots of profit), so why bother? At the end of the day it's just really greedy and childish.[/QUOTE] Not really. This is one of the cases where it's legitimate because MWLL was stepping on MWO's toes. When a fan product directly competes with an official one (and is even better), it could cause the right holders to actually lose money because people would play the free, good alternative instead of the shitty, paid version. It doesn't make it any better.

[I]Woooow.[/I] [U]FUCK YOU.[/U] Jesus christ I was considering coming back to MWO after they fleshed it out. Not now, Goddamn that fucking SUCKS.

Reskin/Rename everything and get on greenlight asap?

Glad I never got that founder's thing

Just literally four hours before this fucking thread someone told me to try MWLL out

[QUOTE=Jimmyshimmy;39241627]Reskin/Rename everything and get on greenlight asap?[/QUOTE] I know I'm talking about a mod that I've played since '08 and that I don't even know how many updates it got adding all those mechs now but there's just so much in the game to change at this point that I don't know if it's possible.

Well, we were thinking about starting a kickstarter for buying a license.. but it'd cost about 1mil to get it.

[QUOTE=Mechwarrior;39241709]Well, we were thinking about starting a kickstarter for buying a license.. but it'd cost about 1mil to get it.[/QUOTE] Isn't it worth a try? :(

[QUOTE=Mechwarrior;39241276]Viperfan would you really want us to go into legal battle with these people that have money..? We'll lose terribly because money speaks louder than words now-a-days. We're 100% free so we don't have the money to deal with hiring lawyers and going through the whole legal process.[/QUOTE] sadly this is true

[QUOTE=Mechwarrior;39241709]Well, we were thinking about starting a kickstarter for buying a license.. but it'd cost about 1mil to get it.[/QUOTE] After seeing the disaster that was MWO, I think you could make at least 1 mil from all the disappointed fans. But you'd need to give the backers assurance that you'll talk with the copyright holders and secure a license.

[QUOTE=Mechwarrior;39241709]Well, we were thinking about starting a kickstarter for buying a license.. but it'd cost about 1mil to get it.[/QUOTE] I've seen many games get 1 million on kickstarter. I don't think it would hurt to try. I know I would donate.

this is why copyright is shit

Ugh we knew this backlash against MWO would happen we we were going to make the announcment :( I wouldn't be so hard on MWO, becuase they love the work that we did on MWLL. Wither or not you think their game is good or not, fact is a lot of this has to do more with the fact that MWLL is running off of a commercial IP for free for several years now, and it was only a matter of time before that IP was going to start being used again. Everyone at MWLL likes to think we saved the Mechwarrior franchise because in essence, our efforts is what sparked commercial interest in the IP again. We have it MUCH better off than 99% of mods out there that are based off a pre-existing IP. Remember Halogen for C&C generals? Months before release they got C&D for using the Halo property in their mod. Then a few months later, Halo wars was announced. We are very lucky we managed to get an actual legal right to use the IP, and that we've had such an awesome group of regular developers and irregular contributors to the project for the entire time it was in development and in open beta. This kind of thing is rare in any mod, and the fact that we could pull it off is glorious in of itself. I don't want to sound like an MWO apologist or anything, but what we've done has been amazing. It would have been great to get everything in 4-5 years or so down the line, but I'm just glad we could go out with a bang and still not get C&D'd for using a commercial IP. Also, development has stopped, but community map support is still a thing, and the game servers will still be running, so it's not like MWLL is gone or anything. It's now up to the community to keep its flame going instead of constant developer updates. [QUOTE=Mechwarrior;39241376]We had written permission from microsoft though.. Piranha or whatever was filing for cease and desist[/QUOTE] Who exactly are you on the team? I don't think you fully understand the situation. Piranah never filed a cease and desist at all, and the mod wasn't "forced" to stop development. It'd be nice if you didn't spread false rumors just because the mod stopping development is making you upset. I've been a developer for MWLL since before it was released in 2009, and while I stopped active development early last year I've always stayed up to date and active of the dev channels. Also there's no plans for a kickstarter because that would actually cause a real C&D to be filed, especailly since we'd need to have our own engine and assets and everythign (despite being a total conversion MWLL still heavily borrows from the Crysis Wars framework and their assets/textures)

Wow fuck those assholes. I played a bit MWO but maybe I should just play living legends.

Also, someone should make an MWLL thread in GD and keep that community flame going :) It's a big update, and it'd be great to have a place where people can join in on the fun and discuss all the changes in this update instead of focusing only on the mod stopping development..

[QUOTE=KorJax;39242599]-words-[/QUOTE] The MWO devs are really ecstatic to be in the position they're in. They're living their dream to be working on a Mechwarrior game. Majority of the problems of MWO stems from their incompetence. I hope MWLL lives on and doesn't get their download links removed.

[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;39242883]The MWO devs are really ecstatic to be in the position they're in. They're living their dream to be working on a Mechwarrior game. Majority of the problems of MWO stems from their incompetence. I hope MWLL lives on and doesn't get their download links removed.[/QUOTE] This is pretty much impossible, because someone out there will always have the download and you can create an alternate master server as well to handle the server listings. MWLL is still going on, the only thing that has stopped is development. [editline]16th January 2013[/editline] Reponse from Russ @ MWO on the matter that pretty much says how it went down: [quote]Hey Everyone, I know you haven't seen much of me lately, was pretty busy with the holiday season and a new baby in the family. I hope you will see more of me on the forums and in game soon. Here is what I know. Did we send a cease and desist letter? no we did not. At GDC 2012 I met with the mod leadership which of course happens to work at Crytek so we see each other pretty much every trade show, great guy. At this GDC in casual unscripted conversation I asked him "why are we splitting the community at this point?" We both realized that the MWLL community was small and it really wasn't competing with MWO but still each time a feature was added to MWLL that was in MWO it felt as though we were doubling up effort to restore this great brand. I expressed that we were not trying to shut anyone down but asked him how we might meld the two communities better and even look to possibly hire on any great talent what was in that project. ( Hey MWLL guys send in those resumes ) For a long time the IP was in the wind and MWLL is one of those games that really kept MW on peoples minds so the project and the individuals have our up most respect. We discussed this topic for a little while but again it was friendly and there was no threats of shutting the mod down just more of a sense of "Why are we doubling up efforts here?". After the show he contacted me expressing that they really wanted to finish what they started with MWLL and had a set of features that they would like to get done and asked if that was okay with PGI. They presented a very professional plan on the remaining work they wanted to complete and stated after that it would be time to stop production on MWLL. I thanked them for the plan and said that it all sounded great. Now today's news comes and I can only assume that this last patch represents the final features from that presentation they gave me. I will reach out to my MWLL contact and confirm that this is true and have a conversation, if there are any updates we will let you know. Again there was no combative relationship between MWO and MWLL, nor was there a cease and desist letter given. Thanks.[/quote] We could have chosen to not go along with it. However that is a road that in a few months from now, or whenver the next update would have been, would likely have had our non-commercial license officially revoked, and the entire project C&D'd (which means, nobody gets to play it again save LAN or Hamatchi). Instead we chose to do one big update and go out with a bang, and have the mod pretty much stay active forever (well.... active as long as the community keeps it alive).

if MWO wasnt such a bad game I wouldn't be sad about MWLL development being halted, they were always planning cool stuff.

[QUOTE=Mechwarrior;39241709]Well, we were thinking about starting a kickstarter for buying a license.. but it'd cost about 1mil to get it.[/QUOTE] worth a shot. do it!