Litigation is Magic

[Kathleen]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episod ... n-is-magic

For a two hour game, Journey sure was expensive. With bonus Brony-based controversy!

[JSBaker]

I like Friendship is Magic, so I would love to see a game made for the franchise by a competent team. These people making Fighting is Magic seem like they are creative and enthusiastic to make an MLP game, something extremely rare in adapting franchises to games, so I wish that Hasbro could see the benefit of giving this team an official project. Just look at how much work these people put into even the soundtrack for their game. So, definitely not a fighting game, but give them something to work on.

MLP: Fighting is Magic - Rainbow Dash's Theme (Super-Extended Version)

[AdmiralMemo]

Graham: What exactly are MPL fans?
Kate: Good reminder that you're there with the boom shot at the end.

(Just needling you guys in good fun. It was a good episode. )

[Foxmar]

Ive never seen MLP but if the MLP fighting game played like Super Smash Brothers I would have to try it.
But after watching some of it on YouTube I will say it looks remarkably well done for a fan game.

[Dusk_Shine]

As a fan who has watched pretty much all of the in-development videos from the Fighting is Magic team, and being that I also signed the petition to ask Hasbro to undo their shutdown of that dev-cycle, I'm a bit disappointed that Graham would knock the concept so hard *maybe it was just over-exaggeration for the show's sake, but still kinda hurt).

[JackSlack]

It was never going to happen, for all the reasons Graham stated.

What I will ping Hasbro for was leaving it this late to do so. That's just a dick move.

[Slack Mesa]

In this episode Graham said, "there's also no way they'd ever be able to officially support a fighting game based on a TV show for little girls."

Just because the audience are girls, you don't think they can play fighting games? That's a harmful stereotype from the past. As gamers, we should be looking toward the future: a future where every child, regardless of gender, can grow up to make games in which cartoon horses smack the shit out of each other.

[Slack Mesa]

Graham: What exactly are MPL fans?

My Pretty Lemur is the hottest new after-school program on television. It's just too bad that the creators shut down the fan-made game Monkey Knife Fight: MPL Edition.

[tamaness]

What I will ping Hasbro for was leaving it this late to do so. That's just a dick move.

QFT. I've been following FIM for a while, and the fact that they got this far seemed to be tacit approval from Hasbro. Oh well.

[Graham]

In this episode Graham said, "there's also no way they'd ever be able to officially support a fighting game based on a TV show for little girls."

Just because the audience are girls, you don't think they can play fighting games? That's a harmful stereotype from the past. As gamers, we should be looking toward the future: a future where every child, regardless of gender, can grow up to make games in which cartoon horses smack the shit out of each other.

I said this on the PA forums, but I'll state it again here: That's not what we said.


The key point is that they are children, not girls. Girls of any appropriate age can, do, and should play fighting games.

So, why didn't I just say "children"? Because it's not marketed to children, it is marketed to little girls. Saying otherwise would've been incorrect. Also, since CheckPoint is predominately for comedy, it is funnier to compare "20-something dudes" and "little girls".

I completely understand why you see it that way, but you're reading a meaning into our words that isn't there.

[Dominic Appleguard]

A key component of copyright protection and fair use is the idea that an allegedly stolen IP damages the brand.

Fighting is Magic depicts kid-friendly characters beating the shit out of each other. Even if it's bloodless, "comic violence" of the SSB variety, I can understand Hasbro legal wanting to lock that down. After all, even if the creative team doesn't really care, there could be repercussions if the game ever saw a wide release.

First, somebody who doesn't know the full story about Fighting is Magic finds out that there's an MLP fighting game. Next, a bunch of advocacy groups and concerned parents (all of whom famously love fact-checking...see XXX Mass Effect and the GTA Hot Coffee controversey) find out that, apparently, this show with a squeaky clean reputation that their daughters like has a tie-in game that's targeting their children with depictions of violence. The 24 hour news cycle hates letting actual facts get in the way of a good story, so it all goes rather predictably. Pitchforks, screaming, Fox News, censorship, public apologies, et cetera, et al.

[empath]

A key component of copyright protection and fair use is the idea that an allegedly stolen IP damages the brand.

Fighting is Magic depicts kid-friendly characters beating the shit out of each other. Even if it's bloodless, "comic violence" of the SSB variety, I can understand Hasbro legal wanting to lock that down. After all, even if the creative team doesn't really care, there could be repercussions if the game ever saw a wide release.

First, somebody who doesn't know the full story about Fighting is Magic finds out that there's an MLP fighting game. Next, a bunch of advocacy groups and concerned parents (all of whom famously love fact-checking...see XXX Mass Effect and the GTA Hot Coffee controversy) find out that, apparently, this show with a squeaky clean reputation that their daughters like has a tie-in game that's targeting their children with depictions of violence. The 24 hour news cycle hates letting actual facts get in the way of a good story, so it all goes rather predictably. Pitchforks, screaming, Fox News, censorship, public apologies, et cetera, et al.

If the owner of the Intellectual Property doesn't LIKE how the fan 'art' casts the I.P.'s characters, etc. they are entitled to protect their property.


And yeah, it's annoying that Hasbro left it so long before shutting FIM down, but guess what?
At the speed of bloated corporate bureaucracy, that WAS lighting fast.

To paraphrase Hanlon: "Never attribute to malice (I.E. deliberately waiting to jerk everyone along before pulling out the C&D orders), what can adequately be explained by incompetence (the gears of business are slow and lethargic and they acted as fast as they could, saddled with all the second-guessing of Legal and all the billable hours searching for precedents and background and whatnot)."

[JackSlack]

To paraphrase Hanlon: "Never attribute to malice (I.E. deliberately waiting to jerk everyone along before pulling out the C&D orders), what can adequately be explained by incompetence (the gears of business are slow and lethargic and they acted as fast as they could, saddled with all the second-guessing of Legal and all the billable hours searching for precedents and background and whatnot)."

Not buying it.

C&D letters are easy and fairly safe. Legally non-binding, but easy to issue and would have done a good job of clarifying that no, this wouldn't be tolerated. If they changed tack, they could have sent another letter rescinding it once debate had gone through.

[Master Gunner]

Still, for as well known as things such as this may be on the internet, that doesn't mean that the execs and lawyers who make the call would have been aware of it. Presumably they should have a few of their marketing/legal guys keeping an eye out for fan projects like this, but it's still entirely possible that they're a bit behind the rest of us (I never knew about the fighting game until this Checkpoint).

[JackSlack]

Seriously, surely someone there should have 'subscribe to Equestria Daily's' RSS feed as a job requirement. Surely.

[JayBlanc]

Well, they only 100% had to respond if it became high enough profile to threaten the trademark with dilution. It getting highlighted for a professional gaming convention did that.

[pokute]

Well, it's a good thing the internet exists so my nine year old niece can just keep playing this game instead ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_ttWbnn_sI ).

Also, dat tautology. Logic can be so sexy.

[Kayden]

It was never going to happen, for all the reasons Graham stated.

What I will ping Hasbro for was leaving it this late to do so. That's just a dick move.

Too be fair Hasbro probably thought it was one of those things that was all talk and never going to actually expect it to meet a release.

Personally I think Hasbro should start cracking down on a lot of things the fandom makes that could harm the mentality of its younger audience and generally give them a bad name but this of course will lead to the more mature and fanatic fans to go into a rage.

Well, they only 100% had to respond if it became high enough profile to threaten the trademark with dilution. It getting highlighted for a professional gaming convention did that.

It would've became extremely popular, I'm an ex-brony and I still have a ton of brony friends and this game was really popular iirc.

[AdmiralMemo]

Personally I think Hasbro should start cracking down on a lot of things the fandom makes that could harm the mentality of its younger audience and generally give them a bad name but this of course will lead to the more mature and fanatic fans to go into a rage.

If they just get rid of MLP porn, I'd be happy. Due to Rule 34, I knew it existed, but was glad to not stumble upon it. That changed when I was diagnosing issues with a customer's domain during tech support. It was just a bunch of seemingly-random letters as the domain, so I got curious as to what site it was connected to. So far, I still haven't quite brain bleached those images away yet, but I'm working on it.

[Kayden]

That....is actually part of the stuff that made me want to quit being an MLP fan, I feared I'd get that kind of bad rep when Bronies will be seen as cloppers more than cartoon fans.