Behind the Line: “Best Fan Creation” award

BTL

Game development can be difficult when stacks of technology all depend on each other, meaning any one element in the chain changes, and it can all topple over. That kind of interdependence can happen outside of the games themselves, too. So what happens when professionals want to honor devoted fans? Particularly when fans show their devotion by infringing on intellectual property? Titles get pulled from awards shows, that’s what.

Game Developers Choice Awards

GDC this year has added a new category in the Game Developers Choice Awards. This is a Fan’s Choice award called “Best Fan Creation”.  The original nominees are:

  • Brutal Doom 64 (a fan port of Doom 64)
  • Enderal: The Shards of Order (A Skyrim Mod)
  • AM2R (A fan port of Metroid 2)
  • Pokemon Uranium (A fan-made Pokemon game)

You may have noticed that only one of these fan projects is “supported”. Skyrim mods are a part of the expected user behavior, but the other 3 are, at best, in a legal grey area. Id software isn’t going to be getting any additional revenue from Doom 64 sales. I mean, it is a 20 year old console game. There isn’t much call to re-print Nintendo 64 cartridges so the publisher can profit. Sure, Id could still port the game to a modern platform and sell it themselves, but they have given their approval to Brutal Doom 64. They even tweeted a congratulations.

The Big N files DMCA notices

The big problem is with AM2R and Pokemon Uranium is that Nintendo has ownership over those properties. Nintendo is also notorious for aggressively defending its intellectual property rights. So it’s not surprising that Nintendo issued DMCA notices to both teams, essentially shutting both down and forcing them to be removed from award consideration. There are now only 2 nominees for the award, significantly reducing the prestige of the award, and the drama of the presentation.

IP Ownership

Any time we consider fan projects like this, we need to have respect for the rights of the IP owners. The simple fact of the matter is that they own the property, including characters and worlds and more, and it is their decision on who else can use it. Exactly what informs those decisions will vary from one owner to another, but it’s still incumbent on them to enforce ownership. The law is written that simply owning the IP isn’t enough to only stop uses that you don’t like. You have to have a track record of protection your properties. So, selective enforcement is not a great option. In that case someone could argue that the owner didn’t order a takedown of someone else making similar use, therefore it must be permitted.

In the case of Id software and Brutal Doom 64, it’s unlikely that they were going to remaster the game and sell it. Instead they see more value in letting the fan project live. This would let more fans engage with their IP, and come back for more official releases of Doom. They can probably also argue that it is a 20 year old game that they have no plans to re-release for a profit, so they are choosing to not enforce their ownership rights.

Nintendo’s Business Decisions

Compare Brutal Doom 64 with AM2R and Pokemon Uranium. First of all, Nintendo is much more gung ho when it comes to defending their properties. This makes sense because their properties are massive. Add to that Nintendo’s history of re-releasing games on newer platforms. Nintendo’s been doing this since 1993’s Super Mario All Stars.

A 23 year history of bringing you things you had before, but shinier.

A 23 year history of bringing you things you had before, but shinier.

Since then they’ve had more examples such as the Wii Virtual Console and NES classics re-released on the GBA. One of those GBA re-masters was Metroid: Zero Mission.

Let’s also consider that Pokemon is a very relevant property. Sun and Moon just came out this month. Allowing an unlicensed game out in the wild could legitimately impact the brand. It didn’t go through any approval process, so it could have contents that go against what is intended for the property. Allowing a project like Uranium to compete with an official product like Sun and Moon could have a real impact on those sales.

Add to all of this the fact that if Nintendo did allow these projects to live, it would weaken their case against future attempts to shut down projects that infringe on their IP. So, it’s not reasonable to say “These were nominated for an award! Just let them go.”

Nomination Process – Mistakes and Improvements

I don’t know what went in to the nominations for “Best Fan Creation”, but including 2 projects that are owned by Nintendo, with one being based on a property that just had an installment released, was just asking for trouble. Hopefully that this wasn’t done to try to paint Nintendo into a corner to force them to defend their rights and thus make themselves look bad.

I suspect that because of the trouble this year, the category will be dropped from next years awards. The Choice Awards categories have never been too consistent anyway. This is simply an experiment that went awry. And that’s a shame, because many fan creations are amazing and worth honoring.

If they do continue with this award, they should improve their due diligence. The nominating committee needs to reach out to the IP owners and get their blessings before announcing the nominees.

It’s true that Nintendo could probably lighten up a little. I’d love to see something like this get honored:

Father Hacks Zelda For His Daughter, Makes Link A Girl

 


Kynetyk is a veteran of the games industry.  Behind the Line is written to help improve understanding of what goes on in the game development process and the business behind it.  From “What’s taking this game so long to release”, to “why are there bugs”, to “Why is this free to play” or anything else, if there is a topic that you would like to see covered, please write in to kynetyk@enthusiacs.com

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