FFVII RPG Running in Second Life with Square's OK (Maybe)

wjamesau writes "A group of Second Life Residents have created an amazing-looking RPG inspired by the city of Midgar from Final Fantasy VII , with a scripted combat system and game masters who run SOLDIER versus AVALANCHE action set-pieces. An interesting twist is that Squaresoft, the owners of the Final Fantasy IP, apparently gave the non-commercial project their blessing — or maybe not. The island of Midgar has changed ownership so no one's quite sure, but several hundred players keep it going through donations. 'Operating as if Square gave approval has made them act as if they work for Square. They have rules about never sharing information about pirating Final Fantasy gear, and are the best promotion of any brand in Second Life. If Square were ever to come to Second Life, no PR manager could dream of creating a more dedicated player base than this one.'"

Comments

Bleh

[Stormwatch]

Final Fantasy VII is wildly overrated. If it was something based on the TRUE BEST RPG EVER, Panzer Dragoon Saga, I'd find it interesting.

Re:Bleh

[Kufat]

I know it's unrealistic to expect perfect spelling and grammar on the Web, but that was the worst misspelling of Chrono Trigger that I've ever seen!

(Kidding, kidding...)

Re:Bleh

[Shabadage]

I'll go ahead and add to that by saying that 90% of the FF are wildly overrated. There's just something about not changing your base gameplay until the 12th iteration that seems insanely wrong. That and all the fake "depth" that keeps bloating FF. Don't get me wrong, they're decent games; just not as spectacular as FF fanboys would have you believe; especially if you've experience true depth in any number of PC based RPG's. (Will these two [PC/Console RPG's] EVER LEARN from each other?) I love me some Tactics though! Can't wait for the DS FFXII: Revenant Wings to get my strategin's on.

Re:Bleh

[magnusrex1280]

I agree. Final Fantasy hasn't been the same since FFVI (released as FFIII here in the U.S.). I miss the days when they were still "great" instead of "pretty good".

Re:Bleh

[Falladir]

They can't be "wildly overrated." At least, they aren't around here. People say that FF7 was the last one to be better than the ones before it.

The others are regarded as pretty disappointing.

Re:Bleh

[Shabadage]

Can I please move to where you are located? I'm getting quite sick of everyone around these parts trying to shove FF down my throat. Whenever I'm playing any RPG and my friends come over it's always "FF this and FF that". It's like the RPG world is built only by Square round these parts and everything else is blasphemey.

Re:Bleh

[Barkmullz]

"that was the worst misspelling of Chrono Trigger that I've ever seen!"

John Romero, is that you?

Re:Bleh

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I know it's unrealistic to expect perfect spelling and grammar on the Web, but that was the worst misspelling of Chrono Trigger that I've ever seen!
The best part of this is that I can't decide whether you meant, "Chrono Trigger is wildly overrated," or, "the TRUE BEST RPG EVER, Chrono Trigger." It really could go either way, depending on who you ask, although I tend to lean towards the first option. Heh.

But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are!

[jandrese]

I've heard that a lot, and when the lawyers at whatever company it is get their panties in a bunch, well, that loyalty counts for zip. There are no shortage of stories of companies suing their most dedicated fans, the very ones that would otherwise evangelize the company's products for free and generate tremendous positive buzz. Lawyers don't care about buzz, they care that someone is breaking their EULA or infringing on their copyrights.

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[Enderandrew]

There are a great deal of Final Fantasy fan-made games that carry the Final Fantasy name.

Square has never once thrown a fit about these things, because they are no threat to them.

Kudos to Square.

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe the issue is more that if they fail to enforce their copyrights, they lose the rights to them entirely.

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[Anonymous Coward]

Amen, brother

Hmm?

[schnipschnap]

Can we really be sure that none of the various people involved work for Square-Enix? I mean, it's been there since February, and I don't know that kind of resources you'd need to get something like that done.

Leaving the conspiracy theories be for a moment, a quick google search for 'square enix cease desist' yields this. Includes some hopeful theories for why the game (Chrono Trigger: Resurrection) was shut down. If someone knows whether these theories are unlikely (what with three years having passed in the meantime), feel free to comment ...

Re:Hmm?

[Bieeanda]

Given that fans of Myst: Uru constructed an island that recreates the Neighborhood and one of the Ages remarkably faithfully, I'd say it's entirely possible that no Square/Enix employees or funding were involved with SL's Midgar parcel.

Urge to play an MMO rising....

[casualsax3]

... I never thought I'd say it, but this is tugging on my nostalgia strings pretty hard - I may just give this a shot.

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[FreyarHunter]

I've heard that a lot, and when the lawyers at whatever company it is get their panties in a bunch, well, that loyalty counts for zip. There are no shortage of stories of companies suing their most dedicated fans, the very ones that would otherwise evangelize the company's products for free and generate tremendous positive buzz. Lawyers don't care about buzz, they care that someone is breaking their EULA or infringing on their copyrights.

Provided there's no instant financial income from letting their dedicated fans do what they do. Dragon Quest anyone?

Sequelitis

[aztektum]

And we wonder why media companies continually rehash and re-release the same ol' shit. Uber fans suck

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[Xistic]

I don't know about the Final Fantasy properties, but they have brought the smack down on at least two Chrono Trigger fan projects: Chrono Trigger Resurrection and Chrono Trigger Remake

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[tepples]

I believe the issue is more that if they fail to enforce their copyrights, they lose the rights to them entirely.

Use it or lose it is true for trademarks, not for copyrights. Laches, which does apply to copyrights and patents, is much more narrow.

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[Enderandrew]

Most of the fan-made Final Fantasy games don't directly recreate or get in the way of Square's games.

They exist in a fan continuity, or offer up something new.

Those two projects seemed to recreate CT. The problem with that, is that Square makes money be remaking/rereleasing their old games. They technically still sell Anthologies, which has CT remade for the PS1.

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[Anonymous Coward]

Square has never once thrown a fit about these things, because they are no threat to them.

Yes, they have; and yes, they are.

Others have pointed out instances where Square-Enix went after "free" remakes, so I'll move immediately to the thread part. Square-Enix continually rereleases their old games. Just check out their GBA and DS releases - they're almost all remakes, or spin-offs of remakes. Having to compete with other people re-releasing their old games for free does, arguably, harm them.

And, in fact, there is a Final Fantasy MMORPG. It's not very popular (which is why almost no one has heard of it) but it exists. Supposedly they're making another one for next-gen consoles.

So expect this to be cease and desisted as soon as someone translates the article into Japanese.

What about Bahamut Lagoon?

[Glowing Fish]

Am I the only one who wants to role play Bahamut Lagoon online?

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[yakumo.unr]

Your saying Final Fantasy XI isn't popular and almost no-ones heard of it? or was that sarcasm.

It may have a small share http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7.html but it's certainly known by anyone that knows FF games.

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[Forkenhoppen]

I thoroughly agree on that point. I sincerely doubt that Square has approved this in any shape or manner, especially after what they did to Chrono Resurrection.

Re:But look how loyal and dedicated those fans are

[Anonymous Coward]

Fine, a small correction: it's almost unheard of outside Japan. Japan has always had a lousy PC game market, preferring consoles, and since the FF MMORPG is basically the only Japanese MMORPG in existance, it has a very large following in Japan.

So, when you subtract the Japanese players, it remains a very much unknown MMORPG. There's a reason whenever you hear people talking about MMORPGs, you'll hear Second Life, EVE, and World of Warcraft (and older favorites like EQ and UO), but you'll never hear anyone talking about FF Online.

/. prespective on Second Life

[Kuvter]

I've read so many stories on what Second Life is, just to get a better idea of it. But I'd really just like to hear a /. rundown of what the idea and point behind it is.

Sorry if I may seem off topic, but I've been vague enough that you could easily tie the new FF7 mod into your answer.

Thanks

Re:/. prespective on Second Life

[IamTheRealMike]

The idea was "let's create a virtual world where you can do anything". The point was ... well actually there was no point. It was just meant to be cool for its own sake, and maybe a way to make money.

Seriously, that more or less sums it up. It's like asking what the point of the web is. It's just a tool that people can use to create things.

Re:/. prespective on Second Life

[Kuvter]

I think it actually dawned on me the other day what the point of Second Life was. Basically I was telling some friends how excited I was about Spore. I told them about the procedural coding for creature, world, and texturing design. With my background in 3D animation and some coding, it just floors me how amazing it is

Then one of my friends caught me off guard and asked me what the point of the game was. I couldn't come up with it at first. I guess it seemed like the point to the game was playing through the 6 or so stages of evolution and then just wandering the world for the rest of the game, all along creating whatever you want.

Second Life and Spore are very similar in that light. In future Spore news, player makes a whole world dedicated to Final Fantasy VII.

Thanks for the reply.

huh?

[brkello]

I don't really think the Final Fantasy series needs buzz. Particularly buzz on Second Life. I don't think SE wants to see Cloud fighting off the flying penii.