My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic

[KPM 288]

This may be of use to you, lost souls.

 

http://www.gamearchaeology.com/MTSP197.zip

 

Trotspot is where most of the people are at.

Client and check DNS box, and you're good to go!

 

Soo... I played a bit today. Mostly bodying, one good fellow actually got 5-3 on me (first to 5). But winning all the sets anyway~

 

EDIT: It got upgraded. AGAIN. Damn anniie doing work.

 

http://www.gamearchaeology.com/Telepone.zip

Edited February 5, 2013 by Ouker

[Motion Spark 7,807]

bad news bronies. The game has ceased development, Hasbro took legal part already and a member of the mane6dev team has resigned. Hopes are fading away, I can't believe this

 

why Hasbro? why?

http://www.mane6.com/2013/02/not-all-wonder-is-endless.html

[NavelColt 22,879]

bad news bronies. The game has ceased development, Hasbro took legal part already and a member of the mane6dev team has resigned. Hopes are fading away, I can't believe this

 

why Hasbro? why?

http://www.mane6.com/2013/02/not-all-wonder-is-endless.html

For what it's worth, Mane6 never bothered to try and get a permission license from Hasbro. Sonic Rainboom has one, Everfree Network has one, etc. Mane6 never got one. This could have possibly been avoided if they had taken the legal time to secure this license from the getgo. It's generally a smarter idea to do that, than spend two years on something this big without worrying about impending legal problems. My guess is Hasbro has willingly turned their head to this fan project for a while, naturally being lenient, but they may have gotten full-on requests and letters regarding this, and if they tried to avoid them or say they were going to let a license-less fan project of this size remain untouched, it could pose legal problems of their own.

 

With all of this said, it wouldn't have killed Hasbro to provide more information on the process of obtaining a license to their overly-creative and active fan community. Advertising this process would not have endangered their trademark and would have provided a way to avoid the need to create cease and desist letters to popular fan projects quite as often.

 

Still, better to throw your hate at the trademark law in general and not at Hasbro. I think Hasbro has been aware of the project for a long time now, hell, the VA's and Lauren Faust certainly have been. If they were trademark fiends like Disney, this would have been gone to begin with. It's just an unfortunate situation, all around.

[Pokota 28]

In all honesty, I'm surprised they took so long to get this shut down. It sucks that the game got so far along, and that the music that was made for it has to come down, but if Hasbro doesn't do this, then My Little Pony could very well go the way of the Frisbee.

[Shift 4,272]

*sigh* Hasbro is getting way too jerky...

 

 

I was looking foward to this game. Anyway, at least I can listen to Flutters theme. As CD said...better otb e safe then sorry, and Mane6 didn't take all precautions and got...er..."sued".

[Lost Profile 644]

Wow... First mlp online... Other game... And now fighting is magic?

 

Hasbro will be the death of bronydom... Do they not appreciate what all the fans have done?

 

This was an awesome game and soooooo close to being finished...

 

Hasbro will kill us all...

[Fridge 382]

To be honest I'm actually more surprised that the didn't happen sooner. I guess word of the game must have reached Hasbro's ears.

I can see from a business sense why they'd issue a cease and desist order (copyright law withstanding). At the end of the day Fighting is Magic would be damaging to the company, not because of profits lost because the game distracts but because the game would likely be picked by a newspaper etc and Hasbro would have a PR nightmare to deal with thus effecting sales.

 

Still it sucks because I was really looking forward to getting a go.

[himanuts 165]

Production of this game has been public knowledge for basically a year now. I find it way to coincedental that the plug is pulled on it just when Hasbro announces it has a new MLP marketing campaign in the works.

[Acoustic Cloud 2,202]

Hasbro should really be lenient on the right to fair use...

http://w2.eff.org/IP/eff_fair_use_faq.php

Technically they have the rights to use the characters as long as it doesn't cause confusion as to who made the game.  Ergo, we all know it isn't hasbro's game and no small child is going to stumble upon ads in the stores for it :/

[Pokota 28]

Except that there are going to be those guys who let their kids play the game, and those kids share it with their friends, and then they all want to get a copy of the game from Hasbro...

[---------------------- 1,645]

 

*sigh* Hasbro is getting way too jerky...

 

This is not directly hasbro's fault, because of the wonky trademark laws, if they refuse to defend there trade mark, they actually lose it, so they don't have much of a choice. Hasbro was probably pretty reluctant to do so.  

[Ethan Pow 332]

@@~Chaotic Discord~, I would believe hasbro would attempt to let them know about getting a licence because the project was getting much attention ...as a sign of good faith... til hasbro can give more info on the matter I am highly displeasued that communication didn't started before legal action take place (as far as I know).

Edited February 9, 2013 by Ethan Pow

[Shift 4,272]

This is not directly hasbro's fault, because of the wonky trademark laws, if they refuse to defend there trade mark, they actually lose it, so they don't have much of a choice. Hasbro was probably pretty reluctant to do so.  

 

Really? 

 

I thought the cyber laws were different. Strange...i'll go and check on that to make sure they don't lose the trademark(s).

[---------------------- 1,645]

@@Ethan Pow,

 

It's the other way around Ethan, Mane6 should have known that they were treading on thin ice, it was their responsibility to  contact Hasbro about the matter, but they neglected to. 

[O.S.U. 33]

Hey all, new member here (i'll post a intro later).

 

Something doesn't sit right about this...

I've been around a lot of fandoms and i've seen quite a bit. This is a fan-made, non-profit effort correct? Then what power does Hasbro or anyone have over fans being fans? Its a game, no different from kids playing with action figures in the backyard. Are they gonna send kids a letter telling them to stop using their material too? Its collaborative imagination made available to others, its ART. Last i checked, art is free. This isn't any different from a video on youtube made up of clips from the show played to music you all have created.

 

Seriously, i may not have been into MLP for very long, but from what i've seen of 'Fighting is Magic' a lot of effort has been put into it. To much effort to let it die... I say Flutter on, damnit. Flutter On!!

[Ethan Pow 332]

@, Well My stance is still the same, Til hasbro gives more info on their end... I can't support their choice without it being more clear.

[Kamil 315]

It's not outside of Hasbro's rights to do this, nor would it be outside their rights to allow the game to continue unhindered. Thus I started a petition:

https://www.change.org/petitions/hasbro-inc-allow-the-game-fighting-is-magic-to-continue-development-by-mane-6

 

Do with that what you will.

[SonOfTheNorthe 412]

Hasbro's legal department is completely separate from Hasbro. They're contractors paid to wade through the legal shit so Hasbro doesn't have to. If the copyright complaint was sent by Hasbro's legal department, Hasbro might not even ever know about it.

(So I've heard.)

[Mister Jack 566]

This is the worst possible thing that could happen to this project.  I'm not trying to be cute and make a Rarity reference here.  This fucking sucks.  I was on pins and needles waiting for this game to release, getting more and more excited every time new footage was put out.  I have only one friend who likes fighting games as much as I do, but she has a 360 while I have a ps3.  This was going to be the game we both played together on the PC, and now that's never going to happen.  

 

Hasbro, I don't know what your problem is.  You knew this game existed for a long time.  Don't act like you didn't.  If you didn't want it to be released, you should have stopped it a long time ago.  You should have killed it back when they'd barely done any work on it.  It would still suck to lose it, but not nearly as much as it sucks to lose it now, after they've put so much work into it and built up this much hype among the fans.  For fuck's sake, I actually bought an arcade stick to play this.

[hawkflame 3,310]

Except that there are going to be those guys who let their kids play the game, and those kids share it with their friends, and then they all want to get a copy of the game from Hasbro...

 

Just add a full screen message to the beginning flashing "THIS IS NOT MADE BY HASBRO" to the beginning for 20 seconds.  Sure, it'll be obnoxious, but if that'll keep Hasbro's legal eagles off their back...

[Tacutiemark 27]

Sometimes I don't know what goes through hasbro's mind. Even if it's not completely their fault, some decisions they've made make me think that they're trying to lose their fandom.

[Phaeston-e12 173]

Because of the nature of the game and the amount of attention they were getting, I had a bunch that this was how it going to end up. It's Hasbro being Hasbro and I am not that surprised by their move.

 

However, one thing that bugs me is the timing. The developers of the fan-made game clearly knew and talked about the project treading on a thin ice of legal issue troubles and tried their best to figure out whether they were going to have a trouble or not. So I'm genuinely curious on what went on between the conversations with the developers and the Hasbro for that matter.

[Goose 181]

Someone from Mane6 should "accidentally" leak the game files to the interwebz where they will be forever cherished. Stupid Hasbro.

[Rainbow Dash 1,472]

I just died a little on the inside. There was so much hype about the game. If the game was fan made and free then the trademark violation isn't a valid reason for it getting canned. i have a theory, Hasbro is going to steal the idea and sell it as their own. just a theory not the truth. I hope this gets cleared up soon

[Yellow Diamond 7,568]

Someone from Mane6 should "accidentally" leak the game files to the interwebz where they will be forever cherished. Stupid Hasbro.

 

They would probably get in a lot of legal trouble for doing so. Anyone handling the commodity would then be subject to Hasbro's C&D order.

 

Even though I wasn't on the edge of my seat waiting for Fighting Is Magic to be released, it is a bit of a gut-punch to see a staple project of the fandom shelved. I hope they can resolve this issue, but it's difficult to get projects like this back on track once the horse is out of the barn.

 

I find it curious that two of their devs up and left. It is unclear from the blog post whether their departure is related to the recent legal issues.