Chrono Trigger made me sad again :-(

[lestatdark]

Jumpin said:

lestatdark said:

Jumpin said:

lestatdark said:

As I'm playing Chrono Trigger for the bajillion time on my DS (pretty good port, especially when played DS style. The implementation of the Arena of Ages is pretty nifty too), it made me realize how much I still hate Square, in regards to CT.

Does anyone remember this?:

Damn you Square, damn you and your money grubbing ways, your hope/dreams crushing manipulations and heart-shattering crap ideas. Where was the remake that you promised? Oh right, we only deserve another damn port. We the fans that have put up with so much s*** from you in the last years, only got more of the same, because you a**holes can't seem to do a proper remake like this one. Oh yeah, because you can't f***** program and it's toooooo complicated to do a game isn't it?

Never mind that this resurrection project was being done by a small group of devoted fans, who could probably do a better job at remaking CT than you could ever do.

So yeah, F*** you Square >_>

/rant

Before dissing Square, why not consider their side of the story first. They're not protecting their intellectual property to be greedy; they're doing it because it is theirs. It has nothing to do with Square being bullies, but it is their legal obligation to defend their own trademarks, otherwise they lose them.

It would be foolish of a company to give up the trademarks associated with a multi-million dollar franchise they created.

Yet you've got Valve fully endorsing the Black Mesa mod that fully recreates Half-Life 1 with the most recent Source code and this is being done by an independent third party, 38 people collaboration. 

Where does the line of protecting their own intellectual property and being greedy ends? Also, who can say if Square had endorsed this project as well, that wouldn't have had beneficial results for them in the end (like higher adoption rate for Chrono Trigger DS)?.

This was not a Square endorsed project; if it was, then there would be no trademark violation. They would have to seek prior consent in order for it to be so, they did not receive that. The legal boundary is fairly clear in this situation. It has nothing to do with greed, you just perceive it that way. It has to do with the intellectual rights of the creator, and the legal obligation to maintain those trademarks. No product stakeholder in their right minds would give up the trademarks of something even close to the level of a product like Chrono Trigger.

Neither is the Black Mesa mod an official endorsement in the legal terms, Valve just gave the go ahead for the developers of the project. 

They could bar it as easy as Square did for this project, instead they chose the other way. I'm not saying that what Square did was wrong, far from it, it's in their right, but, in my opinion (which this entire thread was based around), is that they took the way that gave them less trouble.

They could have easily took the project under their wing and give it proper legal support by making it an official Square project. The engine was there, the staff was there, the man power was there. They would have to throw even less money if they were making the project themselves. 

There's so much else they could do, and I'm pretty positive that this project would have garnered a good projection for Chrono Trigger, if Square had done things a bit better.