Blog #26 - Apeiron . . . The next project doomed to failure

Sith Holocron

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Remember the last KOTOR Reboot project to come along called Project Black Light?

 

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(I'll use my version of their logo because their logo has a really bad Star Wars logo slapped on it.)

No? Here's a refresher if you truly want it. (It isn't necessary to view the video to understand the conversation below.)

 

 

However, some new folks have decided to reboot Knights of the Old Republic. These folks are starting with the first game!

 

Oh boy - let's pick this one apart. I will be setting up a check list for you so you can see the flaws more clearly.

 

No, I'm not including the link for the site. I'll let you do a web search for this.

 

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"Apeiron"? Really!?!

 

Bad font for the "Star Wars" logo? Check. (Especially note the "W".  The "R" is a bit off too.)

 

OK, let's move on . . .

 

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First nitpick. Why ask the same question twice? (Don't worry, folks. You'll see that the same question will appear the very next picture.) Apeiron, this should properly be called the "Frequently Asked Questions" section.

 

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  • Repeat of initial question? Check.
  • Not using capitalization of the game's title? Check.
  • Not using a standardization of the game's title? Check.
  • Incorrect spelling of "companions"? Check.

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  • Use of a Kickstarter ready buzzword? Check. (That buzzword is "Indie", if you're playing along at home.)
  • Mention of a studio that we've never heard of? Check.
  • Not including a link to this unheard of studio? Check.

 

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  • Begging for assistance from the public?  Check.
  • Claims of being "professional people" without backing those claims up?  Check.

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  • Claiming the project is "legal"?  Check.
  • Answering that question with a badly spelled word?  Check.  (It's "absolutely", Apeiron. Invest in a spell checking program.)
  • Not spelling "successful" right?  Check.  (I guess they aren't successful.)

 

For my gentle readers, this is the meat of their faulty argument? I'm hungry for new KOTOR stuff and you're likely to be too as you've read this far. Is this meat OK to eat? Let's delve further.

 

They ask "Can you make a Star Wars game?" They don't mention if you can legally make one.

 

They then cite examples of other fan created reboots that aren't Star Wars games to back up their case. This appears to be a case of a sweeping generalization. I will explain through an example that I found at logicalfallacies,info.

 

Quote

Sweeping Generalisation Fallacy
Explanation

 

A sweeping generalisation applies a general statement too broadly. If one takes a general rule, and applies it to a case to which, due to the specific features of the case, the rule does not apply, then one commits the sweeping generalisation fallacy. This fallacy is the reverse of a hasty generalisation, which infers a general rule from a specific case.
Example

 

(1) Children should be seen and not heard.
(2) Little Wolfgang Amadeus is a child.
Therefore:
(3) Little Wolfgang Amadeus shouldn’t be heard.

 

No matter what you think of the general principle that children should be seen and not heard, a child prodigy pianist about to perform is worth listening to; the general principle doesn’t apply.


Let's look at one of the cases cited here: Black Mesa.

What did Black Mesa have on their side?

Black Mesa is a complete ground-up remake of Half-Life using the Source engine, everything is made from scratch, there is not a single asset that came from Valve. That is: They used their own voice actors, their own soundtrack, their own props and remodels, and their own engine. Valve offered the Black Mesa team their own contract. However, Valve isn't Disney who owns the copyrights to all Star Wars items. Valve also isn't Electronic Arts who handles all of the Star Wars games as licensed by Disney.

As Apreiron isn't . . .
- dealing with Valve
- dealing with Electronic Arts or Disney
- has made no statement that they plan to create their own soundtrack, their own voice actors, their own props, and their own engine

. . . then Apeiron has offered a false equivalent.

Soldiering on . . .

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Spelling "intellectual" wrong?  Check.

A game could be "under the banner of intellectual property" but it's not "under intellectual property." Use your legal terms correctly.

100% Free!  Until we beg for donations.

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And there's the extended hat...

Do we accept donations?  No!  But we can and we will at some point down the road.  Even though the mod will be 100% free.

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I couldn't agree more.

Not to mention that none of their screenshots look like Star Wars and that taking donations is probably not legal...

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Thank goodness someone took the time to actually write this all out.  People ask me about these kinds of things all the time.

To quote an actual lawyer on this topic: "It's infringing. That's it. Silly article"

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Viewer: Is this legal?

 

Apeiron: [Persuade/Lie]Yes...it's legal...because it's free.

 

Viewer: It's free?

 

Apeiron: [Persuade/Lie]Yes...it's free. But please give us your credits.

 

Viewer: I just thought you said this was free? Does free necessarily mean legal? Are you just trying to take my money?

 

HK-47: Observation: Master, these meatbags aren't taking the bait. We'll have to get their credits the "old-fashioned" way. Charging blasters.

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Ha! Great obvservations. :P At least they're not accepting donations until they have something to show, right?

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And the hits keep on coming.

Sithspecter mentioned in a response to milestails' status update the following comments (which I've combined for convenience's sake):
 

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Not talking about the engine, talking about the aesthetics. The look is just not Star Wars. Not talking about the engine, talking about the aesthetics. The look is just not Star Wars.

 

I agree with you SS but I'll go even further.

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When did Tatooine open the neon shop? I don't recall this plague of signage in the original Tatooine. Just remember it's not futuristic unless someone has puked up a bunch of electronic signs.

Who cares about the authentic desert aesthetic?
 
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Then there's that shiny dome. Leaving aside how such a run down desert colony has the time to shine that dome, let's just think safety issues. Do you think that twin suns beating down on that very shiny dome might cause lots and lots of fires in the immediate area? In that case, less signs and more fire brigades might be in order.

 

 

Folks - be honest with me. Does the above seem slapped together with pre-rendered assets - or is it just me?

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In my opinion, they're getting a lot of their stuff from Sci-Fi 3D, and other existing assets from elsewhere.

 

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This is the worst offender, found on their Twitter feed. Looks like a 21st century pad with some cylindrical things glued to the walls and a Twi-lek on the TV.

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SS: It would not surprise me if they were looting Sci-fi 3d for their project. It would also not surprise me if they didn't give any credit for others' hard work.

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#rekt

 

I actually like some of the stylizations, but I digress it looks a bit too much like ME

 

And I can tell this won't be done for the next 10 years

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To be fair to them, I'm sure a lot of these shots were made for concepts, not actually for the final game. They already said they don't have much of  anything to show at this point aside from these shots.

 

So I agree with all of the above 100%, but I don't think we should bash them quite as hard as it feels you guys are doing. At least not yet. :P

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These people have no idea what they're doing. They're just slapping together random free assets and calling it a remake. They never stopped to ask themselves if they should do that. They've clearly forgotten that Anchorhead is supposed to be a dump. It's a dying mining colony on a barren, inhospitable outer rim world. It's not supposed to look nice.

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Found an article - I have to admit, the only pic that actually impressed me was the small "concept" image of the Dantooine plains... But it looks like crap without Kexikus' High Quality Skyboxes!!!

 

Also...um... I have the Unreal Engine Development kit... so... what they're doing is super ambitious and all, but you'd seriously need about 100 people working full-time around the clock for 4-5 YEARS to complete this to all of us nerds' satisfaction...

 

It's almost like this is a bunch of gamers who have no concept of why it is we actually are still so obsessed with these games, even after 12-13 years. It's not the damn graphics or special effects - those are being modded/updated right now by the awesome modders on THIS VERY SITE just because we feel that if we're going to play one of the best Star Wars story-lines of all time, then we might as well have something pretty to look at. :-) 

 

What we ACTUALLY want is a complete story, or chapters of a much larger story, that we can immerse ourselves into and get lost in. Give US the illusion that WE'RE the ones creating the story as we go. 

 

That was the best part of KOTOR/TSL - it felt like a 'choose-your-own-adventure' story, except that your choices all involved being a Jedi. 

 

Anyways, here is a link to an article I found - the writer seems to be as torn about the idea as everybody else...

 

Fans Begin Project To Remake Star Wars: KOTOR

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Oh heck, they've updated. Thanks to someone pointing this out on Eurogamer.com.

The update isn't to correct the spelling errors overall though. The section changed appears to only be in the "Is this legal?" portion.

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  • Having a questionable legal defense by mentioning a requirement of owning a legal copy of KOTOR?  Check.
  • Spelling "original" wrong - twiceCheck.
  • Spelling "intense" wrong?  Check.
  • Not correcting the "successful" spelling error?  Check.
  • Using "refresh" in a unique refreshing way?  Check.

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Another update!

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"Intense" and "successful" are now correctly spelled. "Original" is still spelled incorrectly - twice.

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I just grabbed the pictures from Photobucket and put them into IMGUR and then updated the picture links  Goodbye to the watermarks.

Oh . . . I also updated the thread title picture and unlocked the thread.

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