The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Old, OLD Articles

For prosperity's sake: This article is almost two decades old and no longer reflects . . . anything. We apologize!

An article by Gabez, posted on July 22. 2004.

Dear LucasArts,

I noticed some time ago that you made a startling �correction� to your web site. Strangely, instead of announcing yet another Star Wars game or a half-arsed attempt to cash in with another movie licence, you instead saw it fit to erase the memory of Sam & Max 2 from your web-site... forever.

Web-sites can reveal a lot about a company�s attitude towards their fans. You could learn from this, LucasArts...

Your reason for doing this is, of course, simple: a company that wants to become the �most creative, innovative and insanely great interactive entertainment company in the industry� obviously has no place for a lovable white rabbit and his suit-clad dog friend, or, indeed, even the indication that such a duo once existed. Negative reminders from the past must be eliminated. OBEY OBEY.

And what about Full Throttle II? Yes, LucasArts, I haven�t forgotten what you did to that game. I figure that if you can kill off a game protagonist who �so perfectly symbolizes our legacy and yet has just the right mix of attitude and edge to appeal to a new generation of game players�, then surely no game character is safe � including, of course, Guybrush Threepwood.

Despite your attempts to rub out the cancellation and pretend it never happened, the plain reality is that it did happen - you did cancel such a promising looking game, thus also jeopardizing the future of the Monkey Island series. Your exact words are obviously no longer on your site, but luckily I have a spare copy right here. Let�s have a look at it, shall we?

"After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC"

You speak of �current market place realities�, which are incidentally mentioned again by you in this internal memo, where you vow to �make insanely great games that are the right insanely great games for the marketplace�. It seems clear from your choice of words here that you will only release �insanely great games� if they conform to what the consumer wants. So, therefore, what you are essentially saying is that Sam & Max 2 just isn�t what the marketplace calls for.

Another scan from PC Zone... the picture speaks for itself, really.

Er, doesn�t that ring any bells? Was the genre so alive and kicking when you released Grim Fandango; or when Escape From Monkey Island came out; or was the �marketplace� even ready when you essentially created the genre over a decade ago? No, of course it wasn�t � but the �marketplace� accepted these games because they were �insanely great�, not because they were necessarily perfect for any so-called realities.

Just look at the Role Playing Game. Back in the 1990�s, the industry perspective was that RPGs were dead, usurped by the more sophisticated adventure genre, but that didn�t stop Black Isle from reviving it by taking it to new heights in Baldur's Gate. As a result, everyone started either making RPGs or using RPG features in their games, until eventually RPGs came back as numero uno. Now the adventure game is in the decline, and you have abandoned it simply because it isn�t doing as well as it was in 90s.

I included this piece of hate art that Serge did for you. I hope you like it.

Well of course it bloody isn�t. I mean, you can�t expect a type of game to consistently be right for the �marketplace�, or whatever metaphor you choose to use in order to hide a gutless decision. If the Black Isle people had accepted �current marketplace realities� and made a shoot-em-up instead, then they would have most likely have gone bust, because they would have been doing something that they�re not as good at.

I put it to you, LucasArts, that your most �insanely great games� have been adventures, and that abandoning the genre, as your cancellation statement seems to suggest, is sheer lunacy.

But I�m not going to debate you. If you want to make �Battlefront, Galaxies, KOTOR II, Mercenaries, Republic Commando and the Episode III games the best that they can be�, then so be it. Just don�t expect your fan-base to follow you.

Not that we need you anymore � the quality vacuum you�ve left will no doubt soon be filled by another adventure game developer. Don�t believe me? Just look at The Longest Journey II or Beneath a Steel Sky II � okay, it�s a small start, but it takes only one Baldur�s Gate to revitalise a genre.

�Ah, but companies are there to make profit�, you say, �not to satisfy a fan-base�. Oh come on, LucasArts � take a look around. Did Black Isle go �sod it, we know the fans want more Icewind Dale but we don�t think the marketplace is really up for it�? No, instead they released Trials of the Luremaster, an add-on pack designed especially for their fans, adding 10 hours of gameplay, twenty new areas and even more items. What�s more, they gave all this away for free.

Or look at Revolution Games � instead of being selfish bastards, they instead gave Beneath a Steel Sky and Lure of the Temptress away as free downloads, as well as announcing the sequel for BASS. Take that for �careful evaluation� � not of the marketplace, but for the people who matter most: the fans.

So that�s what your competitors have been doing - now let�s look at what you�ve done. Whilst Revolution commended the ScummVM team for �all their hard work in bringing the game [Beneath a Steel Sky] back to life�, you instead tried to sue the ScummVM team, simply because they were doing your job for you. Apparently there�s no room in the �current marketplace realities� for continuing to support old games.

This scan from PC Zone illustrates the anger from the general gaming public at you, LucasArts

And let�s not forget that you also shut down two harmless fan-projects, the Fate of Monkey Island and Legends of LeChuck � because of course when people play those games they�re obviously going to be less inclined to buy the series that inspired them!

Not that you haven�t tried to support your fan-community. It�s a little known fact that you did indeed once contemplate setting up a �community� section on your web site, the idea being to promote some of your fan-sites. The only problem was, you couldn�t control what your fans actually thought of you, and after seeing a sprinkle of negative comments on Mojo, the idea was promptly dropped.

That�s the problem with you � a good community/company relationship comes from communication, and instead of just cancelling games, perhaps you should instead listen to what the fans have to say. After all, that�s what all your competitors do, and they end up producing �insanely great games� because of it.

And would it really hurt you so much to let people download the first two games for free? Or, if that�s too radical for you, then you could have at least bundled them Escape from Monkey Island. It�s little acts like that which say �I care�, which would be a refreshing change from your current message of �if it isn�t Star Wars then we�re not interested�.

Oh, but you think that the negative feelings towards you are limited to this little community? Well, LucasArts, you�re wrong. Being an avid subscriber to PC Zone, I�ve noticed that they�ve had a lot of Anti-LEC press in literally every one of their issues since the news that Sam & Max was cancelled, and it shows no sign of lessening as time goes on. The current issue (#144), for example, has no less than six letters sent in by gamers to the magazine�s mailbox, and this must only be a small fraction of the stuff that they�ve received. Here�s a quote from one of them: �How can LucasArts justify canning Sam & Max 2 when it has such a loyal fanbase?� - a viewpoint that incidentally sums up what I�m trying to say to you here.

Then again, you may not be planning to abandon the genre after all � it has to be said, you�ve told a few lies in your 22-year lifetime, such as �there are no plans for a Monkey Island 4�. Maybe the cancellation of Sam & Max 2 was just because, er, you had too many games to release at that time, and you had to cut something. Maybe you will make Monkey Island 5 in a year or so, when, uh, things in the �marketplace� are different. Maybe I�ll wake up and this whole adventure �wrong time� business will all just be a horrible nightmare.

Or maybe not, but the point is that I�m still not sure you were totally honest when you suggested that you won�t be making any more adventure games. It might just take other companies to pick up the mantle and prove to you that adventures can sell, or it might just be that �the most creative, innovative and insanely great interactive entertainment company� has run out of ideas and needs to milk to Monkey Island cow again.

A screenshot from the critically acclaimed hate-em-up game �LEC Killer�

Are you going to make Monkey Island 5? I think your answer will be �yes�. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow... but some day. I reckon we can be sure of that. But what we can�t be so sure of is whether your fan base will be so accepting of the game when they know that you may very well cancel it at any point during development. And that�s not just me, or indeed just the people who visit the site � but all serious gamers. Every single one of them. What comes around, goes around, LucasArts.

Sincerely,
Gabez, anti-fan

P.S. Below are some of the opinions of other Monkey Island fans...

Next week: Gabez goes on holiday, but he�ll be back soon with more articles to entertain and educate. Stay tuned!

         

Return to previous page.