I need to vent something that I've held for a while.

Published by Azeth in the blog Azeth's blog. Views: 718

I don't if anyone still remembers this but that Thems Fightin' Herds MLP Fighting game is a 'replacement' of a fan creation called Fighting is Magic.

I don't hold any resentment about that fanwork being taken down, due to what it entailed. However, while it may of been in good faith, I despise Thems Fightin' Herds for the very fact that it's basically a resurrection of the fighting game fan work they maliciously taken down.

I maybe the only one that feels this way, but I see it as a middle finger to the fan devs of the original fighting game. And a middle finger to us for supporting 'Fighting is Magic'.

Basically Hasbro looking at it's fan community and saying "This is how you make a MLP Fighing Game. Now eat it up like the good fans you are." Which I see as scummy. Especially since I don't doubt the original fan creation was taken down on grounds of 'giving the wrong idea to younger children'. Then you go and replace it with Thems Fightin' Herds? Seriously? You're giving me mix messages here Hasbro.

I maybe alone on this and that is fine. Though I wanted to vent this because I want to go into G5 not angry at Hasbro.

People are welcome to blast me if they want. I really don't care anymore. *shrug*
Mar 12, 2021
  • 4SNK
    4SNK May 31, 2021
    Hrm... weeeeell...
    I don't want to come out as a smartass, but the gamedev team behind fighting is magic is the same behind them's fightin' herds.

    I think I've mentioned I've always kept a close eye on the gamedev part of the fandom as I'm a dev myself.

    Anyway, I think you should be indignated regardless despite is not hasbro profiting on the carcass of Fighting is magic, but rather Faust and Mane6 doing so. And not because they are charging for the game, but due a lot of controversial desicions that ended up in the game it is now.

    First off, they were financied by the fandom from the very beggining. They acquired a license from lab zero to use their engine (the one used for skullgirls) which was kindly donated by the fandom. The idea was to develop a spiritual sucessor and (at some point on now deleted poblications by mane6) deliver it as freeware. Doubt people kept any screencaps on it, a few might recall (or not). Shortly they changed their mind, and their kickstarter became the "you patron us, we give you the game for 'free' and signed art by Lauren Faust herself!" which is the usual kickstarter stuff. They also promised to add a 7th character along the 6 they already had by their open beta (which came out super late as for 2 or 3 years) if they beat their initial goal.

    Lauren herself designed the characters and created the plot for the game. All the characters were batlant expies of our beloved ponies, and they didn't change almost anything from the mechanics nor movesets, yet their development took at least 4 years (which makes me, as a peogrammer, doubt they really were working half as much as they claimed, given they had to translate from fm2k3 to labzero's skyllgirls engine. No need to build up a whole engine or modify one deeply to achieve what they needed. I think they slacked a lot).

    But even before that, they buried their source code and declined to release it at all. By when they received the cnd they could have leaked things if they wanted the game to be finished and wash their hooves at any legal movement. As long as they didn't give the assets that were the ones breaking the copyright thing, they could have simply planted the seed for the project completion by letting out their code. That there makes me think they were already looking to profit on Fighting is Magic at some point. Is unlikely for a fandom game dev to just hide any and every source code when they have to leave a project. Usually we release our source code somewhere a bit hidden so other people who's not on the crosshair of a company can pick it up and continue.

    I feel they gave their back on the fandom and still took advantage of us. Milked us to do their stuff. Maybe I'm just too influenced by SGaP's "this belongs to the fandom" ideals before he left :laugh:
  • Azeth
    Azeth Jun 1, 2021
    Fair enough. I will not pretend I know anything about the game dev scene. I'm just going off of what I have heard and seen. And like I said before. I will not argue about Hasbro, or whoever, for taking the original fanwork down. And seeing now that the original work may have been planned to be a pay-to-play game. Yeah. That is already a nasty little tidbit I didn't know.
  • 4SNK
    4SNK Jun 1, 2021
    Mighty respectable.

    Anyway, to sunmarize it quickly and make it clearer.

    1.- Hasbro took the project down.
    2.- Mane6 and Lauren Faust are the ones who decided to recycle almost everything from the carcass left of fighting is magic, and thus are profiting from the former dead game.
    3.- The fandom financied them to use skullgirls engine.
    4.- They could have gave away their source code when they got cnd'd, instead they prefered to enclose it even more so there was no Fighting is magic at all.
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