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Legends Of Mata Nui


GregF

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A number of people have asked recently about the old Legends of Mata Nui computer game from 2001 that never got released, so I thought I would share what info I have on this here:

 

* The game, as most of you know, was cancelled before release due to its not being up to our quality standards and so not fitting into our marketing plan.

 

* I know at least one BIONICLE fan spoke to our Legal dept. about getting a copy of the game. My understanding is that Legal's position is that we are not releasing any part of the game to the public, and since we own the copyright, anyone outside LEGO who did have a copy of the game would not be able to share it either. However ...

 

* I also spoke to the one person I know here who did get a copy in 2001, prior to cancellation. He says all that was available on the LEGO servers at that time were random sound files -- nothing even remotely like a playable game. What this means, I don't know -- it's possible that, since the game was being developed by an outside developer, and not finished yet, we did not have the main files here. If we did, my guess is they were scrapped long ago, but that is just a guess.

 

Regardless, since it was not something LEGO considered to be high enough quality, for obvious reasons there is no interest in having it see the light of day. And even if we did, I honestly don't know that there would be anything for us to release.

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Someone got some of the game?

 

Well, apparently, it was impossible to get past the first level so... I get it.

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Yes, a LEGO employee got a copy of the game -- that's who I spoke to. But as I said, the "game" he got was just sound files.

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Too bad... the game looked like it had a lot of potential. It's a shame it didn't turn out to be good enough.

 

But on the other hand, we did get a downloadable MNOLG... :D

 

:music:

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Any idea what it would take to convince LEGO to allow someone with a copy of this game to make his copy available to others? I know both that people do have this game and how they obtained it.

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Someone got some of the game?

 

Well, apparently, it was impossible to get past the first level so... I get it.

 

There are some people who have the "full" game. At least, as complete as it was when it was canceled. And it isn't impossible to get past the first level, it is just harder than it should be, as I understand it. People with the game disk have been able to get past the first level.

 

DJ Reidak

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My understanding is that Legal's position is that we are not releasing any part of the game to the public, and since we own the copyright, anyone outside LEGO who did have a copy of the game would not be able to share it either.

 

Well, we didn't really expect you to release it to the public. And we know Lego has the copyright and can make all the decisions, but if we get it WILL THEY CONSIDER GIVING US PERMISSION, especially since it would boost enthusiasm from Bionicle fans :begging: ? And it wouldn't cost them anything either!

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GoldenTahu -- Boost enthusiasm among BIONICLE fans to what end? There is no more BIONICLE, beyond the story serials, so boosting enthusiasm basically does nothing for us at this point.

 

And to answer the earlier -- based on my conversation with Legal, no, I would say it's highly unlikely anyone else will be allowed to do anything with the game. The statement I heard was pretty unequivocal on that point, so I would say it's a dead issue.

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As far as I understand from older conversations, the first level is all that exists normally, and once you beat it on the demo disk-or whatever it was-it ends, the rest is glitched/locked up. And some people are looking for it now so they can hack the disk and remove that limit to reach the rest of the game, or something like that.

 

But that was from maybe a year ago. Not sure if that's still happening. Just threw that out there.

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Allowing the game to be released doesn't really benefit LEGO in any way, at least not money-wise. But are there any disadvantages? If the unfinished game is distributed for free by someone outside LEGO, is it somehow detrimental to the company?

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Well, let me put it to you this way -- suppose you wrote a fan fiction story that you ended up really not happy with and feeling wasn't a good representation of your writing? Would you want someone posting it publicly, and having it reflect badly on you? The game was not of the quality LEGO wanted, so we have no interest in the public seeing it.

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But think of it this way;

 

From the way you're speaking, it would suggest the LEGO Company wants it's merchandise to be 100% perfect.

 

But LOMN didn't make it.

 

What the BZP Community are trying to do, is to take a peek at what might have been.

 

We want to find out more about what could have happened in '01, and LC appears to be hiding it from us.

 

I see no reason to do that, UNLESS it had adult content or other inappropriate things.

 

Not letting us see a 'prehistoric' product, I think, is a bit unusual. The Sonic Team let us see the betas of their games,

 

So did Naughty Dog with Crash Bandicoot.

 

Give me a reason why we can't see it, other than achieving perfection...

 

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Protohuman -- Since it was not my decision, I can't give you all the reasoning for it. All I can tell you is what Legal told me, and has told people who have emailed about this issue -- LEGO has no plans at present to distribute the game or license anyone else to do so. We hold the copyright to the game, which means that anyone who has a copy of it outside of the company has an unauthorized copy that was made in violation of our intellectual property rights. Those copies can't be used without the express permission of the LEGO, and since we are not prepared to release the game, we are not giving that permission.

 

Not much point in debating this with me, because like I said, I don't work in Legal and don't know all their reasoning for it. I am simply the messenger in this case, and the message seems pretty clear to me. I am conveying it in order to forestall more PMs to me about this issue or more people asking our lawyers about it.

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Probably my fault for not making it clear I wasn't looking to open debate on this -- I was just conveying information. The situation is what it is and I doubt will change, so no point in wasting energy arguing about it.

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GoldenTahu -- Boost enthusiasm among BIONICLE fans to what end? There is no more BIONICLE, beyond the story serials, so boosting enthusiasm basically does nothing for us at this point.

 

And to answer the earlier -- based on my conversation with Legal, no, I would say it's highly unlikely anyone else will be allowed to do anything with the game. The statement I heard was pretty unequivocal on that point, so I would say it's a dead issue.

 

Most Bionicle fans were unhappy about the cancellation of the toyline, and the die-hards are boycotting the new Hero Factory. I just think this would be kind of a "we're sorry, but here's something else to cheer you up" thing.

 

 

Well, let me put it to you this way -- suppose you wrote a fan fiction story that you ended up really not happy with and feeling wasn't a good representation of your writing? Would you want someone posting it publicly, and having it reflect badly on you? The game was not of the quality LEGO wanted, so we have no interest in the public seeing it.

 

It's not like we're going to complain about any glitches in the game or the quality(which we would fix if we had it). We understand it wasn't to Lego's standards, but we would want to see it even if it wasn't that good; besides, Bionicle: The Game was sold by Lego, and would you say it was a perfectly satisfactory game? In fact, the consensus on the TLOMN topic is that it would be BETTER than Bionicle: The Game because it looks more open world. Wasn't it not released mostly because of deadline(a problem all the other Saffire games for Bionicle had), I forgot?

 

Anyway, sorry for any unwanted debate. But we're going to keep asking until we get a solid statement(not through you though :P), and we need something to do until BNG(and a bunch of other stuff) comes out.

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Um, you guys do realize that this is a TEN-YEAR-OLD game right? Not to mention a buggy, incomplete ten-year-old game? Even if LEGO gave permission to release it, we would have to find someone with the beta CD, and then all we would end up with is a glitchly level. It certainly doesn't sound like it would be worth all that trouble to get, and I certainly see why LEGO doesn't want to be bothered with allowing release.

 

And speaking as a future video game developer, even if a group of fans wanting to finish the game got the game, it would be so obsolete (Not to mention buggy) that it would be better to just start from scratch. There's nothing really to be gained by trying to get LEGO to release this game.

 

~LT

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GoldenTahu -- I have said what I have to say on this subject. Like I said, I am not in the legal dept. and cannot speak for them. If you choose to just keep asking questions about this, I will pretty much have to ignore them because I can't help you anymore than I have.

 

As for somehow owing you guys something -- I believe doing comics in 2010, keeping the serials going through 2011, and my being here still pretty much all constitutes things LEGO does not need to do for a cancelled line. If you dislike Hero Factory, I can't see how releasing what has accurately been called a 10 year old, bug-ridden, unfinished game is somehow going to make you like it more. While we would love it if you guys were jumping for joy about Hero Factory, we also knew going in that some of the things you loved about BIONICLE were not going to be present in this line. Our assumption was this would remain a fan community for BIONICLE and not become a fan community for HF -- HF will no doubt spawn its own community, just as BIONICLE did in 2001. Frankly, I have actually been pleasantly surprised by the number of people on here saying they will buy HF sets so they can get the new pieces ... that does not sound like a "boycott" of the line to me.

 

BIONICLE is what it is ... HF is what it is ... people who like to MOC will find things to like in both, no doubt. People who loved an epic, 10-year long, in-depth storyline probably won't find that with HF, as that is not what HF is intended to be. You've certainly got every right to say HF is not your thing, but that does not obligate LEGO to do all sorts of extra things for you to somehow make up for your not liking it.

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Lord Trionx, go here to answer your comments.

 

Um, the game suffered mostly from bugs, not quality issues. And if it had to be scrapped because of that, it would be better to just make your own version. And like I said, it would be using nearly a decade old game engine. In terms of software and hardware advancements, it's like a century old game. :P

 

~LT

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Lord Trionx, go here to answer your comments.

 

Um, the game suffered mostly from bugs, not quality issues. And if it had to be scrapped because of that, it would be better to just make your own version. And like I said, it would be using nearly a decade old game engine. In terms of software and hardware advancements, it's like a century old game. :P

 

~LT

 

Yes, but JrMMB fixed MNOG, so he could fix this. As to a new game, see the banner in my sig?

 

And Greg- I never said Lego or you owe us anything, just that giving us permission to have the game would be a good idea in my opinion...

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Actually, GT, you pretty much did. These were your words:

 

"Most Bionicle fans were unhappy about the cancellation of the toyline, and the die-hards are boycotting the new Hero Factory. I just think this would be kind of a "we're sorry, but here's something else to cheer you up" thing."

 

So you basically positioned the release of the game as us having to somehow apologize to you.

 

And to an earlier point -- I never heard that the game was cancelled because of bugs. What I have always heard (and I was good friends with the LEGO producer working on the game here at the time) was that the game's quality was not up to LEGO's standards.

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Sorry if my post sounded like that, I didn't mean it.

 

Crainy said in the TLOMN topic:

I actually dont buy the thing about the "low quality". It can never be worse than Bionicle: The game. Never. Alone the fact that you play as the Toa Mata on 2001 Mata Nui and can change your masks makes it 30 times better than Bionicle: The game. I think the bugs are that heavy, that it doesnt make much fun to play the game.

 

He said the opposite of what you said about the bugs, but there was a bit of confusion about that. The important thing is that most people think it would be better than Bionicle: The Game. I don't know whether that is true or not, but half the reason we're trying to get it is because of it's antiquity, even if it's not very good.

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I can't speak to BIONICLE: The Game, never played it. At any rate, point is moot because LOMN is not being released.

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