James Isaac Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 My e-mail: To whom it may concern, I am very unhappy today. Probably the saddest I've been for months. The game I was looking forward to so much - more than any game in years, that I have been waiting and hoping for so much - reading every new bit of information ever since the first press release, I have just found out has been cancelled. Yes, I was thinking Sam & Max Freelance Police was going to be the best game ever. Probably better than my all time favourite game "Grim Fandango". I really can't believe it's been canceled. There was so much hype about it. All the magazines, and the huge adventure gaming community, and a lot of people who had never even played adventure games before were so excited about it. Yes, I introduced all my friends to it by showing them the trailer on your site. And they loved it. Nearly all of them were going to buy the game - even though they'd never even heard of the origional. I think, and so do many many other people, that your decision to cancel it was the wrong one. I really hope you choose to change your mind and get this back in production. Everything about it looked so good. The graphics looked amazing - the rooms that were shown looked beautiful. The story had a great backing. The voices were great, and the dialogue hilarious. It looked like a sure sucess. There was no doubt about it. I was definetly going to buy it, even if it cost £100 I would still get enough money together to buy it. And you'll notice, that when you cancelled Full Throttle 2, not that many people complained. Becuase it wasn't looking that good. You notice that no one created a petition that got 1000 signatures in the first 13 hours, and that not so many people e-mailed you, and started complaining. That's because this game looked so good. It was in PC Gamer's top 10 games of 2004, and had so many people talking about how good it was. Broken Sword 3 came out well. A lot of people liked it. They didn't cancel it becuase not so many people were buying the first 2 anymore, becuase they developed, and now people love it. You can do the same. I just wish you would change your mind. Please, think again. Think how many people ahve been waiting so anxiously for this, and how many people you are making sad about this. Please, please, please change your decision and put it back into development, for everyone. Thanks, James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guybrush guy Posted March 4, 2004 Author Share Posted March 4, 2004 good new guys, i talked to the guys over at gamespy and there going to post the link for the petition.... i'm going to email lucasarts as soon as i get it on gamespot and PCgamer.com that will prove that they have hope for the game. if anyone knows games it's them VEVA LE REVELUTION Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Isaac Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 You should try to get as many people as possible to e-mail lucasArts aswell... as they will probably pay more attention to that than petitions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMonkeyGuy Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 Guybrush Guy, thanks for your work I hope that LucasArts think again on this cancel and put on the project again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guybrush guy Posted March 5, 2004 Author Share Posted March 5, 2004 i'm gald to be helping, the petition jsut hit 2000 about 20 minuts ago....keep the signing going Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheriff Gringo Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 Hey, if there's talk of petitions being sent to LucasArts, can I suggest a couple more? I'm sure there won't be any bother gathering a sufficiently impressive number of signatures: - Promise consumers you'll stare at the thousands of unsold copies of Gladius, Star Wars: Generic Product, Red Rock BMX/VHS or whatever it was called and your other poor output over the last few years before starting any new projects - Don't go ahead with projects that, when pitched, you say "OMG TEH BSET EVAR" and then a few months down the line snicker like a bunch of giggleworms and say "Uh, we lied, game over!" - Get your marketing department to do something like, oh, I don't know, devise a marketing strategy for a product BEFORE greenlighting its production? - Stop cancelling games being made by your longest-serving and most creative staff members. It's a surefire way to annoy them to the point where they leave the company, and then you end up having to devise nonsense titles. - Have some faith in your back catalogue of games and realise that sequels have an in-built market, no matter how shoddy. Even Father of the Bride Part II made its money back because so money people liked the original! Not that I have both movies or anything... All winning petitions, I'm sure you'll agree. Thank you, LucasArts. Hey! Idea! You're clearly aspiring to slump to the creative wasteland of Sierra's standards, so why not copy what their games used to do? Sam & Max 2 died, but let's just reload it from the last saved position! LOL OMG!@!@@!@! etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remi Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 Oh Mapso, you do make us giggle like 14 year old girls. ;D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murray the Chao Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 I have read the cancellation announcement at GameStop and it doesn't sound LucasArts speaking AT ALL. It certaintly doesn't sound like the LucasArts that created such games as Monkey Island. BTW, how did you get so many signatures already? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Isaac Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 We posted links to it on other popular sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guybrush guy Posted March 5, 2004 Author Share Posted March 5, 2004 by emailing up the ass, i spent hours finding and sending emails Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapcase Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 Back in the mid-nineties I once read a feature in PC Zone on the greatest developers of all time. I can't recall exactly what position LucasArts was in but it was definitely top 3 somewhere, if not first. The article glowingly described all the company's achievments but as I write this letter there's one feature that stands out especially: trust. Lucasarts, the article said, was a company you could trust to always put out a good game. Lucasarts had that marketer's wet dream, brand loyalty, even among the most hardened of game journalists. It had an aura of trustworthiness, a carefully built-up community of loyal fans who bought into the lifestyle. In fact, long before Lifestyle Branding had become a buzzword Lucasarts did pursue precisely such a regime, emphasising the games' common identity, putting out The Adventurer, dropping Max (poor Max!) into every other game as a cameo. We fans felt we had somewhere we belonged. And long after LucasArts went down the poor-quality-control, quick-cash-in route, we stayed loyal. That's a side effect of a good lifestyle brand - the fans tend to stay with the company, thick and thin. It's like fans of a certain film director or music producer - emphasising their identity will draw thousands of old fans on name recognition alone. People who once basked in the glow will hunt, relentlessly, for the last remaining shred of the light that nourished them in better days. Now the lights have gone out. Utterly. The plug has been forcefully wrenched out of the socket. You've gone too far this time. I'm sure you've seen the reactions on various websites; this is not like any of your previous blunders. This is much, much more serious. For an enormous portion of the once-cherished fan community, the straw has broken the back of the camel, love has turned to hate. It tends to happen I'm afraid when you betray your most loyal fans; hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I myself have lost all the lividness of yesterday by now, but in its place is a hard gritty determination: I shall never buy a product from your company again until some radical changes happen. On that note I chose to end this letter. Best wishes, Johan Palme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tingler Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 I don't like being referred to as a collective woman, thanks. But besides that, that's a fine letter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 Great letter there Snapcase. We need more like this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murray the Chao Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 What other sites did you post it on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanr Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 This petition is going well, about 4600 signatures at time of writing, plus it's the second most active petition on petitiononline as well as the second most popular top 25 petitions. 3 of which I might add are all sam & max 2 related!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrik Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Oh. My. God. http://www.eternalconflict.co.uk/sm2news.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanr Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Bah! That press release is fake! FAKE!!! Though I truely wish it wasn't, hopefully some day lucasarts will issue a press release along those lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flakk Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 It's. A. Hoax. And a very crappy one at that. The link is going to: http://www.eternalconflict.co.uk/sm2news/sm2news/86.html not http://www.lucasarts.com/press/release/86.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justblah Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Originally posted by Brushguy Nobody except mindless gamers will buy their Star Wars junk. So what if it sells well? The thousand gamers hovering around on the Mixnmojo Forums won't buy it. You just don't seem to get it...those "mindless gamers" outnumber you by a hundred to one at least. Lucasarts will have absolutely no trouble sleeping at night knowing that they've alienated a thousand regulars to the Mixnmojo Forums. You said it yourself "so what if it sells well?" ...so what? Well, the company stays in business and doesn't have to lay off employees. It's only when the mainstream gamers stop buying the shovelware that they will have any motivation to change their stance. If LEC should be worried about anything, it's that the gaming press is creating a huge PR backlash for them, and rightly so. Yes, I'm extremely disappointed that this game was cancelled, but you lack a sense of perspective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anonymous Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 New here, but I just can't keep myself away from the discussion. This is an outrage. Here's my letter to PR. Hello, I am extremely displeased at your cancellation of Sam and Max: Freelance Police. For several years, I've stood behind LucasArts' adventure games, praising your efforts to keep your store stocked with classics and touched by what seemed like genuine willingness to please the fans with sequels to the games we love. I purchased Full Throttle from Babbage's, mainly because I wanted to play it before Full Throttle 2's release. We just bought a brand-new computer for the first time in seven years, and one of the biggest reasons for it was so I could be SURE that Freelance Police would run on my system. There were other things, of course -- general compatibility with all newer software -- but Freelance Police has stood at the top of my want list for quite some time. Winter crawled by with the expectations of finally getting something new in the world of Sam and Max. I rejoiced when the first signs of Spring came in. Why? Because Spring 2004 marked Sam and Max's return to gaming. And then, I'm told that some idiot at LEC cancelled this game, this gem I've been reaching for for a year. Maybe you'll recognize the name of a certain ex-competitor of yours -- Sierra? They ditched us fans long ago. You were our hope for adventure gaming, the object of our dreams to keep our favorite genre alive. Now you're winding down the same path those greedy, money-hungry, corporate scum took years ago when they fired their Yosemite branch. But I won't go into detail about Black Monday, because obviously, you geniuses at LucasArts had to study up on the event to learn one of the basic strategies of screwing over your fans -- cancel the games they yearn for and leave 'em in the dust. This is extremely upsetting. We had hopes through the clouds and we were only getting giddier as the release approached. First you kill Full Throttle 2, and then you skewer Sam and Max 2. LEC sickens me. Unless I can block away the disgust long enough to purchase a copy of The Dig at some bargain bin, then Outlaws will have been the last LucasArts product I purchase. You do not have my customer satisfaction. You have my utmost disrespect. Go make a new game for the lifeless drones that purchase your Star Wars products -- you obviously don't have to inject any heart into those mass-produced money machines, so how hard should it be? Personally I think well-thought-out, intelligent letters of disgust are more effective than "LucasArts iz da suX0rZ," but that's just me. This is really too much, either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 You're absolutely right, Reno (and welcome to the forums) - intelligent letters are the most effective way to let LucasArts know how we feel. As far as unofficial numbers go, the LucasArts PR department has recieved well over 1500 e-mails, possibly 2000, since wednesday. This means one of two things: 1. People are all doing their best to tell LucasArts how genuinely annoyed and upset they are at the decision. 2. People are, as you say, saying "LucasArts iz da suX0rZ" and only the minority are getting through will proper messages. Hopefully, it is the former. As far as I know, which isn't too far, LucasArts haven't been simply deleting the e-mails - at least, not all of them. For what its worth, the letters posted in this thread have all been the "good" kind of letter. With any luck, the lack of response to the fan outrage is purely because they're stunned by the backlash, and want to prepare some proper statements. Lets hope so, anyway - the longer we're left waiting, the more respect and fans LucasArts will lose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anonymous Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 I have a feeling they're listening to the letters. I recently discovered that years and years ago, my parents complained to Sierra because they were stuck in Leisure Suit Larry 2 and needed a hintbook, but the hintbooks weren't going to be released for another seven weeks, and they didn't want to keep spending lucacrious amounts of money on the hint line. In response, Sierra sent them a couple of coupons and a free, complimentary copy of Space Quest 3 for their hassle. What I'm trying to say is, the fans are very important to these companies, because without us, they won't sell a thing. With such a number being dissatisfied, they're SURE to realize their mistake. It's not as if our letters are being completely disregarded and pushed off as useless opinions from meager voices. I, myself, am very optimistic. I have a feeling that the decision'll be reversed, in some way or another. Did anybody expect such a huge fallout from the decision? Five thousand petition-signers in three days? At least 1,500 angry letters to PR? This is a huge movement, a great effort, and I do believe that we will be victorious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanr Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 How many signatures and emails do you guys think it would take for lucasarts to reconsider? I personally reckon about 50,000 signatures and about 10,000 emails would change their minds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anonymous Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Well, each signature is worth about $50, I'd say, as each one is most likely going to buy it if they're signing it. So with 50,000 signatures, they'd make approximately $2,500,000. I doubt they were even expecting what we've already given them, though. Anybody notify Just Adventure about the petition? EDIT: I just emailed Randy Sluganski, editor-in-chief of JA, asking for support. Let's hope something good comes out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Udvarnoky Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Originally posted by seanr How many signatures and emails do you guys think it would take for lucasarts to reconsider? I personally reckon about 50,000 signatures and about 10,000 emails would change their minds. I'm thinking that time is a major issue here, and we don't have the time to get 50,000 signatures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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