jtr7 on 23/2/2008 at 03:19
@Specter: If you have a plan and some talking points scribbled on a notepad, I have no objection.
@Yandros: You certainly don't need our permission, Russ! Hahaa! :joke: Go for it, please.
Any insight into the EIDOS machine could come in handy. Connections, connections, connections. It would be a shame if any of this stuff is just sitting around with no plans for sharing. It would be tragic, but final, if there wasn't anything, which I think is better (gulp) than a wasted existence.
Yeah, there's a sad joke, there.
Yandros on 24/2/2008 at 03:33
Peter has suggested I PM someone at Eidos, someone I actually recently PM'd and didn't realize he's an employee at the time. However, Peter just contacted him about something similar today, so to avoid bombarding the guy with another similar request I'll wait a couple of days.
Peter also suggested someone else in the community over at Eidos who may know of some employee members over there, or who may have contacts in the company outside the forum. I'll go ahead and email him with the request.
jtr7 on 24/2/2008 at 04:10
Thank you for this, guys. No matter the outcome.:)
Specter on 24/2/2008 at 05:42
Sounds great, guys. I will make that phone call on Monday and see if I cant get some name/numbers and maybe have a real conversation with someone.
Specter on 26/2/2008 at 18:05
Just wanted to let you guys know that my Monday/Tuesday turned out to be ridiculously busy and that I'll make the call tomorrow. Scout's honor! Sorry about that.
Yandros on 26/2/2008 at 19:47
"Foggeddaboutit."
I will PM my contacts over at the Eidos forums tonight.
Specter on 3/3/2008 at 18:12
Alright, so here's the story. Last week I called and didnt really get through to anyone, and being in a rush, I chose to email one of their departments in the hopes of getting an answer. After a week, nothing. Today I tried calling again, and I got through a receptionist. I told her that I was calling on behalf of a group of people interested in the status of some intellectual property currently owned by Eidos. She said sure, and patched me through to someone.
A guy came on and said his name way too fast for me to catch. So I said pretty much what I said before, but this time adding that we are curious about the Thief franchise. Before I could say anything more he said "Thats not currently for sale." So I asked about any materials from the production of the games and he said "No, none of thats for sale." I get the impression that he was no impressed to be dealing with an individual rather than a company. He was very to the point, so either I got the blow off, or they really arn't considering anything about Thief at all.
I wish I could say that I had a nice enlightening phone call, but such is not the case. Even if the results were the same, something more than what I was told would have been nice; it would have given us something to think about. I guess the stars weren't aligned for us today. Sorry guys.
Hopefully that receptionist doesnt get in trouble for not screening me at all.
Digital Nightfall on 3/3/2008 at 19:14
It was kind of a grenade jumping moment...
I'm sorry you had to confirm exactly what was to be expected from them.
Specter on 3/3/2008 at 19:39
In my mind, the problem is that we wont be taken seriously. Anything is for sale, its just a question of price. The fact that he was so quick to dismiss me makes me think that there are 2 possibilities: 1: They have plans for the franchise and therefor are obviously not interested in changing them. [However, that seems unlikely given Thief's history, bla bla bla re: Thief 4] and 2: He just wasnt interested in talking to someone who does not have any financial weight.
Do you guys think that if we were to make ourselves more organized; make some kind of organization, that we could do something like collect pledges for donations and then possibly make a legitimate offer on Thief's name? Does anyone know what kind of dollar figure Eidos could expect in selling the rights to Thief? Would going through all that benefit the community?
Thinking about it, this is my pie in the sky idea:
Say 20,000$ would buy the Thief name. We set up a fund through some kind of bank or trusted monetary organization. Then we fund raise. For every 5$ donated, the person receives 1 vote. Once the 20,000 is raised, there are 4000 votes. The community then becomes the holder of the Thief name, and nothing can be done with it except by majority vote. (Or 2/3, or 3/4, ect.) Is this at all feasible? If the miracle took place, would being the holders of it do anything for us? Right away, something that comes to mind would be TDM guys could (if they wanted) re-name all their things back to the original Thief model, free from worry of copyright infringement.
I realize its a pretty big stretch to even think about any of this, but is there anything here that makes for a good idea?
Digital Nightfall on 3/3/2008 at 20:24
I would be very surprised if the IP value wasn't at least a million USD. Between that and $500,000 and I'd be shocked.
Edit 1: Also... Some companies (big... not EA big, but big) have approached eidos about buying Thief in the past year or so. They were turned down.
Edit 2: I'm going to go ahead and package and post the artwork as-is (using the best scan) to T-tc.com.
Edit 3: Specter, If you've got some cash you're just dying to part with, you could always hire a pro artist to make some thief-esque artwork mimicking the production/concept art and cut out the middle man. I know a few who could use the work (and money!)
