[IMPORTANT] A campaign to get the official tools released

Dear members of the Circle of Eight Community,

This letter is addressed to each of you - not only the select group of administrators and moderators, but to every single member we have here at the boards, to every person who thinks he enjoys the game modifications we make here at the Circle of Eight and who is willing to support the modders in their effort to make the game better. PLEASE, I SPECIFICALLY DIRECT THESE WORDS TO *EVERY* MEMBER OF OUR BOARDS - READ THIS MESSAGE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING TO THE VERY END, MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND IT, AND SUPPORT US IF YOU CHOOSE SO. THANKS.

It is well-known that Atari forbade the release of an official world editor for ToEE, as well as the release of any supplementary tools that can be used to modify the game contents. The exact reason behind this is unknown even today, yet we know that the biggest D&D project of Atari, Neverwinter Nights, shipped with an editor, so supposedly it's just an explicit wish of Atari and has little or nothing to do with the D&D CRPG situation of today as such (in the end, Atari has the D&D license, so they choose what to do with it). Therefore, it looks like it's Atari's sole wish not to release the game tools for ToEE. It is known that:

1. Atari holds the license for D&D CRPGs.
2. Atari has the right to prohibit or allow the release of official toolset for games that they published.
3. Atari either disregards the Co8 community's intention to get the official tools for their favorite game, or takes a very restrictive policy in this respect.
4. Troika members have the toolset, but they simply can't release it without Atari's explicit permission because they are bound by the license agreement and the non-disclosure agreement.
5. If we persuade Atari to give Troika members a permission to release the toolset, persuading Troika members to release it would be a lot smaller problem (if there ever will be any problem with it of course, since I personally doubt it judging by the facts).

We have heard much from Troika. The guys from this company have been very supportive over the years, from the very first days of the game release. Troika members listened to the fans and even made some of the Circle of Eight members their official beta testers for upcoming game patches. They always listened to the fans and tried to make fans' wishes their first priority, even with the limited amount of time they could spend coding this game, and even with Atari's restrictions. Sadly enough the Troika company is no more.

We've heard from Troika, but we have never heard from Atari. There have been rumors here and there that Atari has been keeping an eye on the Circle of Eight community, yet they have never ever taken any action (good or bad), and they have never voiced their opinion. Their support of their fans has been lacking, if not to say more.

We tried to run a campaign for the release of the world editor once (more than a year ago). However, due to the lack of general support, lack of information, and certain superstitions of the core modders the effort was canceled soon after it started. Some people said that Atari would take down the Circle of Eight community for doing such a thing as asking for the editor tools. So, a year has passed after that. What do we have today?

Nothing bad has happened, as you can see. Atari definitely holds a position where it simply ignores the community, at the same time gaining profit (I wouldn't call it either "considerable" or "non-considerable" since I simply wouldn't know) from the increase in sales of a three-year old game (ToEE) thanks mainly to our mods. We have a third-party game toolset created, which allows a quite deep modification of the game intrinsics and which allows the creation of such mods as the fifth installment of the Co8 mod (5.0.0) and the upcoming Keep on the Borderlands.

So, you may ask - why do we still need to voice our opinion and ask for the release of the official toolset yet again? The answer is simple.

1. With official tools (especially the supplementary ones) we could create mods of much higher quality - with new 3D models, more in-depth engine scripting, and so on.
2. The official tools may make more people join the modders' crew and start creating the game modifications, making the game even better.
3. The modders will be more productive, given the additional tools that may simplify and/or extend the modding capabilities.

So, basically we think about running a full-fledged campaign for the release of the official toolset or at least its part. We may consider the following:

1. Creating a site or a page where people may voice their opinion.
2. Sending e-mails to Atari authorities with opinions from the created site/page, or from the boards.
3. Sending snail mail letters to Atari authorities with our voiced opinions.

The question of how we are going to find those Atari authorities' addresses is another problem, but it may be solved given the information we have at hand today. The questions I'm most interested in today are:

1. How many people are going to sign the petition and voice their opinions? I'm mostly interested in hearing from every non-modder member who will be willing to show support to the community, not just the core modders.
2. If any of you have objections to the campaign, please say so as well. However, as I noted before, I don't think we should be stopped by a prejudice that Atari will close us down if we make a campaign. If they wanted to close us down, they would have done so long ago.

Other questions may arise in the process of discussion.
Please tell me what you think about this and please don't hesitate to reply here. The more people we get, the more ground we are going to have in asking Atari about anything.

I would also like to keep this as least agressive as only possible. Please voice your opinion but don't resort to senseless flame.
This thread will stay stickied for a while.

Thanks in advance for your support.
- Agetian

 

Yeah, count me in too. being able to add new worldmap button's would really help a little area I know of that needs some attention

[EDIT] the source code probably wouldn't hurt either.