Victim of Culture

The fate of fan games, and why movie studios get fan media right

If you’re questioning exactly what a fan game is, then it’s likely you’ve never heard of fan fiction or fan films.  Fan media, as a broad term, is when fans of a media property take it upon themselves to recreate the or expand upon the experience of that media.  In other words, when two guys make a Star Wars short film in their back yard.

It’s been going on for years with fan fiction (short stories), and indeed some of these are breaks into the world of real book writing, at least in the Star Trek universe.  Fan films came about in the early 1990s, mostly thanks to the rise of the Internet for distribution and the cheap costs of digital video editing solutions.,  Fan games have been around at least as long, and essentially are fan versions of classic video game series.

Look around online and you’ll find countless hacks or completely unique creations based around Super Mario Brothers.  So far Nintendo has been fairly quiet on the subject, as long as people don’t try to sell their hacks.  That seems fair and makes sense as it’s the same tactic that George Lucas has taken with Star Wars fan films.  Lucas has even sponsored fan film contests and provided downloadable sound effects for directors to use.  Though, in fairness, those “fan films” had to be completely original and not actually based in the Star Wars universe (think George Lucas in Love).

So, while Nintendo has taken a bit of a hands off approach, other companies have gotten very involved with these types of projects.  The most recent case was a fan game sequel to Chrono Trigger.  Square-Enix put an end to it almost as quickly as they did Chrono Resurrection and Chrono Trigger Remake, two fan games trying to update the beloved original.  But both of those made business sense for Square.  Just last year they released Chrono Trigger on the Nintendo DS, and if updated versions were floating around out there who would buy a basic port of the original?

Sequels and side games, however, make less sense.  Would people not buy a remake of Chrono Trigger because a fan made sequel existed?  Maybe for some, but most would want the original.  In fact, many would likely want the original strictly from having played the sequel and wanting to know how the story began.  This is the same logic that movie studios use when they rush a film out on DVD or Blu-ray because a sequel is hitting theaters.  It just makes sense people will want to buy or rent the original before seeing the sequel.

If Square-Enix seemed at all interested in producing a sequel themselves perhaps it would make more sense.  However, they haven’t touched the franchise since the PS One days with Chrono Cross, a pseudo-sequel at best.  Instead, such issues seems to have more to do with particular companies’ hang ups over ROMs and their distribution.  It’s akin to how movie studios bristle at the mere idea of someone ripping a DVD, even if it is just to watch on their iPod or stream to their TV.  Game companies fear that allowing fan game ROMs to be freely distributed invites distribution of their actual games online, as well.

Of course, this is rather silly.  Yes, some people pirate the Star Wars films online, but far fewer one suspects than will ever see the fan films that populate YouTube and a million other sites.  Of course, YouTube videos can be played with relative ease by any remotely up-to-date computer.  ROMs, on the other hand, require emulator software.  Once fans start downloading emulator software to play a Chrono Trigger sequel, what’s to keep them from going ahead and downloading the original while they’re at it?  It’s the same argument that is used against peer to peer networks that allow for the distribution of some perfectly legal material in between all the pirated music, movies, and games.

One solution for companies would be to build a web software interface through which fans could upload ROMs to be played on a web site.  Imagine, you go to Square-Enix’s web site and there are hundreds of fan tribute games to Chrono Trigger and you can play them all for free.  It would be a similar setup to Kongregate and other online gaming sites, allowing fans to vote for their favorites.  It would take the emulation out of the hands of the customers.  Of course, there’s obvious flaws with such a plan.  One of the largest being payment of royalties for music and character designs.

Still, there must be some solution.  If film and literature can get this right, surely games can as well.

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