The box's picture is what really catches my eye.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/american-mcgees-alice/cover-art/gameCoverId,213311/

I doubt anyone familiar with the original would be confused. In my eyes, American's name just gives it gaming cred. But that's just me.

I just searched for the first Alice game on ebay, and, damn, thats really expensive. One of the most expensive PC games ive seen there along with System Shock 2. Too bad the PC version for Alice Madness Returns doesnt come bundled with the first game like the console version. I shouldnt have bought the PC version.

I understand this but it's worth a shot.....and it wouldn't make him look any worse. ;)

Plus I figure if you become "famous" in any industry you have to take the good with the bad....it's a double edged sword after all.
If creators don't bother trying or care what's done with the work they produce then why become creators in the first place? :\


THIS.........how hard would it be to make one phone call or write a few emails? :\
Oh stop being such a c**t about it. Big difference between SS2 where the rights are held by several parties and the rights for Alice which are held by just EA. Also again he could simply email/phone the right people and try to persuade them to sell Alice on Gog/etc and even if he failed it'd be better in most people's eyes than a canned response.

I take it you haven't been pestered have to death about something you have no control over, and forced to reply to the same pesterings over and over and over again, with the same canned reply.

And yes, I still say "no control". People seem to assume that just because American McGee did work in a significant role at EA once upon a time (and even then, just as a Creative Director on Alice and other games - still significant, but with no substantial bearing on the sales policy or business strategy of the rest of the company), he somehow has the ability to ring up their CEO and Board of Directors to tell them what they should do. With all due respect, it's pretty silly to expect that.

That's why I and others mentioned System Shock. IP rights issues aside, what possible reason would EA have to listen to Spector? I mentioned Halo earlier, for the same reasons too.

It's more about friendships and other bonds formed while he worked for EA and the pull it might give him with said people still working for EA more than just a pull based on his name being on the game or his former job at EA.

And no control, but maybe some pull or influence.....remember pull/influence does not always = control when people use such terms.

That's assuming that anyone at EA who was in any position of influence while he was there, and who he was close to, is still (a) in a position of influence at EA, and (b) are still working at EA. Hell, that's also assuming that he's even still close to the people he knows at EA in the first place.

I can't speculate on that - but again, it's silly to make assumptions that those two conditions are true to a significant extent. He left EA after 1998. The industry is known for a high turnover rate, and people often jump ship to competing companies, leave the industry or leave to start their own businesses.

What I'm trying to say is that given the amount of pestering he's gotten, - and again, this is only speculation - he'd likely approach EA if he knew it'd do any good, and judging from his reaction, it's pretty apparent that it wouldn't. So why bother? It's just silly to expect that he has some kind of mystical power over the people at EA. If we really want Alice, we should pester EA directly.

And who knows? Under the rolling release schedule they've had with GOG, we're likely going to see it with the next batch of EA GOG release titles (along with WC4).

Yes but if one is optimistic then one will naturally assume one or both conditions are true.....and even if some of those people he knew at EA and had pull with left EA they might know OTHERS who still work in positions of power at EA and can send the message down the line as it were.

Just a thought. :)

And when did GOG say they were releasing more EA titles? Just curious.

Again, with all due respect, that's just silly. You'd might as well assume that he's got a secret telephone line to the White House and the Bavarian Illuminati, and that he's actually trying to halt the DRM-free release of Alice for fear that it will trigger the release of Yog-Sothoth and his non-Euclidean madness upon us all in 2012, as the Mayans predicted.

In any case, there are still some major EA games that haven't been released yet. WC4 is a good example. They've been doing a staggered release schedule so far, with two (IIRC) rounds of EA classic game releases on GOG. It makes sense that they'd do a third.

It's silly to you maybe. Some of us still have hope. :P

And again even if he thinks he has no pull he could say that he emailed or phoned someone and is waiting for a reply back....that would at least cut down on some of the posts about it....and if anyone still asked he could point to where he said that he emailed or called someone about it with a link. Simple.

Also as for games didn't they say they only had 25 games to release from EA on GOG? How many have they released so far? I think they've release at least 20+.

http://www.gog.com/en/news/gog_com_s_catalog_gets_huge_with_addition_of_classic_ea_titles It's anyone's guess what "more than 25" means, but there's still some room left for Alice or WC4. If I were a betting man, I'd bet on those two being in the next (and likely sadly final) crop of EA GOG releases.

More than 25 could include the games released as one pack with two games in them. Or not. I still hope we get more games to pick from though.

So... The optimistic viewpoint is that he's just a lazy dickhead? That's a novel approach to optimism.

He has some still left, but can only dream of Ultima. Despite all his money it sad to look his ass kissing the last couple of months of him trying to get on the new EA's Ultima revival.

In short Origin had to give up all IPs, not doing that was a complete deal breaker (in an interview with Garriott himself). Anything published by them or developed for them is theirs.
It is how the company functions for at least the last 15 years.

Those are the facts. How much, if any, pull someone has with their corporate structure is pure speculation.

The optimistic viewpoint is that he might be able to have some pull with EA....stop putting words in my mouth and being purposefully dense.