Not very long ago, thousands of people on the internet were excitedly sharing, downloading and playing a surprisingly excellent fan-created Star Wars fighting game called ‘Force Combat’. Featuring characters and environments from across decades and various forms of Star Wars media, this Mortal Kombat-esque brawler raised the question, “why has it been so long since anyone has attempted a competently-produced Star Wars fighting game?”
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At any rate, before half the people that had seen the clips circulating online could even get around to downloading it, it had already been shared by major outlets, amplified by YouTubers and streamers, commented on by devs and industry analysts and, eventually, pulled down by the creator, know as LastJawa. The removal of the game was clearly motivated by a perceived threat posed by Darth® Disney™, but that got us to thinking: What’s the risk/reward of fan-created media, generally?
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Often, fan-created games (also short films, fan art and cosplay) can amplify talented-but-unknown artists to a much larger community of creators and consumers built up around a particular fandom. If opportunities to engage with the mediums that they love have not yet presented themselves to these creators, why not create these opportunities for themselves?
Now obviously, your pals Brian and Jeremy here are no legal experts (and are, in fact, barely literate). That said, we’ve both seen and even participated in the creation of our fair share of fan-created media in our day, and in this video, we make the (not legally-binding) argument that the juice is worth the squeeze.
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What do you think? Are these creators playing with fire and destined to get burned, or is making fan games, fan films and fan art a clear path to kickstarting entire careers, legal threats be damned? (We actually talked to a lawyer and he said it’s probably the first one, like in almost every case. I mean, he was VERY emphatic about not doing this or even listening to us talk about it or watching this video, truth be told. But you’re not gonna let someone that “knows what they’re talking about” or “is an authority on the subject” boss you around, ARE YOU?!)
Source: IGN.com Why Fan-Made Video Games Could Get You Hired… Or Fired