State of the Union

I promised myself I would write every week, on Friday, on this blog concerning Meriquai Falls. I’ve already broken that promise once, so I’m reaffirming that promise and writing here today.

Just to let everyone know, work on Meriquai Falls still progresses on schedule. It’s not my ability to work on it that’s currently in question… it’s my ability to RELEASE that work that’s currently in question. And since the answer to that question is a tentative “probably,” I’m continuing to write so that I’m prepared if the answers turn out to be in my favor.

So, What’s Going On?

Those of you who follow my personal Facebook page may have seen Jason Walter’s post on my wall on Monday. Some of you among those people may be wondering what that was all about and why it was important. So, here I go with an explanation as to how I understand the situation.

DOJ, Inc., Acquires Meriquai Falls

When I first published my Meriquai Falls articles (in 2002 and 2006), I signed a contract stating that everything that DOJ, Inc., published belonged to them, no questions asked. This was an important part of DOJ’s business model. See, back when the Big Three (George MacDonald, Steve Peterson, Ray Greer) and Bruce Harlick were running things, they were far more relaxed about IP ownership. Many of the characters that Hero Games published were still owned by their creators.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, if a particular character appears in more than one place, it becomes an issue. As was the case with the villain, Icicle. Many Champions fans saw her as an iconic villain, so of course DOJ wanted to use her. They even secured permission from her creator to use her. However, Heroic Publishing called shenanigans on that (my personal opinion being that they were still miffed about how Bruce Harlick pulled the Marksman and Foxbat out of the Heroic Publishing universe) by pointing out that they had by contract exclusive rights to the use of the Icicle character. DOJ created the villain Snowblind to replace Icicle and moved on with their lives.

Given that scenario, it is easy to understand why DOJ would want to possess full control over ALL of their IP. And given my personal anger at the whole Icicle debacle, I wholeheartedly agree. So, I thought nothing about signing the rights to Meriquai Falls over to DOJ. They were still giving me the freedom to continue creating it via the Digital Hero fanzine anyway, so as far as I was concerned it was business as usual.

Cryptic Studios Acquires the Champions Universe

In 2007, the video game studio that gave us City of Heroes, Cryptic Studio, had seen their latest project get canceled by the publisher. It was supposed to be a MMORPG set in the Mighty Marvel Universe (Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, et. al.) and Cryptic had the coding foundation for the game already set. Now, cancelations of this sort happen all of the time in the video game industry (far more often than many of us would be find comfortable), so Cryptic shrugged their shoulders and moved on with life. But they weren’t content to see their hard work on the MMORPG coding framework go to waste. They knew they had a worthy challenger to their former child if they only had a superheroic universe in which to set the game.

This is where the perfect storm coalesced. Cryptic needed an superheroic setting and just happened to be Champions fans. DOJ had a well fleshed out superheroic setting twenty years in the making that wasn’t beholden to some larger corporation and just happened to be in a position to see the benefit of the influx of capital that cutting a deal with Cryptic would bring. Cryptic, being as savvy in the IP department as DOJ was, knew that they would benefit best if they had full control of the Champions Universe IP. And so a deal was cut, contracts were signed, and Cryptic bought the IP for the Champions Universe and the Dark Champions Universe from DOJ. Only Steve Long’s personal character, the Harbinger of Justice, didn’t make the transition. DOJ would continue publishing books on the Champions Universe under contract from Cryptic Studios.

Where the Confusion Lies

When I wrote the original articles for Meriquai Falls in 2002, I wrote them as though Meriquai Falls were an unofficial part of the Champions Universe. There were even references to VIPER, PRIMUS, and other elements of the Champions Universe within the articles. However, when Steve Long and I sat down to plan a Meriquai Falls setting ebook in 2003, we both agreed that Meriquai Falls should be separate setting, one that could easily be inserted into any other setting, including the Champions Universe. The ebook never saw the light of day (having been canceled following the abysmal performance of the adventure Shades of Black), but when I wrote an update article on Meriquai Falls in 2006, I noted all of the changed made to the setting in light of the decision to separate it.

Shortly after that article was written, Cryptic Studios bought the Champions Universe.

So, which holds precedence? The original articles in 2002 stating that Meriquai Falls was part of the Champions Universe? Or the update article in 2006 stating that Meriquai Falls was not part of the Champions Universe?

Jason Walters is looking into the answer to that as we speak (on top of everything else he has in his very hectic schedule). I imagine part of the process is Jason getting in contact with the legal gurus at Cryptic Studios to find out if Meriquai Falls was part of the deal in 2007 or not. I am waiting for Jason to get back with me on that. Until then, I’ll continue writing, like I said before, to make sure I’m still on schedule if the answers come back in my favor.

Worst case scenario: I turn over all of my notes to Cryptic Studios and give them seeds for what could possibly become a very kick-ass expansion to Champions Online and I move on to my other properties, like Elmenar and Lushei. Best case scenario: DOJ still owns the rights to Meriquai Falls and we all move forward as though this discussion never happened.

It’s a win-win, in my book.