Be very,very quiet...We're hunting Art thieves.

As I check on deviantArt regually (I'm here), I was reading the journal of one of the artists I have on deviantwatch.

Journal Update

Now I know art theft is common on the internet, but I must say I am impressed that this artist and her friends have managed to find various individuals who have stolen her art and claimed it as their own. She then links their sites and exposes them as art thieves. While it may not seem like much, an artist is very protective of their work and that simple art theft is a major blow to the artist. Sometimes a simple email to the thief will cause them to take the work down, but in many cases that thief may choose to insult the artist back and thus a vulgar and violent language slinging match between the artist's fans and the thief's allies begins. In some cases legal action may be threatened (an artists published work is copyrighted and they can sue you for theft) and in a minority of those cases it actually goes to court.

I applaud this artists actions and hope that down the track people will stop stealing her work, which is fantastic I must say. Now if only I could draw that good.

Alas poor MundoRare..

MundoRare Closes

In a recent looking through sites I visit occasionally, I was shocked to discover that MundoRare, a fan site of Rare, had decided they could no longer continue. MundoRare has been a great sorce of Rareware info and to see them having no choice but to close is disheartening. I admit that this whole 'wii' clone style that Microsoft is doing is rather boring as having both an Xbox 360 and a Wii there is no way in hell I'm going to get a wii-style game for my Xbox, cause that's what the wii was for duh! (plus Nintendo have had time to fine-tune their system games, unlike Microsoft). So while people like myself wait for another Conker or Perfect Dark game, Microsoft will keep pushing companies like Rare into whatever direction they like.

That said, I don't think Rare is itself without blame, though the recent fan abuse is somewhat uncalled for. Even MundoRare coped it too. For those that didn't understand, they were planning on closing it down but decided to go for an all-or-nothing shot with a documentary. When Rare shot them down, they had really no choice. Another publicity attempt to win back fans blundered and any hope of redemption for Rare (atleast in MundoRare's point of view) was lost. I admit that trying to run an up to date website on something that appears to be dying in your eyes is not worth the amount of time it takes up.

As for the future of Rare itself, I wonder if they suffer poor sales for Kinect Sports will cause Microsoft to distance itself from Rare or will Microsoft accept responsibility and admit their Natal (seriously, is that what the things called?!) project seemed doomed from the start. Somehow, I doubt the latter will occur.

Ken vs Archie update

It seems many have expressed their...concern over the issue. This has forced Ian into fan cooldown by giving a brief personal view on the matter.

Ian says :)

While this is also my point of view, it at least shows that they are taking it seriously and still pushing for the future.