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No unofficial Duke shots?
January 21st 2001, 06:36 CET by Andy

As you've probably heard already, 3D Realms may try to stop reviewers from using unofficial DNF screenshots. Otherwise, they wouldn't be thinking about suing them, would they?

This story has been neatly dodged by 3D Realms, which is partly my own fault due to some poor wording in an article I wrote. To set the record straight, there has been no official 'announcement', just some info provided by George Broussard during a PlanetCrap chat a few days ago.

But the fact remains that 3D Realms is considering how to stop reviewers from taking their own DNF screenshots, possibly by crippling the game or using a license agreement.

And according to George, he hasn't ruled out taking legal action against reviewers who break the rules.

Asked if 3DR "would sue a publication if they didn't use official DNF shots in a review", he replied:

Not sure. We only plan to release a handful and would prefer those were used like in the Duke 3D reviews. We really don't want web guys finishing the game on day one and posting 40 shots of DNF in a review. So, we'll have to think about that one a bit.

As was pointed out during the discussion here the other night, one potential problem with forcing any publication to only use official shots is that sometimes those shots don't accurately represent the game.

For instance, I noticed this comment over on Glide Underground, a site which also picked up on George's comments:

I for one want to show the shots that I as a reviewer saw rather than stuff that looks like nothing like the game. We saw one case of this already -- Trespasser preview screens, released by Dreamworks, looked nothing like the final game and yet were still placed on the shipping box.

Consider, also, the screenshots for Giants. If only official screenshots had been used by people reviewing that game, they'd have included all of the gore and much-touted nudity, even though these features were toned down at the last minute.

And ironically, a screenshot on the Duke Nukem 3D box -- in my opinion the best screenshot -- featured a level that apparently wasn't even included in the game. I certainly don't remember the level, which has a rather distinctive building, but have a look for yourself.

So of course, this all comes down to a few questions:

Should reviewers, or any other journalists, be prevented from posting their own screenshots of a game? It has been well-argued by now that such a rule would be difficult to enforce, but is it right for a developer to even try enforcing it?

Can we be sure that developers will provide shots that give a true impression of their game, showing both the good and the bad? Do we want to see screenshots that give us a good idea of what we'll be getting for our money, or do we want to see only the best bits, along with features/levels/models/weapons that possibly aren't even in the finished game?

Or if you just don't care about sites being hit with rules like this... why not?

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#322 by "toadwarrior"
2001-02-04 02:53:51

I dunno

#323 by "Weezul"
2001-02-05 14:57:18

Gents,

There is no problem here... tell Georgie B. that no one will be posting screenshot of DNF until he stops sitting on his thumb and MAKES IT.

#324 by "WarrenMarshall"
2001-02-05 19:44:57

Weezul (#323):

There is no problem here... tell Georgie B. that no one will be posting screenshot of DNF until he stops sitting on his thumb and MAKES IT.

Wow! What a truly creative and well thought out jab!

---

Warren Marshall
Level Designer/Programmer/Corporate Shill
Epic Games (www.epicgames.com)

#325 by "Milamber"
2001-02-13 17:35:34

Weezul muttered in #323:
<quote>Gents,

There is no problem here... tell Georgie B. that no one will be posting screenshot of DNF until he stops sitting on his thumb and MAKES IT.</quote>

all your bad grammar are belong to us

#326 by "Anonymous"
2001-04-18 17:58:57

you don want to here it

#327 by "PFlats"
2002-04-30 18:25:13

Last post!

#328 by Chris Johnson
2002-04-30 19:58:16

Nope.

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