The Biggest issue in Battletech.

As I have established in previous blog entries, I am a huge fan of a game called Battletech. I have been familiar with the game since I was six, and been a player/collector of stuff since I was eleven or twelve.

Battletech has over the course of its twenty five years of existence had one giant albatross hanging over it. The original artwork and designs for the giant effing robots that are the heart of the story were images that originally belonged to Japanese Manga and Anime properties. Most famously are a series of twelve designs from a show called Super-Dimension Fortress Macross, better known as Robotech in the United States. There were also other designs take from the Animes Crusher Joe and Fang of the Sun Dougram as well.

Most people would scream plagiarism at this, but keep in mind; these images were actually licensed by the game company FASA. However, in circa 1996, there was some confusion. In 1985 a company called harmony gold began airing episodes of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada under the united title of Robotech. Further Playmates was Harmony Gold merchandising partner in this endeavor, producing (often reproduction of Japanese toys) Robotech toys. There was little interaction between FASA and Harmony gold until 1996 when playmates started producing figures for a similar but entirely separate toy line called ExoSquad. FASA brought suit to Playmates indicating that many of the Exo-Squad toys were derived from or outright copies of Battlemechs FASA had made that were NOT part of the licensed images. Playmates countersued over the licensed images in turn.

The end result of this was that confusion over United States versus Japanese licensing and copyright protection put FASA in legal jeopardy. While no one really one the lawsuits, FASA had Resolved the issue of the licensed images by removing the artwork from the universe. Because of their status of “being there, but not visible” these images had earned the nickname “the unseen” by Battletech fans.

Fast forward to 2003, FANPRO, then the current Battletech holders, created a book called “Project Phoenix” as part of the games technical readout series. Instead of creating new mech, the artist Chris Lewis looked at the unseen and recreated them in a new way that paid homage to the original licensed artwork, but were original enough to avoid legal issue. This book, as far as I can tell, has been the most controversial in Battletech history (I could be wrong).

As a fan I loved these new looks of the old classics. I could see the natural evolution between new and old, just as I can seen the differences between an F-18, and an F/A-18G. not everyone in the Battletech community was grateful however. While most fans were at the least pragmatic, there were some who treated these “ReSeen” with open distain. For example here is a quote from the Battletech message boards dated 09/22/2009.

“The new ones simply should not have been named OST-ANYTHING.
Have the Damn factory that builds the designs destroyed in Universe.
Have someone steal and/or destroy the plans for the designs entirely.
BUT DON'T NAME SOMETHING OST THAT DOES NOT LOOK OST!
And they don't feel OST either. Completely changed Mechs!
New Armor, New internal Structure, New Engine, New Weaponsloadout.
So if i make a new mech that has Leg-Joints between Torso and Arms, i can call it locust even if it is 100t heavy and carries more armor and firepower than a Daishi?
I call shenanigans on most of the Phoenix-Designs. There are only one or two i like better i think. If you make something in the image of something else, it had better have SOME kind of semblance to the original!
Both in looks AND in Loadout . .
Don't get me started on the new Locust. I showed someone who has been with Battletech for over 10 years an image of one of the newer Locusts. And he said MARAUDER!
Because neither are the Legs Between torso and arms, nor is the laser BELOW the torso. The Laser looks like the Marauders AC-Mount AND the Legs look like the Marauder Assembly too!
The old Machines had a bit more clunky to them, even if they had more biological looking chassis partly. . The new ones just . . look competely wrong in my eyes”

This is a quote from over five years after the fact. And he was complaining specifically about these two images.
Old Ostol
New Ostol

Now let us jump forward to 2009. Catalyst Game Labs (the Current holders of the franchise) had been working secretly behind the scenes, negotiating what was supposed to be Ironclad license holds to re-obtain the unseen images. Not for replacing the new Project phoenix products, but to get them to exist side by side. Again I refer to my F-18 vs. F/A-18G comparison. They had succeeded in the Crusher Joe and Dougram properties, as well as a negotiation with Victor Music Industries for original artwork that was produced “out of house” but was otherwise original Battletech work. The Macross/Robotech properties are still out of reach however.

This has created a debate in the Battletech fandom with two great big sides. One side, which seems to be the larger, is calling for the original artwork to be fully reintegrated into the battletech universe. This goes from one extreme of the unseen existing in a period only time frame, to the other of retcon, or in story get rid of the reseen.

The other, smaller side of the debate is calling for caution. Generally they too wish to see the original artwork placed in its appropriate spot in battletech canon, whether it is reproduction of original book and novel covers, or other nostalgic products. This side stops short of saying miniatures should be reproduced, and the unseen placed in current storylines and illustrations. A pilot in the year 3075 should just not be piloting a Warhammer mech that was built in 2980. Once again this side of the debate has its hard liners. For example a quote taken after the announcement that the Macross designs could not be obtained.

“good lord you guys, did you not learn anything from this entire debacle? just let them go already... you know the second IWM tries to do something some other company is going to come out of the wordwork to bite them in the ass. the other mechs designed by other companies were proactively declared unseen to keep this whole thing from ever happening again, and we were even given fantastic new models to replace the original 80s machines we took from other universes. huzzah, now my beloved Thunderbolt's mini doesn't blind me with it's sheer fuglyness, and it's a CBT original! and as an added bonus, mechs that already looked pretty decent, like the Battlemaster, now look totally badass. oh happy day!

but then, years later (that would be today), we grabbed some feathers, a jar of wax, and tried to get the old machines back. and did. woppdie-frickin'-do. still a very questionable call in my mind. in my heart of hearts, i just knew it isn't going to last. and guess what.

*clang*

*clang* *clang*

know what that sound is? as LiaoFan would say, that's the sound of our franchise once again being sodomized with a crowbar. before you knew it everyone 'round here was totally depressed, wondering what could have possibly led to that unforeseeable move by Harmony Gold. and now you guys want to dig yourselves even further down the hole?

obviously i can't stop you from spending your money on what you want... but come on, let'em go already. they've been replaced. it would be different if all of the unseen models were back, and there was some fluff about how the desperate Inner Sphere was even down to using the crap Succession Wars models again. but now we're back to only using a could specific Succession Wars models? and not even the really famous ones? come on. there are so many new projects in the pipe, waiting for work, don't clog it with this. after all, there have been enough sculpts from 1980 to sate the appetites of players for, well, ever.”

Like with partisans during the United States health care reform debate, people exerting this behavior are really doing it not to express their opinion so much as to hear themselves talk. And it is such a shame to with an issue that could bring such good fortune to a game that has found itself on the ropes so often, only to bounce back. I find myself on the side that favors the new, but I see the old as having its place, putting me smack in the middle. What shocks me more then anything else is how fans of a fictional universe can be so passionate about a small (but not unimportant) part of their fictional universe.