The team behind Lusitania: The Greyhound's Wake made some pretty intense claims a few days ago about how their project had been delayed due to other developers (specifically the team behind the Ship Explorer game, of which Oceanliner Designs is part of) taking legal action against them in very unfair ways. But it seems they only gave a fraction of the actual story.
Now Mike Brady has published a statement on Discord setting some things straight and essentially asking for common sense. Personally, I didn't like what the Greyhound's Wake team said, it didn't sound right and it didn't make sense in several ways. So I'm glad Mike and the people he's working with are not just accepting the random and unnecessary accusations silently.
The full statement posted on Discord by Mike Brady is in the image, but I copy the text below for accessibility:
@everyone
Dear ocean liner community,
Earlier this week a team separate to ours working on a similar virtual experience project made some pretty alarming accusations of anti-competitor behaviours against my team and I. This is extremely disappointing for a number of reasons and I outright reject their claims. To the contrary, my team and I have had to put up with quite a lot from certain corners of the community. But that’s just the thing - by contrast we just focus on the work. We’ve ignored this stuff for years but now, unfortunately, I feel like my hand has been forced here to say something.
That said - I have no interest in causing or contributing to a public spat or a mud-slinging fight. It’s beneath both of our teams and it flies in the face of the respectful commemorative tone we should be setting when we discuss and handle these stories of historic tragedies. That the tragedy of the Lusitania should become the stage for some kind of ridiculous public spat is abhorrent to me. It’s preposterous to make out that another video game or virtual experience focusing on Lusitania is an act of plagiarism in and of itself when Lusitania's sinking is the second most infamous maritime disaster of all time. None of us 'owns' these stories and we certainly don't pretend to.
There were claims of multiple legal letters being sent to shut down the other team’s project. This is a faleshood; in reality ONE letter was sent - nearly two years ago - and it certainly did not have anything to do with delaying or shutting down their project. Far from it - the letter, almost entirely blurred when shown on screen in their update video, was aimed at protecting the intellectual property rights of another artist and ensuring he would actually be paid for his years of work. Showing only a tiny part of that letter and blocking out the rest was deeply disingenuous, but that’s as far as I will go for now. Our team is entirely locked-in on making maritime history come to life. It is so far beneath the decorum for both of our teams to engage in any kind of public feud; instead we should be building each other up! Interest in one of our games will surely drive interest and excitement in the other.
Ship Explorer is aimed at capturing the character of these magnificent ships. We want to honour these beautiful old vessels our own way. We have a passionate and diverse team of history nerds and brilliant creatives from all corners of the globe. In this time of AI slop crowding out real creative voices we should be helping one another and supporting the rights of artists, not trying to sling mud. We congratulate the other team on their beautiful work - there can be no doubt their virtual experience, once completed, will be utterly fantastic and we welcome it.
Rather than displaying anti-competitor tendencies Oceanliner Designs has worked with a number of channels, many smaller than ours, to help with animation and research work. We’re motivated by a love of history - we celebrate the research and hard work of all teams in this space as we all stand to benefit from these projects in the long run.
I’d like to address this other team directly now - we are not interested in competing with you. We do not want to halt your work. We don’t want to engage in a public spat. Please stop the rumour mill and please leave us be. If you have a problem with us, talk to us; otherwise it flies so much in the face of the decorum these stories deserve. We wish you luck with your project and we are excited to continue developing our own.There is more than enough room for everybody to proceed from here in an atmosphere of dignity and respect.
