Forgotten Hope vs. FANCYGOAL, Inc.

Introduction

It has recently come to our attention that a China based company named 'Fancy Goal Inc.' has been using content from our mod "Forgotten Hope" without permission. They are selling two titles, "Heavy Panzer" and "Fancy FPS Template" for profit consisting largely of content taken from our mod and a number of commercial games.

The affected titles include:

• Forgotten Hope (a Battlefield 1942 mod)
• Forgotten Hope 2 (a Battlefield 2 mod)
• Battlefield 1942, developer DICE, publisher EA
• Battlefield 2, developer DICE, publisher EA
• Call of Duty 2, developer Infinity Ward, publisher Activision
• Brothers In Arms, developer Gearbox Software, publisher Ubisoft

Besides selling games constructed from stolen material, this company is now also selling individual Forgotten Hope assets for prices ranging from $50 to $150 (needless to say, without permission).

Some relevant links:

• www.fancygoal.com
• www.fantasysoft-studio.com
• client page at NeoAxis Group
• release announcement from NeoAxis Group
• Heavy Panzer thread at NeoAxis support forums
• Fancy FPS Template at NeoAxis support forums

Please take note that NeoAxis Group is merely the provider of the game engine on which these titles are build on. They are most likely unaware that FancyGoal is not a legitimate business. We will be contacting them.

It appears that FancyGoal Inc. is a 1-man company. This person uses the username "FineSun" on the NeoAxis support forums, registered "2 Jun 2007" and seems to have obtained an "Indie License" for NeoAxis engine. Judging from his post there, he appears polite and has seemingly even fixed some bugs in "Heavy Panzer" in response to bug reports from other forum members.

WHOIS information:

FANCYGOAL.COM
Fan, LingNa fantasys@fantasysoft-studio.com
Cheng Xi Xin Yi Cun 92 Ha
Miluo, NA 41440
CN
+86.7305255185

FANTASYSOFT-STUDIO.COM
Fan, LingNa system@fantasysoft.net
QuYanBeiLu FangGaiBan 5Dong 9DanYuan 602
Miluo, -- 414400
CN
+86 730 3200632

Please keep in mind that these details may not be accurate, and this individual may be an unwitting or uninvolved person (i.e. victim of identity theft).

"Heavy Panzer" comparison images

Due to the massive ammount of "borrowed" content, only a few screenshots taken from the Fancygoal Inc. website should suffice.

Screenshot of "Heavy Panzer", taken from Fancygoal website.


Screenshot of "Call of Duty 2" by Activision.


Vehicle created by Forgotten Hope team members Omni and jimbob.


Vehicle created by Forgotten Hope developer Montoya.

Notes

• the porthole frame is very obviously taken from Call of Duty 2
• the two tanks to the right are the "Cruisader" tank taken from either Forgotten Hope mods
• the "Valentine" tank partially offscreen to the left is also from Forgotten Hope
• the sky texture appears to be taken from Battlefield 2 (to be precise, a popular map named "Strike at Karkand")

Screenshot of "Heavy Panzer", taken from Fancygoal website.


The LCT Landing craft created for FH2 by Messiah


Fletcher class ship model from Battlefield 1942

Notes

• once again the porthole from Call of Duty 2
• the landing craft you seen in both foreground and background is taken from FH2
• some of the tanks seen disembarking from the craft are also taken from FH2
• the barrel of the tank reveils this is the Sherman tank taken from FH2
• the battleship in the background is the "Fletcher" from Battlefield 1942, with FH1 mod texture (which lacks the black stripes on the hull)

Screenshot of "Heavy Panzer", taken from Fancygoal website.


Screenshot from "Forgotten Hope 2", tank sight made by FH developer Rad.

"Fancy FPS Template" comparison images

Screenshot of "Fancy FPS Template", taken from Fancygoal website.


Screenshot taken in "Forgotten Hope 2".


Screenshot of "Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood" by Gearbox.

Notes

• the weapon is the "FG42", created by FH artist PointBlank
• the truck is the "Opel Blitz" modeled and textured by FH developer Toddel
• pretty brazen to "borrow" in-your-face material such as player models from a mayor commercial franchise (Brothers in Arms)

Screenshot of "Fancy FPS Template", taken from Fancygoal website.


Screenshot of "Forgotten Hope 2".

Notes

• weapon seen here is a model by FH2 developer Seth_Solder
• other weapons here are also FH2 weapons (Thompson)
• player model again from Brothers In Arms, possibly animations as well

Screenshot of "Fancy FPS Template", taken from Fancygoal website.



Notes

• One of the variations of the Forgotten Hope 2 "P-51 Mustang". This model was kindly donated to our mod by Clivewil. The ironic thing here is that the markings on the aircraft "CW" act as the artist's signature.
• also visible to the right is a glimpse of the "Flak 38", another FH2 asset, created by FH2 dev jodonnell
• in the background several instances of the "C-47 Skytrain" from Forgotten Hope 1

"Heavy Panzer" publicity video

Most revealing of all seems to be the 'official' "Heavy Panzer Episode 1" demo video.

Notes

• all vehicle sounds are taken from Battlefield 1942 and Forgotten Hope 1
• the iconic voice commands are likewise from Battlefield 1942
• some more voice sounds seem to be taken from "Call of Duty 2"
• "Matilda", "Cruisader" and "Valentine" tank from Forgotten Hope 1 & 2
• sky texture taken from Battlefield 1942 ("Midway")
• pine tree texture taken from FH2
• the beach invasion scenes consist almost entirely of FH2 content
• another poorly re-textured FH2 Sherman tank makes appearance in the winter scenes
• The bridge seen near the end of the video was taken from the official Battlefield 1942 "Match Map Pack" level "Remagen". Not entirely coincidentally, the artist who created this bridge is our long-time Forgotten Hope developper Smig.

Conclusion

The massive ammount of material taken from our mod and several commercial games leads us to draw the conclusion that there is unlikely any original content in these titles whatsoever, remaining content is probably taken from unknown games and mods. If you recognise any of this content, please drop us a line, we'll and notify the parties involved and will add it to this page.

What might have been otherwise a fun, arcadish game, turns out to be little more than a collection of stolen goods. In recent years we have seen increasingly that other mods have "borrowed" our content without asking permission. In each of these cases we've asked them to remove our content, and in the future obtain permission through proper channels. All of them have complied and eventually agreed that it is 'not done' to just take stuff without courtesy.

Forgotten Hope is a free mod, our developers are all volunteers and put a lot of time and effort into making a fun game, at the cost of time spend with our families and financial welbeing (and occasionally our sanity!). We support and share material and knowledge with other mods, even rival mods. We encourage others to play with our material and be creative, because that is what mods are all about.

However, we expect anyone who redistributes our material to obtain permission if used outside our mod. We are very sad to see that there are now even persons claiming ownership and selling our content for profit.

And in case you are wondering, the Forgotten Hope team has always asked and obtained permission from the Battlefield series developers to use their material. In fact, some of our team members are employed at DICE/EA, other team members have directly contributed to Battlefield titles, patches, and have even supplied development tools.

-Remdul
Forgotten Hope developer
martijn AT bytehazard DOT com