What has this world come to?


Aggelakis

 

Posted



This guy has a video up on Youtube where he made Vegeta in City of Heroes. I tried to warn him and he decides to pretty much give a rather rude response to me. It's not only happened to me on Youtube, I've mentioned it in-game when I noticed a player going around as 'Statick Shokk' and I got flooded in broadcast with people calling me a jerk for mentioning the rule. I mean...what did I do wrong?

The rule is there for a reason, Marvel even had there own employees spying on this game. Whats stopping other companies from doing the same? I don't want to see players causing NCSoft and Paragon Studios to be sued and having to shut down City of Heroes simply because a player decided to make a Vegeta, Bart Simpson, Spiderman or Wonder Woman. I bring up the rule because no one else seems to care unless it's something mentioned on the forums.


 

Posted

People generally dislike "rule police," so that reaction's not surprising. Most people are simply unaware of the rule prohibiting copyrighted characters, and some just don't care. I don't bother reporting names or anything, because it's a hassle, and someone else will probably get around to it eventually.


@macskull, @Not Mac | XBL: macskull | Steam: macskull | Skype: macskull
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."

 

Posted

I'm usually that 'someone else'.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by macskull View Post
People generally dislike "rule police," so that reaction's not surprising. Most people are simply unaware of the rule prohibiting copyrighted characters, and some just don't care. I don't bother reporting names or anything, because it's a hassle, and someone else will probably get around to it eventually.
True. I've expressed surprise to some people with high-level, obvious "rip-off' characters or characters with names that are a bit beyond racy that they've avoided being genericed. Many of them respond with a (presumably) honest, "What do you mean? We're not supposed to do this?"


 

Posted

hm have been seeing less Wolverines lately. I do not think everyone knows about that rule, and some that do "forget" about that rule, or hell they might not care about it or they might do it to get a rise.

Just like if you walk up to a person and say, "hey, you cant smoke there." You'll probbly get same reaction even if the law is the law or you come across someone at the gas station and say, "hey, down that road you was speeding, that's against the law." People dont abandon habits when they get online usually, they either amplify one side of themselves, get bolder, or get rebellious.


-Female Player-
Quote:
Originally Posted by mauk2 View Post
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
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I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L!

 

Posted

I'll report people the odd time when it's REALLY blatent and the person running the toon has an attitude. If I can't smack em one, let the GMs do it for me!


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Posted

suppose they are a villian and they are RPing?


-Female Player-
Quote:
Originally Posted by mauk2 View Post
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks."
I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L!

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Evil_Legacy View Post
suppose they are a villian and they are RPing?
RP as an excuse for being a jerkass does not fly. We're not in third grade any more.

On topic - that's the reason I don't talk to people about their being a ripoff. It never works. If I see a Hulk ripoff or a Wolverine ripoff or, yes, a Vegeta ripoff, I report it. Simple as that.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
On topic - that's the reason I don't talk to people about their being a ripoff. It never works. If I see a Hulk ripoff or a Wolverine ripoff or, yes, a Vegeta ripoff, I report it. Simple as that.
This. There is absolutely nothing you can do to correct these people's behavior, and if you call them out on it, publicly or via /tells, and they later get genericed, it's quite possible that you'll be remembered and singled out for some kind of griefing.

Your only responsibility is to /petition these people. Do it anonymously and let the GMs deal with it. After all, that's what they get paid to do.


@Roderick

 

Posted

V-Geta

this is the video lost hero is talking about. i don't see anything wrong with it. yes it kinda looks like a DBZ toon, but nothing i can see to worry about. i've seen plenty of toons with this type of costume running around before.

edit: of course, for someone who wanted to make the closest thing to a kamen rider he could, i don't think he has room to be telling other people what is against the rules. that's my opinion though.


 

Posted

If the OP is bothered by the rules violation then he should file a petition like he's supposed to and move on. Let the GM's handle it and issue rules warnings. If the clown persists he'll end up getting banned.


It doesn't do any good to confront the individual in question. The ones that would be grateful for the warning are few and far between. The rest know exactly what they are doing and will respond negatively when the issue is brought up.

Complaining about it on the forums will draw the trolls out of the woodwork and you'll get called a tattle tail and other such grade school names.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint View Post
V-Geta

this is the video lost hero is talking about. i don't see anything wrong with it. yes it kinda looks like a DBZ toon, but nothing i can see to worry about. i've seen plenty of toons with this type of costume running around before.
It's not that it kinda looks like a DBZ toon, it's the fact that when the video starts a little box pops up that says, "Vegeta from DBZ, in case you don't know who i'm trying to copy."


(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint View Post
For someone who wanted to make the closest thing to a kamen rider he could, i don't think he has room to be telling other people what is against the rules. that's my opinion though.
I find that funny as well.

As for the petition... kinda pointless to petition the guy, as it was generic'd months before OP even saw the video.

If I see it in game... I warn them in PM's, then petition depending on how they react to the warning.


 

Posted

Apparently he already had to change his name and costume:

Quote:
RTardEntertainment
11 months ago

at 0:53 you mean? Since then I changed my name to Paholainen (cuz I was infringing copyright blah blah, they also took my costume off... ********). But that was months ago, I haven't played since. You might of seen me, I was the pumpkin head and leather strap guy.  Orange and black, I nearly won a few contests :P
I personally prefer inspiration based characters. Characters that could live in another possibly copyrighted world, but instead exist in CoX to fulfill similar duties, responsibilities, and/or stories implied in character bios.


 

Posted

My character isn't as close to possible, he's a homage to all tokusatsu series, not just Kamen Rider. Please read his bio if you ever run into him in-game before trying to 'call me out'. Thank you and have a nice day. ^_^

There is a difference between a homage and a direct copy.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Lone Hero View Post
My character isn't as close to possible, he's a homage to all tokusatsu series, not just Kamen Rider. Please read his bio if you ever run into him in-game before trying to 'call me out'. Thank you and have a nice day. ^_^

There is a difference between a homage and a direct copy.
It might be homage to all Tokusatsu, but the costume in your sig is very, very similar to Kamen Rider isnt it? I wasn't "calling you out" I just thought it funny. It can be a very fine line between an homage and a copy.

A homage to the xmen, that look like the xmen, if brought to their attention, will probably get genericed.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Lone Hero View Post
My character isn't as close to possible, he's a homage to all tokusatsu series, not just Kamen Rider. Please read his bio if you ever run into him in-game before trying to 'call me out'. Thank you and have a nice day. ^_^

There is a difference between a homage and a direct copy.
The difference between a homage and a direct copy is in the eye of the person filing the petition.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess someone played copyright police on you and now you're playing copyright police on others.

Anyone know the name of that Del the Funky ****-sapiens song that's playing in the V-Geta video?


 

Posted

It's probably just me, but I'm a big stickler for the rules. Anytime I see a copyrighted costume or name, you can safely bet that I'm going to report it.

Of course, it's never smart to bring it to their attention. That just makes you seem like a punk who's all like "COPYRIGHT! COPYRIGHT! I'MMA REPORT YOU NAO!" which makes people mad at you for no good reason. I just silently report it and move on. Though I will admit, more often than not I end up adding the person as a friend just to see their name get Generic'd, silently laugh to myself, then go about my business.

Gotta keep things confidential, ya' know?


Arc ID: 348998 - Becoming a villain
Arc ID: 373341 - To Save a Hero

Got Inf?

 

Posted

When one reads the EULA, and the pertinent parts are noted, one gets the overall ideas about what to avoid in creating a character. That of course presumes that a new player 1) read it as they should and 2) understood it properly.

It is pretty easy to get confused as a new player. If all the components for making a costume that looks like a copyrighted/trademarked character are there in the costume creator, the thought occurs that it must be okay to use them.

When I first arrived in March 2005, there were routine gatherings under Atlas of HUGE numbers of... Smurfs. And they would all do the same Flex emotes in unison. It was impressive in its own odd way. With 40 or more Smurfs in Atlas at a whack, the thought was that this must actually be okay.

I also saw a goodly number of high-level characters who were well-known heroes in comics, etc., and a lot who were well-known politicians and celebrities. The thought was that if they got to 50, it must be okay.

Well, those thoughts were mistaken. But that is how it seemed to me as a new player. Now, I never rolled up a character who appears in a comic or show, etc., but I supposed that it was not a problem from my observations at the time. But the Smurf herds went extinct, I read the boards and got the correct sense of the situation.

These threads usually break down into whether it is helpful to the game or just being a lousy snitch if you report a possible violation, and I have no desire to go there. I just recall how much there was to learn when I first came to Atlas Park just being a hero, and how easy it was to assume that creating characters that violated the EULA (as the GMs interpret it, which is what controls) might not be problematic. I think that is the motive that those that try warning potential violators have in mind.


"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"

"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Smash_Zone View Post
Of course, it's never smart to bring it to their attention. That just makes you seem like a punk who's all like "COPYRIGHT! COPYRIGHT! I'MMA REPORT YOU NAO!" which makes people mad at you for no good reason. I just silently report it and move on. Though I will admit, more often than not I end up adding the person as a friend just to see their name get Generic'd, silently laugh to myself, then go about my business.

Gotta keep things confidential, ya' know?
It's not always a bad experience, warning them about being genericed. Was on a team once, where a guy had made an Green Lantern character. He was a new player, and several of us on the team warned him he was likely to get genericed at some point. He actually asked us how to go about reporting himself and what was likely to happen. Which then broadened into teaching about the game, but I'm sure this experience was an exception.

I report copyright infringement because I've had presentations I put together used incorrectly by others, which made me realize, that it annoyed me someone was using my ideas without asking me. Can't really go around using someone else's idea for a character after that.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
RP as an excuse for being a jerkass does not fly. We're not in third grade any more.

On topic - that's the reason I don't talk to people about their being a ripoff. It never works. If I see a Hulk ripoff or a Wolverine ripoff or, yes, a Vegeta ripoff, I report it. Simple as that.
Usually when I see something:

1) Never raise a fuss in broadcast or wherever. There's no point to it. It's like mud wrestling with a pig -- both of you will get dirty and only the pig will like it.

2) Just do a simple petition.

3) For fun, put the character on your friends list and start taking bets in a global channel as to how long it will take for the character to be Generic'ed. Right after "300" released in theaters there were zillions of Spartans suddenly running around. My favorite was "Testakles," but he was generic in under an hour.


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Posted

Yeah, it's amusing that the guy with the Kamen Rider character is talking about someone else with a Vegeta clone.

But the V-Geta guy's "Who gives a crap?" response is some good stuff.

And I do report blatant copyright infringement characters. I usually send a tell saying something like "You know doing a character like that is against the game rules, right?" But when it's an offensive name, I just petition it.

To this day I still see a good number of Darth characters of all levels. I thought that'd be an automatic no-no by now.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Defenestrator View Post
...3) For fun, put the character on your friends list and start taking bets in a global channel as to how long it will take for the character to be Generic'ed. Right after "300" released in theaters there were zillions of Spartans suddenly running around. My favorite was "Testakles," but he was generic in under an hour.
I've done that a couple times. I lost track of a female character in a pretty spot-on Hobbit costume who had a Baggins last name and a bio that was something like they took a wrong turn on the way to Albuquerque and wound in in CoH. But to my surprise Willow Rosenberg is still a hero on Virtue *shrug*


Tales of Judgment. Also here, instead of that other place.

good luck D.B.B.

 

Posted

my first reaction is "how in the hell is vegita memorable?" if you are out of high school then the limited character design and cliche'd characterizations of dbz should be pretty much twilight level nonsense to you. that said, i read this as lone originally not knowing the rules, which is why he made that homage versus ripoff thread a while ago, learning the rules better and trying to help a guy. given the guy's reaction, he knew what he was doing, and didnt care.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by warden_de_dios View Post
I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess someone played copyright police on you and now you're playing copyright police on others.?
It happened before I even made the character, and I accepted the fact I couldn't use the name Kamen Rider 00 or use an exact copy of appearance. I mentioned it on the forums and was quickly corrected, I'll get ya the link if ya want.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SinisterDirge View Post
It might be homage to all Tokusatsu, but the costume in your sig is very, very similar to Kamen Rider isnt it? I wasn't "calling you out" I just thought it funny. It can be a very fine line between an homage and a copy.
Yes, the one in my sig. Not the one in-game, which is constantly changing on my whim. ^_^ Right now he's more motorcycle themed power ranger looking.

So both of you are wrong about me.