CoX & Cameo's

You know cameo's, you've probably had a cameo get "generic'd" before ^_^.
They're that toon that wields a Hammer and has 'Willpower' or 'invulnerability' who's named "Mhor" or something similar.

CoX has done a fine job at allowing us the freedom to have SOOO many choices while still keeping certain things out of our reach so they can tell other IP's that they're not allowing us to copy them (IE: making Wolverine). So I have a question: do we know what properties ARE allowed/safe? And how does this affect 10-15 year old video games, that have had no reboots? (thus meaning they're not active, unlike Final Fantasy)

Anything that's public domain.

Ahh, and how do u find that out, for certain? Does google'ing "is GAME-X public domain" sufficient?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain

I dont see why you just cant make an original character. Its not hard. If you want a thor clone, just make a warmace/invun tank. He doesnt have to have a winged helmet, red cape and long blonde hair! Wont Wolverine, make a claws/regen brute. He doesnt have to be in yellow and blue spandex with a gruff attitude.

Saying that, I allow all of my characters a 'homage' costume, a costume of a famous characters that shares their powersets in some way. They may look like The Spy from TF2, or Jubilee or even mysterio, but their name and bio are completely unrelated to the original characters, and its only one costume which I can change at will.

That's not a cameo. That's a lack of imagination and creativity. And also, thievery of IP.

A cameo is when they put you in the game or the comic. Which used to happen all the time.

theres a difference
for instance other superhero mnmo by that old dev we all hate has cameos
of LOST characters etc
but they are npcs and not player created

That would be an homage. City of Heroes has homages, and they're not against the TOS/EULA, unless they aren't homages and are in fact, thefts of IP.

Not sure if anyone here has heard of a Flash game called Ray Ardent: Science Ninja, but my friend enjoyed the game so much he created Ray Ardent as a Virtue character, and even got the original creator's blessing. Ray remains his main blueside character to this day.

I thought it was pretty awesome of the creator to actually be cool about it instead of flip out.

ATZ: Well now, Paragon Studios OWNS THE RIGHTS to "Ray Ardent". I don't think the game's creator realized that allowing his IP to be "created" in CoH was legally handing over his copyright to PS.

Obviously, PS wishes to avoid any oddities like that, but without the "anything you make in CoX belongs to us" clause, they'd never be able to, say, publish screenshots. It's messy and could be even messier.

Sigh, no, CoH owns *the exact appearance of the character as created in game*. If you publish a book with your original character, you aren't giving up the rights to them by making them in game. PS owns the image on your screen so they can like....slap them on advertising should they so desire and you can't do anything about it. The couldn't claim ownership of the IP of the character, sell the rights to use them to anyone, or generally do anything about what you do with a character you own the IP for.