Vandaleurs in City of Heroes

[Dynamo]

Steve/Darren & Co.,

As will likely come as no surprise, the City of Heroes online game has many derivative characters being played, from homage characters to outright ripoffs of popular fictional figures. I've created a character named Ariel Vandaleur (magic ice/storm controller), and I want to make sure that Hero Games is cool with that.

The creation of derivative characters doesn't seem to be prohibited by your online policy as long as it's not a specific character being revised and republished, but neither is it specifically allowed. For instance, if I wanted to publish on my website a character named Mechanita and tie her origin to Mechanon, it's not explicitly covered by the policy.

If you're not cool with it, I'll delete the character and go no further with this.

If you are cool with it, I'd like to invite all interested parties to join me on the Triumph server to make magical-origin characters named Vandaleur. You only get 15 characters for your name, so either the first name can only be 5 characters, or you can use V. for the last name.

The idea would be to have a unifying theme for Teams, or just help out another Vandaleur you see taking a beating on the streets. When I hit 10th level, I intend to start a Super Group called the Vandaleur Family. I'm not aware of any limits on the size of a Super Group, so we could get pretty extensive if there are enough people interested.

Characters built as elementals, magical constructs, or other magical beings that might be allied with the family would be cool too.

The Vandaleurs seem to eschew spandex as a general rule, so it might make a cool visual theme to design outfits to resemble street clothes.

Wait for Hero Games to give their blessing, and then either post here or send an in-game email to Ariel Vandaleur if you're interested in participating. I'll add any Vandaleurs I meet to my Friends list.

[Enforcer84]

That's kind of cool Dynamo. I might join of DOJ gives it a go.

[Darren Watts]

We have no problem with using characters derivative of Hero IP in a game. The only concern is if you were to publish anything using those characters- please contact us before doing so for specific permissions and licenses. But just to play in a game? Have the fun! dw

[Steve Long]

As first one to see the thread, it is mine to post in! Bwah hah hah hah hah!!! Mine mine mine mine mine!

I don't see that we'd have any real problem with it, assuming there's nothing the CoH software or user's license or the like that says "Cryptic Studios ultimately owns everyone's CoH characters." As long as no one starts trying to claim the Vandaleur name for their own and/or make money off it, it's nice to see what we publish inspiring others.

However, you might want to make sure that the CoH people are OK with it. I don't know what their policies are, but I'm sure they must have something in place forbidding people to directly copy existing characters, etc. We wouldn't want anyone to get in trouble.

[Dynamo]

We have no problem with using characters derivative of Hero IP in a game. The only concern is if you were to publish anything using those characters- please contact us before doing so for specific permissions and licenses. But just to play in a game? Have the fun!

As first one to see the thread, it is mine to post in! Bwah hah hah hah hah!!! Mine mine mine mine mine!

I don't see that we'd have any real problem with it, assuming there's nothing the CoH software or user's license or the like that says "Cryptic Studios ultimately owns everyone's CoH characters." As long as no one starts trying to claim the Vandaleur name for their own and/or make money off it, it's nice to see what we publish inspiring others.

However, you might want to make sure that the CoH people are OK with it. I don't know what their policies are, but I'm sure they must have something in place forbidding people to directly copy existing characters, etc. We wouldn't want anyone to get in trouble.

Great! Thanks!

I'll have a closer look at their terms of use, but I didn't see anything in a quick skim beyond the boiler plate "Not responsible for the misuse of IP by users" and "You agree not to sue us for anything under the sun."

In the Vandaleurs' case, we aren't directly copying any characters. I don't even refer to Adrian in the character description.

So it looks like we're a go. Woohoo! I hope plenty of people want to participate.

[Dynamo]

...and I don't plan to publish any of this. It's just for play.

I suppose if it really takes off, I might like to put a page on my website about it, but nothing in the way of formal publication.

And I just added "Vandaleur is Copyright DOJ Inc, and is used here with permission" to the bottom of Ariel's character description. I'll do the same with the Super Group when that happens. Want me to add a url to Arcane Adversaries? Hmmn... That might actually be against the Terms of Use. I'll look.

[Dynamo]

Crud. This is probably a deal killer.

City of Heroes User Agreement
Section 6: Content and Member Conduct
Paragraph (c)
Member Content. Members can upload to and create content on our servers in various forms, such as in selections you make and characters and items you create for City of Heroes, and in bulletin boards and similar user-to-user areas (“Member Content”). By submitting Member Content to or creating Member Content on any area of the Service, you acknowledge and agree that such Member Content is the sole property of NC Interactive. To the extent that NC Interactive cannot claim exclusive rights in Member Content by operation of law, you hereby grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Member Content has expressly granted) to NC Interactive and its related Game Content Providers a non-exclusive, universal, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicenseable right to exercise all rights of any kind or nature associated with such Member Content, and all ancillary and subsidiary rights thereto, in any languages and media now known or not currently known.

[Steve Long]

Yeah, that's a deal-killer. I don't want to run the risk of getting into any sort of quarrel over our IP. Sorry.

[Darren Watts]

Yikes, that's a nasty little clause there. How do they possibly expect to be able to enforce it? So what if some kid designs and plays Captain America in the game- do they think that they'll own Captain America, or that the kid is actually warranting that *he* owns Captain America? That's just bad writing.-dw

[lemming]

Yikes, that's a nasty little clause there. How do they possibly expect to be able to enforce it? So what if some kid designs and plays Captain America in the game- do they think that they'll own Captain America, or that the kid is actually warranting that *he* owns Captain America? That's just bad writing.-dw

If there are enough complaints, they pull the persons character. It's just made that draconian so that they can do it any time. Plus this allows them to use any characters in their own media stuff. I expect they do their own tracing of those characters.

I've seen plenty of "homages" to all sorts of characters so they don't stomp down on all. It might just be a volume problem.

[Dynamo]

I suspect it's just a clause to protect themselves from a class action suit later. They know they don't have the legal firepower to fight Marvel or DC, so I don't think they'd ever try. Hero is another story.

I understand Steve's position 100%, so I'm going to go delete the character right now.

I'm still interested in the community idea, just without the Vandaleur name. Watch the Champions forum.

[Dynamo]

Character deleted. Original plan scrapped. Revised plan simmering.

[Bazza]

Just an idea that may, may not work; create a similar name to "Vandaleur", that is both distinct but so fans will recognise it's true origin, but different so to avoid any legal issues steming from "That Clause".

[Dynamo]

Let's take this to the Champions forum. I'm going to go post now.

EDIT: posted