ClawsandEffect

The only place I said it would happen was in my original post, where the lawsuit thing was intended as a joke. I didn't take it seriously until you guys did.

After that I was debating on the basis that it COULD happen. And pointing out lines of reasoning that could be used to support a case.

The Marvel suit set a precedent implying that suing NCSoft for trademark infringement probably will not be successful. But, people file lawsuits they won't win all the time. It was probably part of the agreement between Marvel and NCSoft that Marvel will not sue again, but that doesn't necessarily mean no one else can. (As far as I am aware the details of that case are not public knowledge, so that is just a guess)

And I didn't say the game would be flooded with Jedi. Several hundred out of a playerbase of around 100,000 is hardly flooding. But, the point remains that if there were laser swords there would definitely be more Jedi in the game than there are currently. Which is all I was really saying. There WERE clones of all those characters you mentioned, but not as many as people said there would be, as I am well aware. 300 characters out of 100,000 players does not a flood make, and 300 is enough to be considered hundreds, because all you need to make that statement true is 200 or more. Even 999 out of 100,000 wouldn't be considered an overwhelming number.

My use of the word "would" in this instance was simply intended to convey the hypothetical nature of what I was saying. (As in: IF laser swords were introduced, Lucasarts MIGHT sue.) I don't see how that is saying something will definitely happen.

Part of the problem of the old PvP mechanics was the nature of some of the powers.

Example: Your average scrapper stood little or no chance against a Mind Control Dominator of any kind. The reason for this was one power in particular that Mind doms have access to: Telekinesis, a toggle based hold power. If that Dominator stacked enough holds to get through your protection and then hit you with Telekinesis, you were pretty much helpless for as long as the dominator had endurance to keep the power up. (I never did figure out exactly how many breakfrees you needed to use to break the hold)

In the early days of PvP a stalker could kill a squishy in one hit. Which was just broken. An invisible assailant that can kill you instantly. The anti-oneshotting change was probably the first PvP nerf in the game.

Some of the changes were good, like the change to TK (I lack the words to adequately describe how much I HATED that power). Some of the changes were bad (travel suppression when attacked and heal decay comes to mind). But they are TRYING to bring some kind of balance to it so heavily IOed characters played by skilled players aren't completely unkillable in a PvP zone.

They haven't succeeded yet, but I'm willing to see what happens with it.

It's not even the powerset itself Lucasarts would sue over.

It would be the hundreds of Jedi characters that sprung up overnight when this set came out.

Think about it, how many Jedi do you see in the game NOW? Speaking for myself, I have seen a total of 3 in 4+ years of playing. Probably because there aren't a whole lot of options for making one currently. Introduce laser swords and all of a sudden you have hundreds (or even thousands) of Jedi ripoff characters. These would be created by the same people that made Iron Man and Captain America ripoffs.

The Marvel lawsuit was settled because it was determined that the developers could not control the actions of the players.

BUT...in this case it could be argued that all those cases of trademark infringement happened as a direct result of the developers' actions (introducing a powerset similar to a Jedi's signature weapon), making them able to be held accountable for them.

A case could be made that if a laser sword set had never been introduced, the infringing characters would never have existed in the first place, hence making it the developers' fault that they did.

The really funny thing about this whole argument: This whole thing started with something I said as a JOKE. Since George Lucas has been known to file lawsuits for anything even close to his franchise, I was joking that he'd sue over this. It wasn't until people started rebuttals that it occured to me that he actually might sue over it.

So on the grounds of it having a different name I could do the following and be okay:

I make a short, squat character. He wears a yellow and black outfit and has claws jutting from his hands. He also heals rapidly and has bones laced with titanium. I decide to name this character "Badger" and start publishing comic books about his adventures.

According to your argument, because the name is different Marvel couldn't sue me for trademark infringement, even though everything else is very similar to one of their flagship characters.

And actually, WoW and Star Wars are different genres. One is science fiction, one is fantasy, there is enough difference there to matter.

They won't make this powerset not because Lucas WOULD sue, but because he MIGHT sue, and they can't afford a lawsuit with another popular franchise. It would basically mean that if Lucas did decide to sue because whatever they came up with was too similar to a lightsaber, then it would completely stall a powerset involving it until the court case was resolved, which could take more than a year.

It's not so much a matter of not giving the players what they want as it is them covering their butts.

The rewards are a thank you for having played for a set length of time. You don't get to choose what you get, because it would kind of defeat the purpose of it and become just another thing for players to work toward.

It's supposed to be something extra you get for free. WHO CARES if it's not what you wanted, it didn't cost you anything, so why are you complaining about it?

And just to stop the inevitable argument before it starts: No it really DIDN'T cost you anything. You pay your subscription fee to play the game, not to earn veteran rewards. That's why it's called a subscription fee and not a veteran reward earning fee.

And Broadsword and Katana would fit the underlying theme of blaster secondaries HOW exactly?

Since you mentioned that the only power that would need changing is Parry, I can only assume you just want a straight port of the sets.

What about some kind of mitigation? Control? Anything aside from more attacks? No mention made of that at all. Dual Pistols/Broadsword (aside from spawning so many Dante wannabes it's not evenfunny) would be so slot hungry you'd have to either gimp half your attacks or skip them entirely. Add in the fact that you would get zero added survivability and you have a recipe for disaster.

And that's not even mentioning the fact that a sword is not the first thing that springs to mind when I think "blaster", and I'd imagine a lot of other people are the same.

So, no, bad idea.

Are they called Laser Swords? No, the first image is of a longsword that is on fire. It does not meet the definition of what a laser sword would be, which is a highly advanced device that creates a blade made of pure energy to be used in combat.

And with the Vanguard Sword, it could be said that we already HAVE laser swords. Why would we need another set that is [/i]almost identical[/i] to Broadsword, but brokenly overpowered?

As far as the lawsuit goes, look at the image below:


If you had never heard of Star Wars and knew nothing whatsoever about the franchise or anything in it, what would you call the weapons they are wielding in that picture? Most people would call them laser swords. I myself would call them laser swords. A lightsaber is, pretty much by definition, a laser sword.

In this case, it would be something that is substantially similar to something found in another game of the same genre, that genre being "a multiplayer online game in a science fiction setting". That means that as far as legal proceedings are concerned, the two games would be considered direct competitors.

For one game company to introduce something to their game that is THAT similar to something which is trademarked by a direct competitor is definitely cause for a lawsuit.

It wouldn't be about the money. It would be about giving the competition bad publicity.

Still haven't solved the dilemma of "I have things popping out of my body and I'm launching my extremities at people" part of the equation.

I have a few fire blasters. One is a mutant, his body generates fire that he throws/lauches at his enemies. One is technology based, he throws gobs of ignited kerosene jelly. Another is science based, he uses chemicals that ignite on contact with air. And yet another is also a mutant, he doesn't actually throw fire at all, he is psychic and makes his enemies THINK he's throwing fire.

Same powerset, same animations, 4 different things that are occuring. End result: You throw fire.

Cybernetic Blast: You have weapons that pop out of your body, and you launch your extremities as attacks.

The visual does not lend itself to any other possibility. You can explain HOW you're doing it any way you like. But you are locked into it being one thing that you are actually doing.

Say you're playing a blaster and you want both of the first two attacks so you can fire them both while mezzed. Shooting your arms at people as weapons doesn't fit your character concept at all. Too bad, that's what you're doing in the animation. If you want the first two attacks your concept HAS to include your arms being detachable, because there is no other way to explain what's going on in the animation.

The problem of balance arise here in a nasty way.

The game is balanced around every character having EXACTLY 67 enhancement slots at level 50. No more, no less.

If one character has 67 slots, they cannot 6 slot every power they have, it's just not possible. That means you have to choose where you want your slots. A character that CAN 6 slot every power they have would be significantly more powerful than one who cannot. Even the most tweaked out, expensive build possible has to work with the same limitations on slots as a basic SO build. An enhancement slot recipe would be exceptionally rare, and only obtainable by the extremely lucky or obscenely rich.

If the devs WERE to give us more slots, it would not be in the form of a recipe. That just wouldn't be fair to those players that never have one drop and can't afford the outrageous prices such a recipe would command.

The only fair way to grant more slots would be by running a trial or something that ANYONE can do. That way it is not based on luck or the amount of cash you can throw around.

What I have learned from this thread: Arcanaville is much nicer about it than I am when telling someone off.

The only crashing nuke I've seen able to consistently keep toggles running afterward is Thunderous Blast.

That's because it has the same chance to give you back endurance as the rest of the electric blast powers. If you hit enough targets with it you will almost always have it trigger on at least one of them.

Other nukes can occasionally do it if they hit a fully saturated Dain Psyche first, but I wouldn't count on it happening.

Generally I think option B. If I'm interested I send a tell with my character's level and AT, asking if it is acceptable. The only time it wasn't was when it was a Master attempt and the guy putting it together forgot to mention it in the channel I heard about it on.