Liquid

As I already said, I'm asking for clarification on her use of the word "homage". That one character is not really that big of a deal, and isn't why I posted or I would have PMed her. I posted because if they have added non-infringing homages to the list of disallowed creations, I think people should know about it.

As for why I don't like connecting my characters with my forum account, I'm a private person. Please don't take it personally.

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Of course, your question can't really be answered.


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It can, but I think I muddied the waters with the all the hypotheticals, and the request about where the line was at the end. I know there is no rock-solid line, I'd just like some clarification because it sounded to me like she was adding a classification (homages) that would make 25% or so of the existing hero population against the EULA.

I really just want to know how she is defining the word "homage" here, because while this thread is about making exact copies of copyrighted or trademarked characters, she responded saying that homages were not allowed. The EULA does not say anything about homages, as I know the word to be defined, being disallowed. It just talks about violating trademark or copyright, which homages as I know them do not.

I'm used to the word representing characters like Statesman, who, while he shares many of Superman's most identifiable powers, some of his ideals, and is the "flagship" hero of this world, does not infringe upon that copyright (anymore than the ridiculous assertion Marvel made that he infringed upon Captain America's).

I just want to know if she was only talking about exactly what this thread was asking for, or if she was also making a new statement about non-infringing homage characters, which have never been an issue (some have even made it into the official comic book!). It's an online game, and I've seen companies change their EULA years into the game's lifespan, so I wanted to ask, and then went off on where the line was (which I shouldn't have) for infringement.

I should have just left it with the first paragraph.

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Show us, if you're doubtful than it's likely genericable. That's been a pretty good rule of thumb in here: if you have to ask, it's already pretty clear what the answer will be.

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Sorry, but I prefer not to connect my characters with my forum account. Besides, I know where my homage characters fall along the line between homage and ripoff, but what I don't know is where NCSoft will see it as a problem. I appreciate the offer, though.

Also, I'm asking Ex Libris for everyone's sake-- it would be nice to have some kind of guideline from them.

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Homages = good, because they play upon but don't actually EVOKE the character in question.

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I don't think I agree with that. If it doesn't evoke that character, I don't really see how it's an homage. That's the point of an homage-- it's a tribute to the character, it makes you think of them without being a complete ripoff.

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Then again, this argument's been beaten many many times as a zombie horse might attest: what some people consider Homage, others might consider Ripoff, and still others might not even know what they're talking about.

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Yeah, that's why I'm asking her what they consider to be not-okay. I'm honestly a little surprised that holding a contest for a temporary look-alike costume is something that would be an issue.

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Sorry but no likeness or homage characters are allowed that are the intellectual property of someone else by name or physical likeness.

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Are you defining "homage" in this instance as an exact copy of their costume? Because if not, a great deal of people are in trouble here. I have some homage characters myself (along the lines of how Rorschach is a Question homage, not "Super-duper man, Van-L from the planet Pypton").

To be specific, if Deadpool didn't currently exist in Marvel comics, would he not be allowed in CoH due to the fact that he's an incredibly obvious Deathstroke homage? Same with Hyperion with respect to Superman?

One might liken the Council to Cobra, and create a character similar to Duke, named something like Baron, dressing slightly differently, and naming the Council as his primary foe. Would this not be allowed, despite the obvious Council/Cobra comparison? If it would be allowed, would it cross the line if he were teamed with the characters Blockade, Lady Kay, and Saffron in an SG named Army Jack?

Or are we just talking about Sup3rman in an obvious copy of his costume?

I have homage characters that vary in similarity to their inspirations (some a little, some a lot), and I'd appreciate knowing where the line is. One of them sits at level 1, because I'm not sure if it crosses the line or not, but I really like the character.

Thanks!

Welcome back! I hope you all had a good break, and I'm really excited for what 2008 will bring!

That must be very exciting, hope you like the new location!

Can it be true?

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Accolades should now be available even when exemplared to lower levels.

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Well done on the trailer, and welcome to the forums!

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I gotta say, this scares the crud right out of me. Not because I have anything against NCSoft, mind you. I have nothing bad to say about them. Honest.

It's just that this game has been so great so far with the Cryptic team, and it makes me nervous when people start talking about messing with something that works.

What worries me more is that I didn't see States, War Witch, Ghost Widow, or Manticore.


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Other people already covered States and War Witch, and GW just posted.

According to yesterday's radio interview with Lighthouse and Positron, Manticore left Cryptic after the CoV release, so he's been gone for 2 years. In fact, Manticore went to work for another area of NCSoft, and is still in contact with the current team and willing to let them pick his brain about the CoH lore.

I can't see a single bad thing about this change, no possible worries that didn't already exist at Cryptic.

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OK? So??????

I took the time to earn accolades early on quite a number of characters. Nope it wasn't easy and Yes it was a pain in my fanny.


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For context on the next comment, so did I.

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But you all think you should just get the acc's at level one BECAUSE you want them at level 1? LAWL!


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I think people should get the accolades at level one because it doesn't encourage obnoxious play like the current system, doesn't punish people who had level 50s before the accolades were introduced or before they learned that they existed or how to get them, and helps to even up PvP by giving everyone access to them as long as they invest the time to get them-- without having to make a brand new character and have someone else get them their accolades before they could have reasonably earned them themselves.

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Hmm. I just realized that Statesman's assurance that we'd be getting Street Fighting likely no longer holds any water.

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Yeah, but you should see the "Fisticuffs" powerset in MUO! ZOMG its teh sweetest!

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Aha, perhaps that's what he meant?

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Issue 12: Statesman is dead!

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My long awaited dream has come.

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ED will be revoked and Agro cap will be REMOVED.

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Don't forget Travel Suppression.

Also, maybe we will get Super Strength Scrappers!

Hmm. I just realized that Statesman's assurance that we'd be getting Street Fighting likely no longer holds any water.

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Fortunately, with this, the "When MUO comes out they'll abandon COH, MUO is COH II" stuff can stop.

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'Cause they did abandon CoH! We were right! HAHAHAHAHA!






We just never considered that NCSoft would pick up the development team and keep going full steam ahead.

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With one exception, everyone who was presented with an offer to stay on the City of Heroes team under the NCsoft banner has accepted and is looking forward to working hard on the future of the franchise! While this includes a good number of people, it also includes many of the familiar “red names” from the forums, such as: Melissa “War Witch” Bianco, Floyd “_Castle_” Grubb, Back Alley Brawler, Ghost Widow and “Sexy” Jay Doherty.

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I was really freaking out until I read this. I'm feeling very positive about this change, especially after hearing that expansions are planned (please don't raise the level cap-- just give us more stuff for 50s to do).

jawesome!

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Just because I can do it doesn't make me think that how things are today are how they should be. I'd rather see them work at all levels. I don't care about having this advantage over other people. I just do it because it's nice to have the powers on a lowbie. I don't care if other people get to keep them on exemplar. "Unfair" simply doesn't enter into the picture at all.

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This is exactly how I feel. In fact, "unfair" enters the picture as it is now, but vanishes if they make them available at all levels once they are gained.

FYI, this got an article (however brief) on Wired.com:

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/10/...f-heroes-.html

It's pretty cool that you guys got coverage for this on a fairly popular tech site.

This has driven me nuts since they were introduced. The reasons given were to protect casual players, yet it penalizes them.

I'm not supporting this suggested change out of jealousy of people who have them at low levels, because I'm one of those people. I have Portal Jockey at 20 and Eye of the Magus at 25 with my favorite character, and I get them all pretty early with all the rest (none of my characters got Portal Jockey later than 38, for example).

Please make these fair and fun for the casual gamer. Let them use their accolades at all levels.

Great interview. I really liked learning about the zone creation process, and seeing the old zone ideas from before release.

Thanks, War Witch!

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*** snip ***


Tankers, as a whole, do better than average, and this includes Ice Melee. My focus is on those AT's who, as a group, underperform.

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Sooooo, according to your data mining, which ATs underperform?

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Yeah missed that the first time. I'd like to know too. Pretty please Castle dear. *bats eyelashes*

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I think he once made a post specifically stating that Tankers were in line after Blasters, Stalkers, and Dominators.

By the way, I think his definition of "performance" involves xp vs debt ratios, so yes, it should be expected that Blasters are not performing as well as Tankers on the whole.

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The datamining I do shows how players are actually performing in the "reality" of the game.

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There is a concern that has been brought up about the way you guys use datamining to determine if things are "okay".

If Ice Melee underperforms as a whole, and the majority of Ice Melee players know this and deal with it by dropping/not slotting some of the worst attacks and substituting with Pool attacks, Burn combined with Ice Patch, and/or Epic Pool powers in their attack chain to a greater extent than those using other sets do, is this noticed by your datamining? Or are you just pulling reports on all Ice Melee tankers and getting stats like xp per hour and such?

Hopefully the return of the 5th (and hopefully the Reichsman as well) is still in the cards.

Regardless, Issue 10 is a winner!

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The first missions in the Rikti War Zone are for characters level 35+.

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I'd like some clarification on this, if the devs are reading: Does this mean all the missions in the zone will be doable by anyone from 35-50 (kind of like Warburg's 38-50 missions), or are they split into ranges like all the other zones?

I'd like to know this because I've been holding a hero and a villain at level 40 since before issue 8 so I don't miss the first set of missions (35-40) for I10. If it's 35-50 for all missions though, I can finally play them again!

I'm happy either way, but I'm at a happy scale of 11 if level 50s can do all of this new content.

I'm *very* excited about this.

And thanks for the 35+ content!

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1) it felt like a slap in the face to have our final showdown with Recluse begin with him yakking about the mighty Statesman, who is idly standing on some boat back in Independence Port, while we are standing right there, ready to give him a run for his money. Please remember that we might like to be considered real heroes, and not bit players. He should be worried about stopping us.

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They did explain this part.

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The explanation is meaningless. The point is that we get past all of Recluse's minions and traps, defeat his incredibly powerful buddies, and we're still not the real heroes of the story, we're second (more likely third, given the power of the Vindicators) string.

This complaint is entirely about Recluse's last line about "the mighty Statesman himself". Had that line not been there, I'd have felt like the hero.