Excraft

This is great. When will it be applied the same for everyone? You may recall, we've been in threads where there seemed to be "exceptions" to this rule which don't get applied to everyone.

Way off. Not even remotely close to anything I said in my post. Nice try though. Never once did I say that I don't believe in intellectual property rights or that they don't exist. My opinion (which I'm allowed to have) is that it's such a minor chance of it becoming an issue here that would lead to an actual lawsuit is so remote, it's basically a non-issue and not worth worrying about it. It's just not worth fussing over. A giant asteroid could strike the earth tomorrow and wipe out every living thing on the planet. Can it happen? Sure. Is it likely? Highly unlikely. Is it worth cowering in a corner in fear over? Nope. Do you have a chance of getting struck by a random bolt of lightning? Sure. It's not worth living in fear over though. Same with getting sued by Disney or DC because someone made Superguy or XW0lv3r1n3X. Like I said, they've got bigger fish to deal with and if they really wanted to, they'd hand out lawsuits to every single cosplayer at a comic con. They don't do it because it doesn't hurt them and it keeps the interest in their property. IMO the emphasized part of your post is the real issue here. This has less to do with protecting intellectual property and "saving the game" and everything about appeasing the select few anal retentive hypocrites who want to dictate to others what is or isn't original enough of a character, costume and bio. It's perfectly fine to have the rules here on HC to cover IP rights and copyright notifications. I've no objection to that and more power to them. What I do object to is from what I've seen here over the last couple of years, those rules aren't applied evenly or fairly. Not even close. It's ok for friends of the inner circle to get away with it while everyone else is held to a different standard. That's hypocritical and doesn't send the right message. P.S. Hubris is thinking this game is so important that its worth Disney and Marvel and DC worrying about. It isn't.

And I don't care how tightly you clench your sphincter, it's still a non-issue. Disney/Marvel/DC/WB/HBO or any other IP holder for that matter can come after this or any other game at any time for all sorts of things, yet they don't. If they all cared so much and wanted to so "vigorously defend their property", they'd all have legions of lawyers handing out cease and desist letters to every cosplayer walking into a con somewhere and handing out lawsuits like candy to every single game offering a free skin of Batman or Superman or Spider-Man or whomever. They don't do it. They've got better things to do with their time than to worry about a dinky rouge server running a stolen copy of a 20 year old game. If you want to worry yourself over it, more power to you. Feel free. If you're one of the aholes standing in Atlas reporting new characters as they zone in because you don't find them "original enough" for your liking, go for it. Hope you enjoy driving more people away.

Just report it and take comfort in knowing you probably saved legions of anal retentive types cowering in fear from having a coronary.

Instead of apologizing for profiling someone, you double down on it. Nice.

Couldn't agree more. Sadly, the game is full of elitists who are doing more harm than good and driving more and more people away with their intolerant attitudes and their flagrant bullying. As to the topic, I also don't see how bases are less relevant than before. Removing prestige from the whole thing was a great change in my humble opinion. They're a creative outlet for some. I wouldn't say that makes them irrelevant.

No, the most toxic thing in the community is intolerance toward others and how they choose to spend their free time and bullying them to play your way.

Nope. Statesman had a cape and could've worn it, he just chose not to out of respect for Hero One. Nice try though.

Please do. Would love to see your list of "countless" numbers of heroes. Like it or not, most if not all heroes (and villains) have had their finished, polished look from the start. I don't think anyone should have their creativity limited when creating a new character.

This doesn't make any sense. Quite a lot of the badges/accolades in the game are already earned by playing "dev" content. As for your suggestion, no thank you. Hard pass.

For the idea, no thank you. Bad ideas are bad. As for the rest, which heroes didn't have their complete look from the beginning? Most all of them had complete outfits from the get go. Superman had a cape from the beginning So did Batman. Had his utility belt too. Thor always had his hammer from the start

Instant 50s are available to everyone, so friends/family/whole SGs can play there together, yet people choose not to. I'd think it would be obvious that server wipes are a non-issue since any character can be re-created from scratch with all the bells and whistles within a few minutes. Bases are a fair point. I can't really say how big a selling point bases are to most people though. Wasn't really suggesting anyone just play on Brainstorm. Point was more that the tools to roll up an instant 50 already exist and hardly anyone uses it. I don't think it would destroy the universe to have that functionality on the live server.

Tools to create a fully decked out 50 with all the bells and whistles already exist on the test server and hardly anyone uses them. That whole argument by the cheerleading squad falls kinda flat.

This isn't even close to being true. I've been in heated debates where I admittedly got carried away and was put on time out, rightfully so. Others who were posted things much worse were allowed to go right on posting. They just so happened to be among the usual cheerleading squad, so no, rules aren't applied evenly or fairly all the time. They should be, but they aren't. These are their forums so of course they can do whatever they want, but claiming everyone is treated the same isn't true.

That's what's coming. Can't say I'm surprised either.

This is what happens when you make changes that drive away farmers.

Which was most likely being done by less than a handful of people if that. I couldn't have intentionally left this out because I never mentioned it to begin with, but nice try though. Adding reward merits to iTrials is great if that's what you're interested in doing. Solo players who were earning merits through story arcs got some nice bonus merits by converting these EMPs from the vet rewards. Those players have lost that extra bonus now and yeah, adding merits to iTrials is herding people into "correct/approved" content. Right so you still lose out. Yeah he's like a lost puppy dog following me around. Just ignore him and he'll go away eventually.

Shot down how? The titles I linked to are legit Marvel titles using the name "The Marvels". There's also the Marvel film called "The Marvels" in production now, so it's legit proof the title owned by Marvel. I don't see any exceptions in the CoC for "predating" or anything like that. I can't provide a link to hidden posts, but don't have to believe me, @Troo can verify the content. That's why we were discussing copyrights in that thread in the first place. You can believe whatever you like, I don't have any axes to grind. Yeah, I disagreed with the whole copyright rule thing when it was implemented, but I've accepted it and agreed to abide by it like everyone else. It's an official rule now and everyone has to abide by it.

If there's nothing to hide, why take it down? Not accusing anyone one of anything nefarious.

I don't have any axes to grind. Questioning your rules and pointing out how you aren't applying them evenly or fairly isn't trolling. I don't see any grey here, just being honest. The upcoming movie and the title I linked earlier are recent examples of Marvel using that name. Marvels was also a Marvel title back in 1994. I don't think that the SG here pre-dates that. Regardless if that title is a day old or a decade old, it's still a Marvel title created and owned by the company people here are terrified of legal action from. Isn't it better to be safe than sorry here? Again, no axe to grind and not trolling, just trying to understand why rules aren't being applied.

Not to mention hiding the evidence of it too. Thanks for that. Yeah as I remember the "temporary costumes are ok" part is what the discussion was. Reading the CoC, there's nothing in there about temporary costumes being allowed. The thread had characters named after Marty McFly and Man at Arms with matching costumes to boot. Those were the two I remembered seeing. That's a costume AND a name matching copyrighted materials and no one blinked an eye at them, so there again it's showing that rules only apply to some.

Did you miss the name of the supergroup hosting the events? You've totally misunderstood what I wrote. I wasn't referring to any of the characters in that specific thread. I wasn't referring to any characters in that thread. If you'd all stop hiding posts that question the rules, there are some I could link to that absolutely had clear examples of it. I pointed some of these out in a recent "retro 80s" themed costume contest post which has since been hidden for some unknown reason. There were flagrant copies of Marty McFly, Man at Arms from He-Man and many others, down to the names. I was berated by a couple of members of your cheerleading squad that this was acceptable because "reasons" and didn't break any rules because you all allow it. I questioned that, and the post is of course hidden now. Since I know you won't believe me, ask @Troo - he was the one replying to my posts saying it was "ok to do" because the costumes were "only temporary" and "allowed per the rules" even though I linked to the actual wording of the CoC and it didn't mention anything about temporary costumes. This was about a month or so ago, so it's well after the rules were changed. What's sad is that people making homages are being forced to remake characters even for the slightest whiff of pissing off the House of Mouse, yet a group named "The Marvels", which is an actual Marvel comic title, is allowed to continue on for years. Like I said, I guess rules only apply to some people.

There wasn't a good reason for getting rid of it, no matter what the cheerleaders say. That seems to be the goal unfortunately. Have to keep the inner circle happy though!

Looks to me like they've been posting weekly costume contest results regularly over the past couple of years and no one noticed or reported this yet? That's a real stretch. You're right, they shouldn't. But it's pretty clear some are allowed to bend/break the rules and aren't held to the same standard as everyone else.

There are supergroups named after copyrighted Marvel/Disney properties allowed in game. Marvel is releasing a film called "The Marvels". No one seems to care about the SGs her with that name. There's been bunches of themed costume contests with costumes that are blatant copies down to the name of other intellectual properties and none of the GMs bat an eye. Just saying. Seems like the rules only apply to some.