Yes, looks like you are correct. I do think there is a fundamental difference between games like this and Resident Evil Online (basic zombie shooter) which contain elements from movies (etc) and games whose entire playing experience is based off another IP (most of the DBZ games). The former can be more easily changed to remove the violating elements.

To be fair, though, we have to be consistent in our policy of not featuring such games. We'll look over this and other listed games and make the appropriate changes later this week. We can also suggest that such games be modified to be properly featured. I think Nestalgia is a good example of a game that is fan-inspired but is still wholly original.

Eviler wrote:

I kindly ask to reconsider or at least check out the game before you label it "fan game".

Yes, that was my first impression as well. Like I said, there is a distinction between games like yours and those _based_ on a movie/game/etc. We just have to be able to make that clear so that people know what to look for. I think the rule of thumb is, "could the owner of this IP have a legitimate case to pull your game"? That would be the case if you were advertising using any of their graphics or slogans, or, of course, incorporated that stuff in-game. And if you are, you could simply change it to comply. Just keep that in mind.

So then with this logic, I could make a game based on Charmed, the TV show, which is really just the compiling of a lot of magic and mythology elements mixed in with a story line. And take out the shows story line, and remove all of the main characters from the show and put the game in a different setting, and as long as the game only takes certain elements from the show, like maybe a few names of races (things like Whitelighters which could be comparable to gaurdian angels) or an ability here or there(like blinking which is just a name for a form of teleportation), but the game is based more so on mythology and witchcraft used in general and not on how the show described it, then it could be a featured game? Because in reality it would only be based on Charmed in title, and only uses some very small parts of the show for continuity reasons. and if those one or two parts were changed to say something else, then it would not have any charmed like aspects at all?

Because I mean, having a mode called "saw" where you are in a room and you have to get out of traps and either work as a team or work by yourself to survive, is exactly the premise of the movie saw. There is no parody there no matter how many Thor's hammers or Captain America's shields you throw in there. that is flat out and completely the movies. When you ave a level that is called "The Dark Night" where you "Become one of Gothan cities criminally insane and run around Arkham Asylum looking for Mr.Bats to end him once and for all. Or if you are lucky become the Dark Knight yourself and take down Gothams most wanted, one crazy at a time." That is not a parody. Arkham Asylum and Gatham are all part f the batman universe. Crazy people from Arkham Asylum do try and kill batman and go crazy and kill others in the show, comics, and games (as shown by Batman: Arkham Asylum the video game. Even if you are killing people with wonderwomans bra or you are doing whatever. All I am saying is that putting comical aspects in a game does not take away from the fact that they are based off of something and that they are fan based. Especially when it flat out says "this is the movie/game/comic book this mode was base off of come play as if you were one of the people who were in this situation in the movie/game/comic book"

See this is what I thought as well. I don't think it should be taken down. But it doesn't seem by what I have seen when playing it, that it really meets any criteria for being considered a parody. It seems to (quite blatantly I might add)just take different movies or books or comics or games, and make modes based on that particular movie or book or game or comic. And if think if you play the game, you will see that more so as well. Especially if you are familiar with the things the game modes are based on.

Well, as the "super" weapons and such seem to be extremely fun and popular, we wouldn't remove them anyway, even if it involved losing being featured.

But thanks to all for your input on the legal system and such.

Tom wrote:

whose entire playing experience is based off another IP (most of the DBZ games).

First...

I've seen you use that term a lot recently - IP. What does it stand for in the fangame context that you have been using it?

Second...

Just an interesting and related issue from current events. Someone was using the Starcraft 2 map editor to create a "World of Starcraft" third person view RPG. Obviously, the person wants to see "World of Warcraft" in a Starcraft setting, hence the name that was chosen.

The mod was developed to a point where it could be shown off, and videos were put up on Youtube, but Blizzard told Youtube to take it down. The mod developer was able to discuss the decision with Blizzard, and they told the modder that their biggest concern was just with the name he chose. Him and the Blizzard team agreed to a compromise: he gets to keep working on his mod and he just has to change the name to "Starcraft Universe" which he has now done and is continuing the work.

Obviously the work is still based on Starcraft and is therefore a fangame, but it's still an interesting bit of recent events that just played out over the last week which is related to this whole fangame issue we have going on here.

However, Blizzard has publically published a set of rules about fan-made stuff and about videos that contain Starcraft material. These things are specifically allowed as long as you adhere to all the rules they put into place (You can even make money from your Starcraft material in one very specific part of the rules, though only less than $500).

Enix used to go so far as to support fangames and try to give them a spotlight. I think that this has been stopped since the Square-Enix thing and that policy has been reversed, but they used to help fangames of their material get attention.

This, combined with the reason you are implementing this distinction in the first place - to keep the hub clear of Baskin Robbins 1,000 flavors of DBZ/Naruto/Pokemon/etc. so other stuff can be found too - shows that the situation is not as simple as "is it a fangame or is it not?"

And, if I recall correctly from one of your comments from a long time ago, part of your reason for not doing this sooner was that you were once upon a time in the mindset that "We don't do anything because we are merely providing a service and aren't responsible for how it's used, like Youtube or picture-sharing sites. If we start to take any action against fangames but still leave them there then it shows that we are making a distinction and specifically harboring them and become party to it." That's not a quote from anything you said before, just a paraphrase of the type of stuff I seem to recall you saying years ago.

I'm not necessarily saying that you should go back to the old way, or even that you're doing it wrong at all. I'm just voicing my thoughts. Honestly, I don't think there's any good way to handle the situation, but that doing something (which is what you are doing here) is better than doing nothing.

I do have one idea though. You have mentioned something about having the community play a role in managing the tags, though I don't recall you specifying how that would work. Well, what if games were to be tagged for whatever categories they should belong to, with the game creator initially specifying the tags... then, the game owners who all have games with that specific tag(s) are collectively the sentinels for their tag and can flag it as tag misuse.

For example, I make a puzzle game that is not a board game in any way. I want more people to notice my game, so I give it a puzzle tag AND a board game tag anyway, bad me. Other owners of games with a board game tag flag my game as a misfit, and then either it gets automatically removed from board games from being flagged by enough people, or maybe enough flags just send a notification some some tag moderator who gives it the 10-second overview and manually removes the tag.

If there are few enough tags (which there should be) that there are plenty of games in each tag, then the large amount of people policing that tag should help to get the misfits weeded out. And "tag owners" should want to help keep their tags clean of junk because it helps their own game get noticed.

If anyone abuses the tag system too much, they get banned from being able to tag games or flag other tags as misuse.

Either the specific tags will have to be decided on before such a system was implemented and be updated from time to time, or the game developers could create the tags as needed. If someone is stupid and creates a dumb tag, a redundant tag, or they abuse it in some other way, the tag itself could just be deleted which dumps all its tagged games out of that tag.

For such a system to work best, you would want a dozen tags with a hundred games each rather than a hundred tags with a dozen games each. And if tags get too crowded, perhaps there could be sub tags, or maybe it's ok to leave tags crowded with 100 different games as that doesn't sound like too much.