Infinite Customization, Infinite Possibilities, Infinite Deadpools
"IP Violations" - player-created characters that infringe upon the intellectual property rights of other companies, are currently the most common issue that Cryptic GMs currently handle.
In Champions Online, we have in-game policies which state that you can't create characters that are exactly the same as popular comic book, anime characters, video game characters, etc. However, with a tool that provides you with nearly unlimited flexibility to create nearly any character your imagination could possibly come up with, the temptation to create super saiyan Goku replicas is far too compelling for many of our players to resist.
During the Champions beta, we actually saw very few (maybe one or two?) IP violations. Based on this experience, we figured that we wouldn't see very many during live, but our assumptions turned out to be vastly incorrect when, on launch day, the entire cast of Street Fighter 2 decided to pay Millennium City a visit. Fortunately, we had already designed our policies and procedures for handling these violations, so we were able to take care of them quickly, but it definitely required more personnel than we originally anticipated.
Then, just when we thought we had it under control, we launched Champedia. This resulted in another flood of violation tickets, because thousands of characters that weren't being played started showing up on the site, for all to see, causing them to get reported. Fortunately, we were able to reactively tweak Champedia such that it would only show characters above Level 5, but there was a period of time where everyone who had a level 1 Darth Vader sitting in the tutorial was at risk of being the next target of our "Reset Costume" button. Additionally, we had quite a few players that clicked on the "Report" button in hopes that it would provide them with a detailed transcript of the selected character's accomplishments, which it certainly did not.
We actually get a lot of players asking why we don't want IP Violation characters in our game. They note that our game has plenty of references to other things, and "breaks the fourth wall" all the time with quirky cultural references. That's a valid point, but the interesting thing is that these "IP Violation characters" don't actually bother us on a personal level. The requirement to remove IP Violation characters from Champions is completely based on the fact that having IP Violation characters in our game puts us at a legal risk, and the unfortunate fact of the matter is that we are required to remove them from our game, or the owner of the IP in question can take us to court for stealing their stuff.
Each time we receive a ticket regarding an IP violation, we wait in suspense as the image loads, hoping that the character that appears in front of our eyes is an original work. If character is alright, and isn't an exact copy, then we're cleared to move forward to the next ticket. However, if it's a copy of someone's IP, then we're required to change it. We breathe the biggest sighs of relief when it turns out that the character is a parody, or they're only inspired by the original work. See:
The Shark Knight.
So, the truth is, we really feel bad when we have to edit these characters. 99% of players who create these characters are completely innocent, and are only trying to recreate their favorite superheroes in Champions. Putting in all that time to create the perfect Cyclops, only to log in one day and find him downgraded into a generic dude in a T-Shirt and Jeans, is probably disappointing. As a result, we try and do our best to provide free costume change tokens and a link to our policies that educates players on our policies. Our hope is that they don't encounter the same outcome for future characters.
As we move forward, we plan on having more automated solutions in place to reduce the number of these occurrences. For now, we'll continue to fight the cause for originality!
