When making a plug-in that features a theme based on commercial entertainment, how far should one go?

Don't know what I mean? Well, basically, I'm planning a Stargate SG-1 plug that will feature many of the ships, planets, races, and even characters from the show. It will be for EV:N and will feature a lot of eye candy similar to that from the show. I also intend on building a website for it when it is completed.

So my basic question, expanded on,would be: Just how far is too far when using commercial themes?
() Do I have to ask permission from MGM, or do I simply give them credit where it's due?
() Do such corporations actually pay attention to such things, or do they only care when you're getting paid?
(*) For those who have done so already, with StarWars, Star Trek, and B:5, have you ever had a problem with these companies?

Although it will, of course, be free, the way I want to "advertise" it when it's ready will mean that it will have a lot of publicity. Sometimes, things like that may eat at them or they simply want to nag people. I don't know, and most here probably don't know either, but if you do, and even if you don't, then do tell.

Technically as soon as you attach the Stargate name to it, it falls under their copyright (assuming that it is intended to resemble the series). They probably wont be to bothered about using the name though.

As soon as you start using the ships/characters etc you do need permission. I really doubt they'd pull you into court, but nevertheless, it is thier property.

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--blackhole
(url="http://"mailto:blackhole@mac.com")mailto:blackhole@mac.com(/url)blackhole@mac.com

Quote

Originally posted by Q-Czar:
(B)the way I want to "advertise" it when it's ready will mean that it will have a lot of publicity./B)

This brings up something kinda eviil I've been thinking about lately. Mainly it's connecetd with a hypothetical multiplayer EV, but the convept is the same for the present versions (and, I'm assuming EVN): in game advertising.

There is already the ability to watch "news" in the bar, so it's not much more of a leap to stick quicktime abilities in that interface so the player watches fake ads. Why not make them real ads? Even scrolling text at the bottom, kind of like a stock ticker, could could as an ad. Can't you see "Coke: the choice of a spacefaring generation" going across the bottom?

There could be missions to deliver M&Ms; to a colony, Apple Computer parts to a station, etc.

Of course the companies would have to pay to place these ads. Ideally, there would be a centralized "ad server" on the web that the game engine would access and download the latest ads for use in game, but there could be plug-ins that have corporate sponsors! "The Abyss: An Escape Velocity Plug-in. Brought to you by Microsoft. Where do you want to go today?"

What does this have to do with a multiplayer game? Well, the necessary servers for such a game will cost $ to maintain. Why not make that $ by using in game ads?

As I said, such ideas smack of evilness, but it is still an idea that would probably work...if you could convince companies that using in game ads would be effective. Besides, it'd be kinda cool to see real and fake ads side by side.

-STH

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Quote

Originally posted by Q-Czar:
**When making a plug-in that features a theme based on commercial entertainment, how far should one go?

Don't know what I mean? Well, basically, I'm planning a Stargate SG-1 plug that will feature many of the ships, planets, races, and even characters from the show. It will be for EV:N and will feature a lot of eye candy similar to that from the show. I also intend on building a website for it when it is completed.
**

I love SG-1. Well, not love, but a few months ago I would spend my Sunday evenings, 11-12, watching the reruns. I await your plug with bated breath.

As far as I know, SG-1 and all related characters are the intellectual property of MGM.

Do we need permission from Ambrosia SW to use EV ships in EVO?

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Herodotus: The Histories
"If an important decision is to be made, they discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day when they are sober reconsider it. If they agree, it is made law. Conversley, any decision they make when they are sober, is reconsidered when they are drunk."
Sounds like good government.

seant: damn good idea, I have thought that making the bar be a chat room would also be interesting. anyway, if advertising paid for it, i wouldn't have to pay as much. and that makes me happy!

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And so the problem remained; lots of people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they had all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that the trees had been a bad move and that no one should ever have left the oceans. - Douglass Adams

Ahh, this has been debated before, and its a good one. A monthly fee for users with no adverts vs. a one time fee with adverts.

Ideally, it'd be cool if actual companies paid to have their stuff advertised, but that only works if you're successful and enough people pay so them paying us is worth it. Marginal cost over marginal benefit kind of deal.

And so then, what happens when the game slumps off and less and less actually play it. The comanies begin to pull out and the people who made the game are broke.

It'd be a cool idea. Especially if you based the # of missions available to the player based on how much the company was paying (like say apple invested a few hundred grand...i'm sure they could get rush missiosn on every planet. Aint gonna happen, but why not dream eh?).

Anyways, thats all I have to say about that.

CS

Quote

Originally posted by seant:
**This brings up something kinda eviil I've been thinking about lately. Mainly it's connecetd with a hypothetical multiplayer EV, but the convept is the same for the present versions (and, I'm assuming EVN): in game advertising.

There is already the ability to watch "news" in the bar, so it's not much more of a leap to stick quicktime abilities in that interface so the player watches fake ads. Why not make them real ads? Even scrolling text at the bottom, kind of like a stock ticker, could could as an ad. Can't you see "Coke: the choice of a spacefaring generation" going across the bottom?

There could be missions to deliver M&Ms; to a colony, Apple Computer parts to a station, etc.

Of course the companies would have to pay to place these ads. Ideally, there would be a centralized "ad server" on the web that the game engine would access and download the latest ads for use in game, but there could be plug-ins that have corporate sponsors! "The Abyss: An Escape Velocity Plug-in. Brought to you by Microsoft. Where do you want to go today?"

What does this have to do with a multiplayer game? Well, the necessary servers for such a game will cost $ to maintain. Why not make that $ by using in game ads?

As I said, such ideas smack of evilness, but it is still an idea that would probably work...if you could convince companies that using in game ads would be effective. Besides, it'd be kinda cool to see real and fake ads side by side.

-ST

**

The problem is that the market for EVN is so marginal, I can't imagine any big companies bothering.

Maybe small internet shops and other ventures, though.

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When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I
know it is wrong.
- Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)