"The Elder Scrolls V" *scrapped

Nevermind not going to make it, I don't want to get in trouble.


Er...just make sure you are really, really careful with this as you are violating copywrite/copywrite infringement. I doubt anyone on the site would tattle on you, but I did want to warn you nevertheless.

Also, creating a text adventure with an open world aspect and RPG elements is going to take you more than a couple of months even working on it every single day. You'll need A LOT of dedication to the project; not to mention writing and coding EVERYTHING involved with a game that large and all the areas, NPCs, Quests, etc. If you've never worked on a game like this before with Quest, I suggest starting on a much, much, much smaller scale and then moving to a large scale game once you have all the coding and technical elements down. Just a friendly suggestion :)

Anonynn.


I looked deeper into gaming copyright law as you suggested and found you were indeed correct. I will be scrapping this idea. The last thing i want to do is get in trouble with the admins here at textadventures.co.uk...

however i will definitely be making an open world fantasy adventure game soon.

I know these things take a long time, i was saying some people could "beta test" the alduin arc before i releasef it, wich i now wont be doing.


Well, you won't get in trouble with the admins here, but you can get in a lot bigger trouble if the game were distributed and/or got popular enough to garnish attention. I'm sorry to have discouraged you from the project.

Anonynn.


You can always make a TES-like-RPG of your own (totally original/yours - create your own RPG world and history, races and etc, as TES did for its games, so no legal issues)... but it's still an extremely ambitious project/endeavor... I've been trying to work on one myself (though still trying to learn to code and design better), though I'm still just working on character creation... and brain storming game design. If interested we can try to work together, if you're still interested in making a TES-like-RPG game (as that is what I'm trying to do too/myself)


here's some of the game design brainstorming/ideas I've done so far:

http://textadventures.co.uk/forum/design/topic/3876/rpg-elements-game-mechanics-and-game-design

(tried to put them all into this one place)


cool


This is a tricky subject and a hot topic on many a forum. The short answer is, if it is purely a fan made game with no money being made (not sure about adds paying you or donators...) you "should" be fine.

Of course that also depends on how touchy or protective of their product the original game makers are or how much of a jerk you can be. What I mean is, if you are respectful to the true nature of the games they may over look it. Make it a porn game, not so much.

I come from a site where a good amount of members do fan fiction and drawings. The game I was working on is from a real game. Other MUDs do the same thing. I doubt most have or even asked for permission. But they do generally put the acknowledgements or credits of the original game into their games.

However I also know of many cases with Half Life mods, particularly Star Gate:SG1, where the mods were shut down, because those who owned the rights were making their own games and were afraid of losing money. Or a modeler made a player skin of an Overwatch game and a particular forum took all downloads down in fear of reprisal from Blizzard. While others go on regardless with out any bad consequences or even a second glance or thought from anyone.

So it is up to you how far you want to take it, how much you do not care of the consequences or how much you care to put your heart and soul behind the game and treat it with respect.

In saying all that, if you are dedicated enough to making a game as big as The Elder Scrolls, why not make a completely new game, or at the very least The Elder Scrolls in your own version? And I am not speaking simply in text form. New events, new areas, new or added items, magic, races, etc. Maybe start small and go from there.

But it is entirely up to you. Good luck!


if it is purely a fan made game with no money being made (not sure about adds paying you or donators...) you "should" be fine.

Not a chance. Not if you're making a fan fic game of a game published by a company that's still in business. Even if you don't make any money off it, a lawsuit is a very real possibility. Same for making games off books and movies. And the lawyers that work for them are vicious.

I published a magazine a few years ago, and one of the features was a review of various comic books. I got a cease and desist order from a lawyer for one of the comic book companies who mistakenly thought we were publishing fan fiction.

Not good people to mess with, whether money's involved or not.


There's so many people who cling to the 'not making profit off of game and so it's okay' myth, which is completely ignorant of the law, there's NO/ZERO protection, not even a sliver what-so-ever, just because you're not charging money for playing/downloading the game.

You're only "okay" because/if/when you get lucky and they choose to not go after you (and/or they've not yet learned of your use/theft of their IP), which has nothing to do with any such protection for you to do so.


I guess you have never played any fan based games or mods. I have. Star Trek, Star Wars, Dragon Ball Z, Babylon 5, Final Fantasy, etc. I wont pretend none may never had a cease and desist letter or even shut down, (read SG1 mods) but there are many of them who have been out for years and still going strong. And most of the big boys are still making books, movies and games for a profit and not hampering the little guys. In fact some may call it flattery or keeping the motivation going for said franchises which means greater revenues for the owners of said franchises. We could actually be doing them a favor.

Again it depends on who owns the material in question or what you are doing with it. I have heard, as mentioned, Blizzard being Nazis about it. I made a Youtube video once of a Chris Gaines song that I bought brand new on cd. (I am not here to argue copy rights of ownership.) In less then 24 hours my video was shut down and I had a warning from Youtube (which I found ironic) not to do it again. I did a search of Youtube and at the time could not find a single Chris Gaines and as I recall, Garth Brooks video/song up. However there were quite a few people playing and singing his songs. I guess official videos are a no go, fan made videos are ok.

Same with Saturday Night Live. You just don't see them. And some dramas on PBS can not be found on Youtube, only their trailers. Yet I could find quite a few British comdies. ^_^

So apparently there is a big difference. Like I said I am not sure about making a profit from ads or from donations, but as long as you are not selling, you "should" be fine. But then you also have under or on the radar as well.

And as far as your published magazine, regardless how they misrepresented your work, were you selling your mag for a profit or making it for free out of your garage so to speak? I could make a fan fic comic of just about anything and have hardly a care, minus my horrible drawing skills. ^_^ 1000's of people do it. None that I am familiar with ever had any problems. In fact as I mentioned before, it is actually encouraged in my opinion.


Has anyone ever actually had a law suit with fan fiction? I would suggest the worse case scenario is the threat of a law suit if you do not stop, and the solution then is to stop.

I agree copyright law makes all fan fiction illegal unless there is explicit consent, but it is nevertheless true that a lot of companies and individuals will happily turn a blind eye. I would suggest that if you want to do fanfiction, you take a look at what already expists for that game/movie/book, and if there is a lot out there readily available, you should be okay.

I would guess games would be less happy with interactive fan fiction as it is a bit closer to home. The Elder Scrolls has a large modding community supported by Bethesda (I have done some myself), but you do need the game to create and use the mods; I can see them be rather less happy for people to use their IP without buying the game.

Create a game, and say it is inspired by he Elder Scrolls, but create your own map, your own races and your own history.


Has anyone ever actually had a law suit with fan fiction

Yeah. J.K. Rowling took several fans to court, one who was just making an encyclopedia of her world for fans, not even writing fiction (ran into that guy at a book fair). She went so far as to write the ending of the last Potter book in such a way that fans couldn't (her words) write fan fiction about what happened to Harry (course you still can)

By and large, most people realize that fans are your life blood, and fan fiction can get people interested, and then they want your official product.

But some are real insert derogatory term of choice here about it.


Create a game, and say it is inspired by he Elder Scrolls, but create your own map, your own races and your own history.

Then you have the rabid fans that cuss you out and say you stole the idea, and that can be worse than a lawsuit from the company. (think of what people said about Peter Jackson who 'based" his movies on J.R.R. Tolkien's world so he could change things to suit his own vision. And why do you think ADnD uses tree-ent instead of ent, or halfling instead of hobbit?)

Just make your own game and don't use other games for inspiration, use myths, legends, and so on.


Or elf instead of elf. Troll instead of troll. Goblin instead of goblin. Dragon instead of dragon. ^_^

Rowling from what I read was all for the guy doing the website. Only after a publisher wanted to make a book did she take action. Had he stayed in the fandom realm with no profit he would of been fine. Also it was more the publisher to be of this would be book, rather than the individual guy that was in trouble.

Pixie- was the modding in question restricted to the TES game universe on the TES game engine; such as making new magic spells, more races or job classes, equipment and items, new quests, etc., or were you making Metroid or Final Fantasy type games on it or completely original ideas?

I am sure those modders on Half Life that made the SG1 mods, had they made them on the official SG game engine, (if that was even moddable) there would of been no problem. But the point is, of the very many copy righted fan made games, fan fics, movies, music, etc. created with nothing being sold for profit, very few that I am aware of ever had a care in the world. Try and sell these and you will most likely have one.

But nothing wrong with being original, except you have no fan base for starters and being truly original is harder then it looks. Almost everything is shared and borrowed, redressed and redone.


Yeah. J.K. Rowling took several fans to court, one who was just making an encyclopedia of her world for fans, not even writing fiction (ran into that guy at a book fair). She went so far as to write the ending of the last Potter book in such a way that fans couldn't (her words) write fan fiction about what happened to Harry (course you still can)

Maybe she has mellowed in later years, but she has said she has is flattered by fanfiction as long as it is not commercial. Were they planning to sell the encyclopedia? There is an online encyclopedia up and running right now.

See also these links, both confirming her position:

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Professional_Author_Fanfic_Policies
https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/ask-writer/can-i-try-and-publish-my-fan-fiction


Maybe she has mellowed in later years,

I think it's more that reality hit her smack in the face, because her second attempt at a series after Potter tanked. Badly. There was some seriously bad feelings about her all through the writing community, especially the spec fic community, and it's still swirling around.

No, I don't think they were planning to sell the book


I figure with Skyrim you have two choices.

  1. Make it an on-rails experience.
  2. Make the map extremely small. Like making a small overhead map, and walking into a city or something. Maybe walking into a city can take you to another room. But even if you do that, you may be looking at spamming 625+ (25x25) rooms. Or just 100. Either way, you don't seem to be the type to do that.

It's certainly possible. I've seen people do many games like it. It just takes forever... and you need patience.

Also, I don't think you'll get in trouble for doing a text game. I've never seen it anyways. Unless you use copy-righted sounds and/or images, or something. But like I said, I've never seen it, so I'd be surprised.


Skyrim fanfic is all over the internet, just like fanfic for anything else. If no money is involved no one cares.

The main issue with this idea is that it was hilariously, impossibly ambitious, even for an experienced author, so it's probably just as well he backed off on it. People new to writing IF always vastly underestimate the amount of work involved in even a smallish to medium sized game.


If I was going to do something like this I'd forget a huge open world (I don't imagine grinding in IF would make for a particularly enjoyable experience anyway) and just write a few quests over a small location and see how you get on. Bethesda don't own the intellectual property rights to fantasy games written in this way and I'm sure you can come up with an original title.


Adamantiax, i'm doing just this! My text based game is heavily influenced by Elder scrolls and will have some of the same concepts but will all be original of course. You will be fine making a similar game to TES if you don't copy names.


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