City of Heroes - Alpha Flight Supergroup

[vinten]

Hi all...

I just purchased City of Heroes for the PC and I'm loving it. I've created both Northstar and Diamond Lil and would love to form an Alpha Supergroup (which any of you could join), so if you're interested, let me know.

gambit2x@hotmail.com

[suzene]

Be careful with what you name your chars; I hear CoH is very strict about not allowing existing characters in the game. That's the kind of thing Marvel took them to court over. You might have better luck with an Alpha-type or an Alpha-parody team.

Suzene

[Barnacle13]

Yeah I'd be careful about using Marvel properties for your characters' names. It'll either lead to being booted from CoH or action from Marvel themselves. It's bee several months since I have played, but I loved that game. I had a few Second Flight-centric characters. Province was a healer dressed all in red and white (no maple leaf though), Barnacle was a little tanker, Shock Socket was a blaster. But my favorite character by far was my tanker named ChoclateThunder. Started my own supergroup, The Paragon Stormfront. I wish I had more time to play, cause I really enjoyed the game.

[PWalk]

I made up Box on there and no one ever questioned me on it. Great game but like the others have said be wary of making exact Marvel characters as they will get deleted.

[suzene]

I made up Box on there and no one ever questioned me on it. Great game but like the others have said be wary of making exact Marvel characters as they will get deleted.

Yes, but Box is below the radar in terms of popularity...barely even C-list. Diamond Lil is probably in the same category. Northstar is a bit more notorious and likely the most easily recognized out of Alpha Flight. Still not Wolverine of Superman level, but definitely recognizable and lible to trip alarms, so to speak.

Suzene

[vinten]

Wow, I had no idea about replica issues. My Northstar copy (Northlight) may run into some issues, but I'm sure Lil will be fine.

So, instead of creating an Alpha Flight supergroup, we could create a new Flight.

C'mon! You know you wanna play...

It's uber fun!

[suzene]

So long as you've not named him Northstar, you should be fine. Marvel hasn't trademarked speedster/fliers yet.

Suzene

[vinten]

What about DC? Same trademark issues?

[suzene]

What about DC? Same trademark issues?

If you name a character of yours after any tradmarked superhero and CoH finds out, they will take steps to protect themselves, probably by having you modify your character's name or outright deleting it. So far as I'm aware, DC hasn't taken anyone to court over the issue, but I can fully see why CoH wouldn't want to risk it.

[mreeez]

What server are you all on? I have a Guardian look-a-like on Freedom named Jet Stream (and many other alts there) and I have villains on Justice server. Look me up, my Global Chat name is Mr. Eeez

[Powersurge]

I've down a bit of reading on this (huhoh! just a bit?) and apparently Marvel thinks it has the rights to everything frm Thor's hammer to the American Flag ... though I don't think they've had too much luck making any of that stand up where it matters. Haha.

DC on the other hand has "always" taken the enlightened view that any exposure (for its heroes) is good exposure so long as someone isn't making money that rightly belongs to them as a result.

Man, I seem to recall how, some years back, some schmuck copyrighted his comicbook sound effect!!! It was drawn wit hthe little copyright symbol beside it and everything!!! Unfreakin real!!! Someone should take him to court for using all of the other comicbook sound effects!! The jerk!

[RatCat]

I thought Marvel had this case thrown out of court.

I would advise against naming your heroes the exact same name, but I don't think Marvel will come after you directly if you did, they were more interested in the developers.

[mreeez]

If you name your character after something that CoH deems as copywrited they will re-name your character to 'GenericHeroXXXX' (XXXX being some number). It's pretty funny seeing some toon that looks like Spider Man but named GenericHero.

If you have a problem with the naming issue, you can petition to their intellectual property division to settle it. I thought I was going to have a porblem with my character Jet Stream because that movie with Kurt Russel, Sky High, has a character named that but I had the name back when CoH came out. Waaaay before Sky High.