Guild Wars 2

I have begun a weapon skin that i would finally like, using one of your skins as a base reference for starting.

Question:
- Provided that you can, and are willing to do so, do you plan one day to introduce a legitimate way for us to customize the game with our own skins (i saw hundreds of free skins by googling that left me jaw droping) ?

Suggestion:
- There are now wealthy companies that let users pay them to put skins in an asset store, providing them with an infinite supply of assets that they didnt even had to produce. Do you plan one day to also consider this win-win system ?

Yseron.8613:

This is why i like the joke. I did not imply the unity engine for nothing.

Edit: that said i know for a fact that NCSoft (not arenanet) did try unity at least once: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ncsoft.unity.mop.example2&hl=fr

Well, unfortunately, the wiki says this about the GW2 engine:

Guild Wars 2 uses a heavily modified Guild Wars game engine which includes support for true 3D environments, more detailed environments and models, better lighting and shadows, new animation and effects systems, plus new audio and cinematics engines and a more flexible combat and skill-casting system.
Gaile Gray has indicated the game supports DirectX 10, but does not require it to play. Guild Wars 2 utilises the Havok physics engine to provide ragdoll animation and destructible environments, as well as occlusion culling technology licensed from Umbra Software to optimise 3D object rendering.

That means that it’s not feasible to use unity for anything GW2 related because the two engines can’t interact.

Also, NCsoft simply owns ArenaNet. Nothing NCsoft does implies that ArenaNet will follow suit.

Do you want everyone wielding kitten swords? Because that’s how you end up with everyone wielding kitten swords!

It is extremely unlikely that this is a winning strategy for the company, simply because it means they have to pay the price of dealing with users who have a weak grasp of copyright and trademark law — and so happily throw models from other games into the “custom content” side, etc, exposing anet to legal liabilities…

Plus kitten swords.

No one’s said it was restricted to swords. They just happened to mention kitten swords, which, considering the censoring system in the forums, either means a really bad looking sword, or swords designed with kitten inspiration, could go either way.

Regarding why arenanet would ‘allow’ copyrighted content into the game, the problem is they wouldn’t directly allow any copyright breaking weapon into the game. Fans however, could create a copyright breaking weapon and place it within the game, available to be officially part of a continuously online game world that ArenaNet owns. With the nigh infinite amount of copyrighted content in the United States alone, it would be unreasonable for ArenaNet to comb through each and every item created for the game to make sure that they didn’t break copyright, because no matter how large a pool of copyright combers you have, all it takes is a single copyrighted item to go through the system into the game for a lawsuit to happen. One item.

Plus, each item would have to have 10 different versions, all able to be adjusted to the various heights and animations that each and every character has in order to make sure that everyone can wield the weapon no problem AND that implementing the resulting weapon doesn’t cause any bugs in the system. There are countless people opposed to clipping issues already in game, all of which are fully controlled by ArenaNet, you wouldn’t be able to imagine the fuss that would arise if player made items were allowed into the game and the cataclysmic proportions of issues that would arise.

So, no, it’s not a win-win for everyone. It’s the reason why Mods aren’t generally allowed for online content. As far as I know, anything that affects clientside stuff (like UI changes etc) is allowed, but once that crosses into something that somebody else can interact with, it breaks the user agreement and is bounds for bans and more. Mods for offline content are fine, because developers don’t have control of the end product itself once it’s released to the audience, and thus users are able to do as they wish with games they have bought (apart from DRM issues, but that’s another case entirely).

Short answer: it’s not a win-win for everyone.

Here is your asset stores not working because of a single item.

- https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/44051

Try hard to tell me that we are still in 2005, and that the link lead to a fake site.

Try.

Hard.

Now as for kitten swords, i have no doubt whatsoever that it does not mean kitten swords. Surely it must be a misunderstanding and they meant “My granny work at the mall nearby but tody she stayed at home and she is wearing a blue shirt” and not “Do you want everyone wielding kitten swords? Because that’s how you end up with everyone wielding kitten swords!”. Replace kitten with “bad quality” or “blue” or anything else, it still doesnt match when you search for free skins and hit the tab result Images.

Yseron.8613:

Here is your asset stores not working because of a single item.

- https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/44051

Try hard to tell me that we are still in 2005, and that the link lead to a fake site.

Try.

Hard.

Why? That link isn’t fake, and I am not trying to persecute you.

I would point out though that Unity is not a game, but a platform. Things available to game developers primarily, where the liability for using copyrighted matereal would fall on the developer. In a game store, the liability would be a lot higher because nothing more than the ratio of developers to players. Developers will be way more likely to follow the rules as their paycheck is on the line. Not to say it can’t be abused as your link indicates, but that it will be abused a lot more by players, most companies don’t want to deal with the hassle of licensing player content.

Again, before you go off in a huff once more, I am not saying this is a bad idea, I am pointing out that it isn’t a simple ‘win win’ situation, no matter how much you would like it to be.

EDIT – I saw your edit about the kitten thing. That is something the forum does, maybe that is making this confusing. In my original post replace the word kitten with your chosen word for the male sex organ. I was saying people would make low effort, meme type things if left to their own devices. Or steal content.

You didn’t understand a single thing that I wrote about if that’s your response. I never talked about an asset store, I never mentioned an asset store, what I mentioned was using copyrighted content within a consistent, online game that ArenaNet directly controls. That is FAR different than a platform that allows people to purchase user generated content for their own, personal, use.

Let me explain how.

GW2 is a product. The unity asset store is a platform. The most accurate comparison between GW2 and the Unity asset store is a chair and a volunteer workshop. GW2 is a chair, the unity asset store is the workshop. See how that’s different? See how laws that may pertain to one would not be the same as the laws that pertain to the other? That’s the difference. GW2 would not be an asset store, it would be a product. If a product has materials that pertain to another copyrighted product, that is immediate and instant grounds for a lawsuit. Because, if something that is copyrighted is placed within a completely unaffiliated company’s creation, the lawsuit can claim that the company is intentionally trying to sell someone else’s copyrighted work as their own. That is BIG, that is a HUGE legal undertaking and, as I mentioned, it only takes a single copyrighted work for there to be grounds to a lawsuit.

For an asset store, however, there is an acknowledgement that there may be people who place shady, copyrighted materials as their own up for selling. I don’t have a copy of the unity asset store’s creators EULA, but I’m sure that it includes legal jargon that amounts to “Any user generated content is not the direct creation of Unity and is not Unity attempting to sell copyrighted material as their own. Users agree to provide unique assets that are not associated with copyright material under the terms that the item and the account associated with it will be terminated ASAP”. Unity is a platform, NOT a product. While they may be liable to anything copyrighted that gets sold in their store, i’m sure that their terms of use essentially eliminate the need for copyright holders to go after them, as long as copyright holders first attempt to contact them to remove the item associated with their copyright.

A lawyer would be able to give you a more accurate representation of the legal difference between a product and a platform, and all the copyright differences between the two, but simply, your argument has literally no ground to stand on.

“You didn’t understand a single thing that I wrote about if that’s your response. I never talked about an asset store, I never mentioned an asset store, what I mentioned was using copyrighted content within a consistent, online game that ArenaNet directly controls. That is FAR different than a platform that allows people to purchase user generated content for their own, personal, use.”
- What am i talking about since the begining ? My uncle joe’s bar ?

Call me the day there will be more players submitting (notice the word: submit = controled) than there are developpers in the world.

Yes the asset store is a platform. Put in place by Unity. Anything new or in contradiction with my fake suggestion of arenanet putting in place whatever platform (or whatever name you will give it next) ?

Yseron.8613:

“You didn’t understand a single thing that I wrote about if that’s your response. I never talked about an asset store, I never mentioned an asset store, what I mentioned was using copyrighted content within a consistent, online game that ArenaNet directly controls. That is FAR different than a platform that allows people to purchase user generated content for their own, personal, use.”
- What am i talking about since the begining ? My uncle joe’s bar ?

Call me the day there will be more players submitting (notice the word: submit = controled) than there are developpers in the world.

There will not be more players submitting than there are developers in the world. I agree with you there. But there would be more players submitting than there are developers at Anet by a huge margin, and that is the data that is actually relevant here.

Yseron.8613:

“You didn’t understand a single thing that I wrote about if that’s your response. I never talked about an asset store, I never mentioned an asset store, what I mentioned was using copyrighted content within a consistent, online game that ArenaNet directly controls. That is FAR different than a platform that allows people to purchase user generated content for their own, personal, use.”
- What am i talking about since the begining ? My uncle joe’s bar ?

Call me the day there will be more players submitting (notice the word: submit = controled) than there are developpers in the world.

If you bothered to read my entire post, you would note the difference between a platform and a product. I have facts and the law on my side, you can search the internet to figure out what I’m saying or contact either ArenaNet’s legal team or a legal adviser for better explanations and more details. I’ve tried explaining to you the difference and the reasons why it may not work, but you simply want to ignore what I’ve said, so I’m done.

Also, what use is the argument “call me when more players are submitting than there are developers in the world” when we’re talking about a single game?

If you bothered to read at all i would not have had to remind you that it was about an asset store i was talking about.
Now for the rest of your post, it precisely describe what i am talking about: precautions taken by a company in order to put in place an asset store (or a platform or whatever you like).

“Also, what use is the argument “call me when more players are submitting than there are developers in the world” when we’re talking about a single game?”
- You see ? Even you agree that if it would work at a larger scale, it would aso work at a lower scale.

No, you’re talking about an asset store inside of a product, making it part of the product, and as such, putting it in very different copyright conditions than an actual asset store that is uniquely separate from any and all possible products would be. Also, you STILL miss the point of a potential copyright violation being placed within a game, a product, that ArenaNet owns and sells. The very moment copyrighted material is placed within a game, whether that was from an asset store or not, that is grounds for immediate legal action. If someone were to buy an asset from an asset store that broke copyright, then placed it into their game and sold that game as a product, they would immediately open themselves up for legal action to be taken against them. Do you see how they are the same? How ArenaNet would be in even hotter water if they were to own the asset store that sold the copyrighted item that wound up in their game?

So, now we have that out of the way, we can get to a different set of arguments. Arenanet is a game developer, not an asset store manager. Their specialty is making games. Steam can get away with having an asset store within Dota 2 and team fortress 2 because steam is a platform, upon which they hold other smaller platforms that are part of the games that are tied with the developer valve, which Steam owns. On top of that, you’d be asking a game developer to know how to handle an asset store, which why would anyone at ArenaNet know how to handle one? They’d have to dedicate resources away from the game to handle the asset store, and they may not even have a good enough payoff for the asset store to be worth it in the first place. THEN there’s the legal help they’d need to hire to make sure that they handle the asset store legally and any potential legal actions that could be taken against them and you can see why immediately it’s not a win-win situation.

Yseron.8613:

“Also, what use is the argument “call me when more players are submitting than there are developers in the world” when we’re talking about a single game?”
- You see ? Even you agree that if it would work at a larger scale, it would aso work at a lower scale.

I NEVER AGREED TO WHAT YOU SAID. We’re talking about a single game, a single developer, and countless fans who would send in fan submissions, on top of the trolls that would definitely submit legally shady stuff that ArenaNet could never use. A single person can be a fan of MANY MANY THINGS, that doesn’t stop that person from submitting fan art or asset submissions to their many many interests, favourite companies etcetc

“No, you’re talking about an asset store inside of a product”
- No.

“I NEVER AGREED TO WHAT YOU SAID. We’re talking about a single game, a single developer, and countless fans who would send in fan submissions, on top of the trolls that would definitely submit legally shady stuff that ArenaNet could never use. A single person can be a fan of MANY MANY THINGS, that doesn’t stop that person from submitting fan art or asset submissions to their many many interests, favourite companies etcetc”
- ArenaNet is run by a single developper ? Interesting, i lived long enough to hear that. Countless fans who would submitt and troll an asset store ? Oh wait, i thought we were talking about an asset store, my bad.

I forgot: etcetc

If desired, you can Google for the previous Dev responses about user-created content possibly being used in Guild Wars 2.

Good luck.

Yseron.8613:

“No, you’re talking about an asset store inside of a product”
- No.

If you’re not willing to read the whole post before responding, then there’s no point in attempting discourse with you. You’re not willing to listen, so why should I be willing to help you.

Instead of reacting instantly, you should maybe read everything that’s being said.

It would help.

Well, I was trying to be nice, but since, yet again, you admit (and even flaunt) the fact that you are purposely breaking the Forum Rules (as usual), I guess this thread will meet its fate soon.

No real need to insult others; it’s not very becoming.

Good luck.

Here we are, i now know what motivates you to hastly answer to any post that does obvioulsy not require your input.

To the other: What is this good luck thing ? My life is in danger because the life expectancy of a thread i dont give a dam about might be longer than i thought if it get deleted now ? The internet is amazing.

Yseron.8613:

There are now wealthy companies that let users pay them to put skins in an asset store, providing them with an infinite supply of assets that they didnt even had to produce. Do you plan one day to also consider this win-win system ?

Unfortunately, any skin still needs ANet designers to “produce” it. The developers have said more than once that the design/concept art is the easy part. Rendering it attractively for the game’s engine is why it takes so long for us to get armor sets.

Unless ANet publishes its design tools as a stand alone app, it will never be “cheaper” for ANet to include fan-generated art in GW2.

So sure, submit your design — I always like to see what players come up with (and some of the designs are amazing) and I’m always hoping for ANet to use a few as a starting place for something they release in game.

But don’t expect anything more than kudos from your fellow players.

PS if you don’t want the public to respond to your post, don’t publish in a public forum. You can just mail ANet directly (make sure to give them full rights to user your ideas/design as they like).

This is why i like the joke. I did not imply the unity engine for nothing.

Edit: that said i know for a fact that NCSoft (not arenanet) did try unity at least once: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ncsoft.unity.mop.example2&hl=fr

Welcome back.

As i said to ill conceived, this is why i like the joke. (Edit: they already received some stuff from “Clark Gable” years ago, but my favorite stays the day i guessed Gaile and Regina non community e-mails and used it)

Yes NCSoft, not arenanet as in “that said i know for a fact that NCSoft (not arenanet)”