Outfit Customization and Exclusivity

[Soothsayer]

I am totally on board with the idea of outfit customizations and think that going above and beyond the current decal system is going to be really cool.

Higby, in an interview midway along this process of releasing information that we've been following for these many months mentioned that a specialist outfit would be noticeably different from one that was not. Specifically he mentioned that you would know an Aircav outfit meant business by the way they looked.

I think that a lot of outfits would pay a premium to have exclusive rights on a non-copyright infringing customization (be it a decal, skin or insignia) that were only available to them.

I would even go farther than that, I would say that part of the fee for this customization could go towards the costs of having a SOE set of eyes approve the initial design (for obvious TOS/EULA reasons) as well as a petition system for maintaining exclusivity.

I'm not suggesting that this is for every outfit, but if a group of players decides to pool their resources, SOE should be accepting of this additional stream of revenue (at least on a trial basis).

I recognize some potential grief(ish) issues, but cost is a barrier to entry for griefing purposes, it's high enough to discourage it for the most part. You'd have to be committed to the bit to actually go through with it.

I just want to make sure that nobody is the same type of unique flower as any other person.

[Papscal]

Id like my outfit to be customized by ranking high in base taking and kill counts. I see no need for posing and fluff.

[gufftroad]

i agree but it would be hard to make sure every insignia was no copyrighted not only that but if an outfit wanted it to be theirs only whats to stop another outfit from making the same logo with a slight variation the time required to check everything would be very prohibitive

[Total Overkill]

Originally Posted by gufftroad

i agree but it would be hard to make sure every insignia was no copyrighted not only that but if an outfit wanted it to be theirs only whats to stop another outfit from making the same logo with a slight variation the time required to check everything would be very prohibitive

Ya, but guilds would collectively be dropping $50ish each, copyrighted material would void it, no refund, and most clans with excessive playerbases or subfactions would indeed want slightly altered logo's of the original... so all problems solved?

[Pyreal]

EVE does it.

Make it happen.

[Cordless]

I think this would be a great way for them to monetize the whole outfit system. An outfit creates a logo/uniform for X amount of dollars (while retaining no rights whatsoever to that logo or uniform) and they get to assign it to their players. The whole not copying thing would be entirely down to SOE since they would own any and all rights to any graphic or logo applied to the game.

Err, unless someone put a pic or graphic in that belonged to someone else.

I guess that's hairier than I thought.

Maybe there's a legal loophole somewhere that says if you aren't making money from it there's no harm done?

[Soothsayer]

Yeah, thats why I say it's gotta pass the test.

The way I understand the business of copyright enforcement to work is that there's a cease and desist legal threat made and then the system is brought to bear on the offender. Ofc it won't always go down that way.

That is addressed by the recognition that someone has to look at all of them to make sure they pass the test on the really obvious ones.

Probably more people than not have other stuff they don't want to see in game, I'll leave that one to your imagination.

It will take money, but if people are willing to shell out, they might as well offer it if they can recover costs.

[Sledgecrushr]

Yup I think its going to happen. Another fantastic feature in the game of the decade.