Copyright Question :\
I am curious if I would be sued for making secret characters in my game that are blatant copies of other game characters, or based off of game concept art(easter egg characters etc). I know other companies have done it before, but I just wanted to know. Does anyone know much in this field?
Edit:
I now see how silly this entire post was. Thanks guys
Edit:
I now see how silly this entire post was. Thanks guys
Replies
The only time you'll see a character of extreme likeness in a for-profit game from another company without their permission is through user-made content.
http://www.eeggs.com/items/47546.html
Of course, this is just an observational discussion. For a real answer you would need to ask a lawyer.
blizzard is RICH, it has millions of subscribers paying $12 dollars+ per month, meaning: they can afford to have plenty of legal help in proving their content is satire and whether or not something they want to put in is legal and they won't get in trouble.
As an indie developer you should remain as careful as possible and just steer clear of anything you think is borderline.
Rockstar plays with this line regularly as well. They are the big boys though. Gta4 = black donellys + heat if I remember right. Red dead has references to many westerns I'm sure but an obvious one is. There Will Be Blood. They borrowed the name Plainview for their oil camp which was the main characters name, Daniel Plainview. As well as the long drawn out notes occasionally sort of like 2001: a space odyssey if you haven't seen the other.
Well played satire, with no actual LINKing to the original trademark:
In any case, if you had to ask the question, that means you shouldn't do it.