On their ‘We’re looking for writers’ page, its posted that they won’t accept or host games that, among others things: “infringe other people’s intellectual property (we can’t host a Harry Potter or Star Wars game)”. What if the topic isn’t one person’s intellectual property, but rather something that, from what I’ve gathered and know, being a hardcore fan of the lore, it was continually built upon by a lot of people, though the original concept came from Victor Surge from the Something Awful forums.
That’s right, I’m talking about making a SLENDER MAN game. Would this kind of community-contributed, urban-legend with a twist of historical folklore be qualified for a legit COG game? Because I’m actually writing a fan fiction / novel on it and I got this great idea to turn it into a game. :3
I doubt a text-based game could infringe upon the popular PC-game because the two mediums are so different. CoG isn’t even real time.
I’d say go for it if you’re really into horror games and have to give it a shot! They’re actually making a slender man movie, so you might want to capitalize and make some $$.
Despite his folkloric qualities, the Slender Man is not in the public domain. Eric “Victor Surge” Knudsen registered a copyright on the name “Slender Man” in January 2010.[20] Several profit-making ventures involving the Slender Man have unequivocally acknowledged Knudsen as the creator of this fictional character, and several more have been legally blocked from distribution (including the Kickstarter-funded film) after legal complaints from Knudsen and other sources.[5] Though Knudsen himself has given his personal blessing to a number of Slender Man-related projects, it is complicated by the fact that, while he is the character’s creator, a third party holds the options to any adaptations into other media, including film and television. The identity of this option holder has not been made public.[5] Knudsen himself has argued that his enforcement of copyright has less to do with money than with artistic integrity: “I just want something amazing to come off it… something that’s scary and disturbing and kinda different. I would hate for something to come out and just be kinda conventional.”[20]
Oh wow, I thought my idea of a slender man choice game was unique. I mean my take on it would definitely be unique, but just the idea of one itself. Then again I shouldn’t be surprised, he’s a popular guy, heh.
I know what people say about the Slender bandwagon and whatnot, but this story, well, let’s just say it would have a lot to offer in a lot of departments that makes things new and refreshing. But the permission thing from Victor, jee, how would I even go about contacting him? Would he even care about something so small-scale as a COG game? Dunno. I might just make one for nonprofit, just host it here and work on it in between my work on Memoria. Who knows.
I mean I don’t think CoG games are that small. Especially if they contained something from pop culture. Imagine that movie comes out and people start searching “slender man” in the app store and find your game.
But yeah, it’s definitely copyrighted, and by some third party “unknown.” That’s bogus to me. You should know who owns what.
Well when I said small scale, I meant money-making wise. It’s anywhere from $1 to $4 at most, normally, unless you provide a really big story or something, or have a long-going series like Zombie Exodus. That’s all I meant by ‘small’.
But weird. If its a third party ‘unknown’, who’s to say the copyright is even legit. I dunno. But he took a lot of shit from Germanic folklore for Slender so I don’t think Victor can take all the credit for Slender Man. Plus, while I understand why he did it in a way, its still a dick move when so many people like him and want to make stuff of him without having to worry about some legal bullshit.
@MutonElite Renaming it doesn’t change the concept or the basis of the character, it’d still be in violation of copyright. The name of the ‘Slender Man’ movie (and I know there’s another movie that was made with a very heavy basis on Slendy, even though the directors denied it) called The Tall Man. Some people say there’s little to no correlation, but I think the specifics, small in number as they are, are enough. The villain kidnaps/abducts children, is very tall, you can’t see his face, and he’s based off of an “urban legend”. Hmmm.
There was another movie too called Sinister that drew from it as well, in a different light.
But in all honesty, despite his major contributions to the Slender Man mythos and being hailed as the ‘creator’, I don’t think that title or the copyright really belongs to him. It belongs to everyone, and to history/folklore. But pfah.
@CitizenShawn I think copyright is perfectly fine, especially for artists/writers like myself who don’t want their work stolen, copied, or whatever. But only if the person can legitimately and fully claim the concept as their original property. Victor/Eric, I don’t think, can FULLY do this.
But he has the copyright now, as unfair as it is. How would one even go contacting him I wonder? Does he still use the SA forums? Now that I’ve seen all this, I have a drive to just kick that copyright in the proverbial balls. LOL.
You seriously might be able to get away with it if you stick to the Germanic folklore that he was inspired by to create Slender Man, and of course your own added qualities. Just call it something different if you can’t get his blessing to actually call it “Slender Man”. I believe his copyright is only to the name and the particular attributes he added.
However, @CitizenShawn has a good point about capitalizing on Slender Man. I’d try to get his blessing if at all possible.
It’s worth noting that Slender Man is, in fact, very nearly a duplicate of Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s Cabadath in appearance. And that they have similar behaviors, with the only significant difference between Slender as he was originally conceptualized and Cabadath being that Slender targeted children and had a far less fleshed out backstory (which, for a horror character, is probably a good thing - 6 Days A Sacrifice made Cabadath much *less* scary by attributing to him a motivation beyond “maim and kill things on July 28th”). They’re both nightmarishly tall and thin men in black suits with blank faceless white masks who prey on human beings for no discernible reason. Cabadath was even referred to as “the Tall Man” for much of Trilby’s Notes before his actual name was learned just prior to the game’s climax. All the unique details of the Slender mythos, the things that set him apart from Cabadath, were created for the ARG, the games, the indie films - things Victor Surge had nothing to do with. Victor Surge has that copyright, but make no mistake, that’s a goddamn scam because everything Victor Surge contributed to Slender is clearly derivative.
EDIT: An illustrative image:
Slender left, Cabadath right. Worth noting that the bloodstains on Cabadath are an invention of the author. They fit the character, but in Trilby’s Notes he is portrayed as purely monochrome, just like Slender.
