ART AND YOU

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Lately we've been sad and not a little angry to notice that there have been instances of people adding art to their game pages but not crediting the creators for that art. As many of you know, there are a lot of artists in the RM community and it not only shows disrespect for them and the content they create for both their own games and others, but also for artists in general.

This is going to stop as of now.

Frankly, we shouldn't need this rule - it's been unspoken in the community for many, many years but it seems it needs to be said straight out.

Taking art without giving credit is not on and if you are found guilty of this you will be either warned or banned depending on the circumstances.

- Any art on game pages that are not created by yourself should have at the least the name of the creator added to the description (if an image) or in a sub-text/comment (if on a page). A link isn't required but adding one would be nice.

- If we notice art that has not been credited, staff will give a warning or banning depending on whether you comply to the rules/have a reason for the lack of credit/prove stubborn.

- It's very easy to find the credit for a piece of art. Open a Google page, go to images, then drag/drop the image itself into the search bar and look for the original instance of that image.

- If we find anyone claiming to have created a piece and find out it's not theirs, banning and the removal of the game page will occur. We take stealing seriously.

- This does not affect what is in your game, except that we highly recommend keeping a read me file with all credits within.

- This does not affect rips, but theft of indie tiles/work/etc has always been looked down on in the community and this has not changed. We will still ban any person found stealing art/maps/music/resources that were created especially for a game.

- This doesn't affect art made for your game by someone else, but frankly, you should be giving thanks via credits (at the least!) to that wonderful someone who made you your awesome shit anyway.

We will allow a grace period before stamping down on this issue, but consider this the final warning.

Content creators, whether they be artists or musicians, deserve to have their goods - and yes, they are GOODS - treated with the same respect you'd treat each others' games. You do not steal peoples' characters. You don't steal their stories. You don't steal their games and repackage it as your own. So enough is enough.
A rip is a rip, regardless of whether or not it was from an indie or commercial project. Don't get me wrong, I support the indie devs moreso, so this is a huge step in the right direction, and one I'm very happy to hear about.

It's just a shame that the community at large puts you guys in a position where you have to be hypocritical about content theft or face losing like 80% of all the content on the site.
I'm more or less on the same side as Pizza, regarding rips. But I'm still glad to see this message.
Everyone should always be credited for their work, whether they're an artist, musician, programmer--and whether they are on your team or not. It's not any tremendous effort to do that for them, and frankly it's just common courtesy.
Sailerius
did someone say angels
3214
It's a good step in the right direction. I for one look forward to the day when we finally grow up enough to treat all theft of game assets, indie or otherwise, with the same severity that the rest of the gamedev world does.
Uh... the same severity as the rest of the world? Most people download music and stuff without regarding it as a very serious crime.
I think he means that someday people will treat theft of Chrono Trigger rips with the same severity as stealing a Picasso or robbing a bank account.
Looks okay to me. I always hate when people steal my art. If they want art, ask for it, credit or they can make their own! (òAó)9
Happy
Devil's in the details
5367
Welp. All my past games consists of a huge amount of edited rips. Here's hoping I won't get banned. I support the idea of giving a credit to the artists however, though the rule might be somewhat impossible to apply to past submissions.

Edit: Woop, I should've read all of it before replying.
Gibmaker
I hate RPG Maker because of what it has done to me
9274
I've always felt that you can get away with stealing assets from "big" games such as Chrono Trigger, because they "won't care" since we're making games "just for fun" and won't be profiting. But taking a picture off of deviantart and using it without permission is bad because the artist would "care".

It's touchy because RM games are practically built on plundering assets from other places. That's half the fun. "This music is awesome! I'm putting it in my game."
Let me just say one thing about rips - we allow them for many reasons.
- Most of the time, it's easy to tell where they come from.
- It's a lot easier to compile a set of graphics that fit a game (say, for fangames) than it is it create from scratch.
- The graphics that are used are usually from old games that no longer have sales. SNES era games suit RM engines best, hence they're the ones that are ripped the most. The Big Names aren't making sales, it's easy to know where they come from and they're old graphics. The creators don't care about them, and if we did receive notice to take a game down because it infringes on the rights of a company, we would.
- The games they're used in aren't commercial. If someone tried to sell a game with rips, they would be pulled up right away and told straight out 'NO'.
- Credit should be given to the company/creator in the game anyway, no matter if it's from Square for some music, or creator x of DevArt for a bust.
Sailerius
did someone say angels
3214
That doesn't make it legal.
...neither is using 2k/3 but we still support it. We're not debating legality.

We're talking about the new site rule. The only reason I even mentioned rips was so people wouldn't start questioning about whether in-game content and rips count. As far as this rule goes, no, they don't. Not on game pages at least.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
I think the egotisticalness of demanding that you be ~credited~ for something as trivial as a single piece of art is a cancer that needs to be stomped out. I am tempted to remove the credits from everything in my games just to spite you for being so petty. This policy will destroy the site.

If something makes a game better, it doesn't matter if its yours or not. Designers and artists are just tools to be used as needed to improve games. Games are what matter, and nothing else.

If something that you created makes someone else's game better, and you refuse to let them use it without crediting you, you deserve to die.
User was warned for this post
author=LockeZ
I think the egotisticalness of demanding that you be ~credited~ for something as trivial as a single piece of art is a cancer that needs to be stomped out. I am tempted to remove the credits from everything in my games just to spite you for being so petty. This policy will destroy the site.

If something makes a game better, it doesn't matter if its yours or not. Designers and artists are just tools to be used as needed to improve games. Games are what matter, and nothing else.

If something that you created makes someone else's game better, and you refuse to let them use it without crediting you, you deserve to die.

No worries, if the arduous task of crediting your assets is too much the titans of gammak will just go galt and without them society at RMN will collapse into total anarchy!
Don't worry, LockeZ, we'll all die one day. =) Now go take your meds... don't you remember what happened the last time you argued this?
_
Yeah, this 'rule' has always been there, but I'm glad it's being further enforced (Now, if only you people cared to enforce the no-shitty-blogs rule). But how far are you willing to take this? Are mods going to make sure that permission was actually granted to use all resources? Or is ok to keep lifting stuff from Goggle Images as long as we associate a name to it? =P
I am going to go with the Google Images thing.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
This is a game design site; making games is the reason the site exists. Disregarding my personal feelings, anything you do that is at the expense of the games is damaging to the site. Adding credits doesn't improve the games, it only aids the selfish artists. If you want to encourage people to credit the artists that is fine, but the moment you start disallowing game design because people don't do this, you have gone too far. You are killing a game that hundreds or thousands of people will enjoy just because one artist is being selfish.
Lol, what you're saying amounts to it being okay for me to download your game and re-upload it as my own. Unless of course you're just a selfish game maker.

Also "If something makes a game better it doesn't matter if it's yours or not" - is the most ludicrous thing I've heard in a while.
author=LockeZ
I think the egotisticalness of demanding that you be ~credited~ for something as trivial as a single piece of art is a cancer that needs to be stomped out. I am tempted to remove the credits from everything in my games just to spite you for being so petty. This policy will destroy the site.

If something makes a game better, it doesn't matter if its yours or not. Designers and artists are just tools to be used as needed to improve games. Games are what matter, and nothing else.

If something that you created makes someone else's game better, and you refuse to let them use it without crediting you, you deserve to die.

I can't even put to words how immensely entitled and childish this perspective is. if someone creates something, the very least they deserve is to have their role acknowledged. there is absolutely nothing that entitles you to use someone else's work without their consent. there is no manifest destiny or heavenly mandate or whatever to justify your own denial of a creator's rights -- the creation of your game is not some ineffable godly work that supersedes all else. it's a goddamn video game, and you're a regular human being. respect other human beings.

how do you, being a creator yourself, rationalize this approach of yours? I don't doubt that you would be raising all kinds of alarms if someone took a game you made, filed your name off, and started using it for their own purposes.

If something that you created makes someone else's game better, and you refuse to let them use it without crediting you, you deserve to die.

I'm quoting this again just to emphasize how fundamentally self-serving this garbage-trash philosophy is. if an artist or a musician or a programmer or what-have-you creates something, and some rpg maker dilettante decides to use it without giving credit, the fault doesn't lie with the creator for 'asking too much' or whatever the hell else you wanna call it. the fault (and the egoism) are the game maker's, for being so unwilling to acknowledge and respect the asset creator's basic rights.

it doesn't matter if a hundred, a thousand, or even a thousand thousand slimy things love the game. a creator's rights to their own work are fundamental, and they can't be dismissed just because you're up your own ass in such a major way.
Artists and musicians should be grateful that I chose their material to be in my magnus opus, game of games, the modern Citizen Kane, the video game version of The Mona Lisa: Abe's Awesome Adventure! Don't worry about being credited, knowing people experienced Abe's Awesome Adventure, and subsequently experienced your work, is what I decided you'll get. I might even think of you and your hard work and unwitting sacrifice!


Wait, they want to be acknowledge in some form? B-b-b-b-but my videogames



e: Mawk you are my A+ poster
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