League Of Legends Developer Supports Fan Projects

[Earnest Cavalli]

League Of Legends Developer Supports Fan Projects

Riot Games has no problem with fans creating new projects based on League of Legends, which comes as great news to the team behind League of Fighters.

League of Legends is a very popular game. So popular in fact, that it's spawned a fan-made fighting game off-shoot aptly titled League of Fighters. We brought you the announcement of that fighter [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125866-League-Of-Legends-Spawns-Fan-Made-Fighting-Game] less than a week ago, and today we can report that the game officially has the blessing of Riot Games.

"We've been in email contact with Riot recently and they gave us a quick answer," writes one of the project's amateur developers on Instaburst.com. "Our game has been approved! As long as the game remains free to play, Riot gave us the thumbs up to continue working on League of Fighters."

"Thats right, this game is going to happen and unlike many other titles like it, this fan game isn't getting shut down any time soon."

That's great news, but what of other fan projects based on League of Legends? There's good news on that front too. Following the request by the Instaburst team, Riot Games has updated it's official "Legal Jibber Jabber [http://www.riotgames.com/legal-jibber-jabber]" page to include the following passage:

We'll start with our golden rule - you can use League of Legends IP as the basis for a fan project that you're giving away for free or that's only generating ad revenue (we'll refer to this type of free fan project as a "Project"), as long as you comply with the guidelines outlined below for using our IP (the "Guidelines"). As a matter of fact, as long as you comply with our Guidelines, we think it's great if you create awesome, free and original content for League of Legends fans.

Hooray for corporate generosity. It seems that Riot Games has taken a page from the Valve Software playbook, and are giving fans free rein to create whatever they'd like using Riot's characters just as long as they don't attempt to profit from their project. Of course, that was more or less the same set of guidelines Valve attached to the Half-Life games, and a number of modifications and fan projects based on those titles have spun off into huge franchises in their own right. Propers to the Instaburst team if they can turn League of Fighters into the next Counter Strike.

Source: Instaburst [http://instaburst.net/blog/5/13/07/16/Riot-s-Response-and-More-News]


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[Zackmeister]

Say what you will about League of Legends, Riot tends to have a decent head on their shoulders. Of late, their tendency towards being open about their development has been refreshing.

 

[Spector29]

Propers to the Instaburst team if they can turn League of Fighters into the next Counter Strike.

If they can I'll be quite shocked.

But it's great that Riot can keep up their good-guy(ish) image with stuff like this.

 

[Earnest Cavalli]

If they can I'll be quite shocked.

You and me both.

 

[Megacherv]

This part is rather worrying:

Indemnification.

Our lawyers don't want us to get sued or be put at risk by your Project. If we, or our partners or affiliates, have any kind of legal claim or other lawsuit brought against us that is related to your Project, you'll pay our legal fees and costs related to this lawsuit, including our attorney's fees, and any settlement or judgment amount that we have to pay as a result.

Especially when you have idiots/predators like Putt-Putt Golf around who sue Mojang for fans making mini-golf maps in Minecraft.

It kinda makes sense. If the lawsuit was caused by them, they'd be responsible anyway.

 

[Zelbio]

If only Hasbro was as forthcoming when it came to free-to-play-non-profit-fan-base games.
This is pretty great for the League of Fighters group.

 

[Kargathia]

This part is rather worrying:

Indemnification.

Our lawyers don't want us to get sued or be put at risk by your Project. If we, or our partners or affiliates, have any kind of legal claim or other lawsuit brought against us that is related to your Project, you'll pay our legal fees and costs related to this lawsuit, including our attorney's fees, and any settlement or judgment amount that we have to pay as a result.

Especially when you have idiots/predators like Putt-Putt Golf around who sue Mojang for fans making mini-golf maps in Minecraft.

Generally speaking, if some nutjob sues you and Riot because he thinks your project caused him to be abducted by aliens, all legal costs are put on the nutjob's tab as part of the verdict.

In grey areas it's a piece of legal boilerplate that's tough but fair. They're already making a leap of faith with allowing unsupervised messing about with their IP; setting themselves up for substantial legal costs because of it would be idiocy.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Publicity and fan involvement is money, ESPECIALLY when your company is based around a free to play game. It's a smart choice for developers to embrace this kind of thing.

If only Hasbro was as forthcoming when it came to free-to-play-non-profit-fan-base games.
This is pretty great for the League of Fighters group.

I think in that case the issue was more about the actual content. My Little Pony is a show aimed at little girls. Pony characters beating each other up isn't the image the show wants.

 

[cricket chirps]

So the idea is GREAT, and COULD be a lot of fun. But when you look at what they have shown so far....you have to be a bit more skeptical. Hope it turns out well as I enjoy fighters casually, but....not a lot of expectations right now.

 

[Akisa]

I wonder if the fighting game will be pay to win like the game it's based off of.

 

[Zelbio]

Publicity and fan involvement is money, ESPECIALLY when your company is based around a free to play game. It's a smart choice for developers to embrace this kind of thing.

If only Hasbro was as forthcoming when it came to free-to-play-non-profit-fan-base games.
This is pretty great for the League of Fighters group.

I think in that case the issue was more about the actual content. My Little Pony is a show aimed at little girls. Pony characters beating each other up isn't the image the show wants.

Hmm, yeah that's a fair point... *nods*