DC Universe Online Comic Book announced

[Trelau]

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/01/15/dcu-in-2010-what%E2%80%99s-the-next-weekly-series/

So, what do you think of that? The weekly "52" was pretty decent, then again there was a point to it (the countdown)
I'm also a little uneasy with the fact that it's suppose to set the world of DCUO as a sort of parrallel DC earth i suppose. On the one hand i really don't want video game characters joining the "normal" continuity to advertise about their game; but on the other hand i don't want to play a game where i'm in a parrallel uiverse with a fake superman wich allows the writers to come up with dumb events with "parrallel universe! we do what we want!" for an excuse.

I'm intrigued about this, but with a little anticipation to see what it will looks like

[DrMike2000]

I wouldn't worry about DC letting the characters in game act out of character. They're going to be incredibly protective about their IP in an MMO environment. Events that happen in game aren't going to be any worse than the events that happen in the comics, fingers crossed.

I think its a nice idea for introducing comic-readers to the game, and gamers to DC Comics, and I'm very happy for both to do well as I love both games and comics. City Of Heroes did OK with this when they had a decent writer on board (Mark Waid I think) - so good luck to them.

[marhawkman]

I'm hoping the story includes player characters.

[bat1987]

If only Jim Lee could draw this.

[deano_ue]

i'm still not sold on this game, i just want to find out 3 things, 1 the cost, 2 how customisable will they let your characetrs look be and 3 who owns the rights to the characters once they've been created.

sadly with a comic coming out it seems my answer to 3 has been answered

[Trelau]

The price is supposed to be that of a classic "new" game, so about 70? for the ps3 version, probably a little les for the pc version but that's still speculation; it's the only question they don't answer. then it's supposed to be like guild wars, with no monthly fee, but probably an extension every six month or so (i wonder if you can still play without the extension, and if you can skip one without skipping a whole range of quest...)
Customisation of the characters looks amazing. The base character creator is just the beginning, you're supposed to be able to fing new gear and equipment along the way (with the neat system of separating looks and numbers: you can apply the looks of an older gear you already have so that you still look the same but benefit from the improved caracteristics of the higher level equipment) Take a look at the few E3 video (the one with the clown, the angel, the ninja,...plus concept art of other thing)

Then the "rights" of the character...i'm not sure what that means. Do players in other MMO own the names and looks of their characters? that seems highly unlikely
you're not doing the real work, just assembling piece of a puzzle at random; since the piece are own by dc and sony, the result will always be theirs. you can probably copyright the name and bio of your character if you want, but the graphical part is not yours.

People interested in this should join the facebook group, they actually released a video this week were developpers answered question from their page. I hope they do this periodically, because they truly answer our questions (except the money question...they can't and probably don't know anyway)

[deano_ue]

sorry then my interest is very little. the main reason marvels mmorpg never got off the ground was they claimed the rights to any and all characters to use how they see fit and thats bull.

on the customisation front i wasn't expected something like FF but it would be nice. i would love to see my av as he truly is meant to look rather then a close as i can

[Trelau]

so, there's actually MMORPG out there where they give you the rights to your characters?   i really really don't believe it. that's suicidal from any point of view. you could sue the compagny for showing a screenshot with your character in the background. or for creating a npc with part of your costum "design"
of course i understand that you don't want dc to take your character and make him a comic book sencondary villain or something. then again...why would they do it?
they said in an early interview that they were throwing idea like maybe holding a contest to have one player appear in the tie in comic book. so you'd still have to participate.
if you really are not gonna play because you're afraid they'll stole your design...it's paranoia. they just do it so that nobody will copyright their character, because it would open sony and dc to a LOT of lawsuit if by accident they use the same glove or boots for one of their official npc. that's all. they're not trying to steal your ideas. they pay enough people to come up with design, they really don't need to steal yours. except maybe if your design is incredibly cool and you get thousands of people to ask for a comic book just about him on their forum. then it would become a possible money-making design, so they'd probably use it; but short of that, i really don't think you need to worry about your design being "stolen" from you.


for the customisation, id say it has as much potential as champion online, maybe more; it's hard to tell as long as we don't know how many element are available to "dress" your character right now.

[DrMike2000]

Pretty much any MMO will say in the EULA that any character you create belongs to them. They do this primarily to prevent you from counter-suing if your character becomes famous.

Say I make King Zero in City of Heroes, then go write a comic about him, and it becomes a massive hit. Can I, or my publishers, or anyone else associated with the character, then turn around and take action against NCSoft, just like Marvel did when they saw Hulk and Wolverine clones?

The best way to deal with this of course, is to do what Constantine did in the movie, where he sold his soul to three separate demons

King Zero, for example, belongs to Ratbag Games (my employers at the time, whose contract stated that they owned any ideas outside of work that I came up with), Irrational Games (since he appeared in a FF mod) and NCSoft (since I made him in City of Heroes once). Oh, and Cryptic because certain Mr. B. Grey has played him in Champions.

None of these parties would ever try to claim ownership (I think...) but it means I can't come up with any trumped up charges against them for "using" my character.