The disclaimer about parody games being...well...parodies...IS ACTUALLY USEFUL?!?!

[Jai235]

So, story time:

While I was writing the finishing dialogues of the beta for my game, I was writing the classic: "This is a parody game. All the original characters belong to..." and while I was doing that I found myself thinking: "Is this really necessary? If someone is playing my game, which is a fangame of a pre-existing IP, it goes without saying that they know the original product, right?"

And that exact same day, by accident, I found out that witch hunter is a parody of a cartoon called W.I.T.C.H.
I had absolutely no idea of that.

So yeah, I would have put the disclaimer anyway, but it was still an interesting life lesson I guess. I wonder if I am the only one who found himself in a situation like that

 

[qwoppe]

I never would have attempted to watch The Loud House or MLAATR if it wasn't for all the horniness directed at them by /co/ and /F95Z/. Wouldn't say either of them are a favorite, but both definitely had novel and therefore interesting things to offer, at least to me. Things definitely flow that way sometimes, when you live the life of an ostensibly-cultured degenerate.

So go ahead and put in that disclaimer, brother, and one day it'll probably lead someone to discover a cool new toon to watch.

 

[anne O'nymous]

So yeah, I would have put the disclaimer anyway, but it was still an interesting life lesson I guess. I wonder if I am the only one who found himself in a situation like that

You are far to be the only one to be in that situation, and it's also not the reason why the disclaimer exist...


Strictly speaking, the disclaimer don't have an effective legal value. But it show that you did your best to respect the right owner(s), by attributing the property of what they own instead of letting the public believe that it's your creation, and that your intent was explicitly to make a parody, and not to extend the universe through a prequel or a sequel. This with the hope that it will appease the IP right owner(s), and also, if the worse happen, to not aggravate your case when you'll be facing a judge.

 

[nedo_021]

I guess it helps a bit, but no matter what if anything porn related with existing IPs gains too much traction it usually comes with a bunch of people if not the IP owners themselves trying to get it nuked no matter what.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

So, story time:

While I was writing the finishing dialogues of the beta for my game, I was writing the classic: "This is a parody game. All the original characters belong to..." and while I was doing that I found myself thinking: "Is this really necessary? If someone is playing my game, which is a fangame of a pre-existing IP, it goes without saying that they know the original product, right?"

Obviously no. I didn't even know Cummy Friends is based on an existing property, because I wasn't watching young kids' television at the time when it was airing and it's not internationally popular enough that I would recognize it like e.g. The Last Airbender. Although I did suspect it was based on something, because almost no devs would come up with this many unique character designs.

 

[Hagatagar]

I can't remember if I've ever seen a western adult/porn game which I didn't notice early on that it was a parody game.
There is always something about them that makes it noticeable, like how the characters look, how they are written/behave, the sheer number of (sometimes very similar) characters, often the game assumes the player have knowledge about certain things (like back stories or previous events) that neither happened in the game nor were ever mentioned before.

 

[anne O'nymous]

I can't remember if I've ever seen a western adult/porn game which I didn't notice early on that it was a parody game.

Do this also apply to parody game of games ? Like the few Dating my Daughter sequels and the (too many) Big Brother clones ?

 

[Hagatagar]

Do this also apply to parody game of games ? Like the few Dating my Daughter sequels and the (too many) Big Brother clones ?

Well, the titles of many of those games contain (parts of the) original in it or in it's description, or even use the same model/design of the characters... that makes it kinda hard to miss.

But many VNs are already so similar to each other, they could all be parodies or copies anyway, even if they are their own thing.

So no, apart from the obvious ones, they usually feel more like typical overused tropes.

 

[Saltyneeds]

In the context of US law, it also becomes slightly helpful to state that you’re parodying something for IP reasons if you want to make money on it. Courts are super subjective about IP due to the US’s common law, so you may be able to protect yourself if you directly state the characters you’re using are a parody.