A possible 'Unofficial' future of SW CCG

This could be a possible future for the Decipher compatible, 'Unofficial', created by the fans and players, SW CCG game...

Keep in mind however that I don't play the game, so I don't know what the dynamics or game mechanics are or what little icons would or would not go on the card... I also haven't spoken to anyone inside Decipher to see if you could even use the card layouts as templates for 'unofficial' cards, gonna email em in a minute...

But basically you the players could create and debate your own cards, locations, events, interrupts, etc, and when you get a template layout, I'm sure there are other artists like myself who wouldn't mind contributing...

The image depicted here is not a completed image, but was the closest thing that I had to a location I could use as an example... once the cards are complete that could be posted somewhere, either on an artist's site or maybe even somewhere around TF.N, dunno about that tho... then you could download the images at no cost and print them out on regular paper or even photo paper and voila, an 'unofficial' extension to the CCG you love...

This is of course just a pitch so that maybe those of you who play the game won't begin to feel that just because some other company is now making a game incompatible to yours, that your game is going to die out or become worthless...

a game only ceases to be fun when you stop playing it...

Darksteps...

Here's the card mock-up that I threw together in about 3 minutes...

Padme Quarters Mock-up Card

 

I made a bunch of personalized cards including me, my friends and some places and event we were in. I've pretty much have been making the "Buzz Ryan expansion set".
I got a bunch of them posted on my site.
Buzz

 

I like the idea, the problem is, getting your friends to agree to let you use those cards, etc.

 

I let my friends know what I am up to when I do it. It could, and most likely, an ego driven mechanism that caused me to make my own cards. I like to think of it as a manifestation of my geekness. I read, watch, or play the Star Wars mythos and I put myself in that environ. It's not a character I created or anything like that. It is me. My name. My blood type. Me.
That's why I like my personalized SWCCG.
I am working on the solitare rules, and I have them printed on business cards so I have them in my wallet all the time.
I know this whole thing has deviated from the original topic.... sorry... I should get out more often.
Buzz

 

So, would cards like the above mentioned Padme Quarters Mock-up Card be legal to create and post openly on websites for people to use?

 

I think they would still be illegal, mainly because of the infringement on Star Wars, but as you see, Lucas is very forgiving in that sense, unless you make money.

 

Anything you do that does not have the written consent of Lucas Films and indicia is technically illegal. Does that stop costumers and fanfic and film makers .
No.
Point is if you are turning a profit or make Lucas Films and indicia look bad enough to the point where they will loss capital then you will bring up potential litigation.
Hasn't stopped me.
Buzz

 

Pretty much Lucas has said that if you don't make money off of it, shouldn't be a problem

 

well, I thought I stated this in the original post... FREE... I seek to make no money off this if indeed there's enough response from the Classic SW CCG community, however, it would help my portfolio towards acquiring another art related career...

Also, the only content that would be used in the cards would have to be CGI, since it would definitely be illegal to use movie stills or frames since those are licensed exclusively to the movie releases and are not to be used in any other manner than viewed on tape or dvd, unless licensed in whatever form they're being used...

but, since few have responded, I'm gonna wait... see what happens...

Darksteps...

 

I don't want to rain on your parade, but this idea isn't going to work. Whether or not you make money off of it is irrelevant. The card template you're using is Decipher's intellectual property. The names you're using (such as "Padme") are the intellectual property of Lucasfilm. The images you create are images of Lucasfilm intellectual property. At the very least you would need Decipher's and Lucasfilm's permission to do this.

If you are making these "dream cards" for private use, no problem. But if you try to DISTRIBUTE these, you COULD get sued. Even if you personally make no money off of it, the fact is your "dream card" would be competing with the OFFICIAL card game licensed by Lucasfilm, and that's just one reason why they would want to shut you down.

There's a thread on this subject in the SW:CCG "Everything Else" board on decipher.com. You should check it out.

 

Although I wasn't a big fan of the actual SWCCG, what I would do is get an "elite" group of players to iron out the details of a fan-based expansion set(s), to which any player who agree to play with them would continue playing with.

if it's popular enough, you might have organized tournaments using those "universal" fan-made sets.

Of course you'd need to find a group of really keen dream card makers to actually make them realistic. Hmmmm!

 

If this ever was to occur I nominate Red 84 right away. I've seen his cards for a few years and they are great.

 

Sorry, I meant the "special announcement" message board at:

Special Message Board

 

Well, actually, I emailed the Art Dept Lead of Decipher, and he said he would pose the question I had to Warren and the legal department, about using their intellectual property if this did go forward... however, the names and places depicted in the cards, altho they are the intellectual properties of LFL they are public properties, meaning that anyone can do art in reference to them without a license... hence all the SW artists over the net...

Even tho LFL owns the license for SW properties, when I was contracting for Decipher, they had to acquire the license from me to use my art, even tho my contracts were of SW content... and to some degree or another, this is nothing more than a form of non-privatized artwork...

Darksteps...

 

after Spellfire folded a group of fan got permission to create fan expansions for it that could be downloaded via PDF, printed on sticker paper and attached to crappy useless cards so they can be played.
This may be a possibility for the CCG that is being discontinued.

 

I feel like an idiot for my last post. Even if our game takes off aren't we still just giving the cards to each other anyway? Where is the commercial value in that.
Has anyone started looking into the game mechanics or anything?

 

Actually, I was gonna let the die-hards do that stuff since I don't play any CCG's, and when they come up with card concepts that are agreed upon(most likely by that committee(unofficially of course)), then other artists or I could do the artwork for the cards, post them to some website, one that could be universally accessed by SWCCG fans, and DL the cards, print em out and use em...

Altho I dunno about sticker paper... get some matte paper and arrange them so that several will be printed on a single sheet of paper and print them on that, similar texture as the cards with really good print quality...

Darksteps...

 

I actually did that at Kinko's quite a few times (my printer isn't exactly top-notch). The quality of the texture of Kinko's color printing paper is very similar.

But it turns out Decipher's cards were much cheaper

Unless you've got enough prescence of mind to switch to the larger-size paper

 

I used to work at Radio Shack, and they actually have both photo and matte paper... thing is, since most people don't know that, they sell very little of it and in most cases will put the previous year's stock on clearence and you can get it cheap...

Darksteps...