[WORKSHOP COPYRIGHT GUIDE] How to defend your mode from copying! 🛡

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That you suggested already exist i guess.

Already exist much sites on which you can see authors of the mode, descriprions of the mode and searching popularity. As i understood you just want that platform inside the Overwatch, so you want Blizzard make something like that, maybe special block on site or in-game block of it.

Yes, I was requesting a system similar to Little Big Planet or the like, not 3rd party forums and such. Few of the protections and features I listed are very possible without official blizzard support.

No matter how well a 3rd party solution works, it won’t stop the protection fear unless done 1st party. IMO

But what you want from Blizzard in this case then? That they will make some system where authors can register own modes? And how you imagine it? It will be the in-game block or it will be some block on site of Blizzard or what?

It would simply re-purpose the game browser, and current systems as much as possible. Publish/Unpublish could easily be a button in the game settings menus. Etc… The specifics to implementation aren’t ours to dictate, but that’s how I image it.

That is, similar browser to the current with more filtering options, showing published games, not hosted (though showing information about any ongoing matches is still nice). Showing an icon next to the game in the presets page could easily show whether you’ve published it or not… etc…

So as i understood you want to some changes of custom games browser and want to integrate there some features that not exist now, like showing who published the author etc.

But a simple question, whats wrong with suggest i already said here? Why just not show the creator of mode and developer of mode?

Go read my thread… I’ve said all this…,.

Dud i already read completely your article but actually what you suggest many people already did, so ALL what you said you already can do on sites like this

So Blizzard will not make the thing that already exist and it so effective.

hey, thanks for the tips.

I was thinking of patenting my workshop somewhere since i don’t have reddit account and i don’t publish content on youtube.

As much as i like to share my games, i don’t want people to claim it as their own, especially i have a gamemode that i had been working since Day 1 of workshop and it’s still WIP currently (Can’t change things now because PTR is down). Left a few things to rectify actually, as i have already done some public test runs.

I tried publishing another of my workshop game (already playable) on another website once in overwatchmodding.com, but they never published my game and i believed they deemed it too buggy (According to their update), even though the bugs are mostly all fixed.

So i might end up publishing on the website overwatchcustom.games you suggest instead. But since it requires log in via battle.net, is it safe to use?

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Its not me actually :smiley: . I never used sites like this, i prefer to make a youtube video instead using some sites, if you skilled in videomontage you can try to do this.

So or you can just the publish your mode on the forum, it also will be i guess your author mark.

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Yes. It’s even safer than traditional nickname/password systems, since they don’t store them on their server.

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To be honest, I think it’s time for blizzard to step in and give people options for protecting against people copying. If people are going through all this trouble, which in the end can be defeated anyway, why not just give the people what they want.

A long time ago, the first week I started work on my boss room, someone asked who I copied it from, and when I told him I was the one who made it, he called me a liar. Someone had to make it, though, right?

I was so infuriated, I posted a private youtube video of it, that is uploaded at the same time I say I made it. July 2017. I don’t remember the exact date, but I know it’s the same day I took a looong break from competitive.

I have another advantage, too. Most people know it’s my boss room, because it’s kinda what I’m known for.

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Maybe settings code should just include mandatory “made by” string, and “modified by” if it was modified? I don’t really want copyflickery to get in OW.

Maybe you are right. Players already suggested here just to do indelible mark of the developer, which show in description who is the real developer of mode, but i dont see in the privacy of copying something wrong.

Its ez to do, because same system exist in match joining and fix this problem.

This is the closest Overwatch will get to a modding community and already people are just in it for self-glorification instead of bettering the overall community with the experiences. Why would you not want share your creation so others can learn?

Shame.

Shame for who you mean in this situation? Shame for players who copy other modes and pass it as own? Or for player who just posted about some systems of protection of your modes?

I dont think i deserve shame of community only for this post. :frowning_face:

You clearly made no mode with 100+ rules yet. Sure, if I hack a mode with 4 simple rules in like 10 minutes, I dont care if someone copies it and claims as own. But if I work for weeks on it with some creative or genius solutions to some problems/bugs in it, I definitely want credit for my work.

Its a great feeling when you make your own mode based on an idea noone had before (in Overwatch workshop of course) and people join it and have fun and tell you “Did you make this mode yourself? Its a really good idea”.

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For the first time I thought same “my mods, only mine” but later I saw it is not really that I want to. So I changed my mind and opened it to all… “Please use, learn and enjoy”. Now I feel much better when I see my game mods are full of players and they have a fun. Someone made a code I had a chance to learn from so I pay same way to that developer by sharing my code… My topic is here and trust me there is nothing to loose - if I did something nice once I am for sure can do better. (IMHO’nd’WTR)

I actually agree, but what will be if you spent about 2 weeks + on development mode with 100+ rules and someone just stealed it from you and passed in description that he developed this mode?

What do you feel in this moment? When you worked so much and some guy who paid zero efforts just pass the mode as own? :persevere:

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I would like to see some steps from Blizzard. I want to share my mod but to be able to restrict copying of it. So I would like to see:

  • A new field: “Author” near mode description.

  • A new field: “Based on mode by” under “Author” field. This field should not be editable. “Based on mode by” field should contain list of all mode authors that created the original modes on which the current mode is based. The very first Author should be at the top of the field and all successors should follow. The track of authors for “Based on mode by” field should be done by client automatically when the Import code function is used (and the next item helps to solve the situations when the user tries to copy rules from imported mode into the newly created mode without using Import).

  • Simple checkbox inside the rule: “Visible to author only”. So the shared code could be used by anyone using import code command but if the battletag of the user who imports the code does not match the rule author battletag those workshop rules are hidden from editor (and show “Some rules are copyright hidden” placeholder). And those should be stacked i.e. some rules maybe created by one author and some rules maybe added later after import code by another author.

So in general we should keep original mode author reference and should be able to hide our script rules so people could not just copy steal rules without using import code command.

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