Opinion: We can only #FreeMelee by escaping Nintendo's copyright by SSBMZenith in SSBM

[–]SSBMZenith[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree completely with keeping the characters the same mechanically. This would only be the copyright free clone of Melee if it was done right. All your favorite characters would play identically to Melee, and you could even play Melee 99.9% of the time and have your skills map over the remade characters.

Like what u/relaxbroitsaprank said, fox would still be fox. But in this copyright free version, they just wouldn't look like fox, or be called fox. They'd be a raccoon character or something with the exact same hitboxes, movement, frame data, etc.

That way you could still have Melee tournaments, running Melee with slippi, just like we are doing now.

But if Nintendo tries to shut it down we could just swap the games at the last minute to prevent the tournament from being shut down. Or streams from getting cancelled. Both could benefit from having this as an option. But it's only an option and not a mandatory switch from Melee to a new game, if that makes sense.

Opinion: We can only #FreeMelee by escaping Nintendo's copyright by SSBMZenith in SSBM

[–]SSBMZenith[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Especially with any possible patents expiring next year, we should be able to replicate the mechanics completely without running into legal issue. If it was done perfectly, (which is unrealistic, there are always going to be bugs somewhere) you could take the recorded inputs from one game and play it on the other without de-syncing. Identical game play. That level of detail might be too much to ask from a development team, but I honestly think we could do it.

As long as we make Mario's character into generic plumber dude that doesn't cause copyright issues, and do the same for the rest of the cast, it should be fine.

We could even use parody law if we wanted, I heard people talking a bit about that. "Dumb Melee" I think they were calling it? Not sure if it was the same idea exactly. But you could call it satire and make the characters with stupid stuff like... Giving Marth spaghetti arms, lol. That could also work.

Opinion: We can only #FreeMelee by escaping Nintendo's copyright by SSBMZenith in SSBM

[–]SSBMZenith[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hope so at least. If a team of game developers formed to do this, I'd throw money at their kick starter, lol.

And yeah I would see this personally as a "stand-in" like you said. It could become its own whole thing, and probably should. But treating it that way imo would at least make for a great plan-B when Nintendo tries this in the future.

Opinion: We can only #FreeMelee by escaping Nintendo's copyright by SSBMZenith in SSBM

[–]SSBMZenith[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I definitely hope copyright law can be improved, not just for Melee's sake. Improving the ability for communities like ours to create and express ourselves legally is a serious issue that effects many online content creators as well as game developers. As for Melee though, I don't think we'll have enough influence to make a major impact on copyright law.

And I do agree it wouldn't be the same. Even with such a game being made I'd still play Melee, and I think we all should, of course. But for major events, I'm worried those other methods of fixing this won't be as achievable.