Your Shikai power is almost identical to the power of Shinji Hirako from bleach canon, and we don't allow people to take their release powers from bleach canon.
Is this actually written down somewhere for people to see or is this another one of those "it's a rule because I say it is" things that we see so often around here?
Just asking.
Last Edit: Dec 27, 2015 17:30:13 GMT -5 by Consequence
Robert discussed it with me before he said anything in that thread, so not so much on the "Rule because I say it is". So far as I know we don't encourage taking powers directly from canon, although powers can certainly be inspired by it. But straight rips are, as far as I know, not allowed.
The stance on that can absolutely be discussed so far as I'm concerned.
Is this actually written down somewhere for people to see
because if it isn't, it can't really be enforced as such and it's awfully rude to deny someone's power without proper explanation or referring to the rule in question
It seemed to me to be a little on the nose to lift a power straight from canon, and I asked another member of the team who said we don't allow them, so I deferred to precedent. I'm not certain if it's written down anywhere or not, though it should be if the latter precedent isn't something we were mistaken on. (Though even if we were, I personally am not a fan of such direct power lifting.)
Still, might as well get peoples opinions on this since we're here.
We discourage faceclaims from Bleach, Naruto, and Dragon Ball Z due to their popularity (and that we’re based on Bleach).
It seems very strange to me to disallow powers, particularly when boiled down to their purest form. With an author-original implementation (Zanpakutō spirit, name, etc.) there shouldn't be a problem.
It would be in poor taste to give a Shinigami Senbonzakura, but not to give the same Shinigami a Zanpakutō with a different name that has its blade scatter into a thousand smaller, telekinetically wielded blades.
For some of the more ridiculous powers from our source material, we say no because of what the power does, not because it's from Bleach.
Last Edit: Dec 26, 2015 3:07:53 GMT -5 by Knowledge
You know, as much as I understand and agree with the reasons behind that ruling, I'm going to play devil's advocate here and ask WHY it is even a rule (official or otherwise) in the first place.
Now don't get me wrong, I think cribbing a canon character's power is about as lazy, unimaginative, and down right stupid decision as one can make when making an app, but I have to wonder: just how far away from a canon power does one have to be for it to be considered "inspired by" rather than outright copying? And for that matter, why is it even important to keep people from using canon abilities in the first place? I get that we don't want ten billion Ichigo clones running around, but if a person wants to make a character whose Shikai is obviously an expy of, say, Toshiro's, what exactly is wrong with saying "sure, go ahead" to that?
I mean, I still think its a horrible idea to do so, but the fact that we have this kind of weird, vague ruling that isn't even really a rule is just... Nuts, yah know? Especially when the whole premise of BG is allowing people creative freedom to write their own stories, even as they learn to weave other perspectives into the narrative thy have in mind. I don't know, it just sit right with me, intellectually speaking.
Anyways, that's my three cents on that. Imma go chug another Monster now.
It seems very strange to me to disallow powers, particularly when boiled down to their purest form. With an author-original implementation (Zanpakutō spirit, name, etc.) there shouldn't be a problem.
It would be in poor taste to give a Shinigami Senbonzakura, but not to give the same Shinigami a Zanpakutō with a different name that has its blade scatter into a thousand smaller, telekinetically wielded blades.
For some of the more ridiculous powers from our source material, we say no because of what the power does, not because it's from Bleach.
I think the unofficial/unspoken rule was because of so many of the Ichigo wannabes/Toushiro/Byakyua/Cool BAMF Bleach Characer of the Week attempts, but that could just be theory on my end.
It's one thing if you're taking the basic idea of a power and rework it to make it your own, but it's another when you're just deliberately ripping it line for line/move by move from canon because it's cool looking and you think you can go OP as fuck with it. (Which, to be fair, has its own safeguards built into our system and will come back and bite someone in the ass quite quickly.)
I can see the pros and cons to both-- if it's similar but not identical to, I'm personally cool with it. If it's a deliberate rip, I'm side eyeing.
one of those rules that aren't really rules at all, then
gotcha
as it happens we have rules in place to safeguard against plagiarism and I would argue that a straight rip of an entire release is definitely covered by this, but taking the root power and applying it conceptually to your own character with a facelift is not, moreso when you factor in how often people take root powers from other media and insert them into their characters without anyone batting an eye.
It's not a Bleach-specific plagiarism rule, you see
what a cool turn of events, it appears we do in fact have rules that are doing their job just fine but the issue at hand isn't covered by nor needs covering by any such regulations
Last Edit: Dec 26, 2015 3:31:56 GMT -5 by Knowledge
I think, in general, we all want to avoid a place where there are characters being app'd that are mostly copies of powers already demonstrated on the series. For instance, we don't typically want to approve characters with strange blades that make whatever they strike heavier. Specific powers like that should probably deviate from canon. Even just adding a new wrinkle to that power- say, making something either heavier or lighter depending on the cut- would be enough.
For some of those powers it's a bit harder to do though. We can't exactly shut down 'stereotypical fire Zanpakuto' just because Yamamoto had one, although I would kek mightily if someone tried to copy his bankai (and not just because it's one of those that, as Kyou pointed out, would need to be barred just based on sheer OP). Even Ichigo's "I make a big ass Wave Motion Cannon come out of my sword" can't really be barred- but I am going to facepalm mightily if they copy the look as well as the effect.
In general, powers are also generally better when made more personal to the character in question. Not that that's always true, but it does help. Copying a power wholesale tends to lack a certain something until your own flair is put on it. That's not an actual defensible position though when it comes to providing judgment on this in the end, just a personal viewpoint.
But the viewpoint here is good, thank you Jason and Kyou. So let's get a few more people to weigh in, wait for the day crew of staff to wake up and pop their opinions in as well, and get this cleared up.
Post by Shun Minamoto on Dec 26, 2015 10:02:16 GMT -5
I wouldn't bar it outright.
Only direct rips of an entire set would, I say, fall under plagiarism. Otherwise, every power ever is plagiarism because I guarantee you it's been done before.
So, as far as I'm concerned, there's no issue here.
Post by Miyuki Wakahisa on Dec 26, 2015 11:28:10 GMT -5
I leave BG for the better part of a day. I swear, it's like running a daycare here.
Banning powers because they're similar, or function a lot like a power from BG (or any other source material), should never ever be stopped or banned unless it falls under our plagiarizing rules or the entire race specific section is a straight rip from BG (such as sword name, release phrase, inner spirit/world, and power all being from the same source material). Since, you know, the latter is basically plagiarism no matter how you look at it.
We can't say "You see, I understand that we're a Bleach setting and, as such, you're going to get a lot of inspiration from the source material, but you can't actually use anything power related from the source material." But we can certainly say "You might wanna make your power a bit more specific to your character and stray away from using the same power as another ___ canon character."
As for unspoken rules, I was pretty sure we were done with that. Isn't that what this five month long rules rewrite project was about?
Alright, we've had an opportunity to get feedback both from both staff and parts of the community.
Directly copying a power in totality (Zanpakuto Spirit, appearance, name, etc) gets stopped under plagiarism. Overpowered bullshit (AIZEN!!!!!) is stopped under other rules. Otherwise taking a power from canon is fine- it's unfair to restrict a set of powers that may perfectly fit a character just because it was already used in canon. As Bri said though, powers that don't fit...well, they don't get as good of a grade anyhow, so that's also covered.
Post by Fulfillment on Dec 27, 2015 17:00:44 GMT -5
Also, because his name was brought into this, I feel like mentioning he didn't do what was previously talked about. I.E. ripping the power straight from another character. I know what he was basing the power off of, and it predates that whole Bleach character.
Which is totally understandable! His name was brought up solely because he was obviously affected by this, but the situation here (basing a power on another universe, bring unpleasantly surprised when it's part of Bleach Canon) is part of why the decision was made as it was.