1. From the standpoint of law, do you HAVE to change the name? What's the worst thing that can happen from the LAW standpoint?
Since "Tremulous 2" is a commercial project, you are presumably not wanting to adhere to said licensing terms and must contact all copyright owners to gain their permission. (...)You contacted me in November and I declined
2. From the "being fair" standpoint - sure, the game idea is "owned" by original 1.1/1.2 dev team.
3.
Name can be trademarked - it is not.
Game content is copyrighted automatically - it is.
Shape of aliens or game technics can be patented - it is not.
We do not breaking trademark (there is no any), copyright (we do not using anything exactly from the game), patent (there is no any)
.
From the "lets get realistic" - the original 1.1/1.2 devs had YEARS to do something along the lines of T2 as planned by Rota. They didn't and IMO, since even full 1.2 (is gpp, not the full game) is not released, it's not realistic to expect any substantial "new" content (no new ideas implemented, no gfx upgrades etc).
4.
On the contrary it can make Tremulous 1 unforgotten
Very true. People who will play T2 will be very likely to checkout 1.1/1.2.
5. Stay with the T2 name. Rota releases T2, they release T3.
6. Change the name to something new "Aliens vs humans" (just for example). Do you change the actual content (from tremulous gameplay to for example a space shooter)? Do you have to?
7. Change the name, without changing the content. Add the "spiritual successor to 1.1/1.2" to the tagline. People will but new name game, and still chceckout 1.1/1.2
8. Does the name "Tremulous 2" give Rota any actual/significant boost in sales/popularity from 1.1/1.2 community? System Shock 2 had been "spiritually succesored" (
) by Bioshock, but I doubt that System Shock fans had more than tiny part in Bishock sales. Like with the domains: you can have the "keyword" in the domain name, but it's only a part of getting ranked high. It's cool, but it's not that important.
9. Aside from any actual infringements on copy/trade - I's like this:
There is a hot girl you "really like". You've wanted to ask her out for years, but didn't. Some other dude did last week.
Whos' fault is this?
It's very good Rota asked original devs for permission (a gesture of good will, no matter the difference of opinions), but at this point (3 years after 1.2 has been released), cmon' either do something about it or don't make a problem out of the "name".
10. I'm already "hooked" to the gameplay, so the actual name for me is not important. BUT: for the new/incoming fresh potential buyers, if you want to make any moves with the "name/content/gameplay" do it fast, do it decisively. People don't like cloudy issues, they buy what's clear and simple.
