Typically in other MMOs for this kind of thing, you’d have your RP servers. Now when private servers are supported this will be a lot easier to do and we would suspect players who are passionate about RP would go to those servers. Or, they’d claim a world together and turn it into an RP world.
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I’d just like to intro the idea that we can’t legally create statues or images of copyrighted characters and trademarks in the game. If you’re familiar with the bother Marvel Comics caused for City of Heroes back in 2004, you’ll understand that Turbulenz (and Sony as well) will be noticeably hesitant to engage in these sorts of legal battles. Since Japan, the UK, the EU, and the United States are all signatories to the World Intellectual Properties Organization Copyright Treaty (separate protection exists for trademarks) I wouldn’t be planning any Mario, Dragonball Z, or other tributes if I were you.
In fact, Cook’s Corner in PixelGate is already in a sort of gray area, since money has changed hands for early access. Since the game hasn’t been released, there’s not much opportunity for the lawyers to get in to see what we get up to. That will change.
(Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, but I have copyrights to protect, and once upon a time I received a “cease and desist” request from the company that makes Jelly Belly beans and had to familiarize myself with the law. I read the Lanham Act, the case law surrounding it, researched some legal opinions, and then sent them a letter saying “no, and you can’t make me.” Then I published their letter and my reply on the web. They went away, after making a polite request that I take down that letter.
In other news, I’ve even had to write patent defenses. So, yeah: experience. It’s not just for breakfast anymore.)
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Sadly, @Havok40k, I think that your above wish, as admirable as I personally find it, is totally out of touch with reality. Many people play to escape their daily lives and to escape chaos… and some come to create it. There will most certainly be people (quite a lot of them, in my experience) that will come here just to create chaos and to offend.
if this game is to be about ‘player created content’, then the Devs better be ready to create some rules, and us players better be ready to play the game according to those rules. Otherwise, with no real framework or guidelines the ‘player created content’ originally envisioned will be punctuated with constant chaos and people here just to ruin the game and the community.
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To quote the boundless website
“A universe of citizens await your creative talents, no creation will go unseen. Build almost anything you can think of. Protect your creations by claiming land using a Beacon. Now it’s yours. Build a home to store your possessions and craft your wares. Join forces with your friends to create citizen run cities.”
It seems that the intent was always to allow player created content. If we can build almost anything we can think of, then the intent was to not be limited to a particular style, or materials which might be appropriate if Boundless was a full blown RPG. I can build a bar, disco, castle, Viking style lodge, voxel contest arena, mega store, Ewok village, hobbit hole, underwater city, floating city, or anything else I can think of. Some of these might not fit the Boundless lore, but they all exist in the Boundless world today. Is your contention that if Boundless is an RPG, some of these things should not be permitted?
I will not disagree with you that once the game is released we will all have to deal with people that are only here to create issues for the rest of us. The developers will need to define guidelines of what is and is not allowed (copyrighted material, sexual content, inherently offensive, or whatever they decide is banned) and a way to report such instances to them. I do not think that the game being an RPG would stop undesired behavior. If someone is in the game to create chaos, they are going to do it no matter what they have “agreed to”.
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@brook-monroe Let the lawyers come!!! While they’re at it maybe they can come after my hand painted (poorly) mario coffee cup 
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you are speaking my language now 
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It shouldn’t go that far lol. (I mean discussing morals is futile as its always just discussing viewpoints that some people are really ready to kill for).
I’m with @Havok40k here on this, if I get his point right.
The real life world is a place when you encounter diversity and it’s not a good think to try to shield yourself or your kids from everything, hide in a nutshell etc. It’s better to learn to live next to things you might not like. To learn that if you don’t understand you can at least accept. You can chose not to engage with what you dont like or agree with or find damaging. But don’t try to push it away and pretend it doesnt exist.
The same in game diversity should be allowed and accepted, as people are usually themselves when playing games anyway. They might try different roles but character stays mostly the same. And sadly if there is any difference between a person in front of a computer and his/her avatar in a game, it’s often for the worse.
So, trying to limit expression of who people are in real life (be it building a church, using crosses or ying-yang symbols or anything else) would be damaging rather than helping.
Focus should be on aggressive, malicious and destructive behaviors - not on people’s believes or views and their normal non-aggressive expression.
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The coffee cup is not at issue unless you start selling them via one of those “we’ll make and sell your designs” websites. But the possibility of a lawsuit in a commercially-released game is very real, and you’d be wise to consider the consequences. (Because when the you-know-what gets real, you’d better be a lawyer, or know one. Japanese corporations, by and large, are not amused by this sort of thing.)
If they were to come after anybody it would be the devs, in which case I gladly acknowledge and follow whatever rules regarding pixel art they implement.
Even if I’m just a Bad Religion fan?
I think as long as it isn’t straight up provokative (swear words, swastikas, human reproduction organs, etc.) it should be allowed. I, for once, plan on living in in a replica of the house from Rick & Morty (with the portal mechanic the game is asking for it)
Kudos for your experience in legal matters. But I’ve barely seen any Minecraft server without any Trademarked pixelart/builds and yet I’ve never heard of any lawsuits against Mojang, Server Admins or players.
I think I’m fairly save building as many Marios as I want.
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I was more thinking his thought about what is right and wrong, we shouldn’t be discussing it as basis for rules in-game just as a Philosophical debate.
however it doesnt need to be done, it was more of a “ooooooooo that is an interesting thought”
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that is because on mine-craft servers their is no actual sale of the images if the server was a Mario themed world and you had to buy in real money to access that might be a problem otherwise it is fine (however don’t quote me as I don’t really have much knowledge when it comes to copyrights/trademarks)
@boundmore if I could give multiple likes for a comment I would plaster yours with them. You have hit the nail directly on the head IMHO
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Oh wow I just now realized this thread is ancient 