(09-16-2016, 11:47 AM)Magnemania Wrote: Nintendo's lawyers' attacks are on whichever fangames attain high popularity in the general public eye. It's possible for a fangame to become popular among a small subgroup of people without it becoming well-known to the public (Sonic Robo Blast 2 comes to mind). A general Nintendo fangaming convention should have a fairly wide profile compared to the audiences for the individual games involved.

All publicity increases risk, but different types of publicity induce different amounts of risk. No Mario's Sky was shut down because it gained a lot of publicity in the general gaming public in a short time. Pokemon Uranium was shut down for having a massive userbase. The Metroid 2 remake was shut down when it had a publicity spike at release. They all had other factors that made them slightly more dangerous in the eyes of NoA's legal department: NMS was named after an unassociated brand, PU's name was too close to the naming conventions of official titles, M2R was a remake, but a publicity spike was what ultimately did them in.

Here's a fan project that is extremely very popular throughout practically most social media sites (Youtube, Facebook, Deviantart, Twitter, Tumblr, Google Plus, Pinterest, and etc come to mind) , fansites (Zelda Dungeon, Zelda Universe, Zelda Informer, Zelda Eternity, Knights of Hyrule, etc.), and various other sites and is still standing strong to this day:

Hyrule Total War

Hyrule Total War is become so popular that it's practically overrated now. Like, seriously, the hype over that fan-project is so high and great that Nintendo don't even dare mess with that!

So how can you say that publicity and popularity increases the risk of DMCA when Hyrule Total War literally proves otherwise? You shouldn't! There's no reason to! I say this cause Hyrule Total War, without a doubt, literally proves that popularity/publicity is a strength, not a weakness.

Anyways, you're free to believe what you want. I'm just a messenger letting people who may not know about Hyrule Total War (or that it's still standing at least), know that Hyrule Total War is a popular thing and it's still standing tall. And I'm saying this since, there's talk as if popularity is what causes a DMCA on fan projects, when that's proven wrong with the existence of Hyrule Total War, which is still standing.

What really causes DMCA on fan projects is:

1. Money Involvement
   
2. Complete Existing Game Replication AKA Copycat Forging (AM2R comes to mind)
   
3. No Credit to the Original/Official Owners (In this kind of case, Nintendo usually comes to mind when thinking original/official owners)
   
4. Too much ambition or any sort of lack of the sense that the project is just for fun (best example being kickstarter projects)
   
5. Lack of Creativity, Imagination, and Innovation (basically in this case, mainly, the lack of originality)
   
6. Lack of enough popularity to back or support it.
   

Which is why my advice on how to insure that your fan project are safe is:

1. Give Credit to Original/Official Owners! (Ex: Nintendo)
   
2. Be as original possible! (don't copy too much from already existing games)
   
3. Have fun with your fan project! (make sure everyone knows that your fanproject is not anything official but rather something that is purely fanmade just for fun)
   
4. Make sure your fan project is absolutely 100% free! Don't use your fan project for money! (that will make you look greedy and rub you off the wrong way with original/official owners, which you do not want)
   
5. Have confidence and faith in yourself and your fan project! Be happy and friendly to everyone who checks out your fan work. And Spread the Word! (this would help give your fan project a lot popularity and support, which can prove to be very helpful if gather enough)
   
6. Be Creative, Imaginative, and Innovative! And be yourself! (this would help with the originality part)
   

I work hard to try and by these methods, which is one the reasons my fan projects are still pretty much safe to this day. And hopefully it will stay that way and that they would stay safe for many more years.

Anyways, that's my opinion and what I believe. Like I said, you can believe what you want. You are free to own belief(s). I'm just sharing this information of a way trying to be helpful and in hopes of being helpful in any way.

Again, you don't have to believe in any of this. I'm just sharing some information, advice, and ideas that I feel and hope may be prove to be very helpful to people, at least in the sometime in the near or far future.

Well, anyways, that would be all for now.