If there is one thing I *DON'T* understand when it comes to players of City of Heroes, it is cloning.   For those uninitiated souls out there, cloning in COH and COV is when you use the character creation engine to make a costume and/or name which is clearly and existing copyright of something else.  A couple years ago Marvel comics sued NCSoft and Cryptic both because that engine made it far to easy to make Hulk, Iron Man, and Wolverine characters -- among others.  This was settled out of court as long as NCSoft makes a best effort to clean house as it were.   The name filter has modified multiple times to make certain names disallowed automatically.  But people find all sorts of misspellings, l33t spellings, and secondary names.

Despite the proceedings of the lawsuit fading into memory, the EULA everyone agrees to when you log in clearly states that the name or likeness of any existing copyright is forbidden. Even Super groups can't be named after existing groups for the same reason according to the end user license agreement.   MOST clones are reported by long term players -- and will eventually become Generic 1308 1132 0083 or something similar in name, or at the very least will have offending costumes set to null.

There are a lot of new users, coming in on trial accounts, and I suspect that several of the clones that come in can be linked back to those trial accounts.  But not all.  Some people just have fun in their own weird way. 

The one thing that troubles me is the reactions I've seen when a cloner gets caught.   Case in point.  Atlas Park and there is a Kratos clone from the God of War video game.  This guy has made it to level 50.  His name is .Krat0s, so no name filter would have caught that misspelling.  His appearance is dead on to the video game character -- gray skin, bald, bar chest, warpaint battle tattoos, etc.    The classic example of a clone.  Within the hour though he is caught and is genericed.  And Complains and whines to the world over broadcast that he was caught, and what does he do now.  It starts a short debate on the broadcast channel.  Its clear that the player, along with several others still can't see why they can't play a copyrighted name.   MANY take offense when they are genericed.  Now some rightly so, especially if they have a near generic name with a custom look, which is genericed because their name is some obscure character they didn't know of.   But sadly it still has to be done.

Comic characters aren't the only things that get cloned.   Celebrities occur quite often.    I've seen several "Chuck Norris" characters over the years.  Anime comes in a close second with multiple Dragonball characters being done -- The orange jump suit, wild blond hair is easy to do for a Goku character.   I even saw a pair that were doing Marty McFly and Emmett Brown from the Back to the future series (throwing out quoted movie lines via binds as fast as possible).  Anything is fair game.

There are some exceptions.  Captain Nemo I've seen as a character, as well as Frankenstein's Monster, both of which are public domain characters at this time.  This is the same reason that allowed the publishers of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to combine characters from multiple works together -- all had gone into the public domain and were fair game.

What is it that drives people to do "clones"?  I've seen several groups tread on the grounds.  Rather than do clones, they will take a similar name, the colors and/or style of the original and make something new that might bring to mind the original character without LOOKING exactly like or even close to the original.  Some characters don't have a clear uniform since there have been so many variations over the years.   Green Lantern and the many variations worn by the members of the Corps would be a good example.  Almost any clean uniform in green black and white might bring about a hint of the GL Corps to many a viewer.

Is it lack of imagination?  My wife suggested that but I find them BEING imaginative in their character names.  I saw a Big Blue Boy Scout character the other day wearing a Superman costume.  And his name is a term he's been called in jest before.  Big Red Cheese for a Captain Marvel (Shazam family) I've seen used as well.  Superman clones abound with names like Last Son, Star Child, and other catch phrases.  Use of the El family name I've seen from time to time, for character OR background info. 

I think basically they've always wanted to PLAY those characters -- to BE those characters, but never have had a decent chance.  How many BAD Superman games can you think of versus how many GOOD ones?  Granted the CoX character engine isn't built to emulate wall crawling or web slinging among other things, and so probably isn't the best for some character concepts, but it is at this point the only thing we've got.

Keep in mind -- MOST of these clones can get a few levels in before getting caught.  The post-level 10 clone is a rarity.    If they don't spend too much time in public areas like Atlas Park, Pocket D, or special events, avoid super groups altogether, they might get several levels in.  I'd expect the Kratos clone mentioned earlier hadn't spent THAT much time in Atlas before he was caught.   

Cloning has ALWAYS been a problem with the game.   It happens despite best efforts.  IS there a solution? I don't know.   But the new games had best learn from City's experiences.   I doubt the new DC universe online will be looked kindly on from Marvel if Hulks and Wolverines start showing up THERE!