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> They even tried to sue Valve over DOTA 2

Didn't DOTA start as Starcraft mod or something? I don't know what the legal status of mod/spinoffs is. Could I sell my own Mario fanhack game?

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DOTA started as a Warcraft mod, which used Warcraft characters. The suit resulted in some characters being changed to be less similar to the original Warcraft heroes (e.g. Leoric -> Skeleton King -> Wraith King).

I don't think it's unreasonable to say that "you cannot use our game world / universe" in your game? Valve and Blizzard came to a pretty reasonable arrangement.

AFAIK Skeleking -> Wraith king was a purely -China- ceremonial thing

AFAIK Skeleking -> Wraith king was a purely -China- ceremonial thing

Yes, the "pressing ceremonial reasons".

>I don't know what the legal status of mod/spinoffs is.

No one did. Blizzard's failed lawsuit established precedent. Now we know.

>Could I sell my own Mario fanhack game?

If you are using any assets from the original without permisison, or any copyrighted names/characters, no.

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