Art commissions for ingame gold?

Thavie

Hey!
ESO community is very creative and one of the popular forms of fan-art is character portraits. Who wouldn't want to have a portrait of their beloved character? But art is an expensive thing, it's not something everyone can easily afford. But how about drawing for in-game gold? It's a pretty popular service in many MMORPGs but technically it's gold selling, right? Or not really?

Some quotes:

“ZeniMax does not recognize any purported transfers of virtual property executed outside of the Game, or the purported sale, gift or trade in the "real world" of anything that appears or originates in a Service or a Game. Accordingly, You may not sell, and You may not assist others in selling, Service(s) or in-Game items for real currency, or exchange those items for value outside of the Services. Evidence of any attempt to redeem Downloadable Content for a purported exchange, sale, gift or trade in the "real world" will result in the immediate suspension or termination of Your Account.”

“ZeniMax prohibits, and does not recognize any purported, transfers, sales, gifts, or trades of Virtual Currency. Virtual Currency will only be used by You to obtain virtual goods within a Game (e.g., durable goods that become part of Your inventory in the Game and consumable or single use items that are used and expire after use within the Game) or other Downloadable Content, through one or more Services, as determined by ZeniMax in its sole discretion. You agree not to sell or transfer, or assist others in selling or transferring Virtual Currencies or any amounts thereof. Evidence of any attempt to use, sell or transfer Virtual Currency in any manner that violates these Terms of Service may result in revocation, termination, or cancellation of the Virtual Currency and/or Your use of the Services without refund and/or immediate suspension or termination of Your Account.”

It sounds pretty obvious but at the same time, this practice is very common in MMO communities. Could @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom please elaborate this tricky matter? Am I allowed to draw for people for in-game gold or crowns? Or is it against ToS? Would anyone get hurt for such practice? I would be happy to make my art affordable for people but I definitely don't want to get them into troubles.

And an old wallpaper me and my husband created a few years ago for a guild we ran

luizhd

I`m curious to know how much in-game gold you`d charge. I work in the game industry myself as a character artist and while I don`t do concepts, I do know people who work in that area and charge over 200 bucks for a single matte paint like that when doing freelance, so I`m curious to know how would the real-money-to-in-game-gold transition be.

Good luck tho and I hope you have lots of customers !

Thavie

luizhd wrote: »

I`m curious to know how much in-game gold you`d charge. I work in the game industry myself as a character artist and while I don`t do concepts, I do know people who work in that area and charge over 200 bucks for a single matte paint like that when doing freelance, so I`m curious to know how would the real-money-to-in-game-gold transition be.

Good luck tho and I hope you have lots of customers !

Thank you! The whole point is to make the whole thing affordable for players with some benefits for myself I didn't look into prices yet, but it surely wouldn't cost millions of gold. Something on par with rare items? That's a tricky question, too!

Glaiceana

I would love to know this as well. It hadn't occurred to me that this was a thing, but thinking of it now, of course it is
Would be interested to know how this works according to the terms.
Your painting is beautiful! Nice composition, and loving the focus on the building!

Vuylstekeara

Interesting idea and certainly a lot of potential customers among the playerbase, though to my personal undestanding this does violate the ToS. Not to mention that selling fan art itself is a bit of a legal grey area, even if most companies have turned a blind eye to it so far.
Anyway, any official statement would be very much appreciated. I'd love to do commissions as long as I don't risk getting banned for it.

Darkhorse1975

I was in a guild back in 2015 that would occassionally raffle off commission art pieces. They would display the finished art later on the guild website. It was really fun!

Thavie

Vuylstekeara wrote: »

Interesting idea and certainly a lot of potential customers among the playerbase, though to my personal undestanding this does violate the ToS. Not to mention that selling fan art itself is a bit of a legal grey area, even if most companies have turned a blind eye to it so far.
Anyway, any official statement would be very much appreciated. I'd love to do commissions as long as I don't risk getting banned for it.

That's my concern, I never heard of any issues among my fellow artists but better be safe than sorry!

luizhd

When it comes to making and selling fan-art of a copyrighted property, I think it can be done so long as your work is original. If it`s you who made it, then i`m pretty sure it falls under fair-use laws since it`s transformative. I don`t know if it breaks the game`s TOS tho. You might wanna send them a private ticket to ask about it.

Worst case scenario you can just charge enough to buy crowns in real life then sell it in-game since I think that`s allowed.

Thavie

luizhd wrote: »

When it comes to making and selling fan-art of a copyrighted property, I think it can be done so long as your work is original. If it`s you who made it, then i`m pretty sure it falls under fair-use laws since it`s transformative. I don`t know if it breaks the game`s TOS tho. You might wanna send them a private ticket to ask about it.

Worst case scenario you can just charge enough to buy crowns in real life then sell it in-game since I think that`s allowed.

Selling fan-art itself is never a problem. Companies are not against it so it's not why I'm concerned. Selling it for ingame gold might be against ToS because, ya know, someone sells gold for things that are not in the game. Since crown selling is a thing I don't believe there should be any issues but I'd be happy to be sure that no one gets in trouble.

Turelus

That's an interesting question.

I know in EVE Online CCP Games allowed services outside of game for ISK. There were a few websites for killboards, corporations, or art projects where people paid ISK for the service.

I hope ZOS is as willing to allow it because I would love to be able to use gold to commission fan art.

Ectheliontnacil

I'm pretty sure you can sell your art in exchange for crowns. It would be like selling your art for itunes giftcards. The only party making actual profit would be Zeni. That's why I don't see any reason for them to prohibit it.
Gold trading is another matter...but ever since the introduction of gifting I doubt anyone cares.
With organisations like "tamriel crown exchange" tens if not hundreds of millions every week, it's impossible to keep track at this point.

That being said I'd love to comission a sketch of my main if you're serious about taking requests.

Niruah

I would be really interested in it myself too as i am an artist too and would love to make commissions for crowns or gold!

Koldr

Definitely would like to know the answer to this as well.

Davor

My guess with what little knowledge I have is NO. You are basically money of someone one else's IP. Just like if you wanted to sell Star War toys or even ESO toys. Unless Zenimax/Bethesda give you permission to do so, you can't. You would in most cases need a licence to sell your work.

Now if you give it away for free, that is one thing, but to profit in ANY way, iTunes, in game gold, even a real life coffee is a no no. Legally not allowed to profit from someone else's work.

Other wise I am sure we would have had lots of miniatures of ESO and board games of The Elder Scrolls and other people making TES video games/movies.

So I wouldn't do it. Since this thread is old, surprised no official answer.

Niruah

But its still for in game gold. Which is owned by Zenimax. In other words i would trade my ESO art (Zenimax owned stff) for something in the game which is still Zenimax owned. So basically i would trade Zenimax owned stuff for an other Zenimax owned stuff. Just like how people trading crowns (zenimax owned) for gold (zenimax owned).
See the similarity?

I would not trade my arts for anything outside the game.

kargen27

Niruah wrote: »

But its still for in game gold. Which is owned by Zenimax. In other words i would trade my ESO art (Zenimax owned stff) for something in the game which is still Zenimax owned. So basically i would trade Zenimax owned stuff for an other Zenimax owned stuff. Just like how people trading crowns (zenimax owned) for gold (zenimax owned).
See the similarity?

I would not trade my arts for anything outside the game.

We have had a few people donate their talents to the auction in a trading guild I am in. High bidder provides the artist with the details and they work it out from there. I don't think ZoS has any problem with this type of thing happening.

Trust might be an issue though. I'm fairly certain if one party or the other was ripped off ZoS would make no effort to step in and make things right.

The legality is a little fuzzy. Game companies that hold raffles for in game items say it isn't gambling because nothing of real worth is being offered. I would guess if they did come after you the same argument could be made. You didn't profit because nothing of real worth was exchanged for the artwork.

Fuzzy_Fish

It does say in the terms of service "Regardless of the method by which You obtain a Virtual Currency and subject only to the Statutory Obligations (as defined in Section 1), it has no value in real currency, and is not transferable to any other person, or returnable, exchangeable, or refundable for real currency, goods, or services." So trading your services for virtual currency would violate this, i believe ( Not a real lawyer ).
Also as far as I know selling any kind of fan-art/fiction is usually an infringement of the right of the copyright holder, it's just that in most cases the owners put up with it, sometimes even encourage it. However there are a few different lines you could cross that could land you in trouble, selling your works is normally one of them. Hope this helped

Thavie

Feels like necromancy to post here lol

Now if you give it away for free, that is one thing, but to profit in ANY way, iTunes, in game gold, even a real life coffee is a no no. Legally not allowed to profit from someone else's work.

That is not exactly true. While legally Zenimax owns all the rights they 100% won't file charges against artists. There is a big difference between starting your own business to make boardgames using someone's work and creating a commissioned art based on someone's IP for people. Fan-art, even created for real money for other people, isn't stealing someone else's rights, you are not pretending that your art is original creations. It's harmless, and it's encouraging fandoms to create more and promote the game.There are companies that never let people sell fan-art but it's a very rare thing in the modern world. One of the examples is the Moomin Family. And even they won't sue you, they will ask you to stop. But usually, there is no point in pursuing lonely creators, it would only make you look evil in the eyes of your own community. Boo hoo greedy company, you know the drill. That's why art commissions is a very popular thing, just check r/elderscrollsonline, it's all there.
But art commissioned for real money is not tied to both of your accounts, creator's and client's, while doing it for ingame gold totally is. Anyway, it seems like ZOS doesn't really want to clarify it so there will be no ingame commissions, sadly.