Why not have a controlled process to allow us to use any skin we want (except the 3rd party ones unless there is a permit) to build our experiences? Having this block atm will cause people to try and do it without Epic’s approval and it will always be a cat and mouse chase thing, affecting all the genuine uses of characters in our games. Please set a nice and fair precedent that allows us to use characters to help promote their stories and backgrounds, there is so much wonderful space to explore that can be a win win for both parties. Let us change the player too, let us help promote the skins instead of pushing them away and having us see them as a bunch of polygons with a pricetag. Let us develop their characters and allow the community to get closer to them, heck even let us sell a specific skin at the beginning of our experience that fits it, with no % that goes to us. We want to help sell the immersion of a map, and it will eventually happen because Verse will soon allow that, but be proactive and help promote the skins where it matters. Forget the legal restrictions because those are the ones causing all the issues and putting red tape to the exposure. Think Second Life, when you play a pirate game you need to be a pirate. Tag the skins with themes and let us use that, or allow us to choose which skins we want the player to use at the beginning of the game.
EDIT: Reread this and I realized I was a little abrupt. All I am asking is to help build an immersive ecosystem with FN characters that have backstories and people care about. There so many wonderful designs and themes, waiting for a story to be told. There are so many limitless possibilities to make the skins have a character in our games, and give them a background story that befits their style. Maybe its not our call to make, but I 've had so many designs in the past based on a single skin, a little world that encapsulates the age and their theme. The designs are incredible, and coming from Time Splitters 2 where we had the ability to choose 10 characters to add to a map, that was my favorite part, telling a story and having the perfect character to help surface it and make it more believable. You can’t have a detective story without a detective, a victim and a villain. Those three piece will help sell the experience, and having access to skins will allow us to tell such a story. Back in 2019 I remember when my detective stories map was featured, Epic would combine that with the detective skins on the shop. It was a glorious combination and a success of the ecosystem, genuine in every way, with both parties helping each other. Or when the Balenciaga skins were released, they could be bought directly from the museum map that came along. Maybe it’s a request thing, maybe we ask approval from Epic to use XYZ skins on our maps, that way we have a clear understanding that us creators want to add character to our story/map, and Epic knows exactly how we are doing it, helping surface the greatness of the skin catalogue. And since this can be an agreement, maybe there can be rules that we follow to make sure the characters are not depicted in the wrong manner, or if a skin it out of the question then we find another one that helps us in the same way and Epic is cool with it.
I just don’t want a bad apple to break this bridge and ability we have to use characters in a genuine way, and since things are not clear atm there are strict rules that get put in place that will force us to remove characters from our experiences, or ban their use. Help us promote them is all I am saying, and we will try our best to make full worlds around them