Despite the fact game companies build screen shot picture-taking features into their games, DeviantArt also is another of these organizations that do not want non-original work. If I didn't create the setting, character, textures, etc., they see it as plagiarism and notified me of the violation recently, regarding the EverQuest screenshot of a Red Dragon I had posted.

I know this applies to all other MMORPG screenshots I've posted, just the content nazis haven't gotten around to them yet, or whomever blew the whistle on Red Dragon wasn't motivated to get my other uploads reported as well.

My personal view is that since a game company supplies you with the means to take an in-game screenshot, this is a kind of virtual photography, and it is as "original" as any photograph taken in the real world. Similarly, since the exact angle, composition, framing, cropping, and even details of my main character appearing in the shots (where they do) are something nobody else can recreate in perfect replica, again I see this as original work.

But this isn't the kind of originality Deviant accepts. Fact is, all art sites I belong to don't permit this.

I wonder if I could make money creating a site where this kind of content fascism isn't enforced.