I have looked and searched for a week now looking for a istockphoto.com type website that has a wide selection of video game graphics. Like the characters and in game play. I prefer to use free ones in my design because I am not sure I am going to develope the site my-self, sell the template or both. Also I would like to be able to sell templates with the graphics impemented into the design without breaking TOS. Thanks in advance.
Never mind. I figured out a way. I just searched for screen shots of the game and extracted what I needed.
I don't plan on using them to advertise. Just to put them in the banner of my template and maybe some other places. I am a little confused though. I see people advertising their arcades with banners that have Mario and other famous characters in them. I took two images form screenshots and a picture someone took of the game box. If you could please take a look at the template so far and tell me if I am doing anything illegal. The two images I took are in the banner (The white skinned guy and the title "GOD OF WAR TM"). Here is the URL of my template so far. http://www.woochoochinchilla.com/gow6.png. I am not sure if I am supposed to keep the "TM" next to the name of the game. I left it there because I saw that they did that on http://godofwarfourms.com.
Some of the content, especially graphics of games are rights reserved and with copyright laws enforced, so becareful when you use them on your designs and especially when you want to sell the design or for commercial use. If it's for personal use, I guess it there shouldn't be much problem with that, however, if possible, seek for permission, and you can always add in a line in your footer, 'Graphics (C) XXXX, Used With Permission'.