[HN Gopher] 'Pokemon with Guns' Game Goes Viral, Angering Ninten...
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       'Pokemon with Guns' Game Goes Viral, Angering Nintendo Loyalists
        
       Author : bmau5
       Score  : 23 points
       Date   : 2024-01-23 20:55 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com)
        
       | boomboomsubban wrote:
       | https://archive.is/ISN8k
        
       | jwcooper wrote:
       | This is a pretty good video (11 minutes) where a video game IP
       | lawyer discusses palworld vs pokemon:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkNcV0kpxvg
       | 
       | Mostly surrounding the similarities in pokemon vs pal visual
       | design.
       | 
       | Spoiler...it's complicated.
        
         | Zambyte wrote:
         | Every day the idea that people (or even corporations!) can own
         | ideas becomes more and more absurd to me.
        
           | c22 wrote:
           | The more I hear about it the more convinced I am that we
           | should only allow IP to be held by individuals (and make it
           | non-transferrable). Instead of selling your idea to some
           | company you could instead just sell a promise not to sue them
           | for the duration of your claim (which I'd be fine setting to
           | your natural lifetime under this system).
        
             | Zambyte wrote:
             | I really just think that repealing the system that imposes
             | artificial scarcity on ideas would be the best at this
             | point. It doesn't encourage creative work. No one decides
             | to make art because they want to own its likeness. Tons of
             | people have certainly stopped or decided not to start
             | because we aren't allowed to stand on the shoulders of
             | previous generations anymore though.
        
             | s1artibartfast wrote:
             | How would that be any different than the current system,
             | aside from the fact that IP rights always dies with the
             | originator?
             | 
             | Can you agree to let the firm renting the rights sue others
             | for using it without contract?
        
       | DanHulton wrote:
       | I can't speak to the legality of it, but a great many of
       | Pokemon's earliest monster designs seemed to take... "incredible
       | inspiration" from a variety of Dragon Quest enemies.
       | 
       | Plus, the best parts of Palworld are the parts that do things
       | with the game formula that Nintendo would never do -- yes, sure,
       | guns, but also consequential crafting, base building & defense,
       | survival elements, automation, and such. Sure, people grow
       | attached to the design of the various monsters, so changing them
       | now would be hard without drawing the ire of existing customers,
       | but the game is absolutely not "Pokemon with Guns", it's an
       | entirely different game that has creatures that bear a
       | resemblance to popular Pokemon.
       | 
       | (Oh, and the models are nicer with more unique animations than
       | anything GameFreak has put out yet, too. I dunno, I find it hard
       | to consider being a "Nintendo Loyalist" in this particular
       | instance.)
        
         | jevoten wrote:
         | > a great many of Pokemon's earliest monster designs seemed to
         | take... "incredible inspiration" from a variety of Dragon Quest
         | enemies
         | 
         | And animals, real and mythological. We have:
         | 
         | An ordinary dragon, but with its tail on fire:
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Charizard
         | 
         | A turtle, but blue: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Squirtle
         | 
         | A caterpillar: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Caterpie
         | 
         | A chubby moth: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Butterfree
         | 
         | A wasp, but with drills for hands:
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Beedrill
         | 
         | A bird: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Pidgey
         | 
         | A purple rat (copying Milka's color scheme):
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Rattata
         | 
         | A bigger bird: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Fearow
         | 
         | A snake: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Ekans
         | 
         | A cobra: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Arbok
         | 
         | An armadillo: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Sandshrew
         | 
         | The nine-tailed fox from Japanese mythology:
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Ninetales
         | 
         | The child version of the same:
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Vulpix
         | 
         | A bat: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Zubat
         | 
         | Another moth: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Venomoth
         | 
         | An earthworm, but with a face:
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Diglett
         | 
         | Just a persian cat: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Persian
         | 
         | Pitcher plant, but with a face:
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Victreebel
         | 
         | A pony, but on fire: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Ponyta
         | 
         | A horse, but on fire: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Rapidash
         | 
         | A seal: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Seel
         | 
         | Another seal: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Dewgong
         | 
         | A crab: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Krabby
         | 
         | Another crab: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Kingler
         | 
         | Flag of Monaco, but a sphere:
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Voltorb
         | 
         | Flag of Poland, but a sphere:
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Electrode
         | 
         | Eggs: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Exeggcute
         | 
         | Rhinoceros, but armored:
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Rhyhorn
         | 
         | A seahorse: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Horsea
         | 
         | A koi fish: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Goldeen
         | 
         | A bull, but with three tails:
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Tauros
         | 
         | Literally just a fish: https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Magikarp
         | 
         | I could keep going, but I think the point is made. The list at
         | https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Generation_I_Pok%C3%...
         | has an "Origins" section for each Pokemon, and almost always it
         | is something from the natural kingdom or mythology. If
         | everything that could be argued "takes inspiration from"
         | Pokemon is banned from use by anyone other than the Pokemon
         | company, then we've effectively handed them ownership over the
         | entire animal kingdom and human mythology.
        
           | ShamelessC wrote:
           | > I could keep going, but I think the point is made.
           | 
           | You should have stopped sooner. There's zero point being made
           | here. Not one made in good faith at least.
        
             | wddkcs wrote:
             | The point is there's practical real world inspiration for
             | nearly all Pokemon, invalidating the criticism. The fact
             | that it's exhaustive doesn't make it bad faith.
        
       | Dig1t wrote:
       | ha that's so funny I just heard about this from my friends a few
       | days ago. They are all pretty loyal Pokemon fans despite being in
       | their 30's.
       | 
       | They were all excited for this game, and as a fan myself, I have
       | to agree that it does look pretty cool.
       | 
       | There's already several copycat franchises that are obvious
       | knock-offs of Pokemon, the biggest of which is probably Digimon.
       | 
       | How is this any different than Digimon?
        
         | Wowfunhappy wrote:
         | Personally, I think the visual designs in Digimon are
         | significantly more distinct from Pokemon.
        
         | jeffwask wrote:
         | I found the borrowing from Zelda (Sounds, Fonts) to be more
         | concerning than the Pokemon similarities. Like you mentioned,
         | there are a ton of capture game clones that are similar. The
         | Zelda lifts are the area where I feel they may be flying too
         | close to the sun. Either way, the game has a fun loop and I'm
         | not a Pokemon player more of a survival games enthusiast. Been
         | a good time with friends I hope they are able to navigate the
         | IP issues.
        
       | zelias wrote:
       | The success of Palworld speaks volumes about Nintendo/Gamefreak's
       | failure to produce any meaningful gameplay innovation over the
       | past few decades
        
         | oneepic wrote:
         | Does it? Survival/crafting games are popular these days,
         | including shooters. I think someone was bound to make this kind
         | of game eventually, and it's not a surprise people will play
         | it.
        
         | haunter wrote:
         | S/V sold 10 million copies in the first 3 days and ~25 million
         | copies in the first year. Nintendo is doing fine.
         | 
         | To me the success of Palworld shows two things: 1, the
         | survival-crafting genre is still a gold mine after all these
         | years YET no AAA studio wants to touch it for some reason. Only
         | Early Access indie games in the field. 2, Nintendo would break
         | all records if they start releasing their games on multiple
         | platforms.
        
           | epolanski wrote:
           | Animal Crossing by nintendo is crafting/surviving.
        
             | haunter wrote:
             | Nah, it has 0 survival elements. You cannot die in the game
             | neither you need food or anything for that matter, there is
             | no death difficulty (dropping all loot etc.)
        
         | _fw wrote:
         | This is exactly it. Dreadful games I've avoided since the late
         | 00's, a lack of innovation or even apparent care. The latest
         | games are poorly optimised and leave SO much on the table.
         | 
         | It's widely acknowledged Game Freak simply aren't investing in
         | the games in the way they should: Nintendo should be making
         | Palworld, with their own IP. They'd take over the world.
         | 
         | The crux of it is that Pokemon games don't need to be good to
         | sell... so they're crap instead.
        
       | epolanski wrote:
       | People are blind if they see pokemon in the game.
       | 
       | Very little but catching palms resembles pokemon gameplay-wise.
        
       | nickstinemates wrote:
       | All of the pokemon enthusiasts I know have flocked to the game
       | and are loving it. The breeding/traits in particular.
       | 
       | I have been running a dedicated server with ~10 people on it
       | since launch and it has been incredible.
       | 
       | We'll see how it looks in a month, but massive success out of the
       | gate.
        
         | tennisflyi wrote:
         | Regular Pokemon has breeding/traits
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-23 23:01 UTC)