Platform(s): PC.
Genre: Pac-Man knockoff
Estimated year of release: Early to mid-2000's. Definitely around the Windows XP era.
Graphics/art style: Fairly cheap looking 3D graphics. Top-down perspective.
Notable characters: The main character was basically just Pac-Man, but he ran around with legs. And I don't mean that he looked like the version of Pac-Man from the World games, I mean that he was literally a walking mouth on legs. It was kinda terrifying. He might've had had a hat? Not sure.
Notable Gameplay Mechanics: It was basically Pac-Man with 3D graphics. It probably had some extra power-ups and gimmicks, but yeah, pretty much Pac-Man.
Other details: I remembered it came from a real dodgy seeming freeware games website that had a lot of similar games in its vein. It did seem to be made by the website itself. I remember hearing mumblings that the game contained a trojan, or at least some adware. Though, like I said, this was during the days of Windows XP so it was almost weirder if it didn't fuck up your computer. And just to be clear, this was absolutely a rip-off and not an official Pac-Man game. So it's not Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness or anything like that.
(Note: This is my first rant so it might not be that good and I could be wrong about certain things.)
I just don't think there's anything wrong with some new games borrowing ideas or having similar mechanics and art styles from other games. Unless the game copies exactly everything about the game it's borrowing ideas from, I don't see what's wrong with taking inspiration from other games for as long as it has at least some differences. Like I think it's fine to borrow some elements you liked from other games and add them to your own game, especially if you could improve upon it, mix it with other elements from other games, or put your own spin on those elements.
There's a trailer for this game called Crowsworn and it seems to be heavily-inspired by Hollow Knight. It looks pretty good but there are some people who say that it's Hollow Knight rip-off. I think it's a little unfair to call it that because it seems different enough to be it's own game and it still looks good despite borrowing a lot of elements from Hollow Knight and having similar art styles. It's not like Hollow Knight itself is entirely original, and why shouldn't other games have a beautiful hand drawn art style like Hollow Knight?
What do you think makes a game a rip-off? And what other examples can you think of where some people where calling a game a rip-off of another game when it is merely inspired by it?
The only other example I can think of is when some people called Genshin Impact a BOTW clone, even though they're both extremely different in gameplay, story, and art style, and the only similarities that I can think of between these two games are their climbing, gliding, and stamina mechanics.
I just watched this video which leaves it up to the viewer to decide whether the Lion King was actually an original design as it was marketed when it was released, or whether it was a copy of another story. From my point of view, the Lion King is way too similar to Kimba the White Lion but at the same time, the irony is that most of Disney's original animated films are stories that were popular or well-known once before and were adapted to the big screen (except this time, the Lion King had its own film title, its own list of characters with their own names despite their very visible similarities to Kimba) and this actually makes me question.
I read somewhere that great artists steal and in some contexts, I am familiar that works of art are mostly a blend of other works of art that are either used as inspirations or as source material (or perhaps the inspirations are way too obvious that can be easily mistaken as rip-offs such as the very similar copycats of Marvel and DC. Other times, I learned where key figures actually stole the credit from others like George Lucas often gets the credit for the creation of the Star Wars universe but according to this video, a large portion should be given to the editing team (and not to mention that George Lucas had some questionable directing in the past ); or a different example is how Bob Kane often got the credit for the creation of Batman while Bill Finger rarely had any attention until recently.
And I know that this also applies to video games (of course if companies want to take a chance of getting a piece of the pie. The current trend right now is with BR game modes) where certain video games and even video games franchises were either inspired by each other or even ended being competing rivals, like for example the famous story of how Warcraft was originally meant to be a Warhammer game and how Starcraft is very similar to Warhammer 40K or even Halo is very similar to Starcraft. Then you have even competing franchises like Ratchet and Clank vs Jak and Daxter; Spyro the Dragon vs
... keep reading on reddit ➡#Part 5 – Mists of Pandaria
This is the fifth part of my write-up about World of Warcraft. You can read the first four by clicking the links below.
-
Part 1 - Beta and Vanilla
-
Part 2 - Burning Crusade
-
Part 3 - Wrath of the Lich King
-
Part 4 - Cataclysm
An Unexpected Trademark
It was mid-2011. The final patch of Cataclysm was on its way, and Blizzcon was just around the corner. The subject of World of Warcraft’s next expansion had begun to gain traction once again, and as was tradition, the internet became awash with leaks. Some promised Old Gods, some foresaw Kul’Tiras or Zandalar or Nazjatar, Tel’Abim or Suramar or Sargeras – in short, players made every possible prediction in the vain hope that one of them might be proven right.
But none of them were.
No one could have predicted Pandaria.
It wasn’t until the user ‘Mynsc’ went wading through the US Patent and Trademark Office website in search of info about Titan – Blizzard’s ‘open-secret’ new game in development – that they stumbled upon a recently-filed trademark by the name of ‘Mists of Pandaria’. Among all the theory-crafting and scavenging for information, it had been there a week, out in the open where anyone could find it, and yet completely overlooked.
It was immediately dismissed by many users as a book, a figurine, an in-game microtransaction perhaps. They cast it aside and turned to the more realistic leaks. But upon further inspection, the trademark was for a game, distributed on CD-ROMs with instruction manuals and guides. It had to be WoW content.
Okay, the community said. Then it was a patch.
>”they don't trademark patches. If they never did before, why now?”
Then it had to be some kind of trading-card game spin off. Definitely not an expansion.
>”The international class used in the trademark is the same as they used for previous expansions. The timing and information for the Mists of Pandaria trademark matches that of The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm. If this i
... keep reading on reddit ➡DISCUSS BELOW!!!
EPISODE 163 - Lights, Camera, Barstool
Please subscribe on iTunes and give us a 5 STAR review/rating!
Favorite Songs Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1xNprwXxVkoTk0qoUcXP0h?si=SesKNaETQlOAfDH-JmlR8w
Outro Music Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/12656655/playlist/6k1ko8swEbyiyQncK8UGjM?si=cHhiDfPoQq2MZxPBH6y0sw
Follow our Instagram: https://instagram.com/lightscamerabarstool
iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/lights-camera-podcast/id1279516571
----------------
0:00 – July 4th, bad airlines
4:56 – Sports… eSports!
10:00 – Talking about The Blacklist
12:50 – Ad Read #1
13:54 – The Blacklist Reddit
16:24 – Child’s Play reviews are okay?
23:25 – Lion King hype, big?
29:04 – Space Jam 2 casting, discussion
41:15 – Stranger Things 3 trailer
46:01 – Ad Read #2
47:53 – Major Spider-Man spin-off news
55:32 – New Trolls movie has Infinity Stones
59:27 – Josh Gad NOT the Penguin in The Batman
1:01:22 – Top 5 Favorite Sports Video Games
----------------
Instagram: @LightsCameraBarstool
Twitter: @JeffDLowe
Twitter: @Trillballins
Twitter: @JackKennedy
So far, I’ve found a bunch of crappy app store rip-offs for Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, and added them to my channel. I’ve found these options, but need to decide who to start with.
Can you believe it?
)