January 2024 PCG Articles, Links and Discussions

[DXCHASE]

Im not arguing that devs take designs and stuff from other people, i mean Pokemon looks similar to Dragon Quest characters, when Dragons Quest was released in the 80s lol. Also, wanted to say that i just saw a video from the PCG article i attached below, the guys character looks exactly like MK 2 Raiden. If i personally liked a game i wouldnt care if its similar to this or similar to that, i like the current game im playing. But this game is too, i dunno, cutesy-pokemon-y for me to like its other systems, its just personal preference.

Pokemon/dragonquest side by side:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/19chvm3

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/19chvm3/palworld_is_ripping_off_pokemonooh_wait_that_is/

Palworld is 2024's first breakout hit. Why is it so popular?

2024's first viral hit has been building for years: also Pokémon.

www.pcgamer.com

Well, its certainly not because of its originality imo lol. Im glad people like the game even though its something i wouldnt touch with a ten foot pole because of its similarity to pokemon, which i personally dont like, but glad to see this small dev with 2-3 other very small games make such a HUGE splash like it is...

 

[Brian Boru]

The Pokémon company are taking a look at the ripoff:
"plans to investigate copycat claims"

Key part is:
it had "not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual property or assets".

Palworld: Pokémon Company to investigate copying claims

The people behind Pikachu and friends finally comment on the wildly successful "Pokémon with guns".

www.bbc.com

 

[Frindis]

Someone is salty they didn't come up with the Palworld idea

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Holy moly thats a lot of jobs.

https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-c...the-studios-survival-game-has-been-cancelled/

Spend 70 Billion, desperately need to save a couple million. Its a blood bath out there.

Is this kind of thing a show for shareholders? Look how financially responsible and 'agile' we are.

 

[Pifanjr]

I looked at some of the comparisons between Pals and Pokémon and I think it's pretty farfetched to call them copies. Both Palworld and Pokémon base their designs on real animals, so of course the ones based on the same animal are going to look similar to some degree. And since the developers of both games are Japanese they both have the same connotations for certain animals, so it makes sense they both have a fox with fire powers for example.

Holy moly thats a lot of jobs.

https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-c...the-studios-survival-game-has-been-cancelled/

Spend 70 Billion, desperately need to save a couple million. Its a blood bath out there.

Is this kind of thing a show for shareholders? Look how financially responsible and 'agile' we are.

From what I understand there's been a lot of layoffs in general in the video game business because they all hired extra people during the covid lockdowns because people were spending more money on games, but since then spending has decreased again so they all need to scale back.

Which isn't to say it isn't also a show for their shareholders, but one that makes some sense considering their expected profits have gone down.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I looked at some of the comparisons between Pals and Pokémon and I think it's pretty farfetched to call them copies. Both Palworld and Pokémon base their designs on real animals, so of course the ones based on the same animal are going to look similar to some degree. And since the developers of both games are Japanese they both have the same connotations for certain animals, so it makes sense they both have a fox with fire powers for example.

I dont know man, some of them are pretty similar in a way I dont think can be explained like that side by side. Some of the chimera ones have features directly lifted.

I imagine the Pokemon company is pretty protective over the family friendly image of the Pokemon, and giving characters looking (IMO) very much the same guns and murdering them for resources, however much its presented as black humour they could easily see that as harmful to their brand image.

Whether they legally can do anything, based on US, Japanese, EU or any other law I wouldnt have a clue.

All above purely as a bystander I'll just reiterate I'm not taking any sides here, no attachment to Pokemon outside of playing too much Legends Arceus because my kid loved it, its an awful video game.

From what I understand there's been a lot of layoffs in general in the video game business because they all hired extra people during the covid lockdowns because people were spending more money on games, but since then spending has decreased again so they all need to scale back.

Which isn't to say it isn't also a show for their shareholders, but one that makes some sense considering their expected profits have gone down.

I know theres been a lot of layoffs generally in tech. I know I'm screaming at the capitalist clouds but its pretty disgusting to make actual billions in profits as Actiblizz Blizzard did, hand out bonuses to execs and dividends to shareholders and then fire people because they say they need to balance the books. Not to forget MS just spent 70 billion buying them up as well.

 

[Brian Boru]

Is this kind of thing a show for shareholders? Look how financially responsible and 'agile' we are.

Ultimately yes, since there are so many tens of millions of shareholders in US—every public company has to act responsibly since the interests of the millions outweigh the interests of the thousands.

"158 million Americans, or 61% of U.S. adults, own stock"

"U.S. families held a median value of $52,000 in stocks"

How Many Americans Own Stock? More Than You Think | The Motley Fool

How many Americans own stock? 61% of American adults, or around 158 million people, own stock. But there's more to the story.

www.fool.com

its pretty disgusting

Not if you understand how the economic system works. The alternative is that those jobs would never have existed in the first place—so no clickbait headlines when a small percentage of them disappear temporarily. Is that preferable?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Ultimately yes, since there are so many tens of millions of shareholders in US—every public company has to act responsibly since the interests of the millions outweigh the interests of the thousands.

"158 million Americans, or 61% of U.S. adults, own stock"

"U.S. families held a median value of $52,000 in stocks"

How Many Americans Own Stock? More Than You Think | The Motley Fool

How many Americans own stock? 61% of American adults, or around 158 million people, own stock. But there's more to the story.

www.fool.com

I dont buy for a second that corporations are looking after mom and pop. The demographics show most stock is owned by those who are already hugely wealthy, and the gap is only growing.

From your own link:

• The top 1% holds 54% of stocks, worth $19.16 trillion.
• The bottom 50% of U.S. adults holds only 0.6% of stocks, worth $21 billion.

What do you think the stats are if you stretch that to the top 10%?

Its too political for a gaming forum. You had a shot and I took one, can we leave it there please ?

Lots of people lost their jobs, that's a real life altering consequence for them I thought worth mentioning.

 

[Brian Boru]

Its too political for a gaming forum

I agree, how the economic system works in US is an interesting topic worth a look some other day in some other place—especially if you're already familiar with EU and USSR approaches, for context

 

[DXCHASE]

Someone is salty they didn't come up with the Palworld idea

Lol! You know what though. I find it kinda suspicious that the devs of palworld knew they had such a good idea that they didnt need to include a cash shop of any sort and had enough resources in their account to support the number of players that they have. Seriously look at this devs history of games. 4 altogether.

Steam Developer: Pocketpair

ゲーム業界に超破壊的イノベーションを巻き起こす

store.steampowered.com

So, hey if the people at that studio just had this idea, threw this stuff together and it was just loved, awesome! Thats a true success story, to go from what they were doing to just smashing all sorts of records in the gaming world but i wont be surprised in the least if there is more to this success story than we know outside of standard private information i guess.

 

[Brian Boru]

i wont be surprised in the least if there is more to this success story than we know

It does stink, and the key will be whether or not the owners sue—if they don't, this is likely a huge marketing stunt, one of the best ever.

There may be disagreement among Pokémon's 3 owner companies re how to proceed—at a minimum, the ownership structure will require a lot of extra co-ordination to decide how to move forward, so it'll likely be slower than usual.

If this is let ride, look out for my new EA release in the autumn. I have more than enough screenshots to bring you Cry Far very quickly—which is what I'll tell any uppity company that challenges my ripoff.

 

[neogunhero]

If this is let ride, look out for my new EA release in the autumn. I have more than enough screenshots to bring you Cry Far very quickly—which is what I'll tell any uppity company that challenges my ripoff.

Rumor has it that Cry Far uses AI for character designs, care to comment?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I was more looking forwards to Car Fry.

 

[Brian Boru]

Cry Far uses AI for character designs, care to comment?

Well yeah, is there another way? Merge screenies of 2 characters and hey presto! a new not-a-ripoff character! Probable villain will be mash of Pagan Min and Joseph Seed, known colloquially as The Daddy.

I was more looking forwards to Car Fry.

That's the one Zed's working on, but he's being more ambitious, trying to merge Forza and Diner Dash.

 

[DXCHASE]

Cry Far, is that where we establish the evil empire on an island?

 

[Brian Boru]

Cry Far, is that where we establish the evil empire on an island?

Wut? That sounds suspiciously like a bit of story
We don't need no stinkin' story.

villain will be mash of Pagan Min and Joseph Seed

That's coming along nicely…

I entered "mashup portrait of Far Cry villains Pagan Min and Joseph Seed, with a psychotic flair" and AI asked if it could improve my insipid prompt. I said 'Yes' and AI came up with:
"Create a striking composition depicting a macabre fusion of Pagan Min, the flamboyant and cunning tyrant from Far Cry, and Joseph Seed, the fiercely charismatic and psychotic cult leader, while emanating an aura of darkness, madness, and sinister power."

I must say, that's a pretty good prompt! Here's the WIP:

I'm already thinking of the sequel Devil May Cry Far

 

[Colif]

Everything is a remix...

stopping people copying is how you stop creativity

How dare people make the sort of game they want to play. Should stay inside your box? Right??

 

[Brian Boru]

stopping people copying is how you stop creativity

It's quite creative to term mediocrity as "creativity"—who did you copy that idea from?

I'm good at mediocre, so let's give it a shot:
"How dare people make the sort of game they want to play" <-- All my own work!

How did I do? Any chance of a moon on the Mediocre Walk of Shame?

 

[ZedClampet]

Enshrouded has grabbed more than 1 million players in just 4 days, joining Palworld in making January an impressive month for early access survival games

The obsession continues.

www.pcgamer.com

($h!tballs. Wrong thread)
[Mod edit: right thread now.]

I complained all last year about the lack of major survival games. I'm pretty happy now, and 2024 has a many more huge survival launches yet to come (a lot were delayed from last year and may actually be delayed into 2025).

When I checked SteamDB earlier, Enshrouded was in the top 10 in concurrent players behind Palworld, some free games, and the combined pirates, which isn't really a game, just a count of the people currently playing pirated copies of games.

 

[Zloth]

...and the combined pirates, which isn't really a game, just a count of the people currently playing pirated copies of games.

They will be sending out a pulse pretty soon that will take that number down to 0. Also, we should see a BIG increase in hardware sales.

 

[ZedClampet]

It's quite creative to term mediocrity as "creativity"—who did you copy that idea from?

I'm good at mediocre, so let's give it a shot:
"How dare people make the sort of game they want to play" <-- All my own work!

How did I do? Any chance of a moon on the Mediocre Walk of Shame?

You are confusing "standing on the shoulders of giants" with plagiarism. Without the former, humans wouldn't have gotten anywhere. Copying is a part of everything we do, from how babies learn to how scientific advancements are made. You copy, copy, copy, change. And that last step makes something new and beautiful. Do that for thousands of years and you end up going from hunting and gathering to robot sex dolls. Hey, we never said we were going in the right direction, just that we were going...

 

[Brian Boru]

You are confusing "standing on the shoulders of giants" with plagiarism

You are confusing me giving Colif a hard time with making sense

 

[ZedClampet]

You are confusing me giving Colif a hard time with making sense

Whereas the "robot sex dolls" indicate I was being serious?

 

[Brian Boru]

Whereas the "robot sex dolls" indicate I was being serious?

Nah, it was the learned previous discourse.

 

[ZedClampet]

Nah, it was the learned previous discourse.

Hmm, I always thought things were funnier if they started seriously. Will have to adjust my style. To be honest, your post was incomprehensible, so I wasn't 100 percent sure it was funny, but I leaned in that direction.