Oooh, thank you for reminding me that game exists. I still haven’t played it, and so many people have told me it’s good!

There are over 1,000 pokemon. I think it’s a Tolkien situation- where famously, you can’t write fantasy without using ingredients that Tolkien created, because if you do, obviously it’s from Tolkien, and if you didn’t, the reader is asking why not? That kinda deal.

If you set out to create a game involving collecting, or even looking at and cataloguing, a bunch of different fantasy creatures, you’re going to have some that are at least a little similar to pokemon. The electibuzz/grizzbolt example you gave is a fantastic one. You’re claiming it’s stolen, but that there is a cat creature with a single lightning bolt in it’s belly. Versus a… monkeything? Covered in them. My point here being, even if they didn’t steal (which, I’m sure they did, there are other, better examples) at a certain point you have to accept that with 1,000 pokemon, there’s going to be overlap, so you either need to just be up front about the stealing, or you need to spend 5x the amount of development time making sure none of your creatures have overlap.

Personally, Pokemon has been around for more than 25 years. Even if they released a million games a year, they shouldn’t get to gatekeep ‘all creature-collection simulators that you use balls for and that you can ride like a dragon.’ Fuck that. They got infinite money back on their initial investment, and they shouldn’t be allowed to just own the ideas. This is the kind of bullshit that makes me (a lifelong pokemon fan) want to never, ever, ever give them money again.

Love that energy! That’s kind of how I feel about the Elder Scrolls. I can’t get into it but I’m so glad there are people who do.

I screamed!

What great news!

I hear they just gave everyone on the Skyblivion mod team a copy of the remaster.

Man, what a comeback story, No Man’s Sky!

I’m psyched for Light No Fire.

Yes, definitely see a different doctor.

This’ll only work if they also buy everyone else who sells the solution, and shut them down.

There’s also this thing that happens where, as a whole, we’ll just act capriciously.

I don’t know if it’s true of younger gamers but my generation seems to really choose at random whether we like your product or want you to die in a fire. Any fishy behavior can tip that scale pretty quickly, and if we already recognize a brand, and it’s not one of our arbitrarily Chosen Few, then we might not even give you a chance. Just because we know the name, and that’s already a strike against you.

“Sword of Damocles” like bitch we used service pack 2 XP for ever. “We won’t support something” means nothing if the original product was built right.

…Ohhh now I see the problem. Nevermind, everybody, carry on.

“No reason”

They’re nazis, friend! That’s all the reason we need!

Gross.

Let other people enjoy whatever the hell they want.

I’ve only played a few minutes of Witcher 3 so far and even I know Ciri is an apprentice to Geralt! I said to myself, “I don’t know who these people are yet but I guess she’ll be the main character in a sequel.”

Downright folksy.