Asmongold TV's video on PalWorld's recent complaints (summary inside)
(www.youtube.com)
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (47)
sorted by:
Basically, PalWorld is an Open World Crafting game with Creature Collecting aspects that reminds people of Pokemon.
To me, it looks fun, but it's in a significantly janky Early Access game that still has some rough spots; but I totally get why people want to play it.
The major problem that people are drumming up about it is that the developers may have used AI generated assets; and that is (nowadays) a culture war issue that has emerged; with the political left feeling very directly threatened by it (since most of their Patreon porn-art & erotica side hustles will suffer).
And while I'm all for respecting property rights, I simply don't see the arguments they are making as legitimate. The similarity to The Pokemon Company's characters simply isn't enough to warrant claims of copyright infringement. It's not just different color schemes, but different anatomy, different elemental effects, different shapes. These characters, if made by humans, would be more than transformative enough to warrant being treated separate creations. The game itself, frankly, appeals to a different audience than even Pokemon: Arceus would appeal to. I see not infringement here. Just angry Leftists grasping at straws as an appropriate use of AI makes progress.
If you want me to get very dated, I'd say that PalWorld is closer to Paleo Pines than it is Pokemon. Although, PalWorld's real direct competition is probably Rust.
That, and there's probably some Pokemon consoomers that are flailing at the fact that some shit-heel developers managed to make a servicable pokemon like game that is going to force The Pokemon Company to fucking innovate.
Asmon‘a argument is retarded. He’s basically saying that the market doesn’t care whether or not it’s plagiarism because people obviously bought millions of units, but no one is arguing that the game isn’t successful. People are arguing that the game might violate copyright law. The success of your product doesn’t determine its legality. Nintendo will weigh their options and decide if it’s worth pursuing litigation. If they Sue, then a court will decide if Palworld violated copyright. The end.
Personally, I think it’s pretty close, and the argument is made stronger by the probable use of AI. I’m not sure how copyright even survives if all it takes is a 5% alteration generated automatically and cheaply by computer programs. Of course, the death of copyright - and the “creative” class in general - doesn’t sound too bad to me either.
For one, Nintendo has a history of nipping potential copyright infringements (such as romhacks or remaster/sequel projects) in the bud, so if they knew about this already, they might think this is distinct enough.
Second, and what I think people like Asmon are arguing, is that if the product is successful enough, it could hurt Nintendo's reputation to try taking it down after the fact, or it becomes increasingly expensive as the competitor gains revenue.
Success, in a way, could determine "legality."
Nintendo doesn't give two shits about its reputation when it comes to protecting it's IP. They will sue if they think they have a case regardless if it was the best selling game of all time.