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Meier · Feb 5, 2005

Emma Maree, 13, from Inverness, wrote about a teenager who is dragged into a virtual reality game involving a dragon. If she dies in the game, she dies in the real world.

She said: Its a perfect read for the computer generation. Lots of kids out there like playing computer games and this is taking it to a whole new level. The characters go into the world and experience it for real.

The novel took her about a year to write. It came naturally, he said. It just flowed out of her.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1471249,00.html

Is this not the biggest rip off of Dragon Drive ever? It could be a coincidence, but I'd be willing to bet it isnt.

Belfast · Feb 5, 2005

Or .hack even. Either way, I probably could've written bullshit like that in a couple days. There's no way it could be good.

Edit: On second thought, maybe I should write something that retarded and get rich. I mean, why not?

aoi tsuki · Feb 5, 2005

Yeah, Dragon Drive immediately came to mind, but then again it's not like the concepts of being stuck in a fantasy world and dragons in fantasy stories are new concepts.

Meier · Feb 5, 2005

aoi tsuki said:
Yeah, Dragon Drive immediately came to mind, but then again it's not like the concepts of being stuck in a fantasy world and dragons in fantasy stories are new concepts.

Yeah, not that it necessarily broke any ground (Dragon Drive), but that's basically a 1-line blurb for the show heh.

Jonnyram · Feb 5, 2005

Sounds like Nightmare on Elm Street to me, minus the dragons.
Also made me think of Lain for some reason, though that's nothing like that at all, really.

aoi tsuki · Feb 5, 2005

Meier said:
Yeah, not that it necessarily broke any ground (Dragon Drive), but that's basically a 1-line blurb for the show heh.

Speaking of which, was DD any good? i only saw the first three or four episodes, before the real story starts. It was just a little too typical to bother getting into.

shuri · Feb 5, 2005

I wrote the same exact kind of story for a homework back in fifth grade. Once again, saturday morning japanese cartoons aimed at kids are hallmarks of innovation!

belgurdo · Feb 5, 2005

Naked Shuriken said:
I wrote the same exact kind of story for a homework back in fifth grade.

Hell, I think everyone has. Where's our millions?

Luscious LeftFoot · Feb 5, 2005

Knowing nothing about Dragon Drive, I would have said it sounds similar to Digimon.

Meier · Feb 5, 2005

aoi tsuki said:
Speaking of which, was DD any good? i only saw the first three or four episodes, before the real story starts. It was just a little too typical to bother getting into.

I watched like the first 18 episodes.. the first 13-14 or so are actually pretty decent but it gets bad fast and I'm sure it continued to go down hill.

Blackace · Feb 5, 2005

ummm there are about 1,000,000,000,000 stories where someone dreams/goes into a video game, book/ so on and so on...

stop hating!!! it is a 13 year old kid that wrote a book for goodness sake.. give them their props

speedpop · Feb 5, 2005

What a whore.

CrunchyB · Feb 5, 2005

Sounds like the ancient Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, heh.

Flynn · Feb 5, 2005

People don't get rich for writing stories, they get rich for selling them.

MC Safety · Feb 5, 2005

Piers Anthony wrote the book years ago. Killobyte, I believe it was called.

xsarien · Feb 5, 2005

If this were an adult, I'd be more willing to rip her a new one for ripping off the entire early half of the 90s, and nearly every VR story that came out in theaters, TV shows, and books. But, you know, 13. Eh. She'll look back on it in 10 years and realize just how much of a retread on the theme it actually turned out to be.

Or she'll get sued, whichever comes first.

Lil' Dice · Feb 5, 2005

They all ripped off TRON:

Even this guy:

Chrono · Feb 5, 2005

Naked Shuriken said:
I wrote the same exact kind of story for a homework back in fifth grade. Once again, saturday morning japanese cartoons aimed at kids are hallmarks of innovation!

I'm actually beginning to enjoy Naked Shuriken's anime trolls. They make me feel so much better about myself. Keep it up! :lol

J2 Cool · Feb 5, 2005

don't know what dragon drive is but congratulations on ripping off .hack *puke*

COCKLES · Feb 5, 2005

Well she probably thought "If JK Rowling can do it..."

Smiles and Cries · Feb 5, 2005

Props to that little girl 50,000 sold in 6 weeks!

I would be lucky if my book sold 2,000 in a year

Malakhov · Feb 5, 2005

Props to her, boo to all the haters.

Meier · Feb 6, 2005

I'm not saying what she's done isnt impressive, I just got a kick out of it after reading the description of it after seeing the link to the story on Drudge.

belgurdo · Feb 6, 2005

Malakhov said:
Props to her, boo to all the haters.

So she is allowed to blatantly crib ideas from established series simply because she's young? When I was in high school and played FFVII for the first time I had a million story ideas that mirrored the game that I occassionally put on paper. Where's my royalty checks?

duckroll · Feb 6, 2005

Edit: I am an idiot and should read the entire thread in detail before posting stupid shit! :lol

Rorschach · Feb 6, 2005

duckroll said:
Hey guys, guess what?

When a great movie/game/tvseries you like gets sued by someone for copying a generic cliched idea that they had in their book/script/whatever, everyone goes "HAHAHAHAHA YOU CALL THAT A RIPOFF? NO CONNECTION!" or something similar.

Now when someone writes a novel with a generic cliche idea that you just happened to also encounter in a generic cliche anime (Dragon Drive and .hack both suck ass, fuck the defenders ) you're up in arms?

Man you guys need something better to do, what are the odds that the girl in question even bothered watching something as crappy as Dragon Drive anyway?

Who's up in arms? Why don't you name some names? What 1 person...maybe 2? Or did you just not bother reading the thread? Of course you didn't because you're better than us and you have better things to do!

teiresias · Feb 6, 2005

I don't know. Nowadays it seems the trend is if a publisher sees an even passably publishable something by someone under the age of 17 they give it pretty heavy consideration since they know at some point there will be publicity because of the authors prodigious age. This seems to happen much more often in the realm of fantasy and sci-fi, where you can get away with the shallow crap most of these stories turn out to be.

belgurdo · Feb 6, 2005

duckroll said:
Hey guys, guess what?

When a great movie/game/tvseries you like gets sued by someone for copying a generic cliched idea that they had in their book/script/whatever, everyone goes "HAHAHAHAHA YOU CALL THAT A RIPOFF? NO CONNECTION!" or something similar.

Now when someone writes a novel with a generic cliche idea that you just happened to also encounter in a generic cliche anime (Dragon Drive and .hack both suck ass, fuck the defenders ) you're up in arms?

Man you guys need something better to do, what are the odds that the girl in question even bothered watching something as crappy as Dragon Drive anyway?

The fact that it's anime has nothing to do with the discussion, other than being a point of reference. It helps to be on the same line as everyone else once in a while, dude

duckroll · Feb 6, 2005

Oh no! It was just the first poster! I suck!

Blackace · Feb 6, 2005

belgurdo said:
So she is allowed to blatantly crib ideas from established series simply because she's young? When I was in high school and played FFVII for the first time I had a million story ideas that mirrored the game that I occassionally put on paper. Where's my royalty checks?

too bad you didn't publish it. Every writer borrows ideas from some where. There are some many stories based on that same idea. To say she based it from an Anime that she might not have even seen is silly...

MrAngryFace · Feb 6, 2005

This girl is a dumbass. Fuck her and her lame ass story ripped off from a lame ass story. Why people like her are allowed to create anything is beyond my understanding.

Drexon · Feb 6, 2005

Hmmm. Azuma Kazuma from Yakitate totally looks like the DD guy... And I watched the entire series (36 or so eps, I thought it would end @ 26 >_<) just out of spite and it sucked.

And you guys are just jealous 'cuz you didn't make money of anime.

Blackace · Feb 6, 2005

MrAngryFace said:
This girl is a dumbass. Fuck her and her lame ass story ripped off from a lame ass story. Why people like her are allowed to create anything is beyond my understanding.

If I didn't know you better I would swear you were bitter

MrAngryFace · Feb 6, 2005

No, just tired of idiots running the world by dumb luck and a majority's sense of stupid.

Blackace · Feb 6, 2005

If it makes you feel better I am sure she will be broke by the time she is 24...and hooked on various pain killers

Matlock · Feb 6, 2005

Why are there so many sphinxes?

Smiles and Cries · Feb 6, 2005

Oh come on guys give the little girl a break! MAF chill out bro...

I wish I became famous at a young age...

Shit I am a struggling painter and getting old 32 soon...

Maybe I should be mad that this little girl painter got on Oprah

http://artakiane.com/press.htm

Also on the Lou Dobbs Show/CNN, KREM NEWS/CBS, KETV/ABC, and co-host on The Wayne Brady Show, Reflections and Hour of Power / Crystal Cathedral / A featured celebrity in Time Magazine

***tears... shit I need a drink

teiresias · Feb 6, 2005

Haha, her book's got some god-awful photoshop cover. :lol :lol

And I'm sure this story is alot better when you read Tad Williams' version called "Otherland."

Smiles and Cries · Feb 6, 2005

after seeing the cover I guess I would have to agree - maybe 50,000 books sold came with free Girl Scout Cookies...

The Age thing is a big factor all you need is to be young and doing something that shows a little talent and the media hype alone can make you rich

Meier · Feb 6, 2005

For the record, the description makes it sound like even more of a rip-off of Dragon Drive.

pestul · Feb 6, 2005

What if it is actually good?

..although it obviously can't be.

teiresias · Feb 6, 2005

OK, just read the description of the back cover. The thing is using every virtual reality cliche known to man and parading them like they're some revelation (ie. if you die in the game you die in real-life, ooooooooooo).

Yeah, I'd like to hand her all four Volumes of "Otherland" (1000+ pages each) and say, get to work, this is a real virtual reality story.

Smiles and Cries · Feb 6, 2005

I wonder how old the little Piccasso girl is now I forgot her name but damn hearing about her use to piss me off

I've seen her Disney Piccasso style paintings selling for $60k at a Cleveland Mall Gallery and I almost cried

Suerte · Feb 6, 2005

I'll drive to Inverness and slap her about.

kablooey · Feb 6, 2005

So...sounds like she pulled a Disney.

Meier · Feb 6, 2005

kablooey said:
So...sounds like she pulled a Disney.

Touché.

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