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Giant Bomb #7 | Hey There, Small Business Owner!

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Fotheringay

Member
Jintor said:
Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it wasn't as interesting before until it hit someone you knew and could talk to more easily.

Patrick's not a goddamn superhero who has an obligation to report on every story as some kind of objective colossus the moment it comes into existence. He can work on whatever he finds interesting for whatever reasons he finds them interesting.
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I'm hardly holding Patrick to some hyperbolic standard here, it was merely a criticism of something that he even admitted in his tumblr post. The time to write an article about the shameless cloning of iOS game was 2-3 years ago. At this time it's accepted as standard (albeit scummy) in that industry.

Edit: After re-reading his tumblr post, it seems he thought that having the perspective of the original creator is what would make it an interesting story. To that end I agree, it just feels too late at this point.
 
P

Patrick Klepek

furiously molesting tim burton
Fotheringay said:
I'm hardly holding Patrick to some hyperbolic standard here, it was merely a criticism of something that he even admitted in his tumblr post. The time to write an article about the shameless cloning of iOS game was 2-3 years ago. At this time it's accepted as standard (albeit scummy) in that industry.
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Just because the pond has become dirty doesn't mean you should ditch it. Change can happen. And as someone who just wrote an article about Spelunky and Dark Souls, I don't think you should limit when the time is to talk about something. There is almost always an audience. You write about what your passionate about, and the traffic numbers (and feedback) suggest people find this interesting. If anything, we need to be grappling with these questions even more intensely right now, since it's likely Steam will be transitioning to a similar marketplace in the next 18 months.
 
Z

Zaph

Member
Patrick Klepek said:
I think the guy from China might have been playing it up a little, for sure. I'm with you there. Not the 2048 guy. He seems genuinely apologetic about the whole thing, and I do believe him. As for Apple/Google, I'm not even sure they're the right people to be talking to. How is Apple/Google going to figure out what is a clone and what isn't? That's why copyright on names works well, since it's easy. It's a direct copy. Game mechanics, which have been organically iterative for decades, are much harder to make a case for. What Apple/Google can do, however, is use curation on marketplace storefronts to highlight the original games, even if the clones are climbing the charts. All of this is not surprising from an open marketplace. But we are happier with a world where people can make, submit, and release games easier than ever, even if we deal with some of this? I am.
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Up until a couple months ago, I would have agreed. But since Flappy Bird, it's clear Google at least has some type of off-the-record limits on clones (granted, that was unique situation, with far more clones than usual due to the publicity). Again, I'm not saying they should act as the arbiter of what is a clone and what's original (I mean, is anything really original anyway?), but I would like to hear their stance on it.

Also, not sure if you've seen it, but here's a good post on Reddit (yes, apparently they exist) from a practising IP attorney for a software company giving his thoughts on this.
 
P

Patrick Klepek

furiously molesting tim burton
Zaph said:
Up until a couple months ago, I would have agreed. But since Flappy Bird, it's clear Google at least has some type of off-the-record limits on clones (granted, that was unique situation, with far more clones than usual due to the publicity). Again, I'm not saying they should act as the arbiter of what is a clone and what's original (I mean, is anything really original anyway?), but I would like to hear their stance on it.

Also, not sure if you've seen it, but here's a good post on Reddit (yes, apparently they exist) from a practising IP attorney for a software company giving his thoughts on this.
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Google is a little more complicated. It seems a bit more...wild west.

Thanks for the link!
 
C

CambriaRising

Member
Patrick Klepek said:
I would have posted the tweet if I still had a copy of it.

Anyway, appreciate you guys keeping my feet to the fire on this one. I had deep reservations about writing about Threes, and knew the disclosure was not going to get met out of the way on anything that smelled funny.

I still think what happened with Threes opens up a complex set of issues that were worth exploring, and the Interview Dumptruck going up on Monday with Greg Wohlwend has a bunch of stuff that didn't make it into the story itself (i.e. patenting mechanics). The story was going to get killed for lack of an interesting angle, but then both the 1024 developer and 2048 developer got back to me.

But as someone that takes this job really seriously, I'm only able to keep perspective when other people tell me "hey, this doesn't pass the smell test." We may disagree on that, but I appreciate everyone bringing it up. I don't check this thread often, but you can always reach me at patrick@giantbomb.com or Twitter or Tumblr or a billion other places.
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I just wanted to say thanks for swinging by and addressing this with class. A lot of us here in this thread and elsewhere appreciate what you do, and frankly, for me, you are one of the best around. We just don't want to see you fall down the hole that so many others have in the past. Keep up the good work man.
 
J

Jintor

Member
Fotheringay said:
The time to write an article about the shameless cloning of iOS game was 2-3 years ago. At this time it's accepted as standard (albeit scummy) in that industry.
Click to expand...

That's like saying the time to write about American urban crime in Baltimore or something was when it started. You're right, but it doesn't invalidate the fact that something was written now
 
C

CambriaRising

Member
Just tuned in and saw this:

BpdBT8Nl.jpg
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...They have my interest.
 
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