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Examples of plagiarism in games

L

lazygecko

Member
Falk said:
If you're really interested in this kind of stuff, this is a really good/eye-opening read

http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11231

Tangential, but I'll say very cryptically that a particular percussion loop is used in both Kingdom Hearts and D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die. Cracked me up when I recognized it.
Click to expand...

I've browsed through a good deal of AKAI libraries myself years ago so I'm very prone to recognizing how common it is for soundtracks. Much like visual artists tracing, it usually comes down to a lack of time allocated to them by their clients. In Command & Conquer Generals for instance it's pretty much just the USA faction which has actual fully original compositions, whereas the other two factions China and GLA have their soundtracks almost exclusively made out of prefab loops. I don't blame the composer when he was single-handedly tasked with making basically 3 full soundtracks for 1 game.
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
Rodney McKay said:
EDIT: apparently it was available for commercial usage, so no plagarism. Still super lazy, especially for revealing something as big as what the Quarian's look like under their masks.
Click to expand...

Really? The "lazy devs" thing is still happening? The use of photos for game art assets is extremely common. Even when you don't recognize it, nearly all concept art for AAA games utilizes photos. There's nothing wrong with it and there's nothing lazy about it.
 
K

Kyou

Member
shidoshi said:
That's not plagiarism. Capcom owned the rights to the original image, because it was theirs. Someone at the company was just stupid and grabbed it off of Google Images or something instead of their internal asset archive.
Click to expand...

From what I remember at the time, Capcom didn't support the team who was doing the port very well. They couldn't get their hands on a lot of assets they needed.
 
C

Cels

Member
AlucardGV said:
mass effect?

Mass-Effect-3-Tali-vs-Stock-photo-Spoilers.jpeg


well okay it was royalty free....
Click to expand...

They surely licensed the base image from Getty, so it's not plagiarism.


kpaadet said:
Subway maps are now considered art? Man all these suckers spending money to go to museums when they could just go to their local train/subway station. :)
Click to expand...

Is it art? Dunno. What is certain is is that Naughty Dog felt comfortable taking someone else's image and putting it into their game without ensuring that they had the rights to do so.
 
T

Toxi

Banned
kpaadet said:
Subway maps are now considered art? Man all these suckers spending money to go to museums when they could just go to their local train/subway station. :)
Click to expand...
Wow, we're still doing this shit.

And it's the artist's property. It doesn't matter what you think of the art, the fact of the manner is that Naughty Dog put it in their game without getting the rights.
 
K

kpaadet

Member
Cels said:
Is it art? Dunno. What is certain is is that Naughty Dog felt comfortable taking someone else's image and putting it into their game without ensuring that they had the rights to do so.
Click to expand...
You are completly right, I just found it funny that a subway map was being described as art. But hey maybe it is, what do I know?

Toxi said:
Wow, we're still doing this shit.

And it's the artist's property. It doesn't matter what you think of the art, the fact of the manner is that Naughty Dog put it in their game without getting the rights.
Click to expand...
Sigh...calm down. I guess a smiley is no longer enough to indicate you are not being serious anymore. Guess I'm out of here.
 
S

Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew

Banned
I think Konami uses a lot of samples/audios from other games/sources. I posted this in MGSV thread:

1. Opening scene when Konami logo flashes has the same sound as loading screen in King of Fighters 97.

Example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpO2rk2PPE0 Audio heard at 0:10 to 0:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dONoGIEbv68 Audio heard at 0:30 to 0:35

2. Mission 29, Metallic Archaea, has the same sound as Bloodborne's "Backstab" sound.

Example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg9F28kmV9Q Audio heard at 9:10 to 9:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsKAFzL2V28 Audio heard at 0:05 to 0:10
 
M

MrSaturn99

Member
Playsage said:
Such a shame. And for this very reason original Budokai 3 had the best music in a DBZ game imo
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Yeah, it's pretty messed up. The music was still so goddamn good and regardless of their origin, they made those games. Consequently, it just felt so off when the HD rerelease didn't have them.

Granted, it's not like every song in the trilogy was plagiarized, but...well, you never know. :(

The way it fucked up Kai was pretty bad, too.
 
P

Phediuk

Member
The entire original Final Fantasy was a complete rip from 1st edition D&D.

Monster designs, spells, gameplay mechanics, everything. It was D&D in every way but name. Some monster names were even changed for the English release to avoid legal trouble.
 
R

retroman

Member
Music from the C64 version of Bomb Jack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5BU2baDH04
Magnetic Fields 2 by Jean Michel Jarre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttIL4EnqXdU

And now for some music from the C64 version of Yie Ar Kung Fu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo0sgcQNEic
Hey, it's Jean Michel Jarre again! Magnetic Fields 4, to be precise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6la2_NptyaE

Here's one of my favourite video game tracks ever, The Mansion from Last Ninja 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMJjqVB9JCM
While I still love it, I was slightly disappointed when I found out the intro sounded suspiciously like Alchemy Of The Heart by Tangerine Dreams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBeiRu6CquA

Let's listen to Spread The Wings from Mark of the Wolves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWj8Cb7yieY
Now, compare the chorus from Spread The Wings to the chorus from Children by Robert Miles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC5ca6Hsb2Q

Streets Of Rage 2's soundtrack is my all-time favourite video game soundtrack and Yuzo Koshiro is a legendary composer, but I'd be lying if I said he wasn't inspired by other artists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYUuCN3A0K0
 
eso76

eso76

Member
lazygecko said:
SNK had a boner for Akira as far back as their shmup Last Resort. The background for the first stage was a pretty blatant pixelart recreation of the iconic cyberpunk skyline.

tumblr_mskistqdmp1s7eonpa9.gif
Click to expand...

Yup.
Also the crater in the background when you fight the first boss is straight from Akira, or at least I always thought so.

1041028-last_resort2.gif
akira-2.png


Edit: yep, looks like i wasn't the only one who noticed
 
P

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
I love these kinds of threads.

On topic, the theme for the Neon Tiger stage in Mega Man X3 is a copy of My Michelle by Guns N' Roses. In fact, we could have a whole thread on Mega Man music that's suspiciously similar to various popular music. On MobileGAF or I'd link some examples, but rest assured they're on YouTube. Considering that homages to Axl and Slash are effectively in Final Fight by the same dev house and the many musical references there, it's not a stretch.
 
N

Nottle

Member
A problem almost any Jojo game has.

The Mother series is guilty of this with most of its music. Also perhaps not plagiarism but Mother 3 like many other examples of Japanese media has a a Char clone. Leonardo Dicaprio also seems to come to mind as an actor games just sort of adopted into their character design. Leon from Re2 and Steve from CV. Also Raiden being an homage to his titanic character.

Metal Gear 2 had all of those actors that they just traced over for character art.

The sonic games always seemed too DBZ to me in a lot of key ways. Though this isn't plagiarism.

I feel like games are most guilty of just ripping off a likeness of a famous actor, which is cool with me because like the director for Cowboy Bebop said you can just draw the actors into the work of you want to.
 
A

AmaterasuOkami076

Member
It's not the same thing, but this thread just reminded me. There's this sample of children laughing that I have heard so many times over the years. I first heard it in the intro/opening to Diddy King Racing when the Rareware logo is spinning and have just always found it amusing at how many times it's been used in different contexts.
 
R

redcrayon

Member
kpaadet said:
Subway maps are now considered art? Man all these suckers spending money to go to museums when they could just go to their local train/subway station. :)
Click to expand...
Plenty of iconic and influential pieces of graphic design are very much considered art. Just because something is commissioned by the public sector (although the one in TLOU wasn't) doesn't mean that it can't be considered a beautifully executed piece of art as well as being highly functional. In the same way, there are plenty of exhibitions of commercial artwork/illustration/photography/graphic design commissioned for use in editorial, album covers, film posters and advertising, along with public-sector-commissioned sculpture etc. 'But is it art?' is a particularly funny discussion on a computer games board :D
 
T

The n00b Avenger

Member
PSqueak said:
Super Robot Wars K Plagirized a song form Warcraft 2 and the Magus theme from Chrono trigger, Banpresto and Bandai/Namco apologuised to Square, but Blizzard? as far as i know they never acknowledged nor apologuised to them and went as far as reusing the Warcraft song in Super Robot Wars W.
Click to expand...

Yeah

Lufia 2
and Chrono Trigger
and Warcraft

Whoever that guy is likes to copy tunes I guess. It's hilarious how blatant Lufia 2 is.
 
S

sd28821

Member
PSqueak said:
Super Robot Wars K Plagirized a song form Warcraft 2 and the Magus theme from Chrono trigger, Banpresto and Bandai/Namco apologuised to Square, but Blizzard? as far as i know they never acknowledged nor apologuised to them and went as far as reusing the Warcraft song in Super Robot Wars W.
Click to expand...

dont you mean L since W came out before K ?
 
R

Rodney McKay

Member
Servbot24 said:
Really? The "lazy devs" thing is still happening? The use of photos for game art assets is extremely common. Even when you don't recognize it, nearly all concept art for AAA games utilizes photos. There's nothing wrong with it and there's nothing lazy about it.
Click to expand...

In this particular example? Yes, I think saying that this was a lazy way of revealing the mystery of what the Quarians look like.

I have nothing against the use of photos in games or concept art, The Naughty Dog Subway map for example seems like a totally reasonable usage that I can understand anyone not realizing it was legal to use it. Even basing how characters look off of images or real life people I don't have a real problem with, like the Contra art above this post. But I do find outright tracing on an image and leaving the bulk of it identical to absolutely be lazy.

Bioware got permission to use the image so you're absolutely right that there's nothing wrong with it in that way, but it absolutely was a lazy thing to do in this particular case. A main companion character in three separate Mass Effect games (games with a LOT of modeled faces) that they reveal what the species look like with a quick trace on a stock photo.
 
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