Discussion Pokemon ripoffs

[DestinyBond]

I was playing a free app that had ads after each session (in this case I lost, so I was angry, naturally) and an ad for a ripoff started to play (in Chinese, since I live in Hong Kong and most people are more literate in Chinese). This naturally pissed me off more because, after all, I am, and I'm sure y'all are, fans of Pokemon and wouldn't dare touch a dime that was earned from your fan game, while these (swear words) rip the company off and doesn't have to pay a dime for earning money using the in app purchases.
Then I got so worked up and decided to look up Pokemon (using various translations of the franchises' name) and got more pissed when I noticed that there were apps in traditional AND simplified Chinese, meaning these (swear word slang that defines these shady people as male offspring of female dogs) have a market in both in China and the S.A.R.s + Taiwan.
Then I calmed down and thought: what would my fellow fan game fans and devs have to say about this? What would they think of the designs of the ripoffs' fakemon? What do they think about Hong Kong's culture as a whole, with its complicated, semi-democratic government that is somewhat independent from the Chinese government, its odd culture of idolization of its Tutorial class teachers and its colonial history?
So here's a bunch of screenshots I took from the app store and tell me what you think of it:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_GRfBznz4JRd1BQWTdWRXdkM3c

 

[Evan]

Big fan of "cool-Moltres" and "cool Raikou/Suicune" in those images. Not huge into actually selling Pokemon ripoffs on the app store.

 

[DestinyBond]

How about Teemo cat?------------------------(Holy (swear), I just replied the starrcasm with such impunity)
(I should apologize)
(would he find it weird?)
(wastes time to reconsider all life choices)

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I saw an ad for one just the other day that unabashedly copied almost every last detail of Pokemon. ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mystery-pets/id1229082860?mt=8 ) "sprites" are just official artwork copied and pasted into the game, not a single name change, etc, etc. And according to the Top In-App Purchases for it on the itunes store, people have spent as much as 100$ on it.

Frankly, this infuriates me. Fangame devs create a (usually) free game because they love game design and the Pokemon franchise, and spend a good deal of time trying to make something enjoyable. Some even go so far as to design fakemon and other custom implements. They have to fear a takedown. Knockoff "devs" make a game using only Gamefreak's intellectual property (and not very well) and makes money from it, without any repercussions. (and the problem isn't that fangames advertise too much-the whole reason I knew about this game in the first place is because I was doing one of those "watch ads to earn rewards" on another (original) mobile game. So not only are they advertising for it, they're paying to advertise for it.)

 

[Djaco75]

I'll be honest - I am disgusted. I honestly think it's disgusting that they just go and copy all of the hard work that is put in by the official Pokemon developers and don't even acknowledge the fact that the work is not theirs. Sure, they may have changed the designs for it, but still, it's just horrible what they have done.

There should be a stronger copyright policy against this.

 

[DestinyBond]

... I honestly think it's disgusting that they just go and copy all of the hard work that is put in by the official Pokemon developers and don't even acknowledge the fact that the work is not theirs. Sure, they may have changed the designs for it...

...dammit, I forgot to translate the Chinese.
You see, in most of the apps I found, they are blatantly saying their creations are Pokemon (or just swapped parts of the term to avoid calling them Pokemon). If I remember correctly, there was even an app that boasted about bringing the Pokemon from the "classical" anime to life.
TL;DR: They are saying that they are Pokemon------------------------

I saw an ad for one just the other day that unabashedly copied almost every last detail of Pokemon. ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mystery-pets/id1229082860?mt=8 ) "sprites" are just official artwork copied and pasted into the game, not a single name change, etc, etc.

The male "trainer" is actually Chiaki Morisawa from ensemble stars, which brings me to another point: these apps aren't just ripping off Pokemon.
In the preview slide next to hoodie Pikahcu riding on M. Charizard, the wording seems to also asks the potential buyer to "fight for their digital dream" i.e., ripping off Digimon
Also, as I have mentioned before, Teemo, from League of Legends is anthropomorphized into a literal cat
Most of these franchises are highly popular in Asian countries, with Digimon and Pokemon having high Nostalgia points. These apps are trying to make the average Asian nerd's wet dream while ripping off the largest amount of franchises.

Fangame devs create a (usually) free game because they love game design and the Pokemon franchise...

Pokemon generation 0?

 

[TechSkylander1518]

Hence the (usually)-not all of them are free, but most of them are.

 

[Aki]

I'm pretty sure bootlegs and ripoffs have allways been around and are going to continue (especially for a franchise as globally popular as Pokemon) so the existence of these games doesn't bother me too much. There's obviously a market for these games and I doubt most people are fooled into thinking the game they're playing on is anything official; they know what they're playing a knockoff and if they wanna spend money on it (and just trust such an app on their device? That's a weird one for me personally) then that's their choice. I've seen people actually enjoy games like these, so there is some level of quality in some of these games.


I don't think these games can really damage Pokemon or Nintendo's reputation, because again, pretty much everyone is aware they're playing an unofficial game.

I'd say they do hurt us fan game devs though, since the lines between a fan game and a ripoff game are pretty blurry. Personally I draw those lines somewhere at being completely honest about what the game is and not trying to make money off of it, but that's another whole conversation and pretty subjective in the first place.

 

[Djaco75]

...dammit, I forgot to translate the Chinese.
You see, in most of the apps I found, they are blatantly saying their creations are Pokemon (or just swapped parts of the term to avoid calling them Pokemon). If I remember correctly, there was even an app that boasted about bringing the Pokemon from the "classical" anime to life.
TL;DR: They are saying that they are Pokemon------------------------

Pokemon generation 0?

Oh, I see. My bad then. I still don't approve of them, though. It's just better to play the mainstream games, and, as @Aki said, they do hurt us fangame developers.

 

[DestinyBond]

Now that I have (accidentally) killed my own thread (by not talking), I uploaded a new folder of pics of a mainland Chinese MMORPG that's basically Pokemon. It used to have three stage evolution for mons, they recently added a system of Mega evolution. It sells credits at convenience stores. (i.e. They earn money off of it)
While (if not blatantly) ripping off Pokemon, it does have interesting mechanics from MMORPGssuch as bases; it also adds a unique system of special evolutionary lines that are only accessible by breeding two different lines together.
Thoughts on its mechanics and or designs?

 

[manta]

The designs are quite intriguing. Well, maybe it isn't legal, but it is interesting. The game itself looks quite smooth from the screenshots, it's a nice attempt to port Pokémon to mobile. But it is infringing on copyright, so I guess it has to go. If anything, stop them making money but keep the game.

 

[MasterBallz]

Anybody here played EvoCreo before? It's basically a Pokemon rip off that should be getting a C&D order instead of our beloved fan games since they're actually making money from Pokemon.

 

[DestinyBond]

The designs are quite intriguing. Well, maybe it isn't legal, but it is interesting. The game itself looks quite smooth from the screenshots, it's a nice attempt to port Pokémon to mobile. But it is infringing on copyright, so I guess it has to go. If anything, stop them making money but keep the game.

Oh, the new ones aren't on mobile
And it's also super laggy
here's a, um, sort of wiki page of the game:
http://www.4399.com/flash/seer.htm------------------------

Anybody here played EvoCreo before? It's basically a Pokemon rip off that should be getting a C&D order instead of our beloved fan games since they're actually making money from Pokemon.

Everything in this thread should be treated this way, honestly

 

[Mozart]

I'll be honest I'm disappointed there's been no mention of Pocket Monica in here.

 

[DestinyBond]

...Pocket Monica...

There, it has been mentioned.
Also, yeah, there's a lot of unlicensed products in certain stores.

 

[Mozart]

Spoiler

Pics or it didn't happen gosh!! (I'm actually half wondering if the Giant Woman character in B2W2 being named Monica isn't a reference to this.)

 

[TechSkylander1518]

youbeen kick out