This is something I expect people to be heavy in one direction or the other, its a controversial topic and that's fine sometimes you need to push doors to see where they stand, so I ask you, the reader this.
Is it okay to "rip off" a game. What sparked this idea was the game Paladins, its a Free To Play Moba/CartPush/fps/MMO, think OverWatch which is what this is going to be about the way i look at it is like this and I'm going to give my thoughts and both pros and cons.
Firstly I dont think there is anything wrong with taking inspiration from a game when making a new one, that's how ideas grow you take from different areas and put together to make something new, and that there is a difference in taking inspiration from game, and straight re-skinning it which is what a lot of people think Paladins is to OverWatch.
I haven't played much over watch in fact I only played the beta for a day,it just didn't interest me it seemed like a concept for a game that would just be team fortress 2 all over again but with a $60USD price tag, that's to high for me to just buy it especially considering I dont enjoy that style of game, But the beta was free and open so i gave it a shot.
It was okay,I had some fun for the game or 2 I played. I dont really remember who I played and that's not important what is important is the impression it left on me, it wasn't a sour taste but more of a "meh" I simply wasn't invested into it as I wasn't going to buy it to play at the time,
Skip forward 6 months to paladins launch, I first herd about it on twitter someone I followed re-tweeted something about it and I was curious so I went and had a look and lo and be hold it was free, and I like free, I'm all for free to play games I think its a great way to get people into gaming and more gamers having fun is never a bad thing right?
Well kinda, if the game is truly free to play its going to be riddled with micro transactions and that's okay for an MMO type of game that's free to play they have to keep the servers up somehow, and paladins do it quite well they took the valve approach to micro transactions and just sold skins, well skins and voiced packs the point is what you can buy doesn't effect how the game plays at all only the way it looks, unlike some other game out there that are riddles with micro transactions even thought they make literal flying jet-pack loads of cash ever year.. hint hint
So where does the whole "ripping off a game" come in, well it comes in here while talking to some people we all agreed that Paladins and OverWatch are pretty much the same game with almost identically the same play style down to the "play of the game" cam at the end of a match, which led me to the idea that taking a popular game.Taking your own spin on things and releasing it as a free to play game isn't a bad business model, you take what people are loving and tap into the market of people who dont want to spend $60 on a game only to then spend another $60+ on skins to look cool in game, its an extremely large market of people, if you look at steam and look at the top games they are mostly free to play with the exception of cs:go because well its counter strike and its like crack.
But is it wrong to do what they did legally and morally, legally its fine, they made the game themselves and from a legal stance they aren't in competition with OverWatch, morally however its different, they know exactly what they are doing and its competing with Overwatch and I dont think its a bad idea, more people doing the same thing over all leads to a better experience for the player in both cost and game-play as each are trying to one up and keep the audience the most.
Another way to look at it is this" hey mum I really want to play this game but it $60 can I have some money to buy it" said young billy as his eyes filling with joy " No I'm sorry billy we have to eat this week and your sister needs that new heart all we can spare is $5" billy's mother says with despair " okay mum I understand Sarah gets to live I guess" billy proclaimed as he took the $5 and ran back to his PC to pick up paladins, the same game but free and spend that $5 on a couple crates an got some cool new cards and skins.
^^^ That right there is the exact market they are tapping into and its a market that not many people are hitting, most free to play games are just crappy time wasters with wait timers that can be passed with cash effectively screwing you into this idea that to keep progressing you need to either A) spend hours upon ours waiting, or B) spend $5 now and have it done now only to have to be back in the same spot 5 minutes latter.
So what are your thoughts on the whole thing, are you okay with taking a game that's buy to play, mixing it up with your own flair and ideas and selling it as a free to play game with micro transactions? let us know over on twitter our link is down below.
Lucas
www.twitter.com/thelarrylazz
www.youtube.comlarryplaysgames
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