mikejkelley

27 comments by mikejkelley on Mar 28th, 2009 digg this super bookmark

Dream Casters' Duel is being copied. I'll put aside the cartoonish-dream-themed and future-tech+lucid-dreaming mods being made by ex-DCD watchers for now, and jump right to specifics.

Compare this from the dcdDesignDoc.doc, publicized once again less than 3 months ago...

Marrish:
Zombie Hands: To accomplish this attack, the Marrish invisibly marks a section of the map. When an opponent wanders into the proximity of this affected area, zombie hands reach up from the ground and detain the opponent until he or she is able to struggle free or the attack expires. While being detained, the opponent is unable to defend him or herself.

with this from the latest Naruto: Naiteki Kensei Mod...

Tsuiga no Jutsu is a non-damaging technique that roots your opponent in place. After casting the proper seals Kakashi summons Pakkun. Any nearby enemies will be chased by Pakkun for a short time. If they are unable to avoid their pursuer Pakkun will take hold summoning the rest of the dogs to clamp onto their target holding them in place.

Here's my case for having been infringed upon (the design document is copyrighted as well as being registered with WGWa as WGWa #1109915 as a treatment under the title "Dueling Dreams")...

1. The Naruto mod (which has very good animations btw) is infringing on copyright to begin with, so obviously they've no moral objections to the practice
2. As they are both anime and cel-shaded, the Naruto mod and DCD both share an audience and are regular features in the Anime Group. They would be familiar with DCD and would have motive for copying the DCD design doc.
3. Until recently, the Naruto mod has expressly ruled out the use of summons, leaving fans such as V.Metallic to comment "I thought you are not planning to add Summons, but nevermind."
4. I don't know of a single other "detainment summons" in all of fighting game modding until I added it to the DCD repetoire. Now shortly after I publicize the dcdDesignDoc, the Naruto mod reverses its' decision to not use summoning and uses a "detainment summons"? Seems like more than coincidence.

While it may not seem like much, original ideas like a "detainment summons" are the foundations of Dream Casters' Duel. Playing by the rules and honoring copyright law puts my mod at a great disadvantage to begin with. The Naruto mod, through theft, has capitalized on the years of marketing, years of professional design and development, professional full-time artistry, and world-wide fan base that Masashi Kishimoto and his team have worked for more than a decade to cultivate. Now the Nartuto mod wants to steal my ideas too? Fuck that. Not without a fight.

I'd like to think that the modding community would be as against using other ppl's ideas as much as it is against using other ppl's models without permission. I've seen people get into huge flame wars about gun models and character models (whose original creator had ip-thieved ironically enough) that looked the slightest bit similiar. I would like to think stealing ip from other modders would be made as socially unacceptable. Given this community's track record of allowing copyright infringement in all things however, should I hold my breath? You tell me.