Zynga, the people behind all of those terribly addictive, annoyingly intrusive Facebook games has often been accused of downright cloning other people’s games. The whole situation has been overblown, says Zynga, adding that all games borrow from one another.
“All games are derived from other games,” Dan Porter, boss of Zynga New York, wrote in a open letter to Zynga staff, posted n the company’s blog. “… this has been happening long before Zynga, he continued, and that “the debate about originality in games is vastly overblown and misses the mark.”
Originality in games, he says, comes from ideas on how to maintain and satisfy audiences.
“Before making Draw Something, we ran OMGPOP for four years and made lots of games that were inspired by games we loved and we emulated the mechanics from games with great UI. This is no great revelation,” he said.
“The bigger point that I made, one that was overshadowed, goes to the true genius of Zynga. After making games for years, it was joining Zynga that made me understand the art, science and special sauce running games as a service.
While I will agree that games do copy each other all the time, there’s a stark difference between using existing ideas or mechanics as inspiration, and straight up plagiarism.
Last Updated: March 12, 2013
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
March 12, 2013 at 14:04
What about being, oh I don’t know, original for a change? Is that such a tall order?
Sir Captain Rincethis
March 12, 2013 at 14:09
You just have to wait for CoD 1435434537865784 BOPS, TOPoFtheBopsExtreem man, you will be pleasantly surprised.
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
March 12, 2013 at 14:13
lol
LordCaptainAwesomeness
March 12, 2013 at 14:14
Being Original does not sell….
Skyblue
March 12, 2013 at 14:47
Original doesn’t always mean better, and agree with Deon, original does sell these days, even derivative original
Lardus
March 12, 2013 at 14:05
Talking about copying: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2291674/Assassins-Creed-Danish-TV-channel-apologises-using-image-game-news-report-Syria-conflict.html
Sir Captain Rincethis
March 12, 2013 at 14:16
What irks me about this is the use of VIOLENT in the header. Who is this a quote from? And why, AC3 is less violent than Syria? Would they have had ‘picture of Violent Syria’ in the header if it were real?
Admiral Chief Erwin
March 12, 2013 at 14:06
Now to get the CoD guys to wake up
Sir Captain Rincethis
March 12, 2013 at 14:08
I call TROLL!
Warren Ross
March 12, 2013 at 14:35
http://www.everythingisaremix.info
Nicholas Rowan
March 12, 2013 at 14:41
Derivative yes, to some degree, blatent cloning and rebranding no, not so much.