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A Blow to the Nintendo Fan-Game Community

Discussion in 'Video Games' started by Lunen Transnima, Sep 2, 2016.

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What is your stance on Fan-Games

  1. I love them, I play them often.

    15.4%
  2. I like them, I occasionally play them

    46.2%
  3. They're Okay, but I don't play them

    30.8%
  4. They are bad for the Pokemon/Nintendo series.

    7.7%
  1. Lunen Transnima

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    Alright, so after looking around the forums a little, I found nothing on this topic. Which, I must say disappoints me a little. But then again, this news is fairly new and straight from source.
    So, recently Pokémon Uranium made waves in the fan game community, adding to the residual waves from the Metroid II fan-remake. Nintendo, as expected acted promptly, issuing takedown notices to several hosts, however, not officially contacting the Development Team of Uranium.

    Over the past 24 hours a few things have changed in the fangame community. Nintendo of America has sent out the dogs on GameJolt, a popular game sharing site. GameJolt received a DMCA from NOA's Lawyers. Here are the official contents of said DMCA;

    GitHub: https://github.com/gamejolt/dmca/commit/bd4da58d7fc7057dd2552f61c368c12b2905c838

    The total comes to approximately 565 Nintendo fan-games, from Mario to Legend of Zelda. While I am unsure of the rest of the fan-game community, several Pokémon Fangame Communities have shut their doors and are waiting out the storm.

    While GameJolt was just one of the many sites out there that disseminate fangames, the loss of the fangames from the site is a major blow to the fangame community. While the fangame community refuses to die, the future looks dark for some time to come.
     
  2. Maantijger

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    Tbh I'm not a fan of fan games and I understand Nintendo want games like 'Super Mario Bros. on meth and weed' getting out there. That said, shutting down projects that have a lot of time and effort put into them is a shame. Either way, using Nintendo's characters and ideas for their own is technically illegal. Maybe Nintendo will start publishing official game creation tools in the future, like some other companies have done with mod creation tools, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. The lack of communication between Nintendo and the creators gives the situation a sour taste, even if they are lawfully in the right.
     
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  3. Lunen Transnima

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    I certainly agree that games like "Mario on Meth and Weed" are ruinous for the community. And yes it is illegal. But as one of the members of the fan-game community, and someone that has had the unique pleasure of watching Pokémon Uranium grow, it is a saddening and disheartening sight to see our hard work get taken down, voluntarily or not.

    At least Pokémon fanfiction isn't against fair use and whatnot...
     
  4. Pokémist

    Pokémist Trashcan

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    Tapunium Z ★★★★★Decidium Z ★★★★★Love Ball ★★★★★Trainer Card - Cave Theme
    Fangames are fun but as Maantijger said, it is technically illegal using their characters in their game but again they are fangames, they are made with no personal profit so they actually dont earn anything. However, the fangames sometimes catch more interest than the real games creating a situation when Nintendo has to do it. In case of Pokémon uranium game, it became popular in little time. Yes, people put lot of time and effort in fangames but Nintendo has to take a step resulting in this.
    So both things are correct if seen with diff points of view. Nintendo can create an official website for fangames so that they can see,view and talk to all fangames and their team.
     
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  5. Lunen Transnima

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    I'd like that too, but it will never happen. That is why we have places like this! Of course, there are forums out there dedicated to fan games, but you'll have to search them out yourselves. The one that I am a part of has currently stopped people from joining, as they were the hardest hit by the GameJolt DMCA.
     
  6. Cadbberry

    Cadbberry Dad: 76.... Or Cad: 76

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    Marshadium Z ★★★★★Love Ball ★★★★★GS Ball ★★★★★Mewnium Z  ★★★★★
    I think games that are fan made are wonderful, amazing works, but once they become a rom-hack or have an offensive side it should be removed. Rom-Hacks lose them money, not that they need your 40 bucks but if more and more people do it, they lose money that develops the next game. There are wonderful projects but look at Undertale or Pocket Mortys, games made from other game ideas without infringing on copy right. It is awful to have your hard work taken down but sometimes it isn't entirely yours to edit and use. It could always be worse, it could be Youtube's nonsensical copyright system.
     
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  7. Apawn

    Apawn Modern Gen 2 Artist

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    [SIZE=14.6667px]Nintendo goes seem to REALLY reject its fan-base a lot (In a multitude of ways), but they do at times have a point when it comes to taking down fan-made games, as it does lose them money to have these (honesty more awesome then the ones they made) games come out for FREE (Thou legally that is the only way). I mean would would want to pay for something not as good as the FREE version? No, you wouldn't. Nintendo, however could handle the situation MUCH better if they had some "Nintendo Fan-game Place" that you could by fan-made games that Nintendo recognize as Popular (Like Uranium) for very cheap (Less than 5$). This is fair as people who made these fan-made games get the glory and Nintendo gets the money.[/SIZE]

    [SIZE=14.6667px]But at this point I don't really see why anyone would want to make a fan-made, original Mario game, with SMM for WiiU and soon 3DS... [/SIZE]
     
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  8. Lunen Transnima

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    Ouch... Youtube's Copyright system... But you are right, both of you. Fan-games do infringe on the Nintendo Copyright and Trademarks, and it does lose them some money, not bank-breaking but you know... However, the reason that a lot of people turn to things like fan-games is because of how... childish, I suppose that is the word, these franchises have become. Nintendo removed the Game Corner to comply with ESRB ratings on gambling, the plot-lines are simplistic and basic, I mean, go through the region, beat gym leaders, stop some really bad antagonist team from doing something stupid, fight the E4, become Champion...

    It really is something stupid. Most of the fan-games, at least the ones that I play, have a darker sort of theme to them. Now the Teams aren't just terrible at everything they do, they actually succeed. Most of the time, then things are put to right. If Sun and Moon didn't change from the stereotype of what I typed in above, then I could probably have predicted the story, to an extent.

    But, there is a reason why people who played the old games have stopped playing the newer ones... They are getting too simplistic, too base. The fan-game community shakes it up... Which is what fans are for, I suppose.
     
  9. Trent29193

    Trent29193 School Kid

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    I've never really cared for fan-games before to be honest, but I'd play a small number that got highly recommended by friends. I do think Nintendo is wasting time tracking them all down, but like many of you have said they definitely need to take down the bad apples. And while games are getting easier, it just really shows the need for Nintendo to implement difficulty levels. Or at the very least, let me turn off those annoying "You wanna skip this level?" cheats.
     
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  10. East

    East Look to the Stars

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    As with previous replies, I haven't played many fan-games since I'm not a fan of them. Often times the quality of the game isn't very high, mostly with regard to plot.

    Competitive players such as myself often play main series games almost exclusively, and the biggest reason to play a spinoff or fan-game is the story that game has and how well the plot is executed. I've had a few experiences with fan-games (Pokémon Uranium and Pokémon Onyx, if I remember correctly) that were lack-listed in that regard. Frankly, I often can't take fan-games seriously when they include fan-made Pokémon, types, moves, and items. That may just be a personal problem, yet I think the flavor is shared with others at least to some degree. Don't get me wrong, I can see the appeal of having a new look and different challenges in a familiar fashion. I'm just not a fan for the execution more times than not.

    Anyway, the copyright issue is one that Nintendo has fairly and legally addressed top-to-bottom from what I've read, and despite the hard work and time put into these fan-games, they are well within their boundaries. Copyright infringement is a very touchy legal battle, so it's often better to be safe (do your research) than to be sorry.
     

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