Don’t forget we moved!
https://brandmu.day/
Plagiarism
-
Ripping off entire games or theme files is a different animal than the plagiarism that started this thread. I remember when that Arx-ripoff had all of their theme files. And if I recall correctly, it was revealed that Neitherlands took their theme files directly from a game that didn’t get off the ground. I mean, I’ve been staff on games where disgruntled players popped up with a new mu thematically very similar to ours. At the time, it felt a lot like what we’re talking about, now.
re: the ripped desc. I know we have a lot of educators in our hobby, and I’m inclined to look at things through that lens, and offer a little more grace. Coming out of the pandemic (read: still being in the pandemic) and with this AI bullshit, there’s what feels like a lot more of this going around. Granted, this wasn’t my creative work, so I can’t say how to feel about it. But it seems to me like a stupid, lazy, low-stakes, self-sabotage type of mistake done without malice.
-
I’ve had a whole concept and creation ripped off. The only thing they changed was the name. Imagine my surprise when I created a new character only to run into myself, a character still active on another mush…
It was so similar that it could only have been a staffer from the other mush…
I asked why she had my bit. She said she just really liked it…
Really soured Cajun N. for me.
-
I don’t think there’s true malice involved with any of that, just expediency. Unfortunately someone focused on expediency for their own enjoyment disregarding others often isn’t super fun. Not that you aren’t going to run into that on mushes no matter what. But I have limited time and energy. I also love to brainstorm ic and ooc, ect. I have a collaborative/respectful playstyle. When someone is ripping off work uncredited when they could have even just done AI or like I dunno maybe at least go to a defunct or different genre but are instead going to the same genre and a game that some are looking to (inappropriately imo) as a replacement of the game that they’re ripping someone else’s work from…it just seems like they’re making it known they’ll happily rip your ideas and pass them off as their own oocly and not want anyone to think their pc icly is the type to do that (which if kept totally ic imo would be valid).
It wouldn’t be the end of the world but like…I’m tired, man. I want to have fun with mostly people who are at least somewhat ooc considerate and aware. (I’m sorry if anyone feels like that excludes them but like I’ve tried a lot and been burned a lot and I also coach humans through that at work and in volunteering so I’m just…tired.)
So seeing something like this isn’t the end of the world and I don’t think there’s evil involved and its not worth too much investment but it does kinda make me feel kinda sigh.
And I do think that is a valid thing to feel. The difference is that at work and as an educator of children, I allow myself to feel thar sigh, take a moment, and then get to the labor of helping them work through the behavior, help the group work through it, ect. And it is labor and its hard work. Once upon a time I thought that I should/needed to do it on mushes too but I don’t want to anymore. So if someone is that un self aware, I just prefer to stay out of their way. It is never contained to just one action/incident.
-
Someone who thinks stealing an entire character desc is ok is someone who needs a lot of education. And they should get that. Just probably not on a MU, where all the educating and cleaning up after this person and walking them through things is
- a lot of emotional labor
- eating time that could be used to do stuff for people who are not problems
- possibly allowing other people to be transgressed against
-
I’m heavily influenced by Bill Amend in how I make MUSH characters.
He was once asked which of the characters in Foxtrot was him. His answer was, all of them. He put something of himself into the entire family.
I put something of myself into characters I make. It’s the easiest way I have to make them human.
Stealing a character is no trivial thing.
-
-
@Rathenhope I would if you would just give me an option
-
So I had a character concept uh…semi-swiped at one point?
Once upon a time I was part of a pretty robust RP community on an MMO, and I’m sure it will come as an utter shock to people who have RP’d with me, but I tend to be fond of snarky/socially maladjusted assholes with a heart of…um…well, a heart. Somewhere in there. My main was one such character, a dark elf ranger with werewolf problems, and she was indeed quite snarky and quite socially maladjusted. In the case of this character it was for a whole host of reasons (on top of, you know, just kind’ve being an asshole), but one of the bigger ones was some significant PTSD and general trauma. She did not make many friends, but she was part of a very active RP guild and did plenty of stuff there.
So there was this other player in the guild who had many different sorts of characters, but they all had, if boiled down to their most basic elements, the exact same backstory; a damsel in distress being pursued or otherwise under threat from an evil controlling male character, who would need to be rescued (typically by a love interest). She just really liked this trope, which is cool and fine.
However, the player liked to occasionally make “joking” comments about how my character’s problems would all be solved if she just got laid. These happened once or twice IC, and at least a few times more OOC.
Eventually my character left that guild for IC reasons, but still interacted with them quite often. Shortly afterward, this player made a new character that was, uh…a snarky maladjusted asshole wood elf ranger with werewolf problems and general trauma issues (with, of course, the backstory of an evil controlling male character she needed to be rescued from). This character hooked up immediately with some warrior dude and, wouldn’t you know it, all of her issues went poof immediately and she got pregnant with a bunch of babies or something.
At the time my reaction was essentially “What the fuck” and “okay, bit creepy”. In hindsight it’s a lot more uncomfortable since I’ve worked out that I’m ace and I was poking around a little(a lot) in that direction with the character, but also, seriously, wtf.
Anyway, that’s my story, lol.
-
@kalakh I hate that ‘getting laid’ was suggested as a fix for PTSD. Hate it.
Also this player is the worst.
-
@Smile said in Plagiarism:
@kalakh I hate that ‘getting laid’ was suggested as a fix for PTSD. Hate it.
Also this player is the worst.
I’ve seen it a few times (and as a general solution to character issues), and while I get it’s (usually) a joke, this was definitely the first time someone…uh…acted it out for me.
Like, it’s creepy and uncomfortable, but it’s also just so fucking weird.
-
I don't know what I'm doing. Poke at Seven Nations sevennations.aresmush.com port 2021
-
