Cloning Games

[Sinzygy]

I guess this is a somewhat controversial topic, but I was just wondering what you think about cloning games.
By cloning I mean, creating a new game, but which is played just like another game. Some might even call it copying

I myself don't think too bad of cloned games. I know I took some ideas from other games. Probably most have done so.
I actually try to clone some of the games I played. Why? Simply because I want to know how they could've been made and to change the stuff I didn't like in the original game. And sometimes it's because I simply want to enjoy the game with a few of my friends and not 300'000 other players.

What I do not approve of is trying to steal the original games player base. So if you made yet another kings of chaos clone, don't go around the KoC-Forum advertising your site. Build your own playerbase.
I somehow see a trend coming up with new people trying to just buy a script and then hoping to actually make some money out of it. But believe me, this will only rarely work. Why would people start yet another game that looks like the other 3 they're already playing?
I see this from 3 major games in german. Each game is virtually the same (sure, names, buildings, units, and speed vary) and each has a lot (I'm talking about tens of thousands) players. And they all have a different playerbase. I guess those three succeeded in making some money out of the games, but simply because they all started out at the same time with different concepts and then slowly began to assimilate each other.
As a new game-host with an old idea, this will most probably not work.

What are your thought on this matter?

[Zeggy]

Well, depends what you actually do with the cloned game. I've taken ideas from games before and I'm sure most people have, but I don't try to 'clone' complete games, I try to change everything as much as possible so it is nothing like the other game.
So, certain aspects might be similar, but I try to add my own twist to them and make improvements.

I don't like most php games that are for sale because they target people who just want to make a quick buck with a game. (Such as the pimp games, they all look pretty similar to me... Or TopWebGames.com's ASP game [BB Template or something]. If you look at some of the games based off those scripts, you will rarely find any unique features in them. Maybe different storylines and items, but that's about it, nothing special.)
If you want to distribute a game, make it open source and free so everybody can use the script and make their own changes.

[codestryke]

Right, don't clone a game.. you can get very close but make something about your game unique or else you'll get NO WHERE!

and when I say unique I don't mean changing a name or re-labeling something, as zeg said look at all the damn pimp and exo fusion clones. The ones that survive or have grown a large player following are the ones that took the base idea and added a number of unique features to it to make it there own. If you are a copy then you will always be playing catch up to the original game.. Everything they add you need to add.. If you go your own way then you'll be adding the things player's want!

Case in point, for me, is State of Crime.. I got the code for this and it was the standard mafia game that you can find everywhere.. I started adding new ideas, new features and now it' s my biggest income maker (~$300usd a week). Why? Cuz the features I added you can't find in another mafia game. I didn't rename things, I didn't copy a feature and call it something new, I thought outside the box and reaped the benefits.

Another prime example of this is Legend of the Green Dragon.. There are only 1 - 4 very large game servers, the rest have but a handfull of players. Why? Cuz all the modules, unique features MUST be shared due to the nature of the license. So when you make something unique you have to share it with the rest of the game owner community.. They changed the license a while back but the damage done to make a unique server was already done. They killed the chance of letting a server be unique (hence why I left that project).

Take the concept, but don't take the game.... Just my humble opinion...


As my old business partner use to say Innovate or die trying...

[beam]

I dunno, cloning and remakes are good things sometimes. Hell, there are entire development communities devoted to it (like Retro Remakes). I have to say, I'd like someone to do a remake of Cyber Angels or Anaroch, those games were so simple and dumb-looking but they were addicting and I miss them

[scratchb]

I think what It comes down to is WHAT you are cloning. For examlple, were somone to "clone" wow, by making a very similar one thats as balanced, and removed the price tag, I believe that would be good. If someone cloned a cloned games clone....well then it just gets annoying. And I hate to say it, but the pimp games are well...terrible. they look ata very .....simple target audience.

[Wakish]

I think you can try to "make a clone with better functionalities" is the best way..
At times you might be playing an online game but which you see lacks some of the stuffs that you wanted.. so in this way you can try to make a better one out of the original one..
But definetly copying a game like the saying "word for word" is surely something which is very frustrating and unwanted for the original author..

Hence I think codestryke has rightly said..

[dvd871]

Right, don't clone a game.. you can get very close but make something about your game unique or else you'll get NO WHERE!

Another prime example of this is Legend of the Green Dragon.. There are only 1 - 4 very large game servers, the rest have but a handfull of players. Why? Cuz all the modules, unique features MUST be shared due to the nature of the license. So when you make something unique you have to share it with the rest of the game owner community.. They changed the license a while back but the damage done to make a unique server was already done. They killed the chance of letting a server be unique (hence why I left that project).

Take the concept, but don't take the game.... Just my humble opinion...


As my old business partner use to say Innovate or die trying...

This is only partly true with Legend of the Green Dragon.  You are free to create your own modules and as long as they do not use any core code or require any other core module to function, you do not have to release it to the general public.   You can even sell them if you wanted to.