Register, Others Call Plagiarism in "Limbo of the Lost" Game

Fallen Andy writes "'The Register' has an article describing 'Limbo of the Lost' (developed by Majestic and sold in the U.S by Tri Synergy) which seems to have 'borrowed' copiously graphics assets from other games. Over at the GamesRadar forum there is a thread with some screenshots. Finally, this game has its own Wikipedia entry. Warning to all — move the soft drink away from the keyboard and monitor before you look at those screenshots. Blatant this is, very blatant indeed."

From Wikipedia

[kellyb9]

On June 11, 2008 GamePlasma, a gaming news site, posted an article showing certain places in Limbo of the Lost were identical to the game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.[7] After the revelation, others looking into the game discovered environments and features that appeared to be taken from the games The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Unreal Tournament 2004, Unreal Tournament 2003, Diablo II, Thief: The Dark Project, Thief: Deadly Shadows, a CryENGINE2 Tech Demo, Silent Hill 4: The Room[citation needed], Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Painkiller, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth, Hexen and World of Warcraft.[8][9] Other scenes appear to be taken from live action films: one from the 1997 film Spawn, another from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and several more from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. [10][11] and level design from enclave[citation needed]. The game also contains footage from Sea Dogs[12][13]

Wow... at least they have decent taste in games.

Screenshots

[Lord Lode]

It's all screenshots from Oblivion, Thief 3, Unreal Tournament series, Diablo, and other games. Limbo Of The Lost doesn't render those things in 3D but uses it as background image for the adventure game. Really lame that the developers of that game thought they were going to get away with it. I wonder what was going on there, they couldn't find a graphics artist to draw the backgrounds so they just photoshopped screenshots from other games together. Still a bit of a shame for the (if there were any) good points of the game, that are now gone down together with the whole game due to this plagiarism.

Re:If you steal from one or two it's plagiarism

[Colonel Korn]

If you steal from one or two it's plagiarism

Three or more, it's research.

Legitimate research differs from your implication in that sources are given credit through citations.

Re:Might not be as bad as it seems

[ledow]

Er... even a screenshot of copyrighted material is still copyright. Copyright does not mean "bit for bit copies of the original data". It covers the whole work in all forms and interpretations. Hence why the museums and art galleries can charge you for prints of artwork - it's still under copyright, even if you're only buying a photo of a work of art.

And some places HAVE claimed copyright of landmarks - the Eiffel Tower is one. That's a bit more dubious, though. However, pressing PrintScreen and adding some skulls does not make for an original piece, in the same way as me photocopying your book and changing the main character from Harry Potter to Terry Petter doesn't.

It's either original art, created by YOU, or it's taken from somewhere else. If it's taken from somewhere else, it's a potential copyright violation if you don't have permission.

Bits from interview with the game creators

[Anonymous Coward]

"everything was re-written from the ground up, everything apart from the initial concept and some character design ...and the rest is history."

"The project is more influenced by film and literature rather than other games, we want the experience to be as original as possible and as such we have made a calculated effort to keep away from other games in the genre."

"All of the game (apart from initial background story and some character designs) had to be re-written, all the characters had to be created in 3D and animated, all the background scenes re-created, all the sounds, coding and music?..basically everything had to be redone or newly created for the PC version. This is not an old game that has been dressed up. This is the original concept, dusted off and re-created."

Also, the game has been in production for 10 years and rewritten few times. I think these guys deserve a "Hard core audacity" award...

Full Article [quandaryland.com]

Re:It isn't "borrowing"...

[AllIGotWasThisNick]

For example...

You are aware that Vanilla Ice reached an out-of-court settlement [wikipedia.org] with the copyright holders of "Under Pressure" for using the material?

Re:Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

There are no 'Devs'. This was done by 3 con-men who apparently met a pub. If you dig though some of the links and other forums about this mess you can get more of the pathetic details.

They used an out-of-the-box-create-your-own-2.5D-adventure software and just imported in screenshots from other games. I don't think any of them know a lick about coding whatsoever.

It's amazing that these guys got published when some real independent shops with real talent can't get anything going.

Re:It isn't "borrowing"...

[LandDolphin]

Not quite the same, and your example is bad

First off.. Vanilla Ice did not sample. He changed the 8th note, so therefore it was "original".. This was not listed as "sampling"

Now, for someone who does sample, a lot, P Ditty (Puff Daddy, Sean Combs, Whatever).

He does sample a lot. But, he pays the copyright holder for the rights to sample that music.

Re:Might not be as bad as it seems

[mollymoo]

The Eiffel Tower is not covered by copyright. For a start, it's too old. However, night-time shots of the Eiffel Tower which include the modern lighting display are covered by copyright - the lighting display is the work covered.

Re:Oblivion

[pushing-robot]

FWIW, "Limbo of the Lost" is a 1990s-era point-and-click adventure game with static backdrops, and those backdrops just happen to be screenshots of other games.

Even if they hadn't plagiarized other games, I can't see anyone buying the piece of crap. Everything about it - plot, graphics, audio, game engine - reeks of amateurism.

Re:Sad

[TheLostSamurai]

As an example, I am a Game Programmer that doesn't play video games, I just don't have time. I just bought a PlayStation 3 last week for the blu-ray, and it is the first gaming machine I've owned since the SNES.

I'm not saying the developers weren't in on it, I'm just saying the artists at my company could rip off the most famous games ever made and I probably wouldn't know about it.

Re:From Wikipedia

[aurasdoom]

Actually the game images are static. They are not 3D models, they are screenshots.

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

[rk]

The comment is very funny (I laughed, I cried), but except for hard-core (pronounced "zealot") IP people, both for and against, most people believe there's a world of difference between someone downloading a game/movie/song for their own use, and someone who would take that copy, make thousands more copies, slap their name on it, and try to make money off of it.

Re:The worst part is ...

[Oktober Sunset]

Gorrilla actually ;)

Re:If you steal from one or two it's plagiarism

[H0p313ss]

I have a friend in Minsk,
Who has a friend in Pinsk,
Whose friend in Omsk
Has friend in Tomsk
With friend in Akmolinsk.
His friend in Alexandrovsk
Has friend in Petropavlovsk,
Whose friend somehow
Is solving now
The problem in Dnepropetrovsk.

And when his work is done -
Haha! - begins the fun.
From Dnepropetrovsk
To Petropavlovsk,
By way of Iliysk,
And Novorossiysk,
To Alexandrovsk to Akmolinsk
To Tomsk to Omsk
To Pinsk to Minsk
To me the news will run,
Yes, to me the news will run!

Parodies

[hansamurai]

Some decent parody screenshots in the vein of Phriday can be found at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?page_id=1909 [rockpapershotgun.com]

My favorite is the Zork one.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/june08/limbocompo/JohnLeonard.jpg [rockpapershotgun.com]

Re:Oblivion - they stole their company name too!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh don't worry they thought of that.... by stealing an existing companies name to use!!! The real Majestic Studios [majesticstudios.info] is a photography firm based in the Hudson Valley - you can read about them here: http://www.majesticstudios.info/about.html [majesticstudios.info]

Still gotta to hand it to these muppets. And on the same day that the BBC publishes a news article about the UK's games industry under the title Skills shortage hits games firms [bbc.co.uk].

Well folks - the UK games industry is still doing fine, e.g. Statix and the rest of the talented folks @ Media Molecule [mediamolecule.com]!

Re:I can see how this could happen...

[king-manic]

You may actually look into the story before you invent a situation where it was right. These guys are just amateurs who took a run at the shovelware market using plagiarism to fill in where they lacked talent. Much of the coding was done on the winter mute forums as these three douches don't know much about coding. The graphics where screenshots that were badly photoshopped together because this group lacked graphic talent. Apparently from people who played it, they also lacked story telling talent as well as voice acting talent. These guys really shouldn't have tried to market their dreck shovelware and should have kept it as a amateur project.

Re:Screenshots

[prockcore]

Hack kneed plot

Man your spellchecker did a number on that one! Hackneyed.

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

[Anonymous Coward]

If you truly believe that you're not doing anything wrong, then you should have a sole proprietorship, and accept all the liability that goes along with that. If you're not doing anything wrong, why aren't you willing to risk your own personal fortune and home?

Because there about a million things that could ruin you through no fault of your own without the protection of an LLC. Has nothing to do with being a "good" or "bad" person, just the structure of our legal and tax system.

Also, Kenneth Lay was about the worst possible example of someone "walking free". He had been convicted of 11 counts of fraud and was facing 20-30 years at his sentencing when he died. Jeff Skilling, the CEO, is currently doing 24 years.

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

[sumdumass]

Who actually teaches you guys about corporations? I mean they should be hung up with a big dunce sign on them and publicly humiliated as the fool they are.

He's railing against corporations, because they absolve people of all personal responsibility and liability. So, yes, he probably thinks you're a scumbag of sorts because you own a LLC. If you truly believe that you're not doing anything wrong, then you should have a sole proprietorship, and accept all the liability that goes along with that. If you're not doing anything wrong, why aren't you willing to risk your own personal fortune and home?

First, A corporation does not in any ways absolve someone from their legal liability. It absolves someone from actions that they did not participate in though the corporation. If the owner/CEO or whoever kills someone either by pulling the trigger himself or ignoring laws and ordering people to do something that is unsafe, there is no protections for them. If an employee screws up and someone gets killed, there is. Do you see the big difference here? If by owning the company, something happens through the actions of others and through no fault of your own, you aren't implicated as guilt by association. That is a basic foundation of law that makes civilized countries better then other places where you kill the children of murderers as additional punishments. If by owning the company, you take any part in whatever results in the illegal action, then you will be held accountable. That's right, there is no protection. Now, if something is an accident, then it is treated just like an accident just as if your tire blew causing an accident that killed a person or if someone sat in your window frame and fell out killing himself.

There are no protections to people who do things wrong because of a corporation.

Re:Sad

[ludomancer]

The trick was that they completed the game before seeking a publisher. If you seek out a publisher with a completed product, chances are you will find a deal there. The reason more developers don't do this is because the operating costs of funding the development of a game are so high. Not many people can fund a number of full-time employees out of their own pocket for the duration of a games construction.
These guys didn't have to worry about operating costs because they stole all their art assets and used a free-ware engine.

Re:I don't see what the big deal is

[wiggles]

You are both right and wrong. The law in the US separates criminal and civil liabilities. If a company's actions wind up killing someone, as in the Board of Directors meets and decides to order a hit on a rival CEO, then people will go to jail, and no amount of corporate shielding will help. However, if the actions of a corporation cause damage, either inadvertently or through negligence, then only the corporation can be sued, not the board, and not the CEO. Say they use Chemical X for making baby nipples, and everyone thinks it's safe. Then somebody comes and sues because he his kids have turned into PowerPuff Girls and are trashing his house, the law says that the plaintiff can recover civil monetary damages only from the company, not from the employees or officers personally. Make sense?

Re:Hard work, though...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really. They used the Wintermute engine which could import the images and then mark off the areas for clicking on. Wintermute is a freeware application engine with no licensing costs associated (this is not open source)

Pretty much take a screenshot and use it, it was that easy.

Re:ITYM...

[iago-vL]

I think YOU meant, "Ones own breath" -- when pronouns become possessive, they don't have apostrophes (like "its" and "yours")

Is there a law yet for people inevitably making a mistake when correcting somebody? If not, we need to coin one. :)