How to avoid looking stupid
Before you accuse one person or company of copying another – make sure you know who had the idea in the first place.
PREDICTION: As Ubisoft announce their plans to launch Dogz on to the GBA it’s clear that they’re capitalizing on the immense popularity of the DS’s Nintendogs. Nintendo loyalists across the globe will berate the cheap tactics of Ubisoft and their blatant disregard for Nintendo innovation.
It is worth remembering, of course, that were it not for the original Dogz games produced on PCs and consoles over a decade ago it’s very very unlikely Nintendogs would ever have been thought up in the first place. And yes, the Dogz games pre-date Tamagotchi and Pokemon too. In fact, the first instance of a virtual pet was in the mid 1980’s with Activision and David Crane’s seminal Little Computer People:
Nintendogs, 1985
Understandably, Nintendogs is appearing on the newest hardware with the most innovative of controls (assuming you never used Dogz on a pocket PC in the last 10 years) and will obviously look prettier than the original concepts of the design from decades past. So remember the usual N-tard blinkered yelp of “Well, all company X does is nick ideas and make them look pretty on newer hardware” when they attempt to hide their ignorance and bias.
I sincerely hope every gamer in the world proves my prediction wrong. 🙂
It’ll be one of those ultra-rare times when I actually leave the house to do something vaguely sociable! I hadn’t heard of this until yesterday when a friend mentioned it to me. It’s a gaming tournament being held in London’s West End where the proceeds of the even go to the charity of the winner’s choosing. I’ve not been to any of the JJ organised events in the past but I know they’ve been around long enough to know how to do this sort of thing properly.