Yeah, I agree.SL33TBL1ND said:
Hell, at least 75% of all Medieval games, involving Elves and Dwarves, Orcs and Goblins have plagurised at least some parts from LoTR in some way or form.
It happens.
Did Mass Effect Steal It's Story Outright?!
- Thread starter Ian Caronia
- Start date
Hell, at least 75% of all Medieval games, involving Elves and Dwarves, Orcs and Goblins have plagurised at least some parts from LoTR in some way or form.
It happens.
I really don't think those are that in common, basically it's "ancient race, destroyed by machines"
That's pretty common, and Cerberus is like Pandora, it's used in tons of stuff.
That's pretty common, and Cerberus is like Pandora, it's used in tons of stuff.
It bears noting that Mass Effect is a very obvious homage to the scifi genre (and I'm pretty sure the developers have said so on more than one occasion), more specifically the space opera. It's supposed to invoke feelings of nostalgia and familiarity, because they intentionally put those elements in. I don't think they directly plagiarized the book since, as it's already been pointed out, it's not that original of a plot.
This might shock you but many people had other reasons to hate Avatar, myself included.Zeithri said:
Not everyone who hates it does it because of the "rip-off" factor.
Alistair Reynolds' Revelation Space/Chasm City books are most definitely genre defining works and they sell very well although reliable sales figures are even harder to come by for novels than for games. I wouldn't be surprised if he has sold more than a million books, with something that takes up less resources to make than a xbox 360 shooter. Not Harry Potter numbers but he is kind of a big deal to anyone who knows about the genre.MinionStarwind said:
Too true. If we're going to call Star Wars, Avatar and Mass effect (as well as Halo) all plagerism. We'd be forced to call Star Ocean, Legend of Dragoon, all 50000000 Final Fantasies there's been so far, Metal Gear, Metal Gear Solid, and the rest all copy-pastas as well.Blindswordmaster said:
If you just think about it for a bit all of them are "stolen" from something. Hell Star Trek stole from multitudes of storylines and other popular works as did Farscape, Battle Star Galactiga, Star Gate and the rest.
It's the world we live in
Having read both the novel and played the game within a few months of each other, I feel that there isn't plagarism in the strict definition. It's been a while since then, so sorry if my details are wrong. I'm not going restate the idea of no original ideas, since that's been done to death already.
First off, the origins and motivations of the Reapers vs the Inhibitors, spoilered just in case.
So, while they're both machines that wipe out intellegent life, I would argue that they're different enough that it's not plagerism.
As for the Prothean / Amarantin link. There is a key difference in how they play out, spoilered again, just in case.
Like was already mentioned, there are similarities between Mass Effect and Revelation Space, but they are not that great of a connection (at least in my opinion). If ME had been nothing but a straight retelling of the novel, or anything else, I would have issues with it. But since it is only the few plot points, albeit key points, there is no plagarism (again, my opinion).
As for the "originality" of ME, it could be argued that they meant original in the genre of space RPG, or in gaming in general.
First off, the origins and motivations of the Reapers vs the Inhibitors, spoilered just in case.
The Reapers are at a race of organics turned giant machine intellegences that use the galaxy as their little playground with new intellegent races as bugs to crush. Unless i missed something, they're just doing it for fun.
As for the Inhibitors it's implied in later books that they were created by an organic race to be a shepherd the galaxy through a major upheaval, namely the fact that the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will collide in several billion years. They are theorized, in the novels, to have been meant to prevent a single race from dominating the galaxy and susequently getting wiped out. Over time they degraded to the point where they interpreted "shepherding" as destroy.
As for the Inhibitors it's implied in later books that they were created by an organic race to be a shepherd the galaxy through a major upheaval, namely the fact that the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will collide in several billion years. They are theorized, in the novels, to have been meant to prevent a single race from dominating the galaxy and susequently getting wiped out. Over time they degraded to the point where they interpreted "shepherding" as destroy.
As for the Prothean / Amarantin link. There is a key difference in how they play out, spoilered again, just in case.
The destruction of the Protheans, and any race wiped out by the Reapers, was visible. The Reapers specifically left Prothean artifacts for new races to find, to start the "fun" all over again.
By contrast, the Inhibiters specifically destroyed everything. Their goal was to leave no evidence at all. In the novel, the only reason there are Amarantin artifacts is because part of the race was much more technologicly advanced and was able to hide from the Inhibitors. They later left the artifacts as a memorial.
By contrast, the Inhibiters specifically destroyed everything. Their goal was to leave no evidence at all. In the novel, the only reason there are Amarantin artifacts is because part of the race was much more technologicly advanced and was able to hide from the Inhibitors. They later left the artifacts as a memorial.
Like was already mentioned, there are similarities between Mass Effect and Revelation Space, but they are not that great of a connection (at least in my opinion). If ME had been nothing but a straight retelling of the novel, or anything else, I would have issues with it. But since it is only the few plot points, albeit key points, there is no plagarism (again, my opinion).
As for the "originality" of ME, it could be argued that they meant original in the genre of space RPG, or in gaming in general.
Alright.Zeithri said:
How about "boring characters, no-surprises badly outlined plot, constant couldn't-get-more-obvious references to the Iraq war and the Indians, blatant ecological messages, silly villains, unlikeable main hero"?
Yeah, I think that'll work.
Mass Effect's story is nothing special, it's more the interactions you have with other characters. Sounds like plagiarism alright, but I don't really care...
You can't say that. To be honest, before I played Mass Effect and before I even knew about that novel, I wrote 3 drafts of a short story on essentially the same concept. Where did ideas come from? From listening to futurists and scientists speculate. You can't say that the similarity in both premises are not a coincidence.Ian Caronia said:
Both stories are inspired by actual science and futurist speculation. They both draw from a concept of alien aid to the human race (even Chariots of the Gods explore that concept in our ancient world (great fiction there! ;P)) and they also borrow heavily from the common 'life sourge' plot device used in fantasy most commonly.
When you cook with similar ingredients, you are bound to end up with a similar kind of cake, right?
Well, the PLOT and STORY are distinct things. Distilling a story down to its core plot makes most works appear derivative. We don't enjoy stories for plot, but for the stories. In one person's life, a thousands memorable and unique experiences may be worth retelling, but many of them will have identical plots.Seventh Actuality said:
You do realize that Mass Effect is mostly a satire/recreation of many, MANY classic science fiction stories right? The Asari go all the way back to Kirk's green alien women, the rachni mission is taken straight out of Ender's Game, they have a HUGE collection of science fiction actors playing roles very similar to their old ones (Michael Dorn as a krogan, when he used to be Klingon, Michael Hogan as a corrupt C-Sec Officer, when he played an alcoholic Colonial officer). That's not to mention the dozens of in-game references all over the place to various science fiction.
I've read Revelation Space too, I will admit they're similar but as the series went on it got really strange. Unless Mass Effect 3 has a plague that begins to convert the galaxy into greenhouses (the actual plot of one of the later books) then I'll call bullshit.
I've read Revelation Space too, I will admit they're similar but as the series went on it got really strange. Unless Mass Effect 3 has a plague that begins to convert the galaxy into greenhouses (the actual plot of one of the later books) then I'll call bullshit.
He's my ultimate test that works for most of these kind of situations. If Alastair Reynolds thought Mass Effect was plagiarizing his work then he would have sued already or at least called them out on it and got some increased book sales when everyone goes to read it for themselves. He has everything to gain and little to loose. This is the whole Blizzard's Starcraft to Games Workshop Warhammer 40k universe fight all over again. If the creators, who actually stand to gain something for saying they've been ripped off, are not fighting it, why are you?