Author Topic: "Species" Copying (Read 1639 times)

Smilodoncat · « **on:** October 05, 2013, 09:22:57 pm »

So, I'm a bit upset with a certain user right now.

I have this character, Queen Animat, who is not really an original species (simply because what she is does not fit the scientific definition of species), yet she is a creature of my creation. With her own traits, like a species would have.

So this person whispers me to ask me if she can make another "Queen", like Animat. I declined, saying I would rather have Animat be the only creature like her. The main reason behind this, is the sheer amount of details behind Animat's "species" (species is not the proper term here, but I can't think of a better one). A lot of them are not really public or in her bio, so you have to ask to know about them.
But anyways, this person went ahead and made the character anyways. Her "species" exactly.
And of course, she got just about everything wrong about her (she made the character black with bright blue markings, which this "species" would never be colored like.)

I know there isn't really much the mods can do about this. But that doesn't take away from how annoying this was.
Anyone else have this kind of thing happen before?

Lady_Alizarin · « **Reply #1 on:** October 06, 2013, 12:12:13 am »

Yes, I know how you feel.
It's only happened to me once before. You might be aware of the unicorn fox species I made up on this game. There have been some people who have made unicorn fox characters of their own, some have asked me if they could while others just did it on their own free will. I really don't mind if they do it or not, but there was this one person who made a unicorn fox and pretty much went against everything I stated about the specie's nature. Unicorn foxes are supposed to be symbols of peace, harmony, innocence, and life. It's not in their nature to maliciously harm other animals, cause chaos, have feelings of revenge, or do any acts of evil. Well this one person made one because they wanted to RP with my unicorn fox character, and they pretty much used their "magical powers" to kill a clan of cats for revenge.

There was nothing I could really do, but just log off and join some other friends in a roleplay. I know how frustrating it can be, but I really don't think there is anything that can be done to prevent people from doing such things. Some people do it because they are trolls with nothing better to do, or they don't understand the nature of the species they are pretending to be.

Tanglemask · « **Reply #2 on:** October 06, 2013, 12:35:53 am »

I feel like no one knows how to ask permission or even have a bit of originality. I too have fallen into this problem. I made a video for my cylars and the person had their bio with exact words from the video. To say the least I was upset, since I put so much time into my work, and to have it be stolen so quickly was heartbreaking. There was the tempt to just take down all of my cylar work but I stopped myself. The copying without even the context clues made the species seem like an overpowered beast. No less they stole the name as well.

Thankfully, I managed to get their username (because someone provided me these screenshots) and confronted them. So glad they were considerate and changed. But as it is, there are a lot of others, especially those in the subject/experiment section that copy my species. It's frustrating but I fear there isn't much you can do. But they are just copies I suppose. Only you know your species inside out. They cannot portray them like you do.

I think I'd be more okay if people were to use my species had they asked me first. When I'm ignorant to the fact that people are parading around as my species, no less like Lady Alizarin says, going against the species nature, I hate it. It isn't hard to be creative. You can be inspired yes. But blatant copying is wrong.

Plus, just a little tidbit, it could probably be considered plagiarizing if you're going by verbatim. Going word for word is plagiarism and it is so easy not to plagiarize. (Plus it is REALLY bad if you plagiarize. College will kick you out if you're guilty of plagiarizing.)

Smilodoncat · « **Reply #3 on:** October 06, 2013, 01:21:32 am »

@Lady Alizaran: That sucks , the same exact thing happened here. Although instead of ignoring the species's nature, they ignored it's biology (they where literally trying to hunt and eat people in roleplay, and this species lacks an internal digestive system...)

@TangoTriangle: I was the one who originally took and posted those screenshots. Glad I could help with that.