So... what I'm gathering is. A staff member of this other petsite had a breed of chunky rock dragons whose lore is that they traveled around in a dream land, that came out years before FR launched? They pointed out a similarity to these dragons when Snapper lore came out, which had them as effectively sleepwalkers (more akin to the Boa lore we see now) and once the similarity was pointed out this was changed fairly quickly? The petsite staff member however really seemed bothered by this because apparently Undel was a player there and that staff member really seemed to genuinely think that there was actual theft going on and that the story Undel had told about the inspiration of snapper lore was bullshit. Ultimately claiming that the similarity of the ideas was 100% plagiarism and that FR borrowing them was threatening "their way of life".
Sadly since this petsite is now very dead and all the links to their lore lead nowhere... it's hard to make a true comparison today. Other than mentioning dreams and being chunky rock dragons, they don't appear to have been that similar. Not enough to warrant the kind of plagiarism claims they were slinging anyway, imo.
I played Valenth when it was available (it was an offshoot of Subeta and even had a Kumos pet) and, if I remember correctly, MANY of the pets were pretty chunky. Like, there were also chunky lions and other similar pets. Many of the NPCs shared this design theme, too.
All this to say: I think the accusation of plagiarism is a pretty extreme reach. Valenth failed pretty quickly and has been defunct for years at this point. Chunky dragon (even chunky turtle-like dragon) isn’t really an idea either site has a monopoly over.
It's interesting to me that staff decided to remove it, though. If it was just a coincidence you'd think they would've just told them to fuck off? I guess maybe they didn't want the drama, but if it was a reach I doubt the drama would've damaged FR's rep..
What I got of it is that Snapper's lore specifies dreaming as not going into a separate world but as a state while Boralion's dreaming is literally travelling into different worlds. It's distinct enough that the plagiarism accusations are kinda a reach to me but I can see why staff would want to remove implications of any similarity, starting with the wording, even if it was a coincidence. Also in 2013, FR wasn't exactly an established petsite it is today compared to Valenth so it's not surprising that staff would bend over to them, especially since they did mention possible legal action in their first email.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Re: Ancient Snapper/Boralion drama??
(Anonymous) 2024-02-21 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)So... what I'm gathering is. A staff member of this other petsite had a breed of chunky rock dragons whose lore is that they traveled around in a dream land, that came out years before FR launched? They pointed out a similarity to these dragons when Snapper lore came out, which had them as effectively sleepwalkers (more akin to the Boa lore we see now) and once the similarity was pointed out this was changed fairly quickly? The petsite staff member however really seemed bothered by this because apparently Undel was a player there and that staff member really seemed to genuinely think that there was actual theft going on and that the story Undel had told about the inspiration of snapper lore was bullshit. Ultimately claiming that the similarity of the ideas was 100% plagiarism and that FR borrowing them was threatening "their way of life".
Sadly since this petsite is now very dead and all the links to their lore lead nowhere... it's hard to make a true comparison today. Other than mentioning dreams and being chunky rock dragons, they don't appear to have been that similar. Not enough to warrant the kind of plagiarism claims they were slinging anyway, imo.
Re: Ancient Snapper/Boralion drama??
(Anonymous) 2024-02-21 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)All this to say: I think the accusation of plagiarism is a pretty extreme reach. Valenth failed pretty quickly and has been defunct for years at this point. Chunky dragon (even chunky turtle-like dragon) isn’t really an idea either site has a monopoly over.
Re: Ancient Snapper/Boralion drama??
(Anonymous) 2024-02-22 03:36 am (UTC)(link)Re: Ancient Snapper/Boralion drama??
(Anonymous) 2024-02-22 03:56 pm (UTC)(link)What I got of it is that Snapper's lore specifies dreaming as not going into a separate world but as a state while Boralion's dreaming is literally travelling into different worlds. It's distinct enough that the plagiarism accusations are kinda a reach to me but I can see why staff would want to remove implications of any similarity, starting with the wording, even if it was a coincidence. Also in 2013, FR wasn't exactly an established petsite it is today compared to Valenth so it's not surprising that staff would bend over to them, especially since they did mention possible legal action in their first email.