Starbound

I'm just pointing this out. Some parts of the game seem similar to other games I've played. The ranking system for the items in-game (common, uncommon, rare, legendary, etc.) seems close to the rankings in Destiny. Also, two of the new tech options for your character(morph ball & rail rider) seem similar to something from Metroid Prime 3.

 

The ranking system has been around long before Destiny, World of Warcraft and many MMO and RPG's use this type of ranking system for gear. Very few games today are completely new or unique, most borrow from major games from the past. Enjoy Starbound for what it is. I know I do.

 

Like rawkinrex just said: most games use similar systems to each other. This actually help players to learn the basics fast, so it is not a bad thing. You will find "tributes" as well, like costumes belonging somewhere else.

 

No, really Sherlock? -.-' The morphball has been there since the very first Metroid game in the 80's. It's not like they try to hide it, it's an obvious reference.
I don't know if you pretended to criticize the game for such things.

 

To be honest, it is extremely tacky that they've copied morph ball so completely and even used the same name for it.

 

On the other hand they would call it something else and then get called out for not naming it what it is. There's no winning outside of just taking it out of the game entirely and that's stupid.

 

... they did rename it in the nightly some time ago, its no longer called morph ball.

 

Lots of other games have a morph ball equivalent, but they make the effort to do something unique or at least less iconic. For example in Guacamelee, you turn into a chicken. (And yeah they have chozo statues, but that's a different discussion)

Starbound had a world with absolutely no need for a morph ball, and they put it in, presumably because one or more of the devs thought it'd be cool. They made it look like morph ball, act like morph ball, and for the duration of what? at least a year, it was named morph ball. Then they put in a few areas in missions that can only be reached with morph balls, but it still doesn't feel like an integral part of the Starbound universe.

They could have made it a tech that just plain shrinks you down small, or one that transforms you into a blob or pure energy, or releases a remote control teleport robot, or transmits you as a small cloud of data, but nah let's just rip off one of the most iconic poweups in videogame history and then barely use it. That's cool right?

 

The tech has been in the game and mostly unused for years. Only recently have they actually developed it.

As for it not being unique or whatnot, I don't see why it matters. Morphball is a cool ability, and using it in Terraria is cool in itself. Why does it need to be unique?

 

You mean Starbound?

 

I think it's tacky to take something really recognizable and strongly associated with a super successful thing and put it into your up-and-coming thing without asking permission.

 

Yes.... that.

Your use of a cat avatar is tacky. It takes something recognizable and strongly associates it with yourself, and I bet you didn't get the owners permission. (If it is your cat, then please see the analogy I am making.)

Personally I like that they used the morphball. Why should it be limited to Metroid? Now I can use it in starbound and make fun mazes and whatnot.

 

No one owns the idea of a cat, and I'm not making any money by having a cat avatar. I didn't make a blog post saying check it out, my product now features cat.

Metroid absolutely "owns" the idea of a humanoid protagonist who turns into a little ball, specifically with a stripe across it, that looks like morph ball and is called morph ball and behaves in a particular way that we all recognize as the Morph Ball, from Metroid.

As I've already said, there's no reason Starbound can't have an ability to navigate small passageways without it being unabashedly morph ball.

 

There's no reason they can't use the morph ball concept either. Nintendo doesn't own the concept, otherwise Star Wars has some answering to do.

 

Morp ball is just short for morphing into a ball, its orginal name in metriod was maru mari (meaning to roll into a ball).

Its hardly a unique concept and while metriod is the most famous example of morphing into a ball i somehow doubt they were the first to come up with something so basic.

 

I'm surprised no one has, as of yet, pointed out how much more tacky the use of a name like 'Lazer' is. In addition, it doesn't matter how butthurt you can get about Chucklefish using the Morphball idea when it's perfectly legal and acceptable for them to do so. And even if it wasn't, they could easily hide behind safe-words like 'placeholder' and 'reference'.

 

I didn't say whether it was legal or not. I just don't think it's "cool" to steal such an iconic power in terms of looks, name, behavior.

 

"steal" is taking without legal right, so yes, you were implying legality.

You must also have a problem with the grapple hook, cus of Zelta's hookshot.

Heh, and it just occurred to me. You use the name "Lazer", and your avatar is a cat. You must have ripped off Lazer Cats.

They used morph ball because they liked it and it was a nice reference to Metroid. There is no harm in that. If you don't like it, you are in luck. You can change it yourself. The rest of us will enjoy it because it is cool and fun.

 

I'm kinda in the boat of 'who cares' since I like Metroid, I like the homage to it, and I don't mind the tech being called that because it's also very clear on what the tech actually does.

When you activate it, you morph into a ball. Morph Ball.