We don’t know which patent they’re being sued over, as that information hasn’t been made public yet. We can only guess at this point, but it’s obviously a patent that’s intrinsic to the Pokemon franchise and a reasonable guess would be the capture mechanic. The fact is that Nintendo believe they have a case.

If you think “throwing a ball” is a patentable (or even copyrightable) mechanic, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Again, the mechanic is capturing a creature by weakening them and throwing a ball at them. Not just throwing a ball. I’m not suggesting that The Pokemon Company can or has patented throwing a ball. You’re being deliberately disingenuous with your replies, implying that I’m saying something I’m not.

Some pals are similar to Pokemon, sure, but a lot are quite distinct.

Again, they have taken recognisable parts of Pokemon and mixed them together. None of the creatures I’ve seen are entirely new designs, but rather hybrids of existing, well known Pokemon.

Of course it was intentional to make a game in the same genre as Pokemon, with similar mechanics.

They didn’t make a game in the same genre as Pokemon. They made a clone of Ark, replacing the dinosaurs with Pokemon and copying the capture mechanic.

I understand fans of the game defending them, but outright lying to defend them and ignoring obvious facts does nothing to forward the conversation. It’s fine to admit that a thing you like has flaws, and admit that those flaws need addressing.

That would require giving the developers money, which I’m not going to do. I’ve watched over an hour of gameplay, which I feel gives a pretty good idea of the mechanics. You still haven’t told me what I said that was incorrect, which makes me think there isn’t anything.

So enlighten me, as you’re obviously the expert in the room. What have I said that’s incorrect?

I’ve seen enough gameplay to be able to draw informed conclusions, and I’d rather not reward the developers financially for their sketchy practices anyway. There are much better survival crafting games out there which have their own unique art style and mechanics.

It seems like you’re just willfully ignoring my actual meaning to defend the game.

Yes, creature capturing existed prior to Pokemon, but not capturing by weakening the creature and throwing a ball at them.

Yes, cell-shaded graphics existed before Pokemon, but Palworld explicitly copies the style of creature design from Pokemon, mixing and matching parts to make something that is different enough to not be a direct copy of any one design, but similar enough that a casual observer would be hard pressed to tell them apart. There’s a good reason that pretty much every review of the game refers to it as “Pokemon with guns.”

The developers knew exactly what they were doing, so to claim it wasn’t intentional is disingenuous at best.

It’s one thing to draw inspiration, and another to directly copy the art style and mechanics of an established franchise to piggyback on their brand recognition.

Where is the line drawn between borrowing and copying?

So you don’t catch “pals” by weakening them and throwing a ball at them?

Cinemas would be great, if it wasn’t for the other people there. Watching a movie in the comfort of my own home, with the ability to enable subtitles, pause to go to the bathroom or grab a drink, control the volume, etc. is just a much better experience these days. The only thing you miss out on is the huge screen and the overpriced popcorn.

Naming a fictional child abduction thriller after an alert system which in turn was named after the real life abduction and murder of Amber Rene Hagerman feels a little tacky to me. It’s fine to use it as a plot device, but using it as the title feels a little insensitive.

The quickest way to fix it is to lock and unlock your phone by pressing the power button twice, but not too close together or you launch the camera.

It blatantly is going somewhere with Avengers: Secret Wars.

Were you really expecting less multiverse stuff after all that setup?

Which is what they’re rumored to be working on. Hence the post.

It’s ironic that people misunderstand the movie of The Shining, when Kubrick clearly misunderstood the point of the book it was based upon.

Just moved all my 2FA over to Bitwarden and Bitwarden Authenticator, and deleted my Authy account. I’d already been using it for passwords, so it was a natural fit.

I just want replaceable batteries on my phones again. The last two Samsung phones I owned ended up with swollen batteries, requiring sending them back to Samsung for repairs. I really miss the days of just being able to pop the back off and buying a replacement battery.

This is being blown out of proportion. These sorts of terms are pretty standard for a closed playtest, as it doesn’t represent the final product and the developers don’t want reviews to be published criticising things that will likely be fixed for the release version.

I really don’t get the hate for VR.