Nintendo has stretched its legal muscles and shut down a Pokémon fan project MMO, Pokenet, Joystiq is reporting.
The work-in-progress Pokenet was mostly operational at the time that it was shut down, with some 7,000 players logged in to the game. Players were able to catch, evolve, and trade Pokemon across two regions -- Kanto and Johto -- with more to come later. The game was free-to-play, with the developers losing money on hosting running the developers 80 American dollars monthly.
One of the game's programmers, who goes by the name of "Nushio," told Joystiq the team was surprised when Nintendo hit them with a cease and desist in March. The project is not the only Pokémon-inspired MMO out there; it was, however, the only one that was open source and freely handed out the code.
"I'm not sure if that's the reason they attempted to shut us down or not," Nushio said, "We don't know what exactly we did different."
No word on whether the project will continue without the Pokémon branding, but Nushio tells Joystiq that most of the team is "just giving up."
Nintendo shuts down fan-made Pokemon MMO [Joystiq]
Contest:
8:00 PM on 04.02.2010 | 
Pfft right.
I just hope they only released their code as open source, and not claiming the Nintendo properties were as well.
Okay, buzzkill over. As you were.
Futile effort Nintento, welcome to the internet.
Good idea. Get sued for more than you make.
Starting it back up again would be stupid, as Nintendo already knew about it and is probably monitoring what happens next to see if they do.
I'd like to see their talents invested into something similar but without the Pokemon label. I did go on there once or twice and I was impressed.
No amount of effort and good intentions makes plagiarism legal. And if you're using someone else's property and assets, then yes, you are definitely committing a crime, even if you are losing money committing it.
Just take the 3D Dot Game Heroes route! Make an 'homage' and just allow character creation!! That way, your users can commit plagiarism without your help!
I don't think anyone is surprised over the fact this could hapen so much as surprised at the dick move they are pulling on it. The devs aren't making any money on it and are doing it out of pocket and as a tribute. It's not like their stealing some of their market either. Sure, they absolutely have the legal right to do this, but there's not really a good reason besides just being a bunch of jackasses.
Not entirely surprised by the actions nintendo took towards this, though. I kind of wish they'd release a pokemon MMO of their own, but with the money they're making on the current (mostly) single-player games, I can't blame them.
Hell, if they made one, I'd buy a Wii just to play it. Yes, I'm an adult, and I love me some pokemans.
Well, besides Valve, they've got enough of my money.
If this is the only one that handed out all it's code for free, then this is the one distributing, for all practical purposes, the unlimited, easy, and free ability for all of it's users to make their own pokemon games, with their own regions, gym leaders, elite four challenges, dungeons, etc., and possibly even exact replicas of the games Nintendo tries to sell. It's not simply an easy avenue to piracy; it a route by which a pokemon game could pop up to destroy the relevence of the main series.
Nintendo would have to be nuts to allow gamers to distribute the pokemon games with source code to other gamers for free.
About fan projects - while I appreciate the effort, they are always a waste of time. They are never as good as the original, can never be profitted from, and can and will be shut down if they become good enough to threaten the main series. It is advised that original work be done for two reasons - 1. It helps developers learn how to make good games rather than ride the popularity of a game they mostly copies, and because making original games can lead to something profittable.
Instead of making a pokemon MMO, make an MMORPG that's like pokemon and try to entertain your friends with it. This would not be a pokemon clone. This would simply be an RPG that recognizes what it is about pokemon that attracts so many people, and attempts to make a game to caters to consumers by giving them something that they don't have. Figure out the mechanics of making a successful game rather than finding a game that is successful, and cloning it.
The reason I'm so hard is not that I don't like pokemon MMOs. I actually want a good one pretty badly. I'm being hard because fan projects are like all the not very good pokemon clones, but the fan projects are so identical to the main franchise they become illegal. That is not how one becomes successful in the real world, and anyone with that kind of energy for creation can become successful. They have to learn how to make games that customers find value in, enough value that the game is worthy of purchase, for that potential to be fulfilled. People will not buy a game that is pokemon, except not as good or more questionable or obscure. They would rather buy the original, as they want pokemon, not a knock-off. In this industry, cloning is death, and we should not encourage or side with a point of view that brings commercial developers death. It is not doing these talented fans any favors letting them think their games are a worthwhile endeavor, when what these fan-made games actually do is distract fans from making their free-time passion, game making, into their career.
Something I learned after a while is that many improvements I wish for pokemon would actually hurt it. I thought I wanted more moveslots and larger parties, but then I played a real RPG and found I hated the added complexity. I think I want a pokemon MMO, but I'm not sure what that would do to the franchise. An MMO is very stable and somewhat based on consistency, like any service. Such a philosophy could not create the wii though, as it's customers were quite a bit different than the customers the gamecube served. A service based company is stable, while a product-based company can be (not always is though) a lot more innovative. Nintendo's success is based on being a product based company, and it has been using asymetric values to a service based company. If it were to become a service based company, it would lose the ability to create radical innovations like the wii and the DS, as it would always have to keep its services stability in mind.
Hell, I've even done it myself, it's literally drag and drog stuff.
You suck, Nintendo.
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Huh fan projects are all ways a waste of time? rightt...Let alone the fact the majority of well made fan projects often surpass the companies offerings, Translations, map packs, texture bundles...ect
Fan projects are not a waste of time, and sadly its likely that Nintendo ceased and desisted them because they had created a vastly superior product then they did which is often the Case with Nintendo since they are no where near the quality they used to be.
Look up Chrono Resurrection Fan projects are not all ways useless,.
It is irrelivant whether the fan products surpass the company offerings, but they will not if the quality of their products is determined by customers. Customers decide quality, and they side with the original work because that is the origin of the quality. It cannot be vastly superior, therefore, unless it attains greater popularity than the original. And fan products are ALWAYS a waste of time that should have been spent on original work, as only original work can become greater than the franchise it was inspired by, and only original work can be used legally and for profit.
It is a waste of time that should be spent making a new game ratheer than copy-pasting an okd one with a couple of new tricks thrown in, and the sooner idies learn this, the sooner quality can come from independent developers. They need to learn to define quality by customers, otherwise, they are wasting their time, and customers reject fan projects of originals as markedly inferior to originals. You also can't sell the works, so you customer base is lower than the original base in spite of giving it our for free. That makes it a waste of time.
How could you be surprised? It's Nintendo's legal responsibility to do this. They have to protect their property.
Yeah, it's the law. That's all your reasoning? By keeping Pokenet online, who's it hurting? Nintendo only does this to protect their rep, I bet.
I would have tried this MMO out, had I known about it. Oh well... Thanks a lot Nintendo, you bad guys.