Im thinking its about time to bring back BYOND Anime guild / its fan games. Lets be real once those went away nobody really frequented here anymore minus those fucking goofballs that still play SS13 for some reason.
Allegedly it was Funimation who had the issue with it to begin with and it was over a Dragonball Z game. However if you think about them giving a fuck about what we do here seems extremely unlikely.
I think its a hill BYOND as a community should lowkey die on. With all of the modern games coming out these days i find it hard to believe an animation studio will hunt down a DBZ game using a few Legacy of Goku sprites or a Naruto game; people who made Legacy of Goku have literally lived full lives at this point and the author of Naruto is retired, hes not gonna care how people represent his series at this point and he prolly ignores his own series as self care now. I highly doubt someones gonna download BYOND, make a character, and log into an anime game just to check and see if they can make a character loosely based around naruto/dbz/etc world.
Im thinking we should just say fuck it and make a whole ass return with anime games. i think the number of people who would return and think its cool would outweigh anyone who actually gave a fuck, and people would have a reason to buy a byond membership for the first time since 2008.
Any thoughts?
ID:2881924
 Jul 29 2023, 3:04 am (Edited on Jul 29 2023, 3:34 am)
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Love original and anime games alike. I do agree with bringing back anime guild and fan games. Anime is a huge draw for people, since the fan base already exist; where as original games tend to take a while to build up. Given that byond is already unpopular as it is, original games from the platform just doesn't grow much fan base. Unless the originals ofcourse is very well made and enticing.
If BYOND somehow bring back the features that made people come here during it's peak, I'm quite positive on the next months or years after it's implemented again. | |
I'm working on a Naruto, unfortunately it should take a while. Maybe a beta, within 1 month. The more I work, the more work comes my way.
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the features that made people come here during it's peak Peak BYOND only coincided with peak internet. We can't bring it back, because we're past peak internet. That said, any call to action that specifically speaks to fangames is a non-starter for the platform. It can't be done without putting the platform at risk. As it stands, the current way that games are segregated by tag spreads activity on the platform too thin, making it appear more dead than it actually is. Old games still being at the top of the pile because of their fan numbers also contributes to a barrier to change and evolution on the platform, as we will never have the level of popularity and engagement on the site that we had in 2008. We can't really build up what we have if it's buried under the rotting corpse of what was. Focusing on fangames is a dead end --not because of the content or the popularity of it, but the risk it signals to the platform to be seen as acting on their behalf. We won't accomplish anything by focusing the discussion on fangames. Instead, the discussion really should be about activity, and fangames having an outsized draw by comparison to the rest of the platform should just be left unstated if you want to accomplish the change you want to see. The platform can enjoy safe harbor provisions that allow it to not be seen as directly promoting trademark and copyright infringing content, and the problem you see can be addressed at the same time, just by rethinking your approach to not really address fangames as a whole. What users want to host isn't the platform's problem, and instead the listings should just be globally restructured to showcase activity on the platform so long as it doesn't violate the TOS. BYOND can still comply with DMCA and forward C&D letters to responsible parties, but listings need to be changed. I think, unfortunately, the egoism associated with fangames wanting to be promoted and acknowledged for their contribution to the platform's survival signals risk to that community. It's a self destructive impulse that really needs to be tempered by the reality of the situation in order to find a workable solution going forward. There's been a historical argument that BYOND needs to "allow" fangames. It's just a flawed argument, because BYOND doesn't disallow fangames. It just complies with the requests of rights holders when they are raised. This is not BYOND disallowing fangames. It's BYOND protecting itself from liability. Fangames can't be "allowed" by anyone, they can only be ignored or they can be stopped through legal action by the rights holder or licensee who has had their exclusive rights infringed upon. Ultimately, you are able to do what you want until someone tries to stop you. BYOND hasn't stopped anyone from making or even listing fangames. As for the how the listings are structured, that's a different argument entirely, and one that as I said above, should be considered from a wholistic approach. | |
Agreed with Rugg.
The legal issue isn't in the existence of fangames, but rather the idea that someone associated with a fangame is profiting financially from it. Dreamseeker advertisements don't even work, so that insignificant issue is actually a non-issue. As to owners profiting, there's no reason that you can police their cringe little real money stores. Nonsense such as "20,000 zenni for $20" and "Custom tailed beast for $30" should simply not exist. If they try it, just shut them down until they fix it. This also dissuades people from hosting rips. Rip hosts don't do it because they're passionate about a game. They do it because they know they can scam a few hundred dollars out of players before the wipe stops being interesting. And lastly, ignore this doomer above me. If you want something, then work hard for it. Most people seem to want BYOND to be popular again, and if that is the case, then take to showing it off on other websites as I have done with my team. | |
And lastly, ignore this doomer above me. What's weird is we basically agree on the topic. I have just pointed out that to accomplish what you want, only the optics of the approach needs to be changed. Seems a little silly to try to call that "dooming", when I'm pointing out that change and growth is possible. Quit feelbeasting. | |
People play SS13 because it's a rare instance of a byond game that is actually functional (ha-ha, I know) and playable as a game, though I'm sure High RP servers make the experience as miserable as your average anime game. DBZ and Naruto trash here also don't enjoy the benefit of having a dedicated sseth video where he'd make funny OCD jokes about meditating for an hour, punching a log with an autoclicker for another 5 hours while avoiding admins who police AFKers and then getting beaten by an admin pet and banned because you didn't write enough paragraphs before punching someone. Sounds like the video would have potential, actually, so hit me up if you're reading this.
DMCAs is not Funimation giving a fuck, it's people reporting alleged or real copyright infringement. It could be Funimation's president and CEO personally looking for people having too much fun on the internet, or it could be their lawyers looking to justify their paycheck, but it could just as well be someone who got banned in some Finale rip and called Funimation as revenge, or admins of some "RP" game reporting a rival game to steal their players, especially the paypigs. While DMCA should ideally focus on copyright abuse for commercial gain, this is the part where nobody actually gives a fuck. Company catches wind of somebody running something Bleach-related and they issue a cease and desist immediately. Nintendo is a great example of this approach, and if you reported Wisteria right now, they would probably fire a C&D even if you didn't also show them its patreon rewards. If you aren't monetizing the game, you can claim fair use or something, and maybe you can even convince them, but every second you argue with a company's legal department, you're running the risk of the lawyer going "okay, this counts as sufficient warning" and filing a lawsuit where he claims damages. And you might even be right about the fair use or some other copyright exemption, but guess where you will have to defend your position once that happens? Lawsuits are expensive even if you win, by the way, and you aren't always entitled to full compensation. What's worse, in this case, it would likely be BYOND who would have to resolve any legal matters on behalf of the game in question, and not whoever is running it. | |
What's worse, in this case, it would likely be BYOND who would have to resolve any legal matters on behalf of the game in question, and not whoever is running it. Highly unlikely that BYOND would involve themselves at all in a suit. More likely, is that BYOND would comply with any and all requests that they can to remove content from their site, but what happens on the game's server would be kicked to the user's ISP. | |
Yeah, that's true. But that's the benefit of the hands-off approach that OP has an issue with, and any official endorsement for fangames would work against the plausible deniability that BYOND currently enjoys. I guess I'm just reiterating your first post.
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These replies actually gave good insight on the situation. I rescind what I mentioned above, but I do hope someone finds a different approach for the platform to reach more new users.
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I think many of us are enthusiastic about the potential for growth in BYOND. My team and I are proactively creating and sharing video tutorials on YouTube to foster this growth. In addition, we've begun leveraging social media platforms to promote these videos and unique BYOND projects.
This is a gradual process, but we're optimistic about attracting a new wave of developers and players to the platform. | |
I don't think many people are using the front page to look for games, letting anime games come back wouldn't do much at all except open up legal issues for lummox down the road.
compile2exe would do x10 more | |
I think most fan games are promoting themselves via discord at this point.
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I'm working on a "Super Naruto", yes, it's a fan game. But me and my icon artist, let's see if the game will be name enough and Let's talk to the person responsible for the copyright of the anime in Brazil. Let's go upstairs. I'm sharing some game progress on Discord.
https://discord.me/byond | |
Also, just let shit be publicly listed so long as it's not porn.