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Do you remember all that went down in the virtual realm over the last fortnight? Did you add anything to your Steam library this week? Have you gone down any rabbit holes in the last seven days? No? Would you like to? Do you have a minute?
This week, we have everything from legal disputes to controversies about a TikTok dance. Sixty seconds on the clock — on your marks, get set, read!
— Rebecca Smith, Senior Arts Editor, and Holly Tschirhart, Digital Culture Beat Editor
Nintendo Suing Palworld for Copyright Infringement
Do you remember Palworld? No? Does Pokémon with guns jog your memory, then? I can’t blame you if it doesn’t. This January, the wonder-of-the-week indie game was an internet phenomenon; a legally distinct, edgier version of the famous monster-catching behemoth, featuring ARK-like survival gameplay and many designs that can only be described as slightly off-model Pokémon. Somehow, this game has managed to maintain an impressive 20,000 concurrent players and has grossed about $442 million, even after the buzz around its release ended.
Though Nintendo released a statement soon after its release claiming that they would investigate infringements of the Pokémon brand, they didn’t take legal action against the game until now, following its release on PS5 and plans of multimedia IP expansion. While Palworld’s character design and general vibes deftly walk on the tightrope of plagiarism, Nintendo’s lawsuit was actually over patent infringement rather than artistic similarities. Nonetheless, we don’t know which patents were infringed upon, Palworld’s capture mechanics were likely the culprit, as this was an aspect of Pokémon that was recently patented.
Nintendo is not new to these kinds of lawsuits — from striking down mods to fangames, they have consistently been one of the most anticonsumer developers out there. For the most part, this rigidity has only soured the relationship between Nintendo and its most ardent fans, and it’s a big part of the anti-progress attitude that the company seems to have. It’s easy to connect Nintendo’s attitude towards modding to its similar attitude towards competitive Smash. As a recovering Smash player, I find Nintendo’s anticonsumer practices were a big part of why I quit the game, but in this instance, I’m on their side. To me, Palworld feels like little more than a cheap grasp at Pokémon’s popularity and a way to capitalize on fans’ criticisms of the newer games in the series. My disdain for Nintendo aside, Pocketpair is profiting from copying the hard work of Game Freak’s developers and artists, who already have to deal with unreasonable turnaround times and minuscule budgets. As a Pokémon fan and a videogame fan in general, I don’t think ripping other games off should be a profitable strategy.
Go play a Pokémon ROM hack instead, please.
Daily Arts writer Ariel Litwak can be reached at arilit@umich.edu.
Cards Against Humanity Sues Elon Musk
Cards Against Humanity’s seven-year bit may have finally come to fruition. In 2017, the card game company crowdfunded the purchase of a piece of land in Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border to create a time-consuming hassle for Trump’s border wall team, intending to be a nuisance and at a costly expense. Seven years later, this purchase once again became the bane (or at least, the major annoyance) of an alt-right troll: Elon Musk, and his rocket manufacturing company, SpaceX. In the lawsuit filed Sept. 19, Cards Against Humanity details how, since the purchase, they’ve maintained the natural state of the fenced-off plot, until SpaceX moved in next door and started buying up properties around the area. Then, without contacting Cards Against Humanity for permission, SpaceX trespassed on the plot and started construction, destroying the original state of the land beyond recognition.
The lawsuit is calling for $15 million in damages, citing reasons like trespassing, interfering with existing contracts and damaging Cards Against Humanity’s public image and relationship with their customers, who were promised the land would remain intact in exchange for their contributions to the crowdfund. In particular, Cards Against Humanity argues that Musk’s repeated support of alt-right politics adds insult to injury, arguing they and their player base bought the land specifically to combat such views.
As a company, Cards Against Humanity is no stranger to politics. After the 2016 election, they funded a monthly opinion poll of the American public on a variety of social and political topics for a full year. More recently, they did a fundraiser for the National Network of Abortion Funds after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, donating 100% of profits from new expansion packs purchased in states that had abortion ban trigger laws in place.
There haven’t been any further developments, but Cards Against Humanity requested a trial by jury in the filed document. Godspeed to those 12 lucky people.
Daily Arts writer Lin Yang can be reached at yanglinj@umich.edu.
Girl interrupting the Apple Dance at the Sweat tour
If you’ve participated in Brat Summer, you’ve engaged in the Apple Dance. Started by Kelley Heyer, this dance brought back the age-old phenomenon of TikTok dances in a massive way, helping to push Charli xcx’s “Apple” audio on TikTok to more than 1.7 million videos and getting many celebrities to participate.
The Sweat Tour — Charli xcx and Troye Sivan’s concert tour — started in Detroit this September. As “Apple” is a fixed setlist item, when Charli gets to the viral section of the song, the big screens project live video of audience members dancing. Heyer attended the New York stop on the second week of the tour and, as deserved, got a solo shot to perform her dance. As she was dancing, however, another girl, whom Heyer did not know, entered the shot, lightly grabbing at her arm and dancing with her. It didn’t strike me as completely out of the ordinary when I first watched it, but the comment section is filled with rage at the interruption of Heyer’s big moment.
X also erupted with anger at the unannounced extra, and it got to the point that Heyer herself had to step in and denounce the hate. She confirmed that she didn’t know the girl, but said that they had a conversation afterward, during which the girl apologized and said she was just excited. Heyer encouraged everybody to be softer with their comments and told people not to dox the girl. The hate is starting to die down a bit now, but it was certainly an intense way to start the Sweat Tour.
Daily Arts Writer Campbell Johns can be reached at caajohns@umich.edu.
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