[Discussion] Was the Essentials Wiki taken down?

[olderpokemonfan]

You can still post your fangames in the Games Showcase forum.


On another note, people offering download links in private messages will also be warned and infracted if it happens again. Don't risk it.

If we really wanted to go about it a round about way, could we just post our active RPGXP projects so that only people who have the program installed can view them? Forgive me for being paranoid, but...

Having known this news a whiles back, it does sadden me that PC are taking steps to disassociate with Pokemon Essentials, but I completely understand. I do think that the phrase "businesses are not your friends" rings more true than ever. Nintendo was and has always been about protecting the IPs with their designated "Official Nintendo Seal of Approval" you saw on every boxart for their games. And I do think this was a wakeup call for everyone in the Essentials / fangame development community.

But for as sad as the hardwork for the devs to be taken down from Wikia, the internet still exists and their work isn't lost to the DMCA void. For me looking from the outside, I felt the engagement of the community being to slow into near stagnation but now that Essentials to PokeCommunity is a goner, this'll only make way for future kits and tools to have the spotlight. It was a long time coming but now I think (and I'm just a guy with a bad take) that the community should start considering a new shift in perspective instead of trying to figure out the contrived ways to distribute Essentials on PC without getting handed a fat L (infraction).

I don't think I want to mess with it anymore at all. It was nice to play around with making fan games and seeing my ideas come to life in an environment reminiscent of Pokemon Fire Red, but it was just for fun and to learn certain game mechanics. Now that Nintendo's decided that it's illegal, even though it should be protected under Creative Commons license like the creators of the program claim, why should I waste my energy and time on it? I would much rather develop my own projects, even if that means I'll have to work harder establishing my own stories and worlds. RPGXP is still a powerful tool on its own, and it's not the only one.

 

[Marin]

Having known this news a whiles back, it does sadden me that PC are taking steps to disassociate with Pokemon Essentials, but I completely understand. I do think that the phrase "businesses are not your friends" rings more true than ever. Nintendo was and has always been about protecting the IPs with their designated "Official Nintendo Seal of Approval" you saw on every boxart for their games. And I do think this was a wakeup call for everyone in the Essentials / fangame development community.

But for as sad as the hardwork for the devs to be taken down from Wikia, the internet still exists and their work isn't lost to the DMCA void. For me looking from the outside, I felt the engagement of the community being to slow into near stagnation but now that Essentials to PokeCommunity is a goner, this'll only make way for future kits and tools to have the spotlight. It was a long time coming but now I think (and I'm just a guy with a bad take) that the community should start considering a new shift in perspective instead of trying to figure out the contrived ways to distribute Essentials on PC without getting handed a fat L (infraction).

We don't want to draw attention to ourselves because we offer Pokémon Essentials downloads. It's straight up illegal now, and there's more to PC than just fangaming. Other than that, we're not "disassociating" from Essentials, nor is it "goner".

 

[DJTiki]

We don't want to draw attention to ourselves because we offer Pokémon Essentials downloads. Other than that, we're not "disassociating" from Essentials, nor is it "goner".

Wouldn't no longer offering downloads for Essentials in order to put the community's protection first and separating its status and PC's to Nintendo be a form of disassociation? If you meant that fan support will continue and PC will still be a host to them, then I concede to that point.

 

[Mewtwolover]

I think (and I'm just a guy with a bad take) that the community should start considering a new shift in perspective instead of trying to figure out the contrived ways to distribute Essentials on PC without getting handed a fat L (infraction).

I agree with you, Essentials is easy to find with Google so distributing it isn't a problem.

 

[IlligalBeagle]

So from now on, Can't we make any fan games with ripped stuff?

If by ripped you mean stolen like the sprites and stuff, I assume that you can. Just hide it from Nintendo or put it out in the open and hope Nintendo doesn't find you. But they are rather slow sometimes to get these take downs. I think they like to watch these projects till they get to their highest point before shutting them down. It would make a lot more sense and when a lot of people know about it, then when it is shut down the people will see it is gone too and will hear Nintendo did it and be all like "Whoa, its shut down! I don't think I can make a fan game if mine will get shut down too." So then they don't. But some of us here have seen the fall of Uranium (The original at least) and Prism (I never saw that one, but some of you might have) and now we are making fan games. We must anticipate these attacks at the times we least expect them. They might even be eyeing this forum as their next attack because we are all here. Let us be careful where we tread on the internet, or it might be out last step in that area before it is gone forever.

 

[Mewtwolover]

But some of us here have seen the fall of Uranium (The original at least) and Prism (I never saw that one, but some of you might have) and now we are making fan games. We must anticipate these attacks at the times we least expect them. They might even be eyeing this forum as their next attack because we are all here. Let us be careful where we tread on the internet, or it might be out last step in that area before it is gone forever.

Stop fearmongering. Uranium and Prism just went underground, they're still available. Remember that once it's uploaded to the Internet, it stays there. So far almost all fan games that were attacked by Nintendo are still available, only exception is that one flash game but flash is dying platform so nothing of value were lost.

We don't want to draw attention to ourselves because we offer Pokémon Essentials downloads.

You don't need to offer downloads if you offer short guide how to download it from GitHub by using git clone.

 

[SpartaLazor]

You don't need to offer downloads if you offer short guide how to download it from GitHub by using git clone.

IMO, it's probably better to just keep PC's hands clean of anything regarding downloading or how to download Essentials at this point.

If people want it, let them find it on their own.

 

[IlligalBeagle]

Stop fearmongering

K, fine. But it could be probable. Anyway, what will be our next move. Are we just going to stay here for the time or are we going to move to make it more public? I'm not encouraging anything, but I would like to just ask what we are doing now?

 

[BadSamaritan]

...but now that Essentials to PokeCommunity is a goner, this'll only make way for future kits and tools to have the spotlight.

Essentials being axed does anything BUT promote the creation of new tools. If the number one pokemon making tool gets taken down after about a decade of effort put into it, how exactly does that inspire others to try the exact same thing?

Anyways, on the note of the "can we just take out all official Nintendo resources" idea - No, you can't, and please stop while you're behind. Essentials games aren't illegal because of the resources, they're illegal because of the intellectual property. And so long as what you make ends up a "Pokémon" game, it will continue to be illegal.

And let's say you do remove all pokemon related instances from the kit....how many people are going to use a kit without any official pokemon in it? I can answer that by saying the amount of completed fan-games with all custom pokemon, I can count on one hand. I.e., virtually none.

 

[Marin]

K, fine. But it could be probable. Anyway, what will be our next move. Are we just going to stay here for the time or are we going to move to make it more public? I'm not encouraging anything, but I would like to just ask what we are doing now?

For sure nothing is happening until Maruno decides how he wants to move forward, and what happens then fully depends on what decision he made.

 

[IlligalBeagle]

On a side note, I don't really know how long ago this was but I found out about it only recently. I guess Nintendo is cracking down on everything. you have probably already heard about Brick Bronze (If you know what Roblox is. It was pretty big). They have now taken down a smaller Roblox game called Project: Pokemon. I knew that this was going to happen eventually so I guess I won't finish my series of videos... Also, they took down Roblox Pokemon Go (sounds stupid but in the early days of life when Pokemon Go was unavailable to me I would play this nonstop because it was POKEMON GO!) which was one of the Roblox games that I signed up just to play for (that and work at a pizza place) The game was rather dead anyway, they stopped development a long time ago, but I did want to make a video on it. Sadly I will not, but it was fun while it lasted.
The point of me saying this is just to indicate that it is not just us that they are hunting down. They have already taken Project: Pokemon and Roblox Pokemon Go, I believe it to only be recently since I haven't been on in a few months but it is already gone. So maybe this is part of a bigger crackdown on their copyrighted stuff.

 

[SpartaLazor]

The point of me saying this is just to indicate that it is not just us that they are hunting down.

I don't see why people are getting this dramatic over this. Hunting us down? Yeah, I doubt that's happening. Nintendo probably already knows about this place. All it takes is a couple of Google searches. We're not exactly cloaked in the shadows of the dark web or anything.

As for the Roblox games, I'm pretty sure that Roblox has some micro-transactions. I don't know how extensive they go, or even if the aforementioned games used them, but you'd certainly want to avoid anyplace where the exchange of money is involved when it comes to fan-games. That's just playing it safe.

 

[remer]

It is really mean of them to take down essentials.Now i am totally confused if i should continue the fan made game i had begun to make.It uses ripped stuff both from essentials and spriters resource.

 

[Soccersam]

Well, as Marin said, you CAN continue and share your fangmes in Pokecommunity, but you CAN'T distribute Pokemon Essentials here.
Good luck on your fangame!

 

[olderpokemonfan]

My opinion? It's just not worth it to work on a game for years if it's just going to be considered "illegal." I want to continue to learn Ruby programming, and Pokemon isn't the be all end all.

 

[Urrr]

If we really wanted to go about it a round about way, could we just post our active RPGXP projects so that only people who have the program installed can view them? Forgive me for being paranoid, but...


I don't think I want to mess with it anymore at all. It was nice to play around with making fan games and seeing my ideas come to life in an environment reminiscent of Pokemon Fire Red, but it was just for fun and to learn certain game mechanics. Now that Nintendo's decided that it's illegal, even though it should be protected under Creative Commons license like the creators of the program claim, why should I waste my energy and time on it? I would much rather develop my own projects, even if that means I'll have to work harder establishing my own stories and worlds. RPGXP is still a powerful tool on its own, and it's not the only one.

No, I don't forgive you for being paranoid. I can understand it on some level, but the amount of fear some people seem to have is simply astounding.
Do you always fold when things get hairy? You may only have done this (as in making fangames) as an exercise for future projects on your own, but there are certainly creators out there who do not want to make anything different simply because this is their passion. If all of us, either as creators or fans, would handle this the same way as you, Nintendo, and indeed all companys, would have already won.
If you are not willing to take risks, your life will always be mediocre (and this goes for any part of life).

 

[Damien.aspiring.fandev]

Do they have some sort of copyright take down policy thing over there though (because they might just file one in Russia).

AFAIK they don't.

✵ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ✵
❧ I don't know if it's viable, and I might turn out a bit impertinent, but...
❧ I'd like to propose the partially recognized insular country of Niue!

❧ Still... about the whole fan-games business... we still don't know whether distributing
❧ Essentials-based fan-games will count as distributing Essentials and thus result illegal,
❧ but if it WILL, someone might still find a way to get around that much like with rom patches, who knows?
❧ Or maybe an alternative will arise, just like someone hypothesized already!
❧ When a star goes down, thousand others show up!
❧ Gonna add a quote from thy partner on PMD:R&B RTs

❧ One thing I wonder... why can't I access the MAIN page of Pokécommunity?
✵ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ✵

 

[FL]

Okay, so anyone knows if the DCMA on Wikia was legitimate?

Let's says it was, Essentials isn't ilegal, only was banned from Wikia/Fandom. We can try to hold into "fair use" law if Essentials itself was pursuited from Nintendo:

if you are releasing it for free, making $0 profit, then they cannot prove damages in court. It's not about who holds the copyright, it's about having evidence of damages.

Don't give up easily! This is just a small obstacle, let's keep going. First, we need a documentation backup, and probably put it on a better host.

---

Reminder that Pokémon Essentials may not be distributed anywhere on PokéCommunity. Doing so will immediately result in an infraction.
This includes PMs.

So, it's okay to do this (and request wikia dumps) by e-mail?

 

[Maruno]

I don't know if there's anything for me to say. Do what Marin says and don't try to find download links here. It's best not to even talk about downloading Essentials here, really.

Don't let this put you off game development. It'd be a shame if that's all it took to stifle creativity. You knew what you were doing when you started/got interested, and this event doesn't change anything.

 

[KaratGaming]

The Wiki's down and the lastest update to Essentials was taken down by Nintendo of America. Looks like Nintendo is in full-on fan-hate mode again. The war on their fans continues, and they won't stop until there are no fans left.

If Nintendo continues this, they won't have a fanbase who loves Pokemon anymore, Nintendo's turning into Konami 2.0 at this point.....