As a college student, you likely love playing online games. Most tutors have started gamifying their lessons to help learners understand new concepts easily and achieve their academic goals. Technology has been growing at a rapid rate. And it has a bright future ahead. More developers are releasing lots of educational titles to help learners make progress. Since there’s a huge demand for such games, some developers end up copying educational gaming content. You’ve probably heard of the term ‘plagiarism’ when it comes to academic papers. But have you ever thought of plagiarism in the gaming world?
Plagiarism in the Gaming World
Plagiarism is one of the biggest issues not only in college but also in the gaming industry. If you have an essay assignment, you have to do a plagiarism check online using an online checker for students before submitting your paper. Plagiarism is a serious offence that has spread in many industries. In the gaming world, it is caused by the rapid growth of developers in the market who can distribute games on a wide range of platforms, such as Android, Windows, IOS, and Facebook, to name a few. Thousands of organizations are competing in this space. And this eventually leads to the copying of ideas and allegations of plagiarism.
History of Plagiarism in the Gaming World
Most online titles that we have today began on matters surrounding plagiarism and copyright. Back in the ’80s, we had simple video games. Due to computing power limitations, cloning was not such a big deal. Later, Congress convened and ruled that all kinds of computer software qualified for copyright protection. Although the software was protected by the Constitution, most people never knew the extent of this protection. Most clones and unlicensed websites continued to operate till the 1983 crash. Since then, the following happened:
Lots of game studios were closed – Poorly and hastily made titles led to this crash. And the crash led to the closure of lots of studios that engaged in copying.
Enhanced lockout control – Nintendo Entertainment System was one of the major gaming developers that embraced enhanced lockout technology to prevent unlicensed developers from creating software using their platform. While the industry started maturing rapidly since this happened, plagiarism in online games was still a major issue.
Why Is Gaming Plagiarism on the Rise?
The gaming industry hasn’t changed entirely from the one we had back in the 80s. While a huge part of it is consolidated and controlled, emerging markets, such as mobile and social media, have a lot in common with the 1982 market. For every successful game that is released on mobile or social media, there are lots of clones that do their best in pushing boundaries. For instance, Angry Birds has lots of clones, such as Angry Animals and Angry Farms, to name a few. When the market reaches such a point, it’s not just the people who clone that suffer but also developers.
Effects of Plagiarism
Educational gamification plays an important role – to help learners understand key concepts and make progress in school. Education is at the heart of everything in an individual’s life. Since most learners can easily access gadgets and the internet, it makes sense for them to learn using them.
Plagiarism makes it difficult for learners to achieve their education goals and land their dream jobs. It is an unethical issue that is quite difficult to solve. When the market suffers, it’s not just the cloners who lose but also developers and students. Copying other people’s ideas doesn’t pay. When individuals start coming up with original ideas and better ways to learn, they will achieve their objectives. Also, learners will embrace new ways of learning and memorizing concepts. When poorly developed or copied educational online games get released into the market, everyone pays the price. Tutors and students can control this issue by visiting the right website and playing their favorite games. Since cloners tend to copy the original website, ensure that you use the URL link provided by a reputable online studied developer.
Conclusion
Technology is advancing at a rapid rate. And there’s a huge demand for online games in the market today. Similar to academic papers, educational online titles are hugely affected by plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as the act of copying other peoples’ ideas and presenting them as your own. Most people copy the ideas of reputable game developers and come up with a version of the same game. In short, they try to reap where they have not sown. And there are major consequences for this. One of the best ways to solve this problem is by using the right URL link to access your favorite games. If no one plays cloned educational online games, there will be no need to create them.
Author’s Bio:
Helen Birk is a professional and experienced content creator and academic editor. She enjoys assisting learners to discover new ways of learning and memorizing concepts. She spends her free time analyzing college papers and meeting new people.