only other thing i'll write about this particular debacle:
when it comes to popular media franchises, my general rule of thumb is this: you don't feel this defensive because the franchise was a wholesome force that pulled you out of depression or taught you how to feel love as a child, and the creative passion of The Workers shone through and must be protected for their sake even if the franchise is owned by the great corporate monster, or because it has something to do with [insert other hot button issue of the day that everyone furiously retweets the same opinions about]. you feel this way because
- as with so many other issues on social media, you're afraid your friends will write a callout for you if you don't. and/or,
- like every other intellectual property brand, especially child friendly ones, your favorite franchise is a social parasite that latches onto your brain and convinces you that you need to protect it because it gave you happy feelings that no one else could, so anyone acting against it is trying to take that away from you. especially if you liked it as a child, because now it's nostalgic thanks to the social value ascribed to nostalgia and childhood "innocence", thus making it even more special and irreplaceable. i'm not saying that the happiness you felt can't be genuine, or that it's impossible to appreciate the canon of a franchise without behaving capitalistically. but brands leverage this happiness as a way of teaching you to make the brand a part of your identity, to own it as part of yourself, so that any slight against it becomes a slight against you. capitalism in its most refined form - which makes it especially silly to see so many outspoken anti-capitalists behaving this way.
now go! be free!
Also, Pokemon is part of the creature collector genre, which it didn't even start. The first Creature Collector was Shin Megami Tensei and that game ended with you killing Lucifier with demons.
Palworld is definitely based on Pokemon without a doubt, but "edgy Pokemon inspired games" is nothing new. Newgrounds was full of them. There are tons of Pokemon fan games that are like that.
Furthermore, many indie creature collector games go for a more mature edge because it tends to be the case that people playing them are adults. Palworld is teenage edgy, but it's basically just bringing a lot of subtext to Pokemon and making it text. That annoys people because pointing out that Pokemon ownership is kind of unethical was a think 90s Pokemon fans remember being bombarded with by anti-Pokemon media. But, it's not like Palworld is wrong. And, frankly, making a game where you do kind of shitty things doesn't mean you support those things in real life.
Personally, as an avid creature collector fan, I do wish the first indie creature collector game to explode like this was Nexomon 3 or Temtem or Cassette Beasts. They are a little less devisive and probably would have leas arguments about them and ease people into the idea that this is a genre that anyone can work in. Seriously, the fact I've seen three "No, Palworld won't be sued" videos this week is disheartening. People legit give copyright and trademark law more power than it has.
