作者：Anthony Usher

如果你在过去几周里曾经浏览过技术网站，或与游戏相关的网站，你便会了解到总部位于加州的艺电（游戏邦注：《Madden》的创造者）正在对《FarmVille》的开发者Zynga发起诉讼。因为艺电认为Zynga的《The Ville》窃取了其Facebook游戏《模拟人生社交版》的理念。

这并不是开发商或发行商首次就社交游戏的专有权而发起“战争”，并且Zynga也已经因为发行了多款复制游戏而遭遇过多次指控。

我们并不是在指责这家位于旧金山的公司，但是说实话，如果你未发现Zynga的游戏与控诉公司的游戏间的相似，你就真的太麻木了。

以下便是该公司过去所采取的种种复制行动（排名不分先后）。

《The Ville》——《模拟人生社交版》

The Ville & The Sims Social（from pocketgamer）

让我们先从《模拟人生社交版》说起，这也是我们写下这篇文章的初衷。

艺电宣称这两款游戏的角色创造间具有“实质性的共同点”，并指控Zynga直接复制了《模拟人生社交版》中9种个性类型的6种。

而与每种个性相关的动画也具有惊人的相似处，尽管《The Ville》突出了与艺电相对的8种肤色，但是这么做其实更加可疑。

《FarmVille》——《Farm Town》

FarmVille & Farm Town（from pocketgamer）

Slashkey的《Farm Town》于2009年初在网页上掀起了一股热潮，而Zynga的《FarmVille》则是在2009年6月出现在Facebook上。从时间上我们便可以看出先后。

虽然说农场模拟游戏总是具有某种程度上的相似处，但是Zynga这款大受欢迎游戏的功能的确拥有与《Farm Town》非常多的共同点，如带有能够结果的树木，以及玩家需要喂养动物等等。

我们可以从图中清楚地看出许多共同点。

《Cafe World》——《Resturant City》

Cafe World & Resturant City（from pocketgamer）

2009年，艺电旗下的Playfish发行了一款名为《Resturant City》的游戏，即玩家通过向好友派发食物而将一间小餐馆发展成为大受欢迎的大饭店。

在此一个月后，Zynga便推出了《Cafe World》——而游戏玩法与《Resturant City》几乎一模一样。

从图中我们也能够看出，这两款游戏具有极其惊人的相似处。

《FishVille》——《Happy Aquarium》

fishville & Happy Aquarium（from pocketgamer）

Zynga在2009年11月发行了《FishVille》，但是早在几个月前，CrowdStar便在Facebook上推出了《Happu Aquarium》。

在这两款游戏中，玩家都需要通过喂食去照顾一些不同种类的鱼，清洗鱼缸，并在游戏内部商店购买新道具和装饰品。

《PetVille》——《Pet Society》

PetVille & Pet Society（from pocketgamer）

这一次，Zynga又尾随着Playfish的《Pet Society》发行了一款相类似的游戏，《PetVille》，并且其中的游戏角色与前者中的角色也十分相似。

在这两款游戏中，玩家都会面临许多相同的活动，如定制宠物和它的住处。

《Dream Heights》——《Tiny Tower》

Dream Heights & Tiny Tower（from pocketgamer）

这是发生在最近的事。去年，有名的免费游戏专家，也是《口袋青蛙》的 开发商NimbleBit发行了一款让人上瘾的塔楼建造模拟游戏，《Tiny Tower》——玩家在游戏中的任务便是创建一座摩天大楼。

很自然地，Zynga所创造的相似游戏也很快吸引了许多玩家的注意。《Dream Heights》拥有许多与《Tiny Tower》类似的元素，如游戏教程以及楼内居民的各种属性。

在遭遇指控前，Zynga曾试图收购NimbleBit，但却遭到了拒绝。

《黑帮战争》——《Mob Wars》

Mafia Wars & MobWars（from pocketgamer）

早在2008年，充满歹徒，并基于文本的犯罪类游戏《Mob Wars》便吸引了大批玩家的注意，甚至每天能够从玩家身上赚取好几千美元的收益。

随后，《黑帮战争》便出现了。Zynga在游戏中突出了类似的用户界面与故事元素，从而引来了《Mob Wars》的创造者David Maestri的控告，并为此支付了700万至900万美元的赔偿金。

《Pioneer Trail》——《Oregon Trail》

Pioneer Trail & Oregon Trail（from pocketgamer）

我想大家应该都非常熟悉教育类游戏《Oregon Trail》，所以我们只打算简单地说说这款游戏的任务。即玩家将从密苏里州的独立城前往俄勒冈州的威拉米特河谷，并在沿途避开痢疾等让人厌烦的疾病。

2011年，Zynga打着扩展Facebook游戏《FrontierVille》的理由，仿效了《Oregon Trail》的游戏玩法而创造出《Pioneer Trail》。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

EA’s revenge: A history of Zynga’s clones and knock-offs

by Anthony Usher

If you’ve so much as visited a tech or gaming-related website over the past week or so, you’ll be well aware that California-based Madden creator EA is in the process of suing FarmVille developer Zynga. In essence, the former believes the latter ripped off its The Sims Social Facebook title with The Ville.

This isn’t the first time a developer or publisher has gone after the social gaming specialist, though. Zynga has been accused of releasing clones plenty of times before, after all.

Now, we’re not saying the San Francisco-based outfit is guilty (please don’t sue us), but you’d have to be blind (and stupid) not to see some similarities between Zynga’s products and the games that it’s allegedly borrowed heavily from.

Below is a list of the company’s past transgressions in no particular order. Enjoy.

The Ville – The Sims Social

Let’s start with the The Sims Social, which is the reason we’re writing this article in the first place.

EA alleges – among other things – that there’s a “substantial similarity” between the character creator portions of both games, and accuses Zynga of downright copying six of the nine personality types in its game.

Animations related to each personality type are also strikingly similar, while The Ville boasts the exact eight skin tone colours as its EA counterpart. Fishy.

FarmVille – Farm Town

Slashkey’s Farm Town hit the web in early 2009. Zynga’s effort hit Facebook in June 2009. You do the math.

Saying that, farming sims are always going to be somewhat similar (due to the nature of the beast), but Zynga’s über-popular effort has more than its fair share of features ‘inspired’ by Slashkey’s release, such as fruit-wielding trees and animals that need feeding.

And, y’know, they kind of look alike.

Cafe World – Resturant City

Sticking with 2009, EA subsidiary Playfish released a title called Restaurant City in which you attempt to transform a small eatery into a bustling (and profitable) restaurant by dishing out food to your buddies.

Months later, Zynga released Cafe World – a game in which you attempt to transform a small eatery into a large bustling (and profitable) restaurant by dishing out food to your buddies.

As you can see from the images above, the games bear a striking resemblance to each other.

FishVille – Happy Aquarium

Zynga released FishVille in November 2009, a couple of months after CrowdStar launched Happy Aquarium on Facebook for the very first time.

In both games, you adopt and care for a range of different fish by feeding them, cleaning their tank, and purchasing new items and decorations from the in-game store.

PetVille – Pet Society

Again, Zynga followed up the release of Pet Society with a similar title called PetVille, which features characters that, well, closely resemble the ones found in PlayFish’s social game.

You complete many of the same activities in both, too, such as customising your pet and his humble abode.

Dream Heights – Tiny Tower

This is a fairly recent example. Last year, famed free-to-play specialist and Pocket Frogs developer NimbleBit launched an addictive tower-building sim called Tiny Tower, which tasks you with building a huge skyscraper.

Naturally, Zynga’s attempt at a similar game soon hit the market, complete with lots of familiar elements, such as tutorials and the various stats of your tower’s inhabitants.

Zynga actually attempted to acquire NimbleBit prior to this debacle, which makes it a whole lot more interesting.

Mafia Wars – MobWars

Back in 2008, gangster-filled text-based crime title Mob Wars was doing pretty well for itself, and was rumoured to be generating several thousands of dollars on a daily basis from its users.

Then, Mafia Wars came along. Zynga’s effort featured a similar user interface and story elements, which led to a lawsuit from Mob Wars creator David Maestri and a $7-9 million settlement.

Pioneer Trail – Oregon Trail

We presume you’re already more than familiar with infamous educational title Oregon Trail, so we won’t go into it too much.

All we will say is that it tasks you with travelling from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon’s Willamette Valley while trying to avoid dysentery and other nasty ailments.

In 2011, Zynga released an expansion for Facebook title FrontierVille called Pioneer Trail, which mimicked gameplay from the classic 1971 title.（source：pocketgamer）