Courtesy of its nature as a level creation tool, Super Mario Maker will be a title that can intrigue and keep us interesting for months and maybe years to come. Its popularity is evident in the sheer mass of stages to be found and played, and naturally some demonstrate similar ideas and approaches.
One of the most popular - in terms of Star Ranking - creators is being accused of plagiarism, however, in a bit of a spin on the normal conversation around user levels. Recser8 (as per Miiverse) is the number one most starred creator when you look up the 'Weekly' ranking at the time of writing, claiming 10th position in the all-time list. As one of the most prolific and played creators they'll clearly get a lot of attention.
Some are accusing them of plagiarism, however - reader 1958Fury pointed us to three 'copies' and a thread of regular Super Mario Maker players on GameFAQs where there's some discussion around the topic. The game does make it impossible to simply download and re-publish stages, of course, so it'd be cruder copying at work here - seeing a concept and re-creating it.
We've looked through three examples - you can see IDs, upload dates and our perspective on them below; star ranking numbers were accurate at time of writing.
- Original: 7ACB-0000-0106-B026 - Jared (2nd December) - 22 stars from 53 plays
- Alleged Copy: 269E-0000-0108-FA93 - Recser8 (3rd December) - 2513 stars from 25719 plays
The second stage is extremely similar, adopting the same core single-screen puzzle and items; it does use a different game template.
- Original: CC94-0000-00F1-FA29 - Lantis (20th November) - 67 stars from 216 plays
- Alleged Copy: EB3C-0000-0104-A30F - Recser8 (30th November) - 1161 stars from 21603 plays
As this is a recreation of the Super Mario Bros. opening stage, but with an auto-scroll and impeding wall on the left, this is the most obvious similarity yet - they're practically identical.
- Original: A114-0000-00ED-55A9 - TAJ (16th November) - 15 stars from 43 plays
- Alleged Copy: F378-0000-0115-44C8 - Recser8 (12th December) - 3392 stars from 20703 plays
A longer gap between these, with the first having an auto-scroll and being far harder; the alleged copy does utilise the same broad ideas without the auto-scroll, with some specific puzzles being the same.
For the creators in question there's some obvious annoyance here, exacerbated by the huge popularity of Recser8 in the game. Of course, accusations of plagiarism regularly occur against popular creators in all walks of life - writers, song composers and other creatives with a lot of success sometimes find themselves bearing the brunt of claims like these. Defining where the line is between taking inspiration from a source and copying it outright isn't always easy, either.
The codes are above, in any case, it's worth trying out these levels and making up your own minds as to whether there's plagiarism to be found from one of Super Mario Maker's most Starred creators.
Comments 80
I think that if at least a few blocks are changed, then you are able to "upload" it as your own.
I knew it would happen at some point. But thank goodness for the timestamp. No matter what the outcome of the accusation is, you have proof you did the idea first.
We cannot imagine beyond what we've perceived through our life. We can play mister potato with those memories though.
I think the real ugly thing, is when someone willingly copied someone else's creation for money and fame.
I only shared my level because other than template, the ripoff is nearly an exact copy. I only wanted to shed light on this problem. I'm glad it is getting a lot of attention.
...For a second I thought this was another lawsuit deal with the game instead, lol
Who cares.
I checked out the first level. That's absolutely shameful. I'd be pretty annoyed if this happened to me, too.
You could easily see if he has played the levels by looking at the levels play history.
Not that surprising. Whatever gets certain creators popular, I'm sure they feel pressured to keep producing levels with good ideas. Look, unless you're just naturally prolific, you will hit a wall on good ideas after making some levels. Personally, I would never just play a level and steal their good work - it wouldn't fit with my standards. I'm not pressured by stars or popularity at all, so that's nice.
It is just a game...if anyone is making money streaming these, they should work out something with who they are getting ideas from if they don't want to be revealed to be frauds. Anyway, I suggest people go back to just having fun with this and not turn it into something scummy.
@The__Goomba
If you play a level and then quit with dying, starting over, or beating it, you won't show up on the list. Dirty tactic, right?
We are talking about Super Mario Maker, here. Who cares? I would say the accuser needs to get a life.
@luigio17 You mean "without".
@GeminiSaint Yeah, lol
@invictus4000 When I first brought up my level yesterday, I had no idea that it would blow up like this. I know its not that big of a deal, but I am glad the issue is getting noticed. So this all means I need a life, huh? I just want to enjoy making stupid levels on my stupid game, okay?
I'll admit I've stolen an idea or two from levels I've played, but it's amazing to me that someone would copy a level so exactly. The similarities might not have even been noticed if they'd made a few more changes.
@luigio17 Really wow,I'd be annoyed it this happed to me.
@Megumi Same.
@TeeJay exactly
Won't be playing that guy's levels. I only have one similar level, and the only thing that it copies is the main mechanic, not the level layout.
@TeeJay Mhm.
The people saying "Who cares." and what not... good Lord.
Some members of the Nintendo Life community... Ugh. -_-
@VeeFlamesNL Well, but then on the other side, at stake are online rankings that will be all but forgotten in 6 months....so really, did anyone lose anything? Beyond all that, I'm more amazed at how anyone found the original levels.
(Sigh)... This is just like when some guy named Latinplayer10 flooded the "Cool Levels" section in the first two LittleBigPlanet games with his low-quality copied levels for nearly those games' entire lifespan.
Shame to see it happening to another game...
A good level is a good level. I don't particularly care if mine get copied. It's mostly just flattery.
If YouTube however gets involved, and it becomes more about subscriber views than good levels, it's irksome. can't help but wonder if we should just not have "professional youtubers" for certain things. It's all fun and games until someone's making money over someone else's work.
This just reminded me of Flipnote Hatena when people created very underrated Flipnotes, then some people would just steal that person's idea, change some colors and claim it as their own creations, then it gets more popularity than the original Flipnote.
It would be really nice to tell if the level is original, or an edited version, just like they did with Flipnotes. You could tell right away if the Flipnote is an original creation, or an edited version.
Just my perspective on things (you're free to agree or disagree): If this is plagiarism, then we basically couldn't and wouldn't have any level creation tools or games period. Think about how many times more iconic levels from throughout history like Green Hill Zone and Rainbow Road, among others, that have been remade and recreated to almost perfectly match the originals in titles like Little Big Planet and Disney infinity, among others. If Nintendo or Sega, again among others, started making claims about this stuff either, all of it could/would be shut down and we'd basically have squat in terms of level design in games.
Well everyone here who said "Who cares" cared enough to comment. kek kek kek kek kek.
I wouldn't care about it in some game. I would care if someone stole my work for profit though
@ASonic3582 Yeah, but in this case someone literally took my original level and reuploaded it. They didn't base their level off of mine, they straight up copied it.
@TeeJay yup im with ya. Who cares
I hate it when other people steal someone's hard work. Even if it is just a game, it's still not fair and it's annoying. Not sure there's anything that can be done though....
Say you draw a great picture on Art Academy, then somebody saves the pic, starts the program, turns on the grid, and tries to copy you or outdo you. Its just bound to happen sometimes. Whether we like it or not. Its not cool, and if it was real copywritten art or a part of a licensed game being developed, I'm sure this whole thing would be different. However, they're doing it within a video game that we have no control over. Children and millions of players participate, and Nintendo owns all of it. Perhaps there should be a squad dedicated to calling out level copiers on a fan site or wiki for all to see.
Q: Who cares?
A: People who work hard to come up with good ideas, hoping to get lots of stars to unlock options and have more attention brought to their efforts.
You might not care because it didn't require and thought or effort on your part. It's a dirty move by one of the "most popular" uploaders, and an easy showcase for the problems with how the rating system is used within the game.
That said, it's also not a big deal - totally worth pointing out and letting people know, but not important enough to get truly upset about.
Seriously, I don't think I would mind if someone plagiarized one of my levels, and I would kind of expect that sort of thing to happen in this game with so many kids playing it that are too overwhelmed with the thought of making their own level and that have no clue that plagiarism is wrong. I wouldn't plagiarize a level though, as it's a waste of time to just be copying other people and not trying to create your own thing.
I don't even have money to buy this game, so here I am, reading this post and comments...
@ejamer Perfect response. Kudos to you.
As much as I can understand the problem at hand and why this has been brought up, I don't think I'd care all that much about one of my levels getting copied. I'd have to find out first. And once I did, I'd have the guy (provided he has more "fame" than me (and I use fame loosely because that's really only temporary)) to advertise my other levels on Miiverse or something at most. I don't know, does flagging work in that case? You know, for the case that he doesn't do that.
I mean I've seen a few stages that use a very similar idea to my favorite of stages I made that I planned well before the game even released (it involves a lot of poor yoshis, search NL's stage database of you wanna try it and see what I mean), and while I got annoyed that others got much more praise and popularity for essentially the same idea, I accepted it's just gonna happen. Maybe some people do outright copy, maybe some just have very similar ideas (with so many stages uploaded by now it's bound to happen), fact is... Well, life is unfair, and in a situation like this you can't copyright anything, just happens. I've long since resigned from getting many more stars...
Ignorant people... Good on you luigio17 for bringing it up, i certainly wouldn't lose sleep over it if i were you and it doesn't seem like you are, but he should be shamed for being a jerk. He should really have some pride and not take credit for other peoples work. If he had titled it after say you it wouldn't be so bad, but he's simply taking all the credit and i think that's shameful. All the people saying "who cares" i think are doing it because they're jealous. I made a level i put a ton of time into and i'd be annoyed if someone copied it and took the credit, my heart and soul went into it even if it is just a minor piece of it. These levels are minor works of art, they're creations that are intrinsically a representation of your individualism and it's totally immoral to pass something like that off as your own. If there is a silver lining at least you know your level was a good one as imitation can be regarded as a form of flattery.
I feel proud of most of my levels, and this would greatly piss me off if it happened to me. Specially since close to no one seems to enjoy my levels enough to star them so i can end up uploading more than the starter's 10 :/
It sucks but how can they care THAT much? Then again, maybe they don't and it was just an observation + mild annoyance haha.
Not sure if there's a timestamp but Miiverse comments should provide that so they can bask in their own glory if they've been ripped off.
I'm going to make myself feel like a bit of a hypocrite here but I just remebered a useful example for context: I used to hear people ripping off some of my riffs in the local band community and that used to REALLY annoy me.
Then again, I would be happy if people ripped off my Mario Maker levels as long as there was a spin on it.
Cheap plug for my Destructoid comp winner:
Super Sniper Bros: Aim & Fire
16E0-0000-00E0-4AF8
I'd be annoyed if someone blatantly copied one of my levels almost exactly then got more stars then me for it.
I'd be annoyed if someone blatantly copied one of my levels almost exactly then got more stars then me for it.
@TeeJay The people who have been plagiarized? I mean its not a big deal to us, but at least this guy cant plagiarize anything else if he gets reported or something. I mean I would be annoyed if someone blatantly copied my levels almost exactly and got more stars for it than me.
That's just shameful.. I guess, he actually copied a lot more levels than three...
http://i.imgur.com/twR8Vq6.jpg
https://youtu.be/oKGUDSDalmg
Well, it's clear that Recser8 doesn't want people revealing that she copied levels... People on Miiverse have been commenting on her posts and calling her out, so she proceeds to delete those comments. I just wish she could just give the original creators a little credit...
@VeltorWomboCombo Mentioning the original level in the level title should be possible... But even then she should have the permission of the original designer.
@CTMike You make it sound like they're overreacting, but I haven't seen anyone throw a huge fit over it yet. So far people are annoyed, and they're discussing the situation. No one has suggested hanging recser8 up by her thumbs, they're just moaning a little at the unfair situation, and discussing whether anything should be done about it.
This is how 99% of people resort to getting ahead in this life, by leeching off of others and basically cheating their way to success. But, I can't blame them in a way, because the system is almost entirely skewed towards rewarding those who are already popular and successful, over and over, and leaving everyone else fighting for scraps at the bottom (and, yes, even the way levels are found and showcased in SMM).
Success and fame and fortune, usually comes down to either being a true genius and creating something so unique and/or amazing that it just has to be discovered and spread (very rare indeed), blind luck (like Flappy Bird becoming such a phenomenon simply because Pewdiepie played it), the creator making something something so absurd that people just want to be part of the joke (Potato Salad), or cheating your way to being given your shot at success in this life (all the copies of games like Angry Birds or Flappy Bird for example, which even I was guilty of too). Very few people find true success and happiness by just working hard, doing the best they can, being good and honest, and getting their just reward.
If the system were fair, and people were given their fair chance of success and fair reward for their work, I don't think we find so much corruption and sin in society (In fact, I know we wouldn't), and I don't think you'd see this kind of thing where we have people cheating at making Super Mario Maker levels just to get some acknowledgement (and possibly also monetising it somehow, or using it to promote something else they've done).
So, as they say: Don't hate the player, hate the game. But, don't actually hate this game, Super Mario Maker, because it's a great little game regardless of its slightly skewed and broken "reward" system.
PS. This article is kinda totally useless for anyone like me, who doesn't have Super Mario Maker to go and view these levels directly. As a professional journalist, Thomas, maybe you could put in some time to get at least some screenshots of each of these levels, and ideally some footage of each example. I'm sure it would be greatly appreciated by less fortunate readers like myself.
@Kirk For the first example: Watch my video: https://youtu.be/oKGUDSDalmg
For the second example: Watch this screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/twR8Vq6.jpg
If the second one is a copy of SMB 1-1 then surely there are hundreds of copies of it?
@TeeJay PRECISELY!!!
While this is wrong, I blame Nintendo as much as the copycat. If you look at the number of stars the original people got and the number that the copycat got it's clear that they got far more stars than the original. If the levels are the same, wouldn't they be equal? Ideally yes, but because it's so hard to find popular new levels, they get propotionally fewer stars. The star ranking system is flawed because the most popular levels stay at the top for a very long time. What we need is for those levels to either disappear once they've been completed by the player, or a setting that filters by creation date. I want to see the most popular levels made this week, not the levels that have gotten the most stars this week because, guess what, it's the same stuff that was popular last week!
If we did things my way we'd have new levels on the chart every week. We could still see the levels that have received the most stars in total. I've only created one level because honestly I don't see the point in spending ten hours making a level that no one will see
@chardir It's a copy of 1-1... with a super tall Bill Blaster on a Lakitu cloud at the left edge of the screen (it pushes you forward).
Nintendo would actually need some kind of algorithm to identify level similarities and stuff. While it is "possible", I hardly believe Nintendo would ever care. Not that I don't. I believe all the stars should be going to the original maker, once a level has undergone plagiarism. Not that you can't do it, but you won't be getting stars. I'd love to see Nintendo prove me wrong and actually CARE for something.
I am the course maker of "SuperMarioBros. Deadly World 1-1".
I already reported her course, saying that she copied my course. I also included the ID of the course she copied to the report.
I hope Nintendo will take an action on my report.
Better start the lawsuits... lol
um...its a fan made level...this feels like saying your fanfiction was plagiarized. Annoying yes but...um so?
@Ryu_Nilyama well, this doesn't make it any more right to plagiarise something just because it is not protected by law. I mean, it's like someone steals your idea at work and gets a promotion instead of you. Law doesn't protect that either. Just because Mario Maker levels don't involve money it doesn't make it right to copy a person's work. A person who becomes popular by copying people's levels may as well be the guy who steals your ideas and gets the promotion you deserved.
I think the only thing that would irk me is if I was one of those copied and could only upload 10 levels and this guy is probably at the max.
@TeeJay Anyone with the slightest investment in anything they've created. No one's proposing this act is going to bring down society as we know it, no one is baying for blood, but the ridiculously obvious answer to the question: "Who cares if people have their creations stolen?" is "The people who have their creations stolen, at least".
If nobody gave a damn about what they were able to create using the system - if the game were completely incapable of eliciting any form of pride in one's design - then it would be a pretty pants game to begin with, and you'd have your utopia is which truly, "nobody cared". However, as Nintendo video games website covering one of the best received and successful Wii U games in years, it shouldn't surprise you to find that some people do care, at least a little bit. They might simply be peeved, or irked, or whatever other synonym for 'slightly annoyed' you'd like to think of, but they do, at least, care.
You could be accused of copying every other desperate individual with a need to leave some vapid, edgy, half-assed comment under an article in order to feel vaguely smug and aloof. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt in assuming that your incredibly limp comment was really entirely your own work.
@The__Goomba Downloading levels doesn't leave the same breadcrumb trail.
@invictus4000 Dude, this is a Nintendo video games fan website. Which everyone here has explicitly signed up to have an account for.
Nobody here can tell anyone else to 'get a life' with a straight face. And if they can, they desperately need to get a sense of irony.
@Chandlero Yeah, there be some stealin' going on there.
Cheers for the links by the way.
@Maxz I agree #63.
Um.... I would consider SMM levels open source... This is utter nonsense...
How am I supposed to move up in the community when users like that one recreate my level nearly down to the T with slight differences? That's right I won't. If someone did happen to stumble onto mine I'd be labeled the copier or doing something they played before because it feels of so similar. This sort of thing is never fair to the original creator no matter the medium in which it takes place. The love and hard work someone could have potentially put into something, rather large or small, should be treated with at least a little recognition, geez.
@LztheQuack You really wouldn't care if someone took you level that you'd spent hours on, recreated it block for block, and used it to become the most successful creator in the world for that week?
Yeah, it's a game, but if we didn't care even the slightest bit about games, we wouldn't bother playing them.
I'm not saying you should be outraged by any means, but do you really mean you wouldn't be even slightly miffed?
@legendwaker "The love and hard work someone could have potentially put into something, rather large or small, should be treated with at least a little recognition".
Exactly. This isn't about 'Justice' in any grandiose sense. It's doesn't have any financial ramifications (unlike, say, if it were revealed that Shigeru Miyamoto stole the course design for World 1-1 from Hideo Kojima). It's simply about attributing respect where it's deserved.
And it's probably the most exciting 'court drama' type story we're likely to get out of SMM, so we may as well make the most of it. The well-worn narrative of someone at the top being exposed as a fraud has a certain intrigue to it, so it's interesting to see it actually take place in SMM.
@Danrenfroe2016 "Open Source" means "everybody can see the code". It doesn't mean: "Everybody can take that code and get the glory for himself".
Geez, I wish I had enough upload capacity to be prolific enough to need to copy ideas. I'm still stuck in limit-of-10 territory. I have backlogged levels I can't do anything with because everyone heaps their stars on the same "celebrity" creators. How many uploads at a time does this guy have, anyway?
@Jimsbo I think it's a she, but anyway - 100, according to (http://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Mario_Maker). I'm pretty sure the maximum cap is 100.
...Which is an awful lot of courses. I can upload 40, but have currently uploaded 24, and I struggle to imagine how I could think of enough unique ideas to fill up the remaining 16 slots. Of course, some people appear not to have the problem of 'thinking up unique ideas'.
It's also worth nothing that if you delete a course, you don't lose the stars it's gained, so you're not screwed if you maxed out your levels but not got enough stars.
It's a bit of an awkward time to earn stars at the moment. Nearer the game's release, it wasn't EASY, but there were a lot more people playing (and fewer ideas had been tried out), so there were generally more stars going around. Maybe when Christmas comes, there'll be a bit of a spike. The 10 course limit is really awkward. 20 feels like huge amount of headroom when it comes.
How many stars do you have?
@Chandlero lol.... Yes, but there is no license document... So the levels are public... Besides, glory for a level design? I guess important to some people...
@Danrenfroe2016 Why would you bother making a level and releasing it to the world if you weren't in the slightest bit proud of it? 'Glory' might be a bit hyperbolic, but surely 'pride' is appropriate? And wouldn't you be irked if someone else used something you were proud of creating and used it for their own ends?
I really can't understand the antipathy towards the person who's had their work nicked. It's not a huge issue, but it deserves more than a cold shoulder. People seem to stoop to surprising levels of callousness in order to hold an edgy or aloof opinion.
@Maxz You're assuming that we're saying "who cares" in order to seem edgy or aloof like some emo 13-year-old, when in fact we're saying it because we ACTUALLY don't care.
That being said, I was extremely sick yesterday when I posted my "Who cares?" comment. I had a stomach flu and was throwing up and such, and was generally in a really crappy mood. I probably shouldn't have been on the net but I was cause I was stuck at home trying to recover and stuff.
So, if I hadn't been sick, I don't think my views would have changed, but I would have been a lot less callous about it. So. Sorry for the bluntness before.
I still don't think this is that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but I can understand being a bit irked about it, especially if the level goes on to be a lot more popular than the original.
@TeeJay Thanks for your comment.
The guy who made the original course is pretty active in the Nintendo Life SMM forum, and he's been discussing the whole thing there, so a few people on NL have got reasonably involved, and genuinely do care. I think it's particularly pertinent because this 'thief' isn't just some random no-name copycat, but the most popular player in the entire world (for this week, at least). If it's possible to 'win' at Mario Maker, then this person is definitely 'winning', and they're doing it using the NL member's courses.
I'm sorry to launch such a heavy attack on you. I was partly annoyed because I (and a few other people) have been speaking to the original guy, and empathising about how rubbish it would be to be in that situation. Especially for us cliquier players who have developed an involvement and attachment to our levels. I was also a bit annoyed because underneath nearly every NL, there seem to be a few comments that basically amount to, "don't really care tbh", "never been interested in this anyway", or simply, "meh". They bring almost nothing to the discussion, but people seem determined to post about 'how they don't care', as if they believe the world will care more about the fact that they 'don't care' than they do about whatever was written in the article itself.
So yeah, I was quite aware that the guy himself was actually part of the conversation, which made the 'who cares?' comment look quite dismissive and direct. He's already had his level nicked, and to have people criticising him - despite him doing nothing more than pointing out what had happened - seems pretty uncharitable. I understand this wasn't explicitly what you were doing, however.
Anyway, again, I'm sorry for coming down so hard, and I hope your cold/illness gets better soon. I expect most of NL (except readers in the Southern Hemisphere) are coming down with something or other, and it's certainly no fun.
A lot of people are commenting on Miiverse about this so the thief is well aware of what is going on. If nothing else, I hope at least this person will stop copying levels. If they continue to do it without penalty, then I will be upset.
@luigio17 By the way, did you find any other copied levels?
@Chandlero This guy had 3 of his levels copied. Usually people will let me know about their levels on gamefaqs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/805618-super-mario-maker/72983241
Ethan: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHkmZDe6DQ
Recser8: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYIHAAAEAAASVZKemAUo1g
Ethan: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHknJkcOJw
Recser8: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYIHAAAEAAArVRTtVZK9hw
Ethan: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHkoTpRzHw
Recser8: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYIHAAAEAACHVRTtLg_fWw
@luigio17 Thanks for the links. Maybe I will make a video about all the copies. I just record your level so far.
@Chandlero Nice! The more we record the evidence the better.
It was to be expected! Copying someone else's idea and marketing as your own isn't fun!
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