I’m not going to jump on the plagiarism bandwagon with this one. That eye is a simplistic glowing orb that anyone that is even a little proficient with Photoshop can do easily. It isn’t in the least bit a unique design element.
(The old Shentang background was an obvious example of plagiarism.)
But anyway, the devs have stated in the past that they contract out a good portion of the art work. It pretty much explains the inconsistency in art quality and the inconsistency in art styles through the years. So, that does leave them vulnerable to one of those contractors taking shortcuts. It’s a bit like playing Russian roulette.
Look at the four “veins” of light around Vel’Koz’s iris. I can clearly see three of them in the GoW image, and in the same positions—the fourth is likely there, but is partially obscured by an additional effect. I don’t know where the line is drawn for plagiarism (for example, Arctic Fox was not an issue, though like you said the original Shentang artwork was), but it sure seems that this new weapon was at least very heavily inspired by the LoL artwork.
Since I was on break and curious, I took a point by point look in Photoshop. I’ll give you that it looks suspicious on closer examination. If you do a Difference filter inspection of the central iris, the wave perturbance lines up. So, that could only happen if the artists used the same pre-packaged filter to make the effect or if this is a straight up copy/pasta job. Hopefully, the devs will look into it to find out which is the case.
Seriously no dev response on this art theft … I thought given the response to Mervorax that we would have something other than me quietly being told that they “thought” it was just more referencing the Eye of Sauron, which we can clearly see is not really the whole story.
Its the same art. I could reproduce this in less time than it takes to load my graphics software. It probably wouldn’t look very good but that isn’t the point.
Letting you know that we are looking into this, and are hoping to replace this art in the future. It’s likely that this is a stock image created and used by the company that makes our art, and therfore it is a grey area, but we will do what we can.
I can’t say anything else yet, but I wanted to let you know that we are aware.
Not illegal, generally, or even frowned upon by all, but many would agree passing off old work as “new” without acknowledgement that it is, in fact, “old” is less than ideal.
Hm. It still looks Vel’Koz-inspired but I can’t say its a clone anymore. For what its worth, I doubt I would make the connection now if I hadn’t already in the past.
If the official stance was that this was a piece that was not an issue due to copyright/plagiarism, because a studio is allowed to reuse its own assets, then why was it changed after all? Seems shady.
I’m happy it was changed, because I don’t like plagiarism, but to be told “this isn’t a problem” and then see ninja actions taken to the contrary doesn’t sit right.
They literally said they hope to replace the art in the future.
It’s not illegal to resell an image. But it is illegal to sell it as if it’s the only copy available.
As shocking as it is to say… The devs did nothing wrong here.
Hopefully, the devs will look into it to find out which is the case.
