I’m at work now, so I just skimmed through your message but I will try to understand what is happening and give you a proper reply once I’m done!
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Fair enough. I’m going to bed now anyway. (U.K. timezone. Passed my bedtime.) 
Hey,
So I took a look at your game (the original and the updated one) and it’s crazy how there are so many similarities - there’s a Taurus and Cato too, in the updated one, which is crazy and cool and scary at the same time. And there is a conflict/bet between Titus and Cato (which is like Brutus and Cato in Gladiator) In fact, they also made a bet in one of the chapters in Gladiator That said, I wish I knew about your game earlier! I definitely enjoyed it a lot.
Before I go on, I just want you to know that I totally understand where you are coming from, and I hear your concerns fully. It would pain me if someone else had a game with such similar story elements. That being said, I must stress that I did not copy your game, and many of the similarities were coincidental, which I believe come from the similar subject matter and our perspectives being similar. Still, I can understand that this is really hard to believe (I can hardly believe that this is happening either), but hear me out.
When I started working on this game, I prepared quite a bit in the months before writing it by reading a ton of articles and journals, playing related gladiator games (and realizing that there weren’t many), watching documentaries and all the movies/tv series like Spartacus and the Gladiator. It being my first time, I was quite cautious to make sure that no one else had done this before by asking on the forum and googling “gladiator interactive fiction” or “gladiator game”, which didn’t really yield much. I had no idea there was another gladiator interactive fiction out there.
Now, I did talk to quite a few people (friends/strangers I’ve met at writing groups / my siblings / anyone who would listen really) and a lot of them contributed a huge chunk of ideas and scenes I would never have thought of myself. And I would say that most of the chapters have been influenced as such. I.e. I talk to someone and they give me suggestions and help me with my plot. So I am guessing someone had played your game and then told me about the scenes, which I then unwittingly implemented in my game cause I thought they were great ideas.
Of course, I don’t have any evidence to back this up. But the pleasure house scene was initially supposed to be a (disclaimer) rape scene where the MC gets raped by the sailors. I know, not the best idea. But I spoke to Eiwynn about this way back in May 2017 and asked for her opinion, and she told me it was a terrible idea, so I toned it down a little. This was originally inspired by texts I had read about slaving ships and the terrible conditions there, and I wanted to write this into the game as a raw, visceral expression against slavery and against abuse. But I figured I didn’t have the skill to do that, and the audience wouldn’t really appreciate it. Here’s the proof just so you know I’m not making this up.
A lot of the characters are based off my experiences in the army, and a lot of the scenes come from there as well. Nerinas was actually based on Amanirenas, a one-eyed queen who fought the Romans (you will realize that Nerinas fits her description with the one eye and fangs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanirenas. Wait, I can’t rmb if the fangs were my creation or not. But yes.) and her personality was based off many of my drill sergeants back in the day. Some of the fights (like those in the ludus) were based off gang fights in school and stories I’ve heard from military prison.
I think we both wrote this with the idea to show a more human side of gladiators - especially after the way it has been celebrated in the media to the point where people only see the glory. This is also why I decided to put in aspects of race, language and some slight discrimination which would make the player think about what it meant to be free. I think Price of Freedom also came at this from the same angle, and the same subject matter definitely didn’t help. These photos aren’t great, but I planned out the story on a notebook… so yeah. And these were the final outlines (I know they look terrible and very un-final, but they are) that I came up with.
Also, I would hate to think that Gladiator could be a discredit to your work. And I would hate for anyone to think that I copied you, or vice versa. And just to prove a case in point, I do make it a point to ask for permission when borrowing ideas or code, for example the inventory system (which I ended up not using):
I guess where I’m trying to go with all these pictures is to try to prove to you that i did not copy your work, even though it really seems like I have taken ideas from your game. I did not know of it until you told me about it, and I really hope you can trust me on this. It is never my intention to take credit for someone elses work and I’m so terribly sorry it appears that I have done so. This is as much a shock to me as it probably is to you.
Now, I know this is really hard to believe, and when I read your game i can’t believe how similar the scenes are, almost to the point where I feel like we got our ideas from the same places. And I can definitely understand where you are coming from and your concerns, many of which I share as well. I would also like to apologize for any distress I may have caused and I am definitely open to discussing which scenes to change (and how, if that’s okay, so as not to clash with your story).
If you’re up for it, let’s discuss this over dms, and I’ll be happy to make changes to prevent a clash of interest! I hope that sounds reasonable to you!
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Uh… To be completely honest, it is kind of hard to believe, but for argument’s sake, I’ll say I believe you. If we say that any scenes in the second chapter of the game that were similar to scenes in my game were ideas given to you by your friends, I will still have to insist that you change them.
Obviously, if a budding young author was stuck for ideas for a novel and one of their friends suggested, “You should write a story about a boy called Gary Porter and his friends Donald Measly and Harmonica Stranger, and their adventures at Warthog’s school of Bitchcraft and Lizardry” the book would have a pretty hard time getting published, despite the fact that the author had no idea the story had already been written before.
Still, I’d be quite happy if you just made the changes to the parts of the game that seem overly similar. That was all I really wanted in the first place. I guess all I can say is, when you’re writing your next game, don’t take any suggestions from whichever friend recommended the bread scene to you.
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You wrote that game? What a coincidence, I played it just a week ago, was bored and browsed for stuff. It was excellent. Didn’t know it was you who wrote it!
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i think you dont have any right to forcé someone change completely scenes because they are similar to what you have writed, for that mather then no writer can ever do spin off of Arthur legend, gladiators, etc etc
there may be similarities but that doenst mean is a rip off, unless names , lore and all that was the same your completely off with your remarks to demand that of him 
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@Avery_Moore @nauhziy Guys, just a request. Can you guys discuss this personally over DM’s because I really dont like where this is going. Feel free to ignore it but I think this matter should be discussed personally and not involve the community.
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@Sanjay i think this should really be something that they should discuss with @jasonstevanhill , he is the most experienced when it comes to those type of things
That is only if the situation escalates. But I think both of them are fine people and can sort it out without anyone to mediate.
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yeah but i think this should be properly talked with one who really knows if there is any right to that, i mean i have seen many games with similarities and it doenst mean anything, i will really hate for him to have to change scenes that i have read and think are completely legal for him to use.
I remember playing Golden Eagle by goshman and see similarities to sabres of infinity, and they are 2 completely different games.
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But if the authors can resolve it themselves, I think we dont need a third party. I have seen many cases where a third party is involved and the dispute turns into sour grapes like, “The third party is biased” and whatnot. A win-win situation can mostly occur if the parties sort it out between themselves. When a third party is involved, it usually turns into a zero-sum game. Just my opinion.
Anyways, lets put this convo to rest. We dont want to be fueling anything more to this issue. And to the authors involved, please try to take my suggestion into account.
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Actually, there’s a reason why that’s allowed. Certain stories, like the tales of King Arthur, Sherlock Holmes and the collective works of Shakespear and Charles Dickens, are in what’s called “The Public Domain”, which means that any one can make adaptations of them, since the stories no longer belong to any living person.
And there’s absolutely no problem with having games both being the same genre. There are several CoG/HGs that are zombie themed, and I definitely wouldn’t say that if any of them were a rip off of any of the others. However, if there was one zombie game where a guy called Steve had to choose between saving his mother from a burning building and saving his best friend from a horde of zombies, and another zombie game where a guy called Frank had to choose between saving his mother from a burning building and saving his girlfriend from a horde of zombies, I would probably read it and think, “Huh… I swear I’ve read this scene before.”
Edit: Also, just want to point out again that I don’t consider The Gladiator to be a rip-off of Price of Freedom, it’s just certain specific scenes that worry me, not the game as a whole.
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That’s fair. (20 chars)
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i can understand your point, but it still doenst give you autonomy over those scenes and make them exclusive yours, how many time the scene of “your the son of the King, the King invite allys over and gets murdered, the son escapes and later avenge them and becomes the rightfull heir” , dragons age origins, the sword and the flame, the lost heir have that similiraties in those scenes, no one holds the rights for those scenes and anyone can make them in their games if they want to, im sure those scenes your talking about of your game can be in some book or other game and then how come will it be fair if someone said you have to change them because they think are the same to their own game? for me thats plainly “wrong”
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It is best that we leave this issue between them. They could also include a moderator if they like and move this discussion in private.
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“The king invites allies and gets murdered.”
That is a very general statement. Are their deaths always written the same way in each game? Do they all die of poison? I am not taking either sides, but the similarities between the two games are just too many to pass up as a “common plot line”.
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Please stop cropping up the issue in order not to escalate this further.
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No, the scenes are almost exactly identical if you read both of the stories, not at all a coincidence.
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Issues are fixed through arguments. Escalating would only help.