When is a game a clone and when is it simply an example of a genre? In some sense, this is the question that begins our discussion of that ubiquitous example of the medium: the game clone.
From Torchlight to Saints Row and beyond, some games seem like a deliberate aping of intellectual properties that have gone before. What makes a clone a clone? And why do we sometimes really feel a kinship to clones despite their cloying adherence to a formula created by someone else?
This podcast is also available via iTunes.
Our podcast contributors:
Rick Dakan is a regular contributor to the Moving Pixels blog as well as to the Gamma Testing podcast.
Nick Dinicola is also a regular contributor to the Moving Pixels blog and appears regularly on the Game Hounds podcast.
G. Christopher Williams is the Multimedia Editor at PopMatters.com. You can find his weekly updates featured at the Neuromance blog.