In the vast and ever-expanding landscape of internet content, ensuring the originality of one's creations has become an increasingly daunting task. With countless individuals contributing to the digital realm, the risk of plagiarism looms over creators like a shadow. However, taking a cue from the ancient Chinese artisans, who meticulously carved subtle marks in imperceptible places to safeguard their works, a modern-day content creator on BiliBili, Pser_Hanser, has adopted a strikingly similar approach to defending his creations, while shedding light on a latent and perilous issue lurking within the Chinese internet community.
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Pser_Hanser is an incredible content creator known for crafting detailed guides on collecting rare in-game items. His videos go above and beyond, meticulously pinpointing the exact locations of all the elusive treasures or hard-to-find spots in a game, along with providing a plethora of helpful advice.
Unfortunately, some games medias and individuals rip off his painstakingly crafted maps and positions, passing them off as their own original guides on their websites. In the processAs a result, Pser_Hanser's colossal workloadbody of work gets completely buried and underappreciatedby those trying to profit from his effort. Plagiarism becomes a challenging issue to address since the stolen content mainly revolves around in-game geographic locations, making it difficult to provide concrete evidence of blatant copying.
“I got plagiarized by the largest game paper media in China”
However, in the midst of the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in May, Pser_Hanser found a way to expose these plagiarists who stole his original content by creating a cleverly designed "baiting" fake map.
Pser_Hanser's plan began with the creation of a full collection map for the Korok Seeds in The Legend of ZeldaTears of the Kingdom. In the process, he deliberately introduced two erroneous data pointserrors in the map to identify any direct copying of his marked locations.
The error data Pser_Hanser put in the map
The clever aspect lies in the fact that these false data points have no impact on players' gameplay. The Kingdom of TearsTears of the Kingdom is divided into three explorable regions: land, sky, and underground. Pser_Hanser cleverly marked the Korok Seeds, originally found in the sky, on land. However, he still provided the coordinates, allowing attentive players to unveil the truth by recognizing the altitude represented by the coordinates. It can be said that Pser_Hanser's trap is not fatal as long as one exercises a little caution instead of simply replicating his work.
The XYZ coordinates Hanser provided, along with the way to find the Korok Seed
Pser_Hanser's provided coordinates in his map are also not entirely accurate, but his adjustments are still within the range where regular players can rely on the map to find the intended locations. The purpose of these coordinate adjustments is still to specifically target those who attempt to blindly copy his creative work without conducting proper verification.
Following the release of the baiting map, it didn't take long for the "fish" to take the bait. Pser_Hanser carefully inspected the collection maps created by various Chinese gaming medias and made a startling discovery—quickly realized that some of them had reallyactually incorporated his creative content, and without even conducting any form of verification. Determined to address this issue, he diligently preserved each of these maps as evidence and began producing videos to expose the truth.
Game media Gamer Sky pinpointed an error data on their map that was hidden by Pser_Hanser, with the exact same coordinates
The video titled “I planned for two month and baited the Chinese game medias”
On May 21st, nine days after the release of The Kingdom of TearsTears of the Kingdom, Pser_Hanser's video hit the Chinese gaming community like a bombshell. It was followed by apologies and urgent revisions from multiple gaming media outlets, as well as criticism from players.
The apologize announcement released by one of the game media, Gamer Sky, which is also one of the largest game media in China right now
However, what emerged more prominently was the expression of disappointment towards the state of Chinese internet content: users seemed to have grown tired of the high degree of homogeneity resulting from rampant plagiarism.
The reactions under the announcement
One player shared their experience of creating a completed save file for the game Centipede 4 over a decade ago, which they had only published on a single forum. Yet, due to web crawlers copying each other, all the completed save data for Centipede 4 found on the Chinese internet today is identical to the one he personally created years ago. This issue is not limited to the gaming community alone. Many users, in response to Pser_Hanser's video, expressed frustration over finding identical explanations for complex problems such as advanced math questions or computer repairing on multiple websites, which ultimately provided little assistance. Over time, all websites end up with the same content derived from plagiarism, leaving original authors or those genuinely seeking help at a loss.
Take DarkSouls III as an example, two game media website have a exact same answer on how to find a certain NPC, even with the same picture and same introduction.
From a certain perspective, identifying plagiarizing game media and pointing out this unfortunate situation can be seen as a fun activity akin to finding Korok Seeds, as one player jokingly remarked. “However, I still hope that everyone can break free from this cycle and create better content based on their passion and expertise. After all, we are all gamers who love playing games, aren't we?”