2048 Recommended at Grantland

So Patricia Lee at Grantland is recommending the game 2048 in a new Grantland feature called "Grantland Recommends".

If you have any feelings about someone recommending a shameless clone of Threes it might behoove you to share them in the comments.

Its funny that people are talking more about threes now than when threes actually came out and was a hit on it's own.

While I hate what they've written, clicking on that link give them more visibility.

I don't know how I feel about that.

Grantland is frustrating too often. I enjoyed some of their pop culture podcasts, and they have a few great writers.

Their decision to not fire Caleb Hannan after the Dr. V's Magic Putter story mostly keeps me from indulging. Though he hasn't written anything for them since then; if he was freelance-ish, then I can't say they totally screwed that up.

@fear_the_booboo:

Grantland is a hugely popular website, it'll get views regardless. It's also a long collection of recommendations, some very worthwhile (Review, Kyle Kinane, etc.).

Voicing an issue with a very specific segment of it is the only way to draw attention to it.

Patricia Lee might not even know Threes! is a thing.

@darknessmyoldfriend: You're right. I did not know Grantland before but I don't visit that many english websites. Pardon my ignorance.

The fact that they link to an article about Threes! just make the thing even more shitty.

Did 2048 rip assets from Threes? Did it steal code? Exactly why is this game's existence such an affront to everyone?

If it really is just a "this game is a clone of another game that in itself stole its core concept from something else that existed before it!" I'm going to be very disappointed.

No one is saying that the creators of 2048 are guilty of copyright infringement, but just because something isn't illegal doesn't mean that it's not a shitty thing to do. Plenty of people use some variety of this argument, where person A says "hey, that things a total rip-off, that's a really shitty thing to do!" and person B says "they didn't rip any assets, so what are you complaining about! It's totally legal!", and it always irritates me to no end.

There's a huge difference between a legal standard and an ethical standard. 2048 might not break the law, but that doesn't suddenly make it totally fine to rip off the hard work of another developer.

It's not even a "shameless clone", it has its fair share of differences. Also, the author explicitly references Threes as one of his inspirations directly under the game.

Remember when everyone was/is making Flappy Bird clones?

Remember how Flappy Bird was basically a clone of Helicopter?

Remember how Jet Pack Joyride is basically also a clone of Helicopter?

Remember how last gen there were approximately 10,000,000,000 military shooters about America being attacked by Russia/China that were all first person shooters and all basically had the same cover and story?

Remember how there are a butt ton of mobile games that have the same bullshit f2p garbage where you click on stuff and then a timer runs and then you wait to click on stuff or you buy gems?

Designs are always copied. It just so happens that number games (which have been around for centuries) don't usually need a lot of variety because there can be an infinite number of "different" games that do the exact same thing.

By all means, if you like Threes more than 2048 play Threes instead but I think it's ridiculous to say that the creators of Threes are the only ones that can make this type of game. It's no different than there being a million versions of Helicopter. Or a million versions of Block Breaker. Why should Threes be the only one of its kind?

It's like saying a deck of cards can only be used to play Solitaire (which itself has a ton of different versions/clones). I think this outrage is misguided.

@spraynardtatum: If you think the similarities between Helicopter and Jet Pack Joyride are equivalent to those between 2048 and Threes then you're pretty dull.

Thanks Jeremy.

@spraynardtatum: Happy birthday, Spray, I'm disappointed in you.

@jeremyko: In honey.

The author isn't doing anything malicious here and I'm sure has just never heard of Threes but still, it sucks. People should play Threes. It's a great game.

Nah, I'm good thanks.

Threes! for whatever reason isn't compatible with my Android but 2048 is so I'm cool with it. 2048 is amazing and I'm sure Threes! is too. It's just that I can't play Threes! even if I wanted to. And yes, 2048 is a shameless clone but many games are pretty much shameless clones of other games.

I'll probably get shit for this, but I don't really think this is NEARLY as big of a deal as people make it out to be. Things get copied all the time - it's shitty, and I imagine I'd be upset about it too, but calling people out and starting a fit over it isn't going to do anything to help.