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    The Beginner's Guide

    Game » consists of 2 releases. Released Oct 01, 2015

    A narrative-focused video game from the creator of The Stanley Parable.

    Destructoid and The Beginners Guide (spoilers, drama)

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    FoolishChaos

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    #1  Edited By FoolishChaos

    I have not yet played the game, but I am pretty sure the crux of this discussion revolves around the ending to it. So spoilers, I think.

    In this list article on destructoid, "The best new IP's of 2015", the author gives a bit of a strange recommendation. She includes The Beginners Guide on the list as one of the best new IP's of 2015, but then states:

    Just make sure to complete it within your Steam refund window, as there are legitimate reasons to want to return this game after purchase.

    Moderator edit: The author has updated the article, stating:

    "This is not an encouragement to back out of payment due to length, but simply me pointing out that if you finish the game and believe the narrative to be non fiction, and if you believe that you purchased stolen goods, there is a way to avoid your money remaining with that developer in this very specific case."

    So, why would she say this? Well, the answer lies in her twitter replies, as this has sort of blown back a little bit.

    She believes that there is a chance a player of the game will take moral objection to the possibility that the narrative is true, and that there is a Coda whose work was used without consent from Wreden. Again, I haven't played the game but how likely is any of this? I don't think I'll have time for the game this weekend, but this whole thing has made me very interested.

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    MeierTheRed

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    I dont see any drama here, also she has added to here initial story.

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    FoolishChaos

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    #3  Edited By FoolishChaos

    Ah, yes she did. This is reinforcing my curiosity

    This is not an encouragement to back out of payment due to length, but simply me pointing out that if you finish the game and believe the narrative to be non fiction, and if you believe that you purchased stolen goods, there is a way to avoid your money remaining with that developer in this very specific case.

    I really need to play this game.

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    clagnaught

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    #4  Edited By clagnaught

    It's kind of weird explaining this since you haven't played the game yet. If you're interested, I would just play the game if you can, but here's the quick-ish rundown:

    The Beginner's Guide was announced like 2 days before it was released, nobody knew what it was, plenty of people played it, went "Huh", and then talked about what the author at Destructoid hints at.

    The game is more or less structured like this:

    • The Beginner's Guide is actually presented as the creator of The Stanley Parable (Davey Wreden) talking about a friend (I think his name was Coda) of his who made unique games through the Source Engine.
    • The game presents itself as Davey showing off the games his friend made and analyzes them. Sort of like how his games reflected what type of person he was.
    • The game then shows his friend Coda took a dark turn, started to make fewer games, and the games he did make became more depressing and overall unpleasant.
    • The twist is most of this story is made up by Davey. There wasn't an interconnecting story or theme between Coda's games. He wasn't reaching out for help and he wasn't a tortured soul (at least how Davey pictures him). Instead Coda was mainly sick of Davey. In fact it's revealed that Davey changed his games to help make his case. (Like the main example is he added lamp posts at the end of all of Coda's games to help connect all of his games together as a collected work of sorts)
    • This is all revealed in Coda's last game where he basically tells Davey to "Fuck off. Leave me alone" in video game format. Davey reflects on what he did. The game ends.

    That's not 100% of the story in The Beginner's Guide, but that's just to give you an idea.

    So when people finished it, especially right after it came out, people thought either:

    1. This is a work of fiction. There was no Coda. The levels Coda made were actually made by Davey. All of this was made up. This was just a way for Davey to tell a really particular story, and one of the characters happened to be a fictionalized version of himself. (Of course, people are free to like or dislike The Beginner's Guide or think if this type of game worked for them. Speaking for myself, I really liked how the story was told and how everything unfolded.)
    2. This is a work of nonfiction. In that case, the tension between Coda and Davey is real. Davey decided to escalate things and try to reach out to him by basically taking all of Coda's work, bundled it up together, and put it on Steam. Meaning he basically stole somebody's finished, unfinished, and working prototypes of games (that were never intended to be sold), profited financially from it, all so he can do the video game designer equivalent of "Coda?! Why won't you call me back man?! Do you see what I'm willing to do to talk with you?! Come on man, DON'T DO THIS TO ME!!!" And of course, he is the creator of The Stanley Parable, so if this feud was real, Davey would have brought it out in front of thousands and thousands of people with all of the major gaming news outlets talking about what's going down. (Not cool, man)

    In other words, if it's fictional, it is a unique and interesting personal story (especially if you look at what he went through after the success of The Stanley Parable). If it is nonfiction...then Davey is kind of a horrible person. I think most people just asked a somebody "Hey, is this real" or pulled up Google and searched for "Coda" to see if anything came up. When you see if from beginning to end I think it is pretty clear this was all fiction.

    So that's what Desctrutoid was talking about.

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    Error52

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    I respect Laura a lot, but she took it wayyy too literally.

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    alistercat

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    As someone with a massive fear of being misrepresented I sympathise with the author of the article.

    That said, it blames the reader a little too much.

    My initial vague comment was an attempt to avoid a major spoiler for the narrative, but has unfortunately left the reasons for my recommendations open to wider interpretation

    Don't cast any blame on the reader for not being able to peer in to your mind and know information that contextualises the comment, while omitting that context to avoid spoilers. It's contradictory.

    Also, it could very easily have been phrased better or not at all. How about "some have expressed ethical concerns upon completing the game, and the steam refund feature allows players to get a refund even after completion within 1.5 hours".

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    robsamuel

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    @alistercat: I agree with you, but I think mentioning the Steam refund option is out of line even with this phrasing. If someone has serious ethical concerns they can make their own mind up.

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    zaccheus

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    I thought it was pretty clear that this is a work of fiction... I would be shocked if it was real in any way. Knowing some things about Davey that he has shared (like his post Stanley Parable depression) I think Coda is just part of him as a creator.

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    alistercat

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    @robsamuel: I agree. Saying you might want a refund reframes the game the same way a spoiler or saying there may be ethical concerns would. Though I can understand the urge to say it anyway, but I don't think she considered that it reframes it regardless of her intentions.

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    mike

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    #10  Edited By mike
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    Baal_Sagoth

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    #11  Edited By Baal_Sagoth

    I do love experiments with the thin and ever-shifting line between fiction and non-fiction and I think this might have been a miserably failed attempt to mimic the game's playful attitude towards reality.

    But even if that is true she either created boring and derivative fanfiction or is an incompetent critic for taking fictional works at face value.

    Either way, potentially compromising one of Steam's nicer features or fucking with an indie devs income is not worth whatever she attempted here.

    Edit: Oh boy, I just looked at her twitter defences and if she's being playful she hides it pretty damn well. But even a novice critic couldn't be this naive, could she? It would explain a lot about the abysmal level of quality of way too many of these blog sites though.

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    Shivoa

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    #12  Edited By Shivoa

    Direct link to Austin's review (read the comments - this topic is discussed)

    I think it's clear that this game could be based on real events. But the actual content is not stolen*. It is created just for this game by the labelled author of the game, who is selling it on Steam. A platform where "but but but, I thought you were selling stolen goods" is not a good reason to use the refund system. It's a reason to inform Valve and get the product delisted if this is true (they have a DMCA button so you can get it delisted before any investigation is even undertaken due to safe-harbour rules and how that works). You can't have big stores selling stolen content and Valve have repeatedly reacted to just that scenario by pulling down the product that got through their plagarism control mechanism and refunding all purchases, going so far as to scrub it from their servers and enforce refunds so the content can no longer be illegally duplicated (one of the things about digital sales - that kind of thing is possible while Too Human can be legally defined as theft but only the unsold copies were ordered destroyed).

    * Here's a good explanation from a professional auteur game maker (even if you don't believe Valve did their job of checking for plagiarism and responding to any infringement claims made - something which would potentially destroy their company if they lose DMCA safe-harbour status as all their community stuff is totally reliant on that legal protection, as is their main store):

    As someone who's seen hundreds of community Source levels through the years, none of this looks like the work of a "lone amateur" who's messing around. All the 3D carpentry here is very clean and trim; there are almost zero construction flaws in the entire game; the whisper of the walls here is extremely confident and experienced.

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    excast

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    #13  Edited By excast

    I guess the thing that confuses me is why the author would choose to add this game to a "Best New IP" list if she had these types of concerns. Seems like it might make more sense as a separate article.

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    Error52

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    @shivoa: honestly, this just kinda puts me in mind of the aliens in galaxy quest that thought the show was real.

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    Shivoa

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    @excast said:

    I guess the thing that confuses me is why the author would choose to add this game to a "Best New IP" list if she had these types of concerns. Seems like it might make more sense as a separate article.

    The clarification basically reads "I don't think this game is stolen content but I will promote awareness of that position (I don't agree with) and straight up tell people (who I think are wrong) to financially attack this developer for making this game based on a notion I think is wrong."

    Which is where I think this is really dodgy. Abusing the refund system because you feel like this could be copyright infringement is... copyright infringement. It's getting the product as sold without paying for it. Unless this really is a stolen game, but if that was actually true then it would be an issue for Valve and would result in the game being pulled and everyone refunded. It's not a "personal morals" issue - copyright infringing games should be delisted just like anything of that sort. Steam has a DMCA button that means the game gets delisted before the investigation into the claim is even started. Step one after that legal claim is made is the game stops being something you can buy on the store. Then people investigate the merit of the claim. That's the (iffy at best, especially when taking down games criticism on YouTube because publishers abuse the lack of consequences for making false claims) system. The system is not individuals making their own judgement about if something is stolen and based on their own faulty opinion using a refund mechanic designed to prevent the sale of defective products once they have completely consumed the experience being purchased.

    The promotion of that as a "moral" way of interacting with media seems dubious at best. So I don't think it really matters that the author has stated they did not think this game was stolen (in the clarification). But the official position is the author doesn't actually have those concerns but they wanted others to be aware those concerns exist (and tried to avoid spoilers by flat out saying "steal this game" before the clarification was added).

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    nickhead

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    This is super weird. I didn't get that feeling from playing the game at all and I just don't see that being the case...

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    esoterik

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    This situation actually got to me enough to make me talk about it on the internet (which I almost never get upset enough to do) so enjoy, I guess.

    Like, fiction that purports to be real isn't even a new thing. Should wrestling fans demand refunds when a wrestler cheats and wins? Should people return their copies of postmodern novels like House of Leaves or Pale Fire (which basically have the same premise as The Beginner's Guide)? The writer's position basically seems to be: "Hey, if you don't have the mental maturity to comprehend meta-fiction, no problem, just get your money back as if it were a real thing."

    That's not consumer advocacy, that's letting consumers be complacent in their total lack of artistic literacy.

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    MeierTheRed

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    Sin4profit

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    #19  Edited By Sin4profit

    So does she know "Coda" personally or is she just taking a personal stance on it? If it's just a personal stance then her interpretation of The Beginner's Guide was WAY different then how it came across to me, which is...

    "Coda" and Davey Wreden are one and the same, The work of "Coda" is Davey's origin with game design and he turns to using games as a creative form of expression. He later starts to question his creations (much like analyzing your own dreams) and this creates personal insecurities with the games he has created. Games he would not want others interpreting against him. He later finds himself developing games the way he's, "suppose to", rather than how he wants to. Conscious of his growing sense of pretension, he regrets knowing that his personal expression is fading in his work and he's struggling with the peer pressure of creating something that the gaming community calls, "real games". The idea of the work being, "stolen" applies to the struggle of coming to terms with releasing content that he was too insecure to show people. It's all just a story about the struggle with consciously losing self expression over to the self satisfaction you get from external praise.

    ...Entirely my interpretation of The Beginners Guide. I don't know the truth. If the content is actually stolen by someone who didn't want the world to see it then, yeah, that's shitty, but i don't think that's the case.

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    Nordom

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    She posted a video explaining her views in this whole debate.

    Loading Video...

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    octaslash

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    It's amazing how dudes were so quick to dogpile onto her and attack her.

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    FinalDasa

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    #22 FinalDasa  Moderator

    It was on a list of the BEST new IP. So it's obvious she enjoys the game. If you read her entry is clearly says it just may not be for everyone and to be prepared for something you may not like.

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    clush

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    #23  Edited By clush

    If it really is plagiarism then the plagiarized party has more than enough avenues to take action. Putting that responsibility on the plate of the consumer is ridiculous, harebrained and sets a very weird precedent.

    The only sound advice would be to not buy the game in the first place... not to buy it, play it and then ask your money back because your own interpretation of what's little more than rumour.

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    Baal_Sagoth

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    Ok, more misunderstanding than anything else. I do not understand why she feels the need to pander to readers that dense in such a confusing way. People should be more careful with the "experience this experience I liked which I don't feel the need to argue for in any way because I'm a critic" way of recommending games.

    And I should read all available info before commenting. Or simply not comment on useless internal drama of other communities.

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    excast

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    It was on a list of the BEST new IP. So it's obvious she enjoys the game. If you read her entry is clearly says it just may not be for everyone and to be prepared for something you may not like.

    Again, I guess I don't understand a writer somehow justifying that sort of behavior towards a game they consider worthy of lauding as a great new IP. The two don't really mesh.

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    FinalDasa

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    #26 FinalDasa  Moderator

    @excast: Because sometimes you know a game isn't for everyone even if you like it. I love games that I know plenty of people would look at with disdain.

    Also is it that big of a deal?

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    excast

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    #27  Edited By excast

    @excast: Because sometimes you know a game isn't for everyone even if you like it. I love games that I know plenty of people would look at with disdain.

    Also is it that big of a deal?

    I think a writer for a major publication encouraging people to abuse a system like that is a fairly big deal. Probably moreso if you are the person who invested the time and money to create the game and now have a media figure explaining to people how they can play your game without paying you for it. Just not the way I would go about things, especially considering the nature of the list and that it was about games you might expect the author believes are excellent and therefore made by individuals who should be compensated for their creation.

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    FinalDasa

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    #28 FinalDasa  Moderator

    @excast: I can understand where you're coming from but she's further clarified her original post. I think a lot of people are reading snippets and not the full entry text and implying authorial intent that isn't there.

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    SpunkyHePanda

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    #29  Edited By SpunkyHePanda

    It would be a shame if players started asking for refunds because the game was too believable.

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    Shindig

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    If you believe to be plagiarism, using a refund system (so that the creator ultimately ends up with nothing), is not the resolution needed.

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    golguin

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    #31  Edited By golguin

    I remember when I rented Paranormal Activity I demanded my money back because someone had clearly seized the footage illegally and was profiting off the suffering of that couple dealing with ghosts and the devil. I see no difference with The Beginner's Guide. Theft is theft even if you aren't dealing with ghosts.

    Then again maybe people shouldn't believe when a piece of fictional media claims to be "based on a true story" or something along those lines. The Beginner's Guide was terrible, but asking for your money back because you think it was stolen is on a whole other level of gullibility.

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    SpaceInsomniac

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    Star Wars movies are said to take place "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" I have to wonder if Lara Kate Dale considers them to be documentaries.

    My mocking comment aside, if you have a possible moral objection to something, JUST DON'T BUY IT. Advising people to abuse the refund system if they can't tell fantasy from reality--which is kind of the point of The Beginners Guide--was a stupid and unprofessional thing for her to do.

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    atomicoldman

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    But are games art?

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    ripelivejam

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    in other news, the blair witch project never happened.

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    newmoneytrash

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    #35  Edited By newmoneytrash

    in other news, the blair witch project never happened.

    bullshit i read the official book that said it was all true

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    htr10

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    in other news, the blair witch project never happened.

    Bull. If The Blair Witch Project wasn't real, then how come none of the supposed 'actors' were ever seen in a major motion picture again? Only logical explanation is that they were killed in the woods by a witch that we never saw.

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    koolaid

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    I think what irks me is the phrasing "complete it within your Steam refund window" and more specifically the word "complete" That implies to me that you got everything of value out of the game and are returning it for full price. It reads to me as someone eating a banana and then returning the peel for a full refund. Obviously not a perfect metaphor, but still.

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    chaser324

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    #38  Edited By chaser324  Moderator

    If the author felt there were real ethical objections (I personally think it's a ridiculous accusation), I don't understand why they would have included the game on this list. That being said, even if they wanted to mention possible ethical issues, they could've done it in a slightly less obtuse way (the edit does a decent job of clarifying what was meant) and without suggesting people abuse Steam refunds, which should in general only be applied to cases where games are straight up broken or awful. If there is legitimately stolen property in the game, the original owners can and should make a claim for damages through the proper legal channels.

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    Slag

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    Even with the badly needed edit, I think explicitly advising people to finish a game under a certain time limit so they can request a Steam refund is way over the line.

    If the author feels there is an actual ethical infraction here she should not be recommending the game at all. If she feels there isn't one but people might mistakenly think there is one, she definitely should not advise people to refund the game based on their erroneous interpretation. That would unfairly harm the creator and it encourages wrongful use of the Steam refund system.

    Bottom line is don't bring it up at all in this context (a Best of list). If you want to have a separate article with spoilers discussing I think that's great. If you want to link to said article in this one with a spoiler warning, fantastic. But don't advocate people play it in a certain way so that they can refund it.

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    subyman

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    #40  Edited By subyman

    @slag said:

    If the author feels there is an actual ethical infraction here she should not be recommending the game at all.

    Bingo. The author isn't the only one being harmed when a person purchases the game with the intent to get a refund upon completion. Steam is being swindled by the purchaser as well out of their cut for providing the download service. If the work was indeed plagiarized then the proceeds from the game will go to the original author if they can prove their case. In that case, the consumer stole from the original author if they consumed the media and then requested the refund.

    But anyway, it is all dumb because its fiction.

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

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