Your thoughts on people "taking inspriation" from others?

[HungryForCereal]

Your thoughts? Imo, its kinda like stealing to put it bluntly. Agree with me or not. Irks me even more when players say they're gonna steal the idea explicitly. But thats just me.

edit: seems like some people may be upset that i used the word steal? lets just use the word copy then. To make it clearer, the point is not whether you tweak it or not by placing different furniture or terraform a it a lil bit different. once you see an idea that you like and you take that idea from someone and whether or not you tweak it, its already copying. you copy the idea, not the whole way of how the original landscape is constructed. you see it, you like, you copy it, you tweak it. this is just my opinion anyway.

 

[Underneath The Stars]

let’s ask bluebear

 

[JSS]

I've incorporated a couple of others' ideas already and intend to incorporate a gorgeous tulip field I saw online next. I always do at least a few tweaks to reflect my style better and if I don't outright say so and someone asks, I'm not afraid to say it wasn't originally my idea.

 

[Sgt.Groove]

If I see a neat idea with waterfalls or some unique terrain I look at how I can change it to fit my island, but I don't think things like themes or concepts can really be "stolen" unless they do an exact copy. But it is funny how after that one castle island popped up and got popular a ton of others popped up like a month later o-o

 

[xTech]

Honestly, I think taking inspiration from other player's builds is perfectly fine. It also depends on what you mean by 'taking inspiration', do you mean just the idea itself? Like just because someone else built a outdoor library that I think looked cool, am I suddenly not allowed to build any outdoor library area on my own island? Like yeah completely copying an area isn't exactly the best way to go, but just using some unique ideas is, again, perfectly fine by my and i'm sure a lot of other people's standards. I mean even if people do completely copy other's builds, as long as they get permission from the person who built it, I can see nothing wrong with that.

Island tours are a great example of people 'taking inspiration' from other's builds. These tours are literally made so that people can get inspiration from some really cool islands, and the fact that the person who designed the island is literally inviting people to do so, just shows that I think most people really are not bothered if you copy some aspects of their island. In terms of myself, i've only really closely imitated one person's idea, and that was just to put the shops both together on a cliff next to the airport because I thought it was a great idea. I even asked for permission from the person and they were very happy for me to do just that, so if you are unsure whether you should take inspiration from another person, maybe just do like I did and ask them for clear consent.

 

[Rowlet28]

At the end of the day it's their island and they can do anything they want with it as long as it makes them happy I guess.

 

[*The Oakboro Mayor*]

I think ‘taking inspiration’ isn’t the same as stealing. Yes, some people do blatantly copy someone’s idea and that kinda bugs me as well. But I think that if you see a cute cafe that you think would look nice but you want to make it fit your island and make it a more round design, then I wouldn’t call that stealing. You are simply taking one person’s idea and molding it into something for yourself. If you took all their parts and recreated it exactly, then I would see how that would be considered stealing. And plus, adding something you like to your town makes it more enjoyable for you! So I’d say do what makes you happy, weather it’s copying or tweaking or creating. Animal crossing designs are probably meant to share, so make use of it.

Edit: Claiming a design that is someone else’s as yours is just plain rude.

 

[Rosch]

It's fine to take inspiration. Some people even admit that they are not creative that's why they try to recreate and/or copy what they've seen. It's totally fine with me.

Unless they claim it as their own idea. Now that's where we have a problem.

 

[Chris]

Depends on the execution.

Making an identical copy of what another person has done is dishonest; but taking an idea and putting your own spin on it is perfectly fine. Remember that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

 

[Imbri]

I've borrowed ideas from other people. I tweak and change elements to fit my style, but seeing how others put colors or styles together is a help. If asked about it, I give credit, and if someone sees something on my island they like, I'm not offended if they use it.

 

[niko@kamogawa]

I don't think there's anything wrong about getting ideas from other players.

I guess the concern here is how they say it.

As we all know, "stealing" is a negative connotation that may give other players the wrong idea even if they are saying it as a joke.

 

[Mikaiah]

Like personally, I use a tile layout around my water fountain, and it's hard to type in-game but when someone asks about it either here or on discord, I say I stole it from a reddit post and usually link it to them.

I guess because design options in this game are limited to a certain extent, there's a finite number of ideas that someone can decorate their island with.

For me, it just becomes a problem of claiming the design is yours if you took heavy inspiration from someone else and show it off on social media, I suppose. But a lot of people are going for similarly-themed towns so there's going to be overlap regardless.

 

[daringred_]

as someone with aphantasia -- meaning i can't visualize anything, including island ideas/layouts -- my island would be plain and ugly as hell without ""stealing"" or inspiration. i'm yet to take someone's idea and copy it exactly (and probably never will) but i suppose, according to you, i have "stolen" someone's idea with my little outdoor gardening area since i only swapped out 60% of the items but kept the overall look the same. (since it's much harder to make more compact areas look different, especially if what you liked was the initial look to begin with.) and i suppose i'm also "stealing" this cute butterfly garden i saw since i'll probably only use different butterfly models and/or flowers.

at the end of the day, however, it's my island and the only person who's (really) going to see it is me. so i want it to look pretty, and if that means ""stealing"" other people's ideas because i think they're gorgeous then so be it. it's not something i can profit off of, and i'm sure as hell not going around claiming that i came up with x, y or z area on my own. (because i didn't.) i can't copy/paste the area onto my own island in five seconds either, i still have to put the work in -- collect all the items, do the landscaping, take the time. if someone made an exact replica of my little playground area, i'd be flattered more than anything that someone liked my design enough to want to incorporate it on their island and that it made them happy but perhaps that's just me.

probably an unpopular opinion but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Sharksheep]

Similar theme island are going to look similar. Unless it's carbon copy, it's not stealing.

I watched this video on how to build a dock. And it adapted it fit my island because I didn't have the same riverends as they did so I made it smaller. I used a lot of the same items like the rope fencing, barrels, streetlamps, floor lights, and fishing rod stands and the patterns. But I also made my villagers' house lot smaller, didn't use the potted plants or the corral fencing. Is it stealing?

The build video

My villager's houses on the docks.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1278830528116846592

 

[Bugs]

My art tutor told me in college, "Good artists create, great artists steal"

There is nothing truly original in the world, even if you create something, somebody else can come up with the same idea independently, so how would you even know if something was "stolen"?

Inspiration is not stealing, it's communicating an idea that you like, and every person who is inspired by that thing adds their own originality to it cause that's what we do as humans.

 

[Underneath The Stars]

Depends on the execution.

Making an identical copy of what another person has done is dishonest; but taking an idea and putting your own spin on it is perfectly fine. Remember that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

I always do at least a few tweaks to reflect my style better and if I don't outright say so and someone asks, I'm not afraid to say it wasn't originally my idea.

right. i think so too. most of the time, if i'm inspired i bring my own twist because i 100% have to tweak it to reflect my style better or what can my island space accommodate. other factors hinders something too, like the lack of QR slots.

--

to go further, here's the situation. ideas in this community spread like fire, and most of the time we'll never know who actually started it (unless it's a path creator, obv they made that to share it). this is nothing new and been happening since new leaf. a single screenshot could inspire someone, but i don't think they'd be able to copy an entire island unless they have visited or seen a youtube tour. if you copy an entire island, that's when you're being dishonest i feel like. it's not being inspired, it's flat-out copying and that's that. but from certain screenshots you see, you can't even be sure if that person thought of it, or if it was inspired by someone else too.

just look at the cottagecore craze, everyone is almost using the similar paths or cliff terraforming style/concepts! it just becomes a problem if you pass it on claiming it's your idea, when it's also a rip off. if someone directly copied a certain area of my island without crediting me, i'd feel cheated tbh.

quite honestly, themes are repetitive because there's only so much we can do even with the outdoor design or furniture. we have like, less than 5 types of outdoor benches for example. and in terms of typical "aesthetic" items that you'd know would be popular in ac culture, i can only think of a few several items on top of my head like the moon set from celeste, the garden wagon, the silo, etc. it's just up to someone if they'd apply their own twist to it or downright copy someone else's layout.

right now, like @Darius-The-Fox has said, that castle idea became the latest fad. but do we ever know who is responsible for starting something? at the end of the day, everyone gets inspired by someone and that's that.

 

[sarosephie]

Depends on the execution.

Making an identical copy of what another person has done is dishonest; but taking an idea and putting your own spin on it is perfectly fine. Remember that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

Honestly agree so much with this. I mean, no one's going to give you a penalty for an idea. It's anyone's idea!

 

[seliph]

eh i think identical copies of things are fine so long as you aren't claiming it was your own idea, i also don't think you should submit your island to any sort of island reviews if parts of your island are direct copies of someone else's.

otherwise i don't really care, it's not like it's gaining you anything of worth. it's just a design game with no real life consequences.

 

[icecreamcheese]

i think its healthy if u give the person credit,
thats the point about design - u take inspiration from others.
if u copy 1 to 1 its fine also if u give credit when asked.

But lets just say this is a video game and u cant really own any idea.. its not like u steal someones logo or something with copy right.
the person that had the original idea should feel Flattered.

 

[UglyMonsterFace]

I hate stealing ideas tbh. So much so I even go out of my way to not do something I saw someone else do, even when I thought of it on my own But it's just because I hate feeling like my ideas weren't special or unique. However if someone literally puts photos of their town online for the express purpose of inspiring others, then there is nothing actually wrong with people copying their ideas, since that is the whole purpose of some people even posting online. If someone does take a design/idea and then pretends it's their own, then that is the issue. But it's also hard to prove because many people can have the exact same idea, especially with the limited amount of furniture in the game.