JESS: Flagiarizing

I have a question: Could this possibly happen in any other country?

On the left is ¿Quién soy? (Who am I?), published by Diset; on the right is ¿Qué soy yo? (What am I?), published by Falomir (with F).

Valencia is a region in the east of Spain, and while there is a good tradition of toy industries in the area, over the past few years, things have not gone well for the old industry. (The Times They Are A-Changin’...) The Valencia Toy Fair 2007 was a fiasco. Apart from the wave of new and modern boardgames, we have a traditional game market in Spain, which is controlled by old-fashioned companies that publish mainly children games. Most of the time, the quality is no good at all.

And some Spanish companies publish really bad games which look like other famous games.  Falomir (with F) is a company from Valencia that was founded in 1945. From the 1980s to the present, it is famous for publishing games which, accidentally, are similar to others… These extreme fortuitous coincidences are called “flagios,” coming from “to Flagiarize” (with an F, not a P).

 
We are playing ¿Quién soy? (Diset)

The image at the begining of this article is only one example. We love ¿Quién soy? (Diset); we have used this game in many of our activities when we have children. In the game, you place a card on your forehead and you must learn what is printed on the card by asking questions (with a sandglass and some more rules). The game works well, and somebody else must think the same because last Xmas we found ¿Qué soy yo?, published by Falomir, in a Toys’R’Us shop. Both games were on sale there, but one of them were cheaper than the other. Can you imagine which one?

Take a look at more examples of flagios. The game names are in Spanish, but you will recognize most of them. All of them have been published in Spain, both the original and the flagio. The Falomir games are always on the right:

  

Monopoly (Elizabeth Magie, 1904)  -  Superpoly

 

 

HeroQuest (Stephen Baker, 1989)  -  Herocults

 

  

Mastermind (Mordechai Meirovitz, 1971)  -  Masterman

 

   

 Monos saltarines (Diset, 2007)  -  Monos saltarines

    

 

¿Quién es quién? (Theo Coster, Ora Coster & Theora Design, 1987)  -   ¿Cuál es cuál?

 

    
Conecta 4 (MB)  -  Coloca-4

 

 
Stratego (Jumbo, 1947)  -  La Gran Conquista

 

  
Ahorcado (MB) - Colgado  (red and blue, accident?)
 

   
Hundir la flota (MB) - Hundir los barcos  (red and blue, coincidence?)

 
Hundir la flota maletin (MB)  -  Hundir los barcos de luxe  (serendipity?)

 
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird, 1984)  -  Ninjas

King Kong (Peter Jackson’s film, 2005)  -  Kong

 
Operación (Marvin Glass, 1965)  -  Médicos de animales
 
Scrabble (Alfred Mosher Butts, 1948)  -  Intelect

Believe me, these are only some of the examples from the historical Falomir catalogue, and I’ve never seen a word about the game designer on a Falomir game. (Can you imagine why?)

And if a game has sold well, then Falomir insists on more:

Intelect, basic, luxe, junior, vertical, numbers, 3-D, magnetic, rotating, Intelectus...

What would Alfred Mosher Butts (the designer of Scrabble) think about the Intelect game?

The quality of Falomir games is below any criteria in the modern boardgame business. Most of them are variations on pachisi. And when their games are original, the result is not, let me say, desirable:

Pasapalabra (based on a TV program), and ¿Quieres ligar? (something like voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir ?)

Many people buy a Falomir game thinking they are buying the “real” game—but when the box is opened, how disenchanting!

Of course, Falomir has a long history in the courts of justice. Hasbro, for example, had a big lawsuit against Falomir for 1.5 million euros.

  
Did you notice? They are the same boys playing.

How does Falomir continue selling games for so many years? First, it has a big catalogue (games, baby stuff, puzzles, toys...). Second, it has extensive distribution. Falomir games can be found in every toy shop and big supermarket in Spain, and beyond Spain, Falomir supposedly sells in 80 different countries. And the third reason is the most important—and it helps to explain the other two reasons—Falomir has very low prices. (It’s easy for them, isn’t it?)

And I ask again:  Do you know about any similar game business in any other country?  Let me know, please…

¡Nos jugamos!

© 2008 Jesús Torres Castro

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Comments:

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Fun article, Jess! I especially like the photo of the identical boys enjoying Connect 4, then Hangman. You could probably place a pile of raw steak on the table and they’d grin just as much. Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jan 19, 2008 at 01:25 AM | #

Great article.  I wonder if we see these blatant ripoffs in Asia as well. Posted by Lee Fisher on Jan 19, 2008 at 07:39 AM | #

Wow, that was really interesting to see, Jess.  It amazes me that this can happen so blatantly. Posted by Scott Tepper on Jan 19, 2008 at 11:54 AM | #

Great article indeed PS: Eric: the second game is Battleships, not Hangman ;) Posted by Surya Van Lierde on Jan 21, 2008 at 05:20 AM | #

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