Those games should be knocked down, they get more popularity and steal all credit from the original creator, we better report 'em when we find one of these, keep that in mind.
Blatant copyright infringement shall certainly be moderated by force, but perhaps, for ācopiesā that are highly similar, interventions may not be necessary. This promotes the āmetaversicā free market. Ultimately, if these games are truly nefarious to the platformās ambience, they can be blacklisted from innovative and trending classifications, but they should still be featured to the communities that appreciate them.
With āfake gamesā, do you mean IP-infringing games or copies (with different content)?
If a player is interested in pet simulator games, it is only natural to recommend more games like that. It helps discovery of less popular games and allows them to explore the genre of what they like. Iām a proponent for that.
I wouldnāt worry too much if your original game has good retention and is quality in the eyes of a player. If youāre significantly better than your copies, they will come back. Perhaps even more loyal than before.
With logic, wouldnāt this patch also knock down all other pet-related simulator games that use some form of āPetā and āSimulatorā in the title or description? The problem stems from how the algorithm works, as @paetemc2 said.
Iām surprised this is still an on-going problem. This happens to games like Murder Mystery 2 as well. Just 1 glance and I can see āMurder Mystery Vā being promoted with 7k players. Upon loading into this game, it is an exact copy and paste.
Along with this, searching for Murder Mystery shows atleast 14 Copies of Murder Mystery 2 with 2k+ players each. Iām sure the Owner has either given up or just doesnāt care but that doesnāt make it right to copy.
Itās kind of sad because upon checking these groups. A lot of their Developers are now Verified from re-uploading someone elseās work and gaining millions of visits
These games will never really get fully wiped off of the platform. There are hundreds of PS99 or Pet Simulator games that are uncopylocked and people can just download it as a file.