Here is the first (and maybe last, who knows) episode of “You kids, Off My Lawn!”, a short podcast/music video in which we complain about (possible) intellectual property issues with flash games.
Why do we care? Well, we don’t really care what other developers do, except when it comes to things like this. When the viral Flash game systems are flooded to emulated games, and stolen IP it is very difficult for legitimate developers to compete.
Players do not know better (or even care) when they see an emulated Maerio game. It looks legit, and get to play for free. However, it just means that YOUR platform games, the one you have worked for months on, will get pushed to the back of line because you are now competing with dozens of emulated Mario games that should never be there in the first place.
We would have no problem with Nintendo or Nickelodeon legitimately entering the fray, but when games are ripped off from these (and other company’s) content, it hurts everyone else involved.