King Arthur's Gold

[Lanarky]

It's totally taken from here. They look like they weren't edited, but more like they used the emoticons as a reference. But, even I wouldn't forgive this.  To me, the emoticons here are the best I've seen. They're easy to read, with nice sharp features, and they're square. But yeah, They totally copied. 

[Seiseki]

I think these smileys are so neat that it's hard to defend not copying them

It's square, tilted yellow faces. Most smileys are yellow and if you're making them square then tilting them is a requirement to make them interesting and not totally boring.
So it's not impossible to get the idea on your own, even if he saw them here, what's the big deal with liking them enough to make something similar?

Besides, these one seem lower res and seem to have a bit of curving to them.
If you compare them side to side you'll see that they're not too similar.

[Helm]

Oh, come on. Take it as flattery.

[YellowLime]

Oh, come on. Take it as flattery.

But-- my cultural identity!!

[Seiseki]

Not only are they a blatant ripoff, but a poor one at that.
They're just... wobbly.

I think that makes them look more interesting..

[Aelyrin]

I think it makes them more confusing. I can't even tell what's going on.

They clearly are rotating objects, couldn't they just make square emotes and rotate them?

[Mathias]

Well yeah, flattery with a little profit mixed in. Only one to be flattered would the original designer. Who was that, Snake? I don't remember.


I didn't think it a big deal, just thought I'd share since it amused me to find Pixelation's unique emotes in some random game. Doesn't really bother me.

[Major]

I can't remember if these emoticons were in the game at the time, but the game was originally F2P so the profit isn't such a problem.
Also, the emoticons are such a small part of the game, and only vaguely resemble the Pixelation ones beyond being rotated squares.

Geti is a pretty chill guy, he doesn't seem like the type to steal other peoples work and sell it. He's also damned good at pixeling IMO.

[Mathias]

Hehe, free to play games still have plenty of profit potential.
"Free to play" is the popular business model used by many games ventures these days, but you better believe the development team still stands to make money. As they should.

[Crow]

Who was that, Snake?

Pretty sure it was.