Activision Accused of Plagiarism in Upcoming Dog Operator Design

On July 27, Activision published a series of patch notes and an announcement about mid-season content that was being added to their games. Among the elements being introduced to Call of Duty: Warzone was a series of new operators, including one named Loyal Samoyed, an anthropomorphic dog in combat gear.

However, the launch ended up attracting some unwanted attention as, several days later, it was pointed out that Loyal Samoyed bore an uncanny resemblance to an earlier work by concept artist Sail Lin entitled Samoye Medical.

Lin pointed out the similarities on Twitter, highlighting various elements that were clearly copied from his earlier work

Lin, for his part, said that, while he is a Call of Duty fan, he was “very disappointed” to see his work copied in such a manner. He said that he reached out to Activision in hopes of getting compensation or an explanation.

Though Lin did say that Activision reached out to him, it’s unclear what, if any, arrangement was reached. However, the post itself was updated to remove all mentioned of Loyal Samoyed, and it is unclear if the operator will be available when the update is released.

This isn’t Activision’s only recent run-in with plagiarism allegations. In February 2021, Activision was sued by author and photographer Clayton Haugen, who alleged Activision based a character named Mara off his character Cade Janus, specifically photos he took of a cosplayer dressed as the character.

According to Haugen, Activision even went as far as to hire the same model and makeup artist to create Mara and even had the model bring some of the same clothes to their shoot. That case was settled in October 2021.

So what happened in this latest case? Was it actually plagiarism and, if so, why did it get so far? To answer those questions, we have to look deeper into the plagiarism itself.

Understanding the Plagiarism

To be clear, no one can own or claim to own the concept of an anthropomorphic dog in combat gear. If it had simply been an issue of two similar characters, it is unlikely that this would have become as big of an issue.

What makes this case a clear plagiarism is overlapping details between the two characters. 

They both have a similar scarf around their necks with a very similar pattern, they both feature the same style of pouch on their right hip and the same kind of elbow pad on just their left arm. Both have what appears to be an antenna coming up from their right shoulder, and both characters feature similar colors and cuts of clothes, both in terms of jacket and pants.

While one or even two of these similarities might be easily dismissed, there are simply too many to ignore. Though there are differences between the two works, most notably that Activision’s version appears to be left-handed and Lin’s is right-handed, they are far more similar than different, especially in the details. 

If the work is clearly copied, the question then becomes how it happened. 

The answer, most likely, lies in the sheer size and scope of projects like this. Creating and maintaining a game like Call of Duty: Warzone typically requires a team of hundreds of people. The more people involved in a project, the more likely someone in that group will behave unethically.

For a company the size of Activision, the issue isn’t so much avoiding plagiarizing employees as it is finding them and spotting plagiarized work before it gets to this stage. To that end, companies typically implement a wide variety of checks and oversight that prevents any one or two employees from committing any kind of ethical lapse.

However, in hectic and frantic times at a company, those exact checks are what gets lost in the shuffle. Unfortunately, such times are when they are actually needed the most. People who aren’t tempted to take shortcuts during calm times may feel pushed or even forced into it during times of high stress.

Considering the famously hectic and stressful environment that is games development, it’s easy to see why individual artists and developers may be tempted to plagiarize. 

In short, if you want to reduce plagiarism in video game development, one of the first steps would likely be to change the way games are developed. Removing stress from artists and developers, along with making space for the checks and balances that are needed, would go a long way to preventing future instances like this one.

However, as long as video game development is as chaotic and stressful as it is now, this will likely be a recurring problem, especially at larger studios. 

Bottom Line

The full outcome of this story isn’t known right now. The Terminator Bundle has not been released, so we don’t know if Activision and Lin worked out an arrangement to release the operator to the public.

However, the signs that we do have indicate that Activision, at the very least, are not trying to deny the issue and are taking it seriously. Removing the operator from the notes and reaching out to Lin are both positive signs. 

Still, if we’re going to have any hope of heading off issues like this one, it’s going to require rethinking the way video games are made. Pushing people as hard as video game development often does, creates an environment where such shortcuts are not only likely, but inevitable. 

Simply put, if you want better and more original work, you need to both give the employees the space to create and have enough leeway that you can apply systems to detect issues before they happen.

It’s not a particularly complicated idea, but it’s one that’s very out of sync with the video game industry of today.

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