THE PERSIAN EMPIRE playing card deck (KS)

[Rob Wright]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/worldofcy/the-persian-empire-playing-card-deck?ref=users

Project by Cy
Website: theworldofcy.com
First created, $8,619 goal, 100% Plastic Kem Cards, Bridge size

[MrMollusk]

Oh, man. This deck has SO much potential.
If the indices were just sized down a bit and moved to the edge, and the court card artwork was enlarged, this would be phenomenal.

[Don Boyer]

I made an inquiry with the project creator.  I thought it was curious that he's planning to make "Kem 100% Plastic Playing Cards" but never once mentioned USPC.

[Paul Carpenter]

you may want to check this little bit of info from 4PM...

The artwork is clearly compiled from various images and "photoshopped". When a person states "I spend the past year drawing & designing this custom deck of playing cards" THEN posts images of him "hand drawing" them, I would expect them to be authentic. When I first saw them I immediately thought they were photoshopped images but giving him the benefit of the doubt I continued on. First I thought how the hell did he manage to get that type of consistent detail with that type of inking pen? Then I thought, and how did he manage to make the image practically symetrical by hand? This obviously led me to spend a few minutes on google and BOOM. Source material found. I've attached his "drawing" image along with 2 images found online where you can clearly see where the photoshopped images came from.

[Lotrek]

Haha! I was about to post the same thing, Paul! The guy has copy- pasted everything and he pretends to be drawing! This sucks.

[see_squared]

Before I leave my thoughts, please note that I did spend quite a bit of time looking into this project and have shared it with some artist and card enthusiast friends...we all pretty much noticed the same things...

...it's a complete disgrace to the art and playing card communities. 

Problems:
-He's doing fine, detailed artwork on a pad of paper...ON CARPET???
-Hand drawing BOTH sides of the court cards???
-Using Copyrighted music in campaign video???
-No video of illustrating cards.
-$119 gets you 1 deck, 4 shirts, 2 maps and 2 bandanas??? (a Kickstarter to raise funds for playing cards...and the highest pledge tier gets you only 1 deck...incredible)
-Thanks Paul for pointing out the copy/paste technique he used to photoshop the court cards. 

[Rob Wright]

So just looking at the KS page again. Several comments about photoshopping, that the cards may have already been produced(supposedly for sale on his facebook page), not Kem(USPCC), links to U.C. showing more of the lifted work-  http://unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php…   
Wow! not sure what is true, and what is not. Seem the evidence is piling quick. This guy should take his project down, and ask KS to completely remove it. If he can't prove it is his work, looks like he will be in a whole heap of trouble.

[Don Boyer]

So just looking at the KS page again. Several comments about photoshopping, that the cards may have already been produced(supposedly for sale on his facebook page), not Kem(USPCC), links to U.C. showing more of the lifted work-  http://unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php…   
Wow! not sure what is true, and what is not. Seem the evidence is piling quick. This guy should take his project down, and ask KS to completely remove it. If he can't prove it is his work, looks like he will be in a whole heap of trouble.

Once KS becomes aware of any kind of copyright issues, it doesn't usually take long before they start yanking pages from the search feature...

[Rob Wright]

So just looking at the KS page again. Several comments about photoshopping, that the cards may have already been produced(supposedly for sale on his facebook page), not Kem(USPCC), links to U.C. showing more of the lifted work-  http://unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php…   
Wow! not sure what is true, and what is not. Seem the evidence is piling quick. This guy should take his project down, and ask KS to completely remove it. If he can't prove it is his work, looks like he will be in a whole heap of trouble.

Once KS becomes aware of any kind of copyright issues, it doesn't usually take long before they start yanking pages from the search feature...

I reported it early this afternoon, and I know others had said they were reporting it. I've not heard anything from KS. Not even an acknowledgement of the report.

[Don Boyer]

So just looking at the KS page again. Several comments about photoshopping, that the cards may have already been produced(supposedly for sale on his facebook page), not Kem(USPCC), links to U.C. showing more of the lifted work-  http://unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php…   
Wow! not sure what is true, and what is not. Seem the evidence is piling quick. This guy should take his project down, and ask KS to completely remove it. If he can't prove it is his work, looks like he will be in a whole heap of trouble.

Once KS becomes aware of any kind of copyright issues, it doesn't usually take long before they start yanking pages from the search feature...

I reported it early this afternoon, and I know others had said they were reporting it. I've not heard anything from KS. Not even an acknowledgement of the report.

Same think happened with the DURAK deck, but due to the project funding seeming fraudulent, and the Steampunk Heroes deck with the custom Lego mini-figs that Lego never approved.  Try finding either of them now...

[Fred]

Man this Cy guy is really making me butthurt! So much rage built up reading the comments on his KS page along with all the stolen material.. The additional t'shirts on his KS page really demonstrate his actual talent (zilch). "Oh look i can use the same picture (most likely also copy pasta) and put different coloured retarded stripes!!!!!!11111 huehueheheuehehehua profitzz"

[Don Boyer]

What these guys should do, rather than ranting at a creator that's ignoring them, is put someone forward to "create" a project that completely imitates this one, down to the last detail, and shows EXACTLY where the source material comes from, which is other people's art!  Make the title as close to identical as possible so you can't search for one without finding the other right next to it.  Even better, undercut his prices - since he's using a cheapass printer anyway, why should you pay more?  I think THAT would finally open some eyes and force this deck into obscurity and oblivion.

[MrMollusk]

copy pasta

Dude, do you know what a copy pasta is?

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But man. It really is a low move to say you drew a photoshopped image from scratch. I would be OK if he referenced the original art for his courts, but a straight up Crtl C + Crtl V is unacceptable. It does answer the question of the shirts, though, and why they look so out of place.

This project has lost any interest it once held for me.

[Fred]

copy pasta

Dude, do you know what a copy pasta is?

☻/
/▌
/\

But man. It really is a low move to say you drew a photoshopped image from scratch. I would be OK if he referenced the original art for his courts, but a straight up Crtl C + Crtl V is unacceptable. It does answer the question of the shirts, though, and why they look so out of place.

This project has lost any interest it once held for me.

Haha yes! I just got into this hobby. Im mainly into bodybuilding so i know all about copy pasta posts :p (which actually shows how little i know as this plagiarised crap isn't even an example.. The phrase just came out haha).

Also, i don't understand people giving him credit saying that "if he had acknowledged his sources everything would be fine".. I don't know about you but i don't find skill in an 'artist' that compiles pictures together and calls it his own. It's like getting a picture of Mona Lisa, grayscale-ing it, sourcing mona lisa and then using it to make profit. That would be legal, and could potentially get more recognition than hand drawn artwork by other artists, but stuff like that is totally unacceptable in the world of art and is highly looked down upon.. much like how manipulating other works of art (literature for example) by plagiarising and slight paraphrasing is unacceptable. True works of art takes creativity, skill, technique, thought and inspiration.

I was originally mad.. But after seeing his shirt designs and attempt to time lapse to prove his artistic gift, i honestly kind of feel bad for the guy and wish that he would just take the project down for his own sake..

[xela]

The drawing on the carpet was hilarious. I didn't even notice until see-squared pointed it out.

[Don Boyer]

Haha yes! I just got into this hobby. Im mainly into bodybuilding so i know all about copy pasta posts :p (which actually shows how little i know as this plagiarised crap isn't even an example.. The phrase just came out haha).

Also, i don't understand people giving him credit saying that "if he had acknowledged his sources everything would be fine".. I don't know about you but i don't find skill in an 'artist' that compiles pictures together and calls it his own. It's like getting a picture of Mona Lisa, grayscale-ing it, sourcing mona lisa and then using it to make profit. That would be legal, and could potentially get more recognition than hand drawn artwork by other artists, but stuff like that is totally unacceptable in the world of art and is highly looked down upon.. much like how manipulating other works of art (literature for example) by plagiarising and slight paraphrasing is unacceptable. True works of art takes creativity, skill, technique, thought and inspiration.

I was originally mad.. But after seeing his shirt designs and attempt to time lapse to prove his artistic gift, i honestly kind of feel bad for the guy and wish that he would just take the project down for his own sake..

One could argue about collage as being "other people's work", but at least in that form of art, there's a recognition that your work was created from the work of others, plus you're putting your own twist into it to make it your art.

I feel bad for the guy, too, because I can practically guarantee that someone complaining about him on KS will report the work to USPC before he signs the contract.  USPC won't print plagiarized works; you must either own the copyright or be licensed to use it for the purpose of creating playing cards.

[Rob Wright]

I feel bad for the guy, too, because I can practically guarantee that someone complaining about him on KS will report the work to USPC before he signs the contract.  USPC won't print plagiarized works; you must either own the copyright or be licensed to use it for the purpose of creating playing cards.

He's not using USPCC, and some suspect the cards have already been made.

[Don Boyer]

I feel bad for the guy, too, because I can practically guarantee that someone complaining about him on KS will report the work to USPC before he signs the contract.  USPC won't print plagiarized works; you must either own the copyright or be licensed to use it for the purpose of creating playing cards.

He's not using USPCC, and some suspect the cards have already been made.

Well, in that case, he's almost certainly gone with a Chinese printer.  Many Chinese firms are much less scrupulous about such issues...  No offense to Chinese companies, because I know there are some there that do follow the rules when it comes to such things.

[Fred]

To be honest.. i have to say that despite the fact that i dislike him as a general lying human being as well as his lack of personal interpretation as an artist, the final product -especially on the court cards- is actually quite appealing! Imagine how awesome this would be if the artwork was actually entirely illustrated by him! With small modifications such as moving the poker pips outwards a little and increasing the size of the court faces, (accompanied with printing with USPC) this deck would definitely get a lot recognition and hype! Still wouldn't be my cuppatee, but it would definitely have big selling points for the general community.

Goes to show that we don't live in a perfect world. What a shame.

[Lotrek]

Imagine how awesome this would be if the artwork was actually entirely illustrated by him!

If he could do that, he would have done it!

[Rob Wright]

Funding was canceled by the creator a few hours ago. Unfortunately he promises a re-launch.

[Don Boyer]

Funding was canceled by the creator a few hours ago. Unfortunately he promises a re-launch.

Of course he canceled - he was twelve hundred short and the deadline was yesterday (it's after midnight here).  Some people think that canceling is somehow better than letting their project end unsuccessfully - those people forget that cancellations remain on the site as well and still get kicked out in keyword searches unless they were shut down by KS.  To me, it shows you lacked the fortitude to ride it out to the end, which makes one question the dedication the creator has to the project.

And that constant barrage from all his detractors probably didn't help - which was a good thing, in my opinion.  If you're tracing/scanning your artwork, at the least one should own up to it and give props to the people who originally made the art it's based on.  Unless, of course, the art is copyrighted/trademarked, in which case, you'd be an idiot to try in the first place.

Just another fool with more dollar signs in his eyes than talent in his hands.

[Lotrek]

More than true, Don!

[Don Boyer]

More than true, Don!

I read the comments - it seems that one of his backers also pointed out to him that if he went forward with the printer he planned to use and the prices he was charging, he would have LOST money even if he did hit the goal!  He failed to factor in enough cash to cover shipping and was just barely over the break-even point on the decks...

I almost wish it went through, just so we could see him fall flat on his face...

[Lotrek]

I almost wish it went through, just so we could see him fall flat on his face...

I think his main goal was just to take the money and run. The biggest problem with that guy is that he is a LIAR! The good thing is that just as in designing, he is unprofessional in lying, too!