Limbo of the… Plagiarist?

Video games (and by default, video game developers) often pride themselves on their originality. The question “What can we do differently?” is foremost on the minds of developers. So when a game comes out that seems eerily similar to another game, it’s a big deal. Actually, it’s more than a big deal, it’s a downright disgrace.
And unfortunately, Limbo of the Lost, a game by small-time developer, Majestic Studios, seems to do just that.
The game, which went into development in 1995 (and then was shelved until 2002), has similarities to (and thanks to GamePlasma and Shack News for pointing these out): Oblivion and Thief: Deadly Shadows, as well as possibly Unreal Tournament, Silent Hills, Diablo 2, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and World of Warcraft. Allegations are absolutely flying on gaming forums, saying that Majestic “borrowed” (illegally, obviously) elements from any number of games.

Now, Tri Synergy, the publisher of the game, released an official statement, saying that “Tri Synergy is just as shocked as everyone else is by the recent screen shot comparisons. At no point during our dealings with Majestic Studios up until the point that the comparison was first publicly made by a third party did we have any knowledge of these similarities.” In addition, Tri Synergy has pulled Limbo of the Lost off of the shelves.
But that brings us to the question: at what point does “being influenced by” become plagiarism? Look at Rock Band. Although original in the drum and microphone set, the guitar and screen set up is very similar to Guitar Hero. What is the line between being original, being in the same genre and being too similar? Even now, you look on the market and say “Oh, this game’s combat structure is like this one’s” or “You’ll like this one, it’s just like that one.”

Granted, certain Limbo of the Lost screen shots look identical to some from Oblivion, (case in point, the images above from GamePlasma), but at what point did they take it far enough to raise such cries from the gaming community? What are our standards for originality? So many games now have similar elements that it may very soon become difficult to tell the line between plagiarism and influence.
So maybe, instead of asking themselves “What can we do differently?” developers should be asking “What hasn’t been done?”
Let’s see where that will get us.