I once made a cat based on Dr Pepper because it was favorite soda. Posted it on DA and then got bombarded about how it was too close to a closed species of drink themed cats and me being young and naive gave in to the pressure and took down my character. I shouldn't have done that.
Now I am not a fan of closed species, I try to give them a wide space when I can, though I sometimes like the designs. Too many horror stories I've heard about how overprotective the orginal artist/group becomes when they see at least one trait from another artist, and really, that is my only gripe here. You can't own certain traits, maybe a collection of them, but not separately. The short of it is, some closed species artists/groups need to chill, being this overprotective will only make people like me want to stay away, and even make other people not liking them. And no, I'm not saying every single close species, just the minority becoming the loudest.
Yeah I kinda agree. But also im too scared to find out my new cool oc that I like looks too much like this other thing and then I’m like.. “well now it’s not cool anymore >:c”. It’s a problem of mine I should prob work on lol-
If that's the case, any commission you buy is an nft because it's an image you buy. I don't really like closed species either, but I can see both sides of the discussion and which argument has flawed or not.
@@Matheus-gc5fn Nah fam. You're not being objetive at all. If anything, that was the most braindead take I've read in this whole comment section, along with the closed species' white knights
@@annierminx the comparison of closed species to NFTs is dumb because that any commission you buy is also just a PNG you say is yours. The only difference between the three is that NFTs are bad for the environment, as they consume large amounts of electricity to produce. Don't get me wrong, I also don't like closed species because it's a "you can own a concept" mindset which I disagree completely, but I won't sugar coat a flawed argument just because of my visions.
@Destiny My advice to that is always "Don't be as obsessed with making something no one's ever seen before. Be obsessed with making something no one else has done as well as you before." People are always going to derive inspiration from somewhere, come to ideas independently, or just blatantly steal. What's important is that your version of it is nuanced and deep to the point that no one can ever completely copy it without people being reminded of the 'original' in some way.
@Destiny I say build your audience around what you love to do. Your work should be seen and heard whether people end up hating it or liking it. The one thing they won't be able to steal is is your passion and creativity. If someone steals one drawing or design from you, not only can you get justice if it happens, but you can also evolve and grow to make even better and more unique designs and drawings. Focus on honing what they cannot steal instead of what will inevitably be stolen by someone. Let people engage with your art and you'll find it's not as scary as you think.
My main issue with closed species is the restrictions and toxicity. While I understand why people don't want others to constantly make their own. Especially if the artist made the species for their own enjoyment and personal reasons. But I want to be able to make a character that has a fur hood that's connected to its body without fear of being harassed for doing that.
I've always been of a mind that, like ACTUAL species in the world, there's so much more than their appearance. If I wanted a cute lamp I'd get an open species that no one cares about but I don't want a lamp, I want an RGB LED backlit set up that changes colors when I scream at them. Looks are only a part of any creature, and a "closed species" that has only that going for it to me isn't even a "species". It's a sticker. Where's the biological information? The biological niche they fill? The history of the species/culture? Why do they have the rules they do? Give me something to work with that tells me why this particular variety of bug eating parrot-cat isn't the same as this other bug eating parrot-cat because anyone can draw a bird-cat so why is yours specifically worthy of being "closed"? World build, goddamn it! Edit: that being said, lore doesn't make up for a lackluster design and if someone looks similar to another because it's generic as fuck you don't get to be upset when your lore is the only thing separating your parrot-cat from the other [insert bird here]-[feline] hybrids out there.
Man I absolutely hate when people make hybrids and claim them to be original species, proceeding to charge 50 bucks a piece for them…. Like what’s gonna stop me from making the exact hybrid myself? A closed label? I’m making whatever tf I want.
i honestly say "frick it" and i just now found out about "closed species" and i write works of fandom crossovers---very, very original, i know-- i just write whatever the hell i want and use pre-existing characters..uh oh 😂
BUILD LORE! BUILD LORE! I literally have an open species on Pony Town called Splishy Tails and while the species is mostly dead, I still build lore! Infodump ahead because brain suddenly brrrr'd with two main bits of lore. Some highlights of lore include: Drowned splishes, these undead splishy tails lose all access to their magic due to punishment (just or not). They try to use magical artifacts to bring back their magic and they're commonly exiled from other splishies. Angel splishes, these splishy tails are only called this due to the fact they have rare genetic traits contributing to their pure white wings and light colored coats and manes. They're commonly made royalty and if a splishy tail is born as an angel splishy, then the parents prepare for an arranged marriage with the royal family when the angel splishy is of age.
I'm actually good friends with Tori, the creator of the paccapillars. I distinctly remember them creating these little guys in our college's cafeteria, doodling out the base design on some computer paper. And with them being a game design major, they were so excited about the lore and the world they'd inhabit (I think they created a whole game for them within the dA group, or that could have been another species they tried their hand at, I wasn't active on dA so I don't really know). However, I do remember all the bullshit they had to constantly go thru during their time managing the group and the species as a whole. There's definitely good and bad aspects to closed species, but I think overall, it was certainly an experience watching from the outside. Also Tori's color pallets were always the best, still are *chef's kiss*
Paccapillars was a group and species i adored when I was on DA, but I never managed to get my hands on one of my own. They are one of my inspirations for my own species group I’ve been running since 2016.
I think they're stupid but like whatever. I love a lot of the designs, I don't love the rules and regulations. You'd be hard pressed to find any actual laws that prevent you from going against the rules and regulations. Other than of course actual copying. So much of the "stealing" would very much fall under fair use. I just appreciate closed species from afar. (You can't stop me from using them as inspiration 😈)
Lol. My honour only lets me do adoptable caharcters, not closed species. CE are similar to me, just includes more general lore attached to a universe that may or may not be available for the public someday I dont see a big problem unless you get into the 'you stole my super dupper og species of sharks with wings' I respect regualtions and follow artist who do CE. I just, would never buy one and is difficult for me see the amusement over a character like any other with the only main difference that you can't post fanart of it.
I think calling the species itself "stupid" is a bit messed up, real or fictional because it's an unfair generalization especially to someone who has a character of said species. Accusing people of copyright infringement because their character is a real canine that happens to resemble a fictional one you have to pay to make may be stupid, but the fictional creatures themselves aren't. Kind of unrelated but as a witness i noticed the over-hatred of closed species has extended to characters that are based on already existing species in mythology and folklore that have been around for centuries. I have a friend who made a character similar to these human faced dog things from Japanese folklore, I believe they were called jinmenkins or something but they made it a wolf instead of a dog. Well someone who hates closed species harassed them saying their oc was the r slur and called them greedy and money hungry over a species that they didn't make, aren't paying people to create, and it isn't closed nor open they just don't care if people make characters of the species, even species they did make up. This did discourage them from making more ocs like that for a while though.
Most of them don't have deep lore. And I've seen a lot of closed species based off brands: there are closed species that are legit hybrid of preexisting dragons in Wings of Fire, and hybrids do exist within the canon lore. I've seen similar stuff in the how to train your dragon fandom. Like they'll be closed species, literally hrbids of fictional dragons. They don't own the IP the dragons are based off, and still make money off of it. This one of those really grey areas, and run the risk of basically getting a cease and desist by actual IP owner. By deep or decent lore, as it explained: many don't really do much to justify variations within the species or how they evolved to develop those variants. The lore will be vague and open ended- but the only the species owner will be able to flesh out the lore. Depsite the vague open ended nature being perfect for fanfic and writing. Edit: additionally, many will bare traits that are copies of other species' traits, to the point it's a tread of "aesthetic-y" traits with the real difference being the base animal the species is based off of, and maybe a push for a certain aesthetic, like chemo dogs on Instagram, which cool on paper, in practice is just... Uninspired. It's a popular edgier aesthetic mixed with common traits found in closed species I see all over the place. Even the top few well known closed species are more creative than that. It's really inspired and a mix of closed species that are bootlegs of one another while also just jumping onto the newest shiniest traits other closed species use. It's so boring and stupid. And the amount of people who just go ahead and use those traits anyways without partaking in the closed species
@@Spectre-69 it's not about destroying the environment it's paying ridiculous amounts of money for a "unique" design that isn't all that unique and can be copied by anyone at any time. In short, a scam. Only difference is at least close species look better NFTs aren't just about killing the environment
@@Spectre-69 They’re not quite as bad as NFTs but they’re definitely built to tap into the same part of the brain as NFTs are, with that whole idea that you gotta get this thing because it’s one of a kind and exclusive, rather than because you just like the design, and how it plays into fear of missing out. I will say from experience Semi-closed species aren’t as bad though.
@@scootermcpeanuts6699 close species are... Complicated. As I understood, is more about a community and roleplay than design a character/specie. And exist comunities whith lots of diferent rules (some of them can be compared whith a kind of "pay to win" game just because you can create a free default character and pay for the unlocking features like rare horns or somenthing for your character). And some people like to trait them like a kind of nft, exactly. Because some people just buy a close specie for status and then they let it in her desk like decoration. (I think is more relevant in Toy House because you can certificate that the Oc came from a pop artist and it's not ilegal)
Honestly like if the creators realised that making a character out of a closed species illegally is, well.. not illegal. Everything you guys can do is keep a list of officially made OCs so that someone doesn't accidentally buy a "fake" one. Not original closed species are a bit of a pet peeve of mine but I don't mind the idea of closed species in general. I'm in the process of making mine own too, although I prefer to make mine semi-open. Or just open.
I don't care if people wanna make closed species but they need to realize that no one can stop people from making their own. I'm a firm believer in not paying for things and no one can stop me from drawing whatever I want. on the other hand it's pretty funny to see them freak out LOL
To me closed speices is just gatekeeping creativity. The fact someone has to feel like they need to "OWN" a certain oc concept which 99% of the time is a unoriginal and trying to force someone either to give them credit as "the owner of said concept," make them pay money to use said concept or harass the person into changing their oc if they don't do one of the above. (I know not all closed species artist are bad or harass people so don't attack me for it, I think it's still gatekeeping though)
recently there was this whole drama with a species called scarfoxes where they were trying to get people to pay 70$ to void their scarfox [voiding refers to removing your oc from a species. it is mostly agreed on in the community that your choice to pack your ocs and leave should be free] the server blew up because their members were pissed at the owner for this. with people raging in the channels. especially since they announced this after a 2 month break cause of ANOTHER drama involving the staffs unprofessional behavior towards me. it caused a sort of revolt to happen with people asking to be banned from the cs. or offbranding. also 23:16 right is my besties artwork omg !!!! lmao thanks for reading my tangent bye.
Yep! Csmeaner on Tumblr has some of the details. It's chaos and yet I am challenging myself to obtain myself an official/registered scarfox as I had this big brain joke of having one actual one surrounded by like twenty "offbrands" Update with my own chaos: I have exactly one scarfox and I got it a hollow traif
That's why I'm creating my own open species. But not only to just have an expansive worldbuilding project - even though god yes its a passion project - it's also to create an open species community that completely does away with gatekeeping, because my open species and how it works literally prevents gatekeeping, canon zealot-ing, etc. at its core. Or at least attempts to. Of course there will be groups of people that suck. That's what humans do, you can't expect everyone to be nice and perfect, even if it's common sense.
To add- once you put something on the internet, people can and will use things you don't want them to. Don't flaunt around a cool design in front of people faces like jingling keys in front of a baby, because usually it will bite you in the butt.
Same. I also have a worldbuilding project with an open species. The species's main concept is so loose that going by the closed species idea would make me combat Pokemon. In a nutshell, it's just "animal-object hybrid" for a specific indie universe. You can find stuff like a windchime bat, a motorcycle dragon, a helicopter scorpion, a chandelier squid and more.
You can just make a character from a closed species for free. Put whatever traits you want on it. It's easy and fun. What are they gonna do, call the cops on you?
The one rule I have when it comes to picking a closed species to support is simple - do they acknowledge that they don't have copyright control over the idea? A good example of this is Chimereons. They outright state in their FaQ that the community is closed, not the design, and that they not only have no legal power to stop you from making your own, they have ZERO interest in trying to limit people's ability to create similar concepts. Another species I have followed for ages is Pond Ponies, who allow unofficial designs. You are welcome to make, trade and sell unofficial designs, and they are not required to strictly 100% follow the design rules unless an MYO submission to become an official design is submitted, at which point the artist who created the design is required to adress any trait issues raised or else allow the owner of the design to edit it.
yeah i always thought that was what closed species were about. i always thought it was like buying like roleplay characters with a specific background to rp in a specific community and the its the really weird and shitty people who are harrassing people for making characters that resemble the designs used in the closed species.
I'm guilty of owning a closed species. I bought a Primagen when I was drunk back in 2016. My drunk ass brain thought a fake robot animal was more important than replacing the starter in my car.
One closed species i REALLY REALLY hate is fluffy shrimp. I’m from washington. shrimp naturally have hair. May not be as eccentric as the normal fluffy shrimp but like… it’s a shrimp. With fur. That’s literally the most BASIC THING EVER. Bringing up in from washington again, i love shrimp, they’re yummy, and if someone were to make a shrimp fursuit it would probably have…. fur. Because lots of fursuits have fur. Hey guys, i have fluffy crab closed species!!! I have fluffy prawn closed species!!! I have fluffy fish closed species!!! 😔.
At 10:52 I was struck by the revelation that I am chronically online and listen to people talk for hours about art related topic to the point I knew exactly what "Ghost doggo" was and the drama behind it, pray for my help :)
I remember seeing users on dA threaten literal children for drawing closed species on paper because they would get sent to jail. Like they'd threaten to call the cops. Closed species will ALWAYS be absolutely cringe af imo.
Used to love this Roblox game (voidkin asylum) and thought the monster designs were SO neat, but then I learned (from the wiki of all places) that it was a closed species... Never touched that game again. The monsters were supposed to be representation of different mental health stuff (self-hatred was the big bad guy I recall) and like... That isn't original. Hell, I could make a little monster representation of my autism right now if I wanted to.
Isn't it tragic I dont actually own any of these species? Truly maidenless energy right there. 🎀Thank you to MrCakeDragonMan for editing!!! :D Make sure to check out his socials here ➵ linktr.ee/MrCakeDragonMan 🎀Special thanks to my friend Hui for helping me with so much of the design process and drawing the beautiful character sheet for Darlinki’s! ➵ linktr.ee/Huilinarts Tell her to make more good shit. 🌟A Queen's Innocence Only in Jest -By Ponder Sprocket ➵ ua-cam.com/video/lRH-AY9hJvY/v-deo.html
🌟The Story Of The 20,000 Dollar Furry Commission - by Izzy Izzy ➵ ua-cam.com/video/DTHgEV-xUSg/v-deo.html Other links in description
This is the first time I've ever watched one of your videos and I love it and the darlinkis! Never been into DA Species really (specifically staying away from the toxicity) but you seem wholely positive, even making a species designed to remind the owner of taking care of themselves. Good job! Also, I watch till the end always and the random avatar twerking HARD at the end almost made me drop my phone in laughter, I had to catch my breath lol
as someone who's been into closed species for the better part of a decade and who's seen lots of painful takes from people outside of the communities... it was honestly really refreshing to see a take that isn't just 'why people spend money on frivolous thing' or 'look how weird it is why would anyone want this' or 'this concept is dumb and here's why' i also love that you actually talked about the community aspects! pretty much all of my closest friends now i met through closed species. it's a way to connect with people over a shared interest, which is one of the things i love about them. do i love all closed species or all their communities? no, but the ones that i've found that i do like have been a ton of fun it's just nice to see a more positive video on it all : )
And this is why I became a hobby artist...I can design whatever I like in whatever animal species I like without having to be limited by others. Closed species characters sound like more hassle than what it's worth
when I was 11 and on deviantart I was OBSESSED with waterdogs and I wanted nothing more than to make my own. so I tried to raise enough deviantart points to buy the slot to make your own. made a bunch of adoptables that no one wanted to buy. so I made my own species similar to waterdogs in hopes that it'd sell. well it didn't and someone tattled to the creator who didn't really care. I was SO sad. now that I'm almost 17 it's pretty freeing to realize that I can just make my own and no one can stop me
Personally? My stance falls into the third camp. I’m a channel artist for a digimon youtuber who does a lot of “what if,” style content. “What if all the tamers biomerged,” “what if dark dna digivolution was a thing,” etc. After the video comes out, Karn can use the designs for whatever he wants, I can use the designs for whatever we want, and I’ve seen several videos where people asked Karn in the comments to use our concepts for their own fan fics. Now, this isn’t the most accurate comparison, but seeing as a lot of closed species I’ve personally seen are either furries or strongly resemble digimon accidentally, I feel it’s a shaky basis on which to make it. As someone who’s work tends to fall into that camp, I know I’d be a bit less than happy to watch some other digituber’s video and see one of my Karn designs in it without myself or Karn knowing ahead of time. Just as well, while I try to avoid taking inspiration from the other artists designs, actively to my own downfall- I don’t own any of the concepts for my designs either. If someone wanted to take my tamers biomerge design for impmon and change it to something recognizable but slightly personalized, that’s them doing their own piece with inspiration from me. I can’t and won’t ever be mad at that. Hell, I’ve been doing this so long I now have 16 separate digimon designs- not counting outside commissions and my own fan line I’ve had bouncing about for over a decade. What I’m saying is the mentality of closed species seems stupid to me. Adopts? Meh. I feel like someone can take inspiration from an adopt, but buying an adopt is essentially buying the example piece and the design. A closed species is like a pure bred dog breeder telling you you can’t take your dog on walks on cloudy days or they’ll take him back. If I buy something, the only strings attached should be those pulling the money out of my wallet. Maybe some safety ropes to keep me from an “instructions unclear, dick stuck in ceiling fan,” situation. As an aside… despite all of what I just said… I do love the concept for the dahlinkis. Both the narrative, and the idea that they aren’t sold, but gifted. Their race is handed down, so them being gifted to those who want them in a more wholesome manner is neat to me.
First dude had a point, some closed/open species have so many restrictions with how you can draw your character that most of them end up looking like clones, example: protogens.
Heyo, this has honestly been the most in-depth and genuine videos on this subject. I tried to think of what to say but I don't have much, just really good stuff--also love the editing and commentary pacing and style!! I've been so far removed (Pacapillars) at this point to really understand what all is going on in CS these days but I'm not surprised it is pretty much the same. Still very fun to kinda peek around the corner every now and then to see what everyone is coming up with. Keep up the cool vids :>
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! QwQ Absolutely adore your art and the gooey colourful style, keep up making cute products for your shop!
this vid got recommended to me one week after i designed my character, i'm not someone that makes ocs nor furry like ocs, this was my first time for my minecraft skin. And god i went running to dA to see if it there was a closed species design close to it. And ofc, I found one that was similar. While the concept of a space matter creature inside a space suit robot is not new im soooo glad there was many features that were different because of the lore i gave it. But also im glad i'm literally nobody on the internet so I can avoid conflict (even if its reasonable conflict i still get anxious)
I think I'd be in school 3 - they are cool and can be fun and full of community and belonging. HOWEVER some people like to ruin it for everyone and go on power trips. I've been kicked from one and left another because of some power tripping admin 😬
I love closed species and I actually have a few of my own but it gets weird when they cost upwards of like $40 for the permission to make one. Like if it's already a created character that's up to the artist to decide but like an MYO shouldn't be so expensive
I join closed species for the community and the creativity. I will admit I am a bit of a collector because I too love cute creatures and there is a certain charm about being able to call one your own. Throughout my years on deviantart I have participated in many species events and have gotten free characters or free myos through them, you don't always have to spend money to join in. Obviously there are some money hungry species that require a 'fee' just to get involved to begin with, but there are plenty of interesting and fun ones out there that are a lot easier to get into without the need to spend any money.
I own a few characters from closed species, but nothing over a base price of $80. I see it a bit like designer brands, some exist due to being a business in their own right, others just using the closes nature of the species to help regulate the lore and characteristics of your species. While some people will buy Gucci and enjoy spending their time and money hanging out with others who love the brand, others just don't care or choose to imitate with knockoffs, at the end of the day does it really matter? So long as it's not claiming to be that species directly, instead taking inspiration from them, it should be fine. I have closed species, and though I don't sell them too often, I certainly don't mark them up for being a closed species. All the labels exist for is to monitor the world the species live in, just to keep the continuity constant. Inspiration is wonderful and if you're willing to pay larger sums of money for it, go for it! Just try and respect the species created, while also standing your ground and not letting strangers come at you for having a similar concept in your OCs. Just have fun and don't worry too much.
Fun fact-one of my hobbies is poking around on DeviantArt for closed species ref, screenshotting them, and then trying to break as many rules as I can in one design. Or screenshotting refs of color palette adopts, making OCs based on them, and then using them in my stories.
i personally despise closed species. i think they can look cool and stuff, but they limit creativity because you can't even make something similar without people telling you it looks similar to something you've never seen before, you have to follow strict rules when you finally get them, etc. and why even pay for the right to design your oc for a species or pay someone else to make an oc for said species when you can make the oc or species yourself and feel more attached to it because it's your own original design and not have to face heavy rules?? same thing with adoptables, but i don't hate them as much. i don't really care for what people do but that doesn't mean i don't think they're pointless
My biggest gripe with some closed species is how they'll paywall e v e r y t h i n g. Like I had characters from a particular species [not naming names cause they don't need backlash], where you couldn't draw your feral design anthro, or with any other alternate version without special items- which cost in-species currency- which cost irl money to earn. Even if your alt version of your character wasn't canon or a one off fun style experiment. Needless to say I sold all the characters I had in that species; I wasn't about to pay 30 to 40 bucks just so I can draw my character anthro?? Also something I just came across recently was another species putting a paywall over if you want to remove a character YOU BOUGHT YOURSELF AND NOW OWN- out of the species [despecies]. Like at that point you're milking your members of their money; there's no reason to restrict to those degrees
as a creator and former owner of a closed species, there really are good and bad sides with the cs community. You could easily tell whether a closed species is created to build a loving community or to just earn money. As a former owner, I personally believe that there should be a good balance between the two; that a cs can earn money (to support the artists and designers that manage the species) but also be beginner friendly that anyone else can join the community even if they're broke. The problem is, the success of a closed species still ultimately depends on the popularity of the creator/designer (at least on Instagram). The more popular the creator is and the cuter their artstyle is, their adopts will sell now matter how generic or common it looks, design wise.
7:27 BZZT! too bad! the correct answer is: if you like it and you can draw, then make your own character in a closed species. don't let other artists stifle your creativity. what will they do? they can't do much to people who aren't chronically online or just literally don't care
In all honesty I gave up on trying to understand them. They seem sketchy as all hell. Especially when one friend drew one and went "I haven't bought it yet cause I need a few more points". And I'm just sitting here like-you just drew it though? They then explained that gaining points can be done through drawing other's Closed Species purchase and such and that just had me going "sounds like a way to just get free art". I know there's some long history with Closed Species, I just don't get them and no matter how much I try to look into them I just don't get HOW they're a thing. Especially coming from following a group of adoptable makers who were all so willing to just let people be inspired by their works without making much of a fuss. Adoptables, I get-you're buying a design that then can be adjusted and changed up however you want. And it just might be because of the adoptable creators I've follower but they all are just incredibly relaxed-also a lot did more unique poses and outfits than copy/paste pose and recolors. In fact one artist did like a year's worth of magical girl adoptable one set for each color and then the super prominent holidays(Christmas, Valentines Day, Halloween)-and when somebody went "hey would you mind if I did my own adoptable sheet as magical girls, since I'm getting the inspiration from you?" Their response? "Sure, I didn't make the idea of adoptable magical girls , I don't own that concept. I would like to see more actually!"
3:18 The hound of Baskervill, Church Grimms, the Polterpup from Luigi's mansion, the dog from Corpse Bride, pet cemetery, million heartwarming and -breaking stories about owners reuniting with their dead pets one last time... There are too many undead dogs to count. I don't even know what a ghost doggo is and can 100% say that at least one of them fits the bill.
The worst thing is: each one has different lore (The hound of Baskervill isn'teven real in-story). They all therefore could be their own closed species. But, since art is a visual medium, there's going to be a war between Polterpups and Church Grimms, because they both look like ghost dogs. That's why I think closed species are bad. LORE DOESN'T GIVE YOU OWNERSHIP OF COMMON CONCEPTS!
Hey, it's cool seeing Nudinyms as an example of Closed Species you like! (They're the first two examples in your CS showcase @ 23:06, and there's a couple more throughout by Lighterium!) This video as a whole was a very interesting retrospective on the concept, honestly! I actually wanted to point out though that Nudinyms specifically were merged in with an Art RPG called "Lythbound", which is more like Furvilla and Flight Rising (You get a free character to start, but others have to be earned in-game OR can be purchased) but with custom character designs and a heavy focus on Art mediums! The species themselves are open though (including Nudinyms now!) so you can just make lil' guys to design and mess around with if you don't wanna play the game itself :D
These seem even more, or just as ridiculous as NFT's. The whole trading thing sounds stupid aswell. Like you don't even get a plushie of said adoptable? Or a digital pokemon like creature? Or even a bleeding card? I'd be more understanding if you got a freaking plushie or some physical object of said critter that you can swap, trade or sell alongside the rights to it, but other then it just seems daft Maybe someone should make a pokemon style game for these things or something
I like closed species as a concept and I definitely see the appeal and why artists would want to keep that to themself. Theres just too many loopholes for most of them to work tho. Lets just say that someone has never heard of a protogen (somehow) and makes a character that looks like one and has sort of the same lore and the creator finds out. Does the person who made the oc have to pay the owner now? Or give up their oc? I like them as a concept and I see the appeal, I just think that theres so much that could go “wrong” for some closed species to work. Can some work? definitely, if they have a very unique concept (lore and design wise) but if theyre just a “____ dog” and the story is super generic then the owner has no right to force or attack someone for coming up with a similar concept. I rlly see it as a case by case thing rather than “all is bad” or “all is good”
Protogens aren't exactly a good example as they're an open species, their sister species Primagens aren't (and even then, if someone finds a protogen and mistakenly gives it primagen traits, that's something that could go wrong)
I honestly hate closed species as well, I have an oc that’s similar to, very popular species, cccats. And since I have an oc similar to the species I’m too scared to post my art with them since I don’t want to be accused of stealing. But besides that, your video was very informational! :))
Darn a can of fresh air finally for the topic that isn't talked by someone who is either neutral or dislikes the closed species. Your species is so cuute omgg!
I once made a closed species of cats with magic and shit Pretty basic stuff. It was made literally just because I was a money hungry kid and also really wanted to make my own species I have a different unreleased species, which was from a few years later. By then I decided that I don’t really like closed species because of all the hate it brings people I mean, some things are fine. A species that is purely unique and has its world building is one thing, and a cat that has wings, magic, and sometimes horns (my old species) is not at all good imo
Ok look, the reason why closed species are bad - especially the cute ones - are…. THERE ARENT ANY PLUSHIES OF THEM! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
The idea of some random trust fund kid spending 20K on a WaterDog as a "flex" like it's nothing, meanwhile I spent my childhood in poverty, sometimes not being able to eat for days at a time, angers me to no end. It pissed me off back then, and it still pisses me off now. The NFT craze has breathed new life into this disgusting trend from years ago.
Aw! Darlinkis are PRECIOUS. Also, I liked this take- I didn't even realize people on UA-cam had closed species beef but fell down a rabbit hole today, thanks for a more nuanced and in depth look at the subject it was interesting. I've been involved in various closed species and art games for years now so I have seen the good, the bad, and the holy crap. I could go on forever about all the best and worst practices, dramaz, and whatever else, but overall, dude I'm not stopping anytime soon, you can pull my dumb little guys from my cold dead hands. To me, it's exactly the same as if I collected like little figurines, but I don't have to store them or dust them. I can just page through my TH and go "my pretties yesss" and it just makes me smile because they're cute and I like them and I like making up lil stories about them. And if you looked at my TH you'd be like omg are you rich like nah dude I live on a fixed income most of these I got for totally free or maybe for some art. I'm actually a mod for one because I love it so much, was stoked to see a couple of them in your roundup of super cute ones you like (I didn't make it I just love the community there, also you can do basically anything you want without spending money if you don't want to/ don't have it). My entire dA account is more or less just to post my art game stuff and my dumb comics. XD As a kid, I had friends where we'd sit and draw together and make up stories about the stuff we were drawing and it was like my favorite thing to do and I've been chasing that ever since, and these groups let me do it, because now that I'm old I no longer have so many art friends IRL, and none who will do that game with me. XD
4:02 FUCK impims. I was in the hospital with no wifi and once I got my MYO FINALLY submitted, they told me no because I was 10 minutes past the deadline, despite me trying to explain that I literally was in the hospital.
I did a double taks when you said "soul parasites", your darlinkis sound like the nice version of my soul shadows (open species) Soul shadows are also parasites, but they attach themselves to damaged souls and make their host dependent on them to survive by blinding them. Maybe I'll make a post about them, but that was definitely a funny coincidence!
I actually have a closed species oc done through a create-your-own type situation in an rp community. In effect, you gained a fictional currency through interacting with other ocs and bought an item which, when consumed by one of your ocs, would produce a member of the species similar in form to the character that consumed the item. The new character would temporarily take the old one's place before sloughing off into its own entity, leaving both characters unscathed. This species of sentient ink given form was one of several colored variations when created in this way. The first two colors were part of a closed rp event by the same creator, and this is where it got contentious, because even if you were around for the event, making a character of this particular color could earn you the creator's ire if you weren't one of the lucky few who managed to get a slot in the full event. So needless to say. I have a bit of a mixed opinion when it comes to closed species.
The only closed species that I really loved but never was able to afford back in my DA days were called 'Iceberg hounds' and they were like little iceberg dogs with polar themed animals that live on them and they sleep in the water on their stomachs because their berg on the back keeps them afloat, so for me I really like CS when there is an obvious amount of thought into them
interesting to see a positive take on cs ! I fell down the species hole years ago and have yet to escape.. despite positives in species, I beg everyone to please make your own stuff. Cs is one of my biggest regrets.
Yeah, it is a community thing, but the problems come because creators make it a hostile environment on purpose. Things like blacklists and such that go out of their way to enable harassment are (in my opinion) the biggest reason closed species have such a bad sigma. It's just such a shame because I wanna support the amazing artists, but I don't want to support the stupid "you need to play 75 extra dollars to make the ears fluffy :3"
I personally have a love hate relationship with Closed Species. Yes, they're really fucking cute most of the time. But I want them and can't get them because I am broke. I usually end up just taking bits of the species and making my own character based off of them, like my character Matches, who's partially based off of teacats.
This reminded me of an oddly wholesome closed species interaction I had way back in my high school DA days. I found a really cute closed species of drink themed ungulates, soda horses, milk cows, juice deer, that kinda thing (not the most original, but I really liked the whole glass body idea and the way the og artist drew liquid). I didn't have the money to buy one, so I started asking the artist questions about the species, like, how did families work, if one parent was limeade and one was cherry juice, would the kid be cherry limeade? What if it was a hot drink like coffee or tea, would there also be steam? Could there be ice? I had no intention of trying to make my own, I couldn't afford a vending machine snack let alone a DA closed species, but I wanted to interact so much, I asked a LOT of questions. After a while the Artist messaged me and said that no one had expressed that level of interest in any of their species before, that I had asked questions that they hadn't considered before and made them develop the species further beyond what the original design doc had said. I basically ended doubling the canon for this closed species, and that they wanted to design me one of my very own as a gift for free as a "thank you". I nearly cried, I was so happy.
Honestly I'm 100% in school 4! Alot of CS groups are pretty similar, and others are super toxic. For example: I hate Jolleraptors! I just don't like how to group is run or how they're a 'pet' species. On the other hand, I love Nebnoms! I find space explorers to be WAY more interesting! (And yes I know, they used to just be the same species ((Nebnoms)) but I didn't know that until like a year ago.) And yeah, I run my own CS group (A 5 species Art-RPG ((ARPG)) called Cerifikn-Nation) so I may be just a tad bias but I know damn well how much work some groups put into their species! I've been doing this for two years and I actually been studying speculative/ standard biology to make sure my group is accurate. I also agree with those that thing CS are super restrictive- That's kinda the point sometimes? But it does limit creativity sometimes. (And It kinda gets annoying when you get so used to just making whatever you want.) Even resale rules can be straight up bullshit. Like: Why can't I trade this character for a character outside of the group? Why can't I gift/trade a character I got for free? However I do like the idea of only being able to resell for what you bought it for + (MAYBE) extra commissioned value. 1- I really hate it when people try to scalp for a fucking character worth 7$ (((COUGH COUGH CHIMERONS))) 2- It helps build a sense of trust between the buyer and seller rather than the buyer blindly going to trust that the Seller is being honest during the sale. (I know I've been scalped before and it fucking sucks) And the originality argument? (Lemme shoot myself in the foot for a sec) Krenchis - Cobras with Legs but Amphibians Giglins - Worms on a String but Demons (Actually Semi-Open but I gotta remake the old-ass species-info) Nameless - Cat Goat Birds/Bats without eyes (Used to actually be a Cccat offbrand but I got this species in a trade and redesigned it!) Smog-Imps - Bird-Skulled Single-Celled Organisms but Demons Grellex - Sugar Glider but I Fucking Nuked Them With Radiation Lol nothing is original when you break it down to it's bare-bones aspects. Sometimes a species just looks super cool and people just wanna hop onto the trend. And yes- Species thrive on trends, as do many other forms of creative media like Cartoons or Toybrands! This video is actually pretty great for explaining CS in a way that isn't just completely bashing them for the follies of a few groups that seem to have become the unofficial "Face" of all Closed Species. (And Honestly, I don't really care about offbrands unless they start to hurt me financially- Go make your own Cerifikn Characters! Just please don't sell them or try to use them in my ARPG unless you earn the game-items to bring them into the official universe.)
As someone who isn't an artist I didn't know about Closed species, but watching you I guess for me it comes down to copyright/ how much control does a creator have over their work. There is the obvious don't just remake what someone did, but for the more generic things like water dog or Ghost Doggo that is far too broad in my opinion for anyone to reasonably try and claim ownership of it. Though to clarify it would be the additional details you put into the design, lore, etc that would IMO make it yours. Taking Ghost Doggo if you took from Dia De los Meirtos (Day of the Dead) and used that aestetic along with your own spin/take on that and the lore of that specific species sure I see no issues in it. My other main issues would be both just how much people would pay for some of it. (though that is utterly subjective and since people are paying that kind of cash obviously there is a market), and how some might abuse their power from owning a closed species. Petty Drama is also dumb BTW don't be petty, or dumb. Because this is also just my inane rambling as I watch/rewatch the video to come to a better understanding I would be foolish to not admit I am not the largest fans of communtities/fanbases in general (cause they can get dumb/annoying quick and the loudest voices aren't always the best), so take all of what I am saying with that in mind. I like stuff, and I am happy that you dear reader like stuff too just don't be a jerk. Now as a final note I love the Darlinkis immedietly. The lore sounds like it could be interesting and they look adorable! Out of everything this is but a straight fact and I shall not be convinced otherwise!!!!!!
I think the term you're looking for at the start is original species! it just refers to creatures made with the intent to be used by other people on the internet to make their characters and splits off into closed and open species ^^. hope this helps
i think they can exist, just find it weird when people go crazy about them saying you can't make a character that coincidentally looks like one y'know especially if it's just a dog with wings
The concept of closed species makes me feel icky. For a variety of reasons. They're capitalist money sinks, under the guise of a cute collectible creatures. Being exclusive isn't a good thing. Like you noted in the video, it leads to toxic, gang-like mindsets among community members. I'm also not a huge fan of the speculative market aspects. In a lot of ways, they're no different to NFTs, a known scam. Also, the designs being cute is actually a problem. Being exclusive means that similar designs cannot be used or made, and with such broad appeal, that can be really discouraging for artists, especially young artists. In this comment section alone I've seen more than a few examples of young artists who were bullied by people in the closed species communities because their artwork too closely resembles a closed species. It's much more accessible to people if your community isn't behind a paywall, and you're also a lot less likely to have a bad reputation if you aren't sending young artists hate mail for drawing something too similar to an (oftentimes very vague) organism with shallow worldbuilding attached to it at best.
I mean I’ve designed species for my fantasy works in the past, and I can understand the desire to be protective of your creations. I do get the sentiment that any lore and worldbuilding I’ve written for that species gets ignored, or outright disrespected. But realistically, you neither can’t nor shouldn’t try to control the creativity of others. From a logistical perspective and from a principle standpoint. The healthy standpoint I have built around it is saying “mine and the ones I’ve granted explicit permission to” are canon. Everything else is fan art or homebrew. I’m personally not always a fan of people who will intentionally design something and “call it” by the same species name. But theft is not what I’d call it. Even “counterfeit” is too extreme for my taste. If anything it’s more of a “cheap imitation brand instead of the name brand” I’m sure my own ideas aren’t fully unique, and that’s ok. It only starts to rub me the wrong way if someone makes a similar product and markets it with the same name/branding/etc. But even then, you can’t control the internet
are your species still around to this day? this is my first time seeing you and just, the little darlinkies are adorable, and showl is adorable and I n e e d one. and if they are, where can I find a refrence to the species so the one I make fits?(and hopefully can eventually snatch a darlinkis, they can have my soul-)
first off, i just wanna say that i love your species and i hope to see them around the art community! i don't know if we're really in the place to join any new species groups right now, even open/free ones, but i hope the people that do join have a lot of fun! ive always had a love for species, and still have all of the species we ever obtained back on deviantart. we even have a few species of our own, though most aren't out yet, and idk if they ever will be. that said, much as i love species, i do agree that many of them lack creativity and originality. most species i see today are "human with a feature" and it's kinda sad, especially when their lore is little more than "they were made in labs and can exist in any world!!" but more than the lack of originality, i'd definitely say the biggest issue with species right now are the individual communities (clubs as you call them) and not just the owners of the species, but often the mod teams. not even getting into the fact that most species mod teams are made up of the owner's friend group, creating a lot of bias and a lot of favoritism, a lot of owners and their mod teams can let their personal views affect the community. we modded for hoodmakkas for a while, and things when very south when i brought up some cultural appropriation issues that needed to be handled. we were accused of the big bad p crime and kicked off the mod team only to be replaced with someone who's name literally had 'daddy' in it...in a server for 13+ but the worst was when the owner of pillowings publicly confirmed they are a ""map"" and the mod team of impim supported them and their "defense" that because they're disabled, it's okay to have those attractions because they "can't act on it anyways" No contact or not, having that attraction is not okay, and supporting someone like that is just as bad. I noticed a lot of screen time going to impim in this video, and i really think you should remove them, censor them, or at least put a disclaimer. when clover came out about their attraction, the mod team for impim were very gross to members of the community who were talking negatively about it and defending clo at every turn. maybe things have changed now, and if so, thats great, but as far as i last heard, the owners of impim support clover, the owner of pillowings and all cloverse species, and clo has publicly embraced being an adult who is attracted in that way (jumping though hoops here, yeesh)
my mind is half happy hoarder/collector and a business person, but this video is making me think on my choices that ive made. I adore the ups and down of closed species so this video really made me think about how i look at them, and this video will be in the back of my mind now
I love a lot of the designs for closed/ semi-open species, but after dipping my toes into the actual communities...... yeaaaaaaaah I'll stay away for the most part haha (but i admit it could've been the groups i was in, a lot of them very much felt like "if you don't match the OG creators _exact_ style you're getting a warning")
i find darlinkis absolutely adorable! i'm not much of a fan of the idea of closed species but your one is so cute! i can't wait to try and get my hands on one!
![What Are Mochi Raptors? [Original Species]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5lgo0RVQZn0/mqdefault.jpg)
It was an absolute pleasure working with you on your sweet little Darlinkis!
I once made a cat based on Dr Pepper because it was favorite soda. Posted it on DA and then got bombarded about how it was too close to a closed species of drink themed cats and me being young and naive gave in to the pressure and took down my character.
I shouldn't have done that.
I’m sorry that happened to you
Someone once accused me of “stealing” a closed species when…they looked nothing alike except for the fact they were both blue.
😭😭😭😭 that’s wild
💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
Clown behaviour
Their blue? YOU COPIED MY CLOSED SPECIES GET CANCELLED 😡/j
You can't even get mad at that point, it's just funny, lol 😂😂😂
Now I am not a fan of closed species, I try to give them a wide space when I can, though I sometimes like the designs. Too many horror stories I've heard about how overprotective the orginal artist/group becomes when they see at least one trait from another artist, and really, that is my only gripe here. You can't own certain traits, maybe a collection of them, but not separately. The short of it is, some closed species artists/groups need to chill, being this overprotective will only make people like me want to stay away, and even make other people not liking them. And no, I'm not saying every single close species, just the minority becoming the loudest.
Yeah I kinda agree. But also im too scared to find out my new cool oc that I like looks too much like this other thing and then I’m like.. “well now it’s not cool anymore >:c”. It’s a problem of mine I should prob work on lol-
Frrr
The original NFTs
If that's the case, any commission you buy is an nft because it's an image you buy. I don't really like closed species either, but I can see both sides of the discussion and which argument has flawed or not.
@@Matheus-gc5fn 💀💀💀 goofy as hell commenting on a year old comment.
@@wyvolf I mean, goofy or not, it is still true.
@@Matheus-gc5fn Nah fam. You're not being objetive at all. If anything, that was the most braindead take I've read in this whole comment section, along with the closed species' white knights
@@annierminx the comparison of closed species to NFTs is dumb because that any commission you buy is also just a PNG you say is yours. The only difference between the three is that NFTs are bad for the environment, as they consume large amounts of electricity to produce.
Don't get me wrong, I also don't like closed species because it's a "you can own a concept" mindset which I disagree completely, but I won't sugar coat a flawed argument just because of my visions.
they can't stop me from drawing their floofypoofyrainbowraptorfluffkitpupasaurus rexes 😈
lol fr
Counter-argument: Closed species are proto-NFTs.
I win.
Facts tho
Prima* if you wanna be on the nose about it lol
Atleast it doesn't destroy the environment?
@Destiny My advice to that is always "Don't be as obsessed with making something no one's ever seen before. Be obsessed with making something no one else has done as well as you before." People are always going to derive inspiration from somewhere, come to ideas independently, or just blatantly steal. What's important is that your version of it is nuanced and deep to the point that no one can ever completely copy it without people being reminded of the 'original' in some way.
@Destiny I say build your audience around what you love to do. Your work should be seen and heard whether people end up hating it or liking it.
The one thing they won't be able to steal is is your passion and creativity. If someone steals one drawing or design from you, not only can you get justice if it happens, but you can also evolve and grow to make even better and more unique designs and drawings.
Focus on honing what they cannot steal instead of what will inevitably be stolen by someone. Let people engage with your art and you'll find it's not as scary as you think.
My main issue with closed species is the restrictions and toxicity. While I understand why people don't want others to constantly make their own. Especially if the artist made the species for their own enjoyment and personal reasons. But I want to be able to make a character that has a fur hood that's connected to its body without fear of being harassed for doing that.
I've always been of a mind that, like ACTUAL species in the world, there's so much more than their appearance. If I wanted a cute lamp I'd get an open species that no one cares about but I don't want a lamp, I want an RGB LED backlit set up that changes colors when I scream at them.
Looks are only a part of any creature, and a "closed species" that has only that going for it to me isn't even a "species". It's a sticker.
Where's the biological information? The biological niche they fill? The history of the species/culture? Why do they have the rules they do? Give me something to work with that tells me why this particular variety of bug eating parrot-cat isn't the same as this other bug eating parrot-cat because anyone can draw a bird-cat so why is yours specifically worthy of being "closed"?
World build, goddamn it!
Edit: that being said, lore doesn't make up for a lackluster design and if someone looks similar to another because it's generic as fuck you don't get to be upset when your lore is the only thing separating your parrot-cat from the other [insert bird here]-[feline] hybrids out there.
Man I absolutely hate when people make hybrids and claim them to be original species, proceeding to charge 50 bucks a piece for them…. Like what’s gonna stop me from making the exact hybrid myself? A closed label? I’m making whatever tf I want.
Its always food/animal hybrids too💀Like wtf a Sushifox can be made by anyone?? You dont own Chimeras??
i honestly say "frick it" and i just now found out about "closed species" and i write works of fandom crossovers---very, very original, i know-- i just write whatever the hell i want and use pre-existing characters..uh oh 😂
BUILD LORE! BUILD LORE! I literally have an open species on Pony Town called Splishy Tails and while the species is mostly dead, I still build lore! Infodump ahead because brain suddenly brrrr'd with two main bits of lore.
Some highlights of lore include: Drowned splishes, these undead splishy tails lose all access to their magic due to punishment (just or not). They try to use magical artifacts to bring back their magic and they're commonly exiled from other splishies.
Angel splishes, these splishy tails are only called this due to the fact they have rare genetic traits contributing to their pure white wings and light colored coats and manes. They're commonly made royalty and if a splishy tail is born as an angel splishy, then the parents prepare for an arranged marriage with the royal family when the angel splishy is of age.
I'm actually good friends with Tori, the creator of the paccapillars. I distinctly remember them creating these little guys in our college's cafeteria, doodling out the base design on some computer paper. And with them being a game design major, they were so excited about the lore and the world they'd inhabit (I think they created a whole game for them within the dA group, or that could have been another species they tried their hand at, I wasn't active on dA so I don't really know). However, I do remember all the bullshit they had to constantly go thru during their time managing the group and the species as a whole. There's definitely good and bad aspects to closed species, but I think overall, it was certainly an experience watching from the outside.
Also Tori's color pallets were always the best, still are *chef's kiss*
my friend is very into pacapillars! they’re adorable
Paccapillars was a group and species i adored when I was on DA, but I never managed to get my hands on one of my own.
They are one of my inspirations for my own species group I’ve been running since 2016.
I have a pacapiller! I love those little guys
One closed species I was willing to put money into
I think they're stupid but like whatever. I love a lot of the designs, I don't love the rules and regulations. You'd be hard pressed to find any actual laws that prevent you from going against the rules and regulations. Other than of course actual copying. So much of the "stealing" would very much fall under fair use. I just appreciate closed species from afar. (You can't stop me from using them as inspiration 😈)
Us on our way to profit from inspiration
Lol. My honour only lets me do adoptable caharcters, not closed species.
CE are similar to me, just includes more general lore attached to a universe that may or may not be available for the public someday
I dont see a big problem unless you get into the 'you stole my super dupper og species of sharks with wings' I respect regualtions and follow artist who do CE.
I just, would never buy one and is difficult for me see the amusement over a character like any other with the only main difference that you can't post fanart of it.
I think calling the species itself "stupid" is a bit messed up, real or fictional because it's an unfair generalization especially to someone who has a character of said species. Accusing people of copyright infringement because their character is a real canine that happens to resemble a fictional one you have to pay to make may be stupid, but the fictional creatures themselves aren't.
Kind of unrelated but as a witness i noticed the over-hatred of closed species has extended to characters that are based on already existing species in mythology and folklore that have been around for centuries. I have a friend who made a character similar to these human faced dog things from Japanese folklore, I believe they were called jinmenkins or something but they made it a wolf instead of a dog. Well someone who hates closed species harassed them saying their oc was the r slur and called them greedy and money hungry over a species that they didn't make, aren't paying people to create, and it isn't closed nor open they just don't care if people make characters of the species, even species they did make up. This did discourage them from making more ocs like that for a while though.
I don't even use them as inspiration I just make my own. I don't post my art online so literally no one can do anything about it
Most of them don't have deep lore. And I've seen a lot of closed species based off brands: there are closed species that are legit hybrid of preexisting dragons in Wings of Fire, and hybrids do exist within the canon lore. I've seen similar stuff in the how to train your dragon fandom. Like they'll be closed species, literally hrbids of fictional dragons. They don't own the IP the dragons are based off, and still make money off of it. This one of those really grey areas, and run the risk of basically getting a cease and desist by actual IP owner.
By deep or decent lore, as it explained: many don't really do much to justify variations within the species or how they evolved to develop those variants. The lore will be vague and open ended- but the only the species owner will be able to flesh out the lore. Depsite the vague open ended nature being perfect for fanfic and writing.
Edit: additionally, many will bare traits that are copies of other species' traits, to the point it's a tread of "aesthetic-y" traits with the real difference being the base animal the species is based off of, and maybe a push for a certain aesthetic, like chemo dogs on Instagram, which cool on paper, in practice is just... Uninspired. It's a popular edgier aesthetic mixed with common traits found in closed species I see all over the place. Even the top few well known closed species are more creative than that. It's really inspired and a mix of closed species that are bootlegs of one another while also just jumping onto the newest shiniest traits other closed species use. It's so boring and stupid. And the amount of people who just go ahead and use those traits anyways without partaking in the closed species
I'm not the only one who felt like closed species and semi closed species are just NFT scams.
And how do they destroy the environment?
@@Spectre-69 it's not about destroying the environment it's paying ridiculous amounts of money for a "unique" design that isn't all that unique and can be copied by anyone at any time. In short, a scam. Only difference is at least close species look better
NFTs aren't just about killing the environment
@@Spectre-69 They’re not quite as bad as NFTs but they’re definitely built to tap into the same part of the brain as NFTs are, with that whole idea that you gotta get this thing because it’s one of a kind and exclusive, rather than because you just like the design, and how it plays into fear of missing out.
I will say from experience Semi-closed species aren’t as bad though.
@@scootermcpeanuts6699 close species are... Complicated. As I understood, is more about a community and roleplay than design a character/specie. And exist comunities whith lots of diferent rules (some of them can be compared whith a kind of "pay to win" game just because you can create a free default character and pay for the unlocking features like rare horns or somenthing for your character). And some people like to trait them like a kind of nft, exactly. Because some people just buy a close specie for status and then they let it in her desk like decoration. (I think is more relevant in Toy House because you can certificate that the Oc came from a pop artist and it's not ilegal)
Honestly like if the creators realised that making a character out of a closed species illegally is, well.. not illegal. Everything you guys can do is keep a list of officially made OCs so that someone doesn't accidentally buy a "fake" one.
Not original closed species are a bit of a pet peeve of mine but I don't mind the idea of closed species in general. I'm in the process of making mine own too, although I prefer to make mine semi-open. Or just open.
I don't care if people wanna make closed species but they need to realize that no one can stop people from making their own. I'm a firm believer in not paying for things and no one can stop me from drawing whatever I want. on the other hand it's pretty funny to see them freak out LOL
God forbid we take their little closed creatures and prevent our creativity from being limited!
Weird... reminds me of NFTs for some reason...
To me closed speices is just gatekeeping creativity. The fact someone has to feel like they need to "OWN" a certain oc concept which 99% of the time is a unoriginal and trying to force someone either to give them credit as "the owner of said concept," make them pay money to use said concept or harass the person into changing their oc if they don't do one of the above. (I know not all closed species artist are bad or harass people so don't attack me for it, I think it's still gatekeeping though)
recently there was this whole drama with a species called scarfoxes where they were trying to get people to pay 70$ to void their scarfox [voiding refers to removing your oc from a species. it is mostly agreed on in the community that your choice to pack your ocs and leave should be free]
the server blew up because their members were pissed at the owner for this. with people raging in the channels. especially since they announced this after a 2 month break cause of ANOTHER drama involving the staffs unprofessional behavior towards me.
it caused a sort of revolt to happen with people asking to be banned from the cs. or offbranding.
also 23:16 right is my besties artwork omg !!!!
lmao thanks for reading my tangent bye.
Yep! Csmeaner on Tumblr has some of the details.
It's chaos and yet I am challenging myself to obtain myself an official/registered scarfox as I had this big brain joke of having one actual one surrounded by like twenty "offbrands"
Update with my own chaos: I have exactly one scarfox and I got it a hollow traif
That's why I'm creating my own open species. But not only to just have an expansive worldbuilding project - even though god yes its a passion project - it's also to create an open species community that completely does away with gatekeeping, because my open species and how it works literally prevents gatekeeping, canon zealot-ing, etc. at its core. Or at least attempts to. Of course there will be groups of people that suck. That's what humans do, you can't expect everyone to be nice and perfect, even if it's common sense.
To add- once you put something on the internet, people can and will use things you don't want them to. Don't flaunt around a cool design in front of people faces like jingling keys in front of a baby, because usually it will bite you in the butt.
Same.
I also have a worldbuilding project with an open species.
The species's main concept is so loose that going by the closed species idea would make me combat Pokemon.
In a nutshell, it's just "animal-object hybrid" for a specific indie universe.
You can find stuff like a windchime bat, a motorcycle dragon, a helicopter scorpion, a chandelier squid and more.
You can just make a character from a closed species for free. Put whatever traits you want on it. It's easy and fun. What are they gonna do, call the cops on you?
Exactly. If they are so pissed try a lawyer and sue me, oh wait, you can't... Because it's f illegal what they do
The one rule I have when it comes to picking a closed species to support is simple - do they acknowledge that they don't have copyright control over the idea?
A good example of this is Chimereons. They outright state in their FaQ that the community is closed, not the design, and that they not only have no legal power to stop you from making your own, they have ZERO interest in trying to limit people's ability to create similar concepts.
Another species I have followed for ages is Pond Ponies, who allow unofficial designs. You are welcome to make, trade and sell unofficial designs, and they are not required to strictly 100% follow the design rules unless an MYO submission to become an official design is submitted, at which point the artist who created the design is required to adress any trait issues raised or else allow the owner of the design to edit it.
yeah i always thought that was what closed species were about. i always thought it was like buying like roleplay characters with a specific background to rp in a specific community and the its the really weird and shitty people who are harrassing people for making characters that resemble the designs used in the closed species.
always thought that it was the lore they were selling
I'm guilty of owning a closed species. I bought a Primagen when I was drunk back in 2016. My drunk ass brain thought a fake robot animal was more important than replacing the starter in my car.
I'm sorry, this made me laugh. Did you get the starter replaced now?
I brought up closed species to my lecturers in copyright/patent/design laws etc etc and that was an interesting discussion
I’m a year late but what was that discussion like?
Please tell us how the discussion went!
Just a reminder someone once tried to gatekeep bunny shark hybrids
One closed species i REALLY REALLY hate is fluffy shrimp. I’m from washington. shrimp naturally have hair. May not be as eccentric as the normal fluffy shrimp but like… it’s a shrimp. With fur. That’s literally the most BASIC THING EVER. Bringing up in from washington again, i love shrimp, they’re yummy, and if someone were to make a shrimp fursuit it would probably have…. fur. Because lots of fursuits have fur.
Hey guys, i have fluffy crab closed species!!! I have fluffy prawn closed species!!! I have fluffy fish closed species!!! 😔.
At 10:52 I was struck by the revelation that I am chronically online and listen to people talk for hours about art related topic to the point I knew exactly what "Ghost doggo" was and the drama behind it, pray for my help :)
I remember seeing users on dA threaten literal children for drawing closed species on paper because they would get sent to jail. Like they'd threaten to call the cops. Closed species will ALWAYS be absolutely cringe af imo.
13:53 "A neko with a lace kink." I'm fucking dying here LOL
Used to love this Roblox game (voidkin asylum) and thought the monster designs were SO neat, but then I learned (from the wiki of all places) that it was a closed species... Never touched that game again.
The monsters were supposed to be representation of different mental health stuff (self-hatred was the big bad guy I recall) and like... That isn't original. Hell, I could make a little monster representation of my autism right now if I wanted to.
Isn't it tragic I dont actually own any of these species? Truly maidenless energy right there.
🎀Thank you to MrCakeDragonMan for editing!!! :D
Make sure to check out his socials here
➵ linktr.ee/MrCakeDragonMan
🎀Special thanks to my friend Hui for helping me with so much of the design process and drawing the beautiful character sheet for Darlinki’s!
➵ linktr.ee/Huilinarts
Tell her to make more good shit.
🌟A Queen's Innocence Only in Jest -By Ponder Sprocket
➵ ua-cam.com/video/lRH-AY9hJvY/v-deo.html
🌟The Story Of The 20,000 Dollar Furry Commission - by Izzy Izzy
➵ ua-cam.com/video/DTHgEV-xUSg/v-deo.html
Other links in description
This is the first time I've ever watched one of your videos and I love it and the darlinkis! Never been into DA Species really (specifically staying away from the toxicity) but you seem wholely positive, even making a species designed to remind the owner of taking care of themselves. Good job!
Also, I watch till the end always and the random avatar twerking HARD at the end almost made me drop my phone in laughter, I had to catch my breath lol
as someone who's been into closed species for the better part of a decade and who's seen lots of painful takes from people outside of the communities... it was honestly really refreshing to see a take that isn't just 'why people spend money on frivolous thing' or 'look how weird it is why would anyone want this' or 'this concept is dumb and here's why'
i also love that you actually talked about the community aspects! pretty much all of my closest friends now i met through closed species. it's a way to connect with people over a shared interest, which is one of the things i love about them. do i love all closed species or all their communities? no, but the ones that i've found that i do like have been a ton of fun
it's just nice to see a more positive video on it all : )
Imagine if everyone were suddenly banned from making Pokémon or MLP OCs because "that's my species!". Ridiculous.
I swear the only people who would think of the name Darlinkis would 100% be Australian and I bloody love the name XD
(maybe because I am one lol)
And this is why I became a hobby artist...I can design whatever I like in whatever animal species I like without having to be limited by others.
Closed species characters sound like more hassle than what it's worth
when I was 11 and on deviantart I was OBSESSED with waterdogs and I wanted nothing more than to make my own. so I tried to raise enough deviantart points to buy the slot to make your own. made a bunch of adoptables that no one wanted to buy. so I made my own species similar to waterdogs in hopes that it'd sell. well it didn't and someone tattled to the creator who didn't really care. I was SO sad. now that I'm almost 17 it's pretty freeing to realize that I can just make my own and no one can stop me
Personally? My stance falls into the third camp. I’m a channel artist for a digimon youtuber who does a lot of “what if,” style content. “What if all the tamers biomerged,” “what if dark dna digivolution was a thing,” etc.
After the video comes out, Karn can use the designs for whatever he wants, I can use the designs for whatever we want, and I’ve seen several videos where people asked Karn in the comments to use our concepts for their own fan fics. Now, this isn’t the most accurate comparison, but seeing as a lot of closed species I’ve personally seen are either furries or strongly resemble digimon accidentally, I feel it’s a shaky basis on which to make it.
As someone who’s work tends to fall into that camp, I know I’d be a bit less than happy to watch some other digituber’s video and see one of my Karn designs in it without myself or Karn knowing ahead of time. Just as well, while I try to avoid taking inspiration from the other artists designs, actively to my own downfall- I don’t own any of the concepts for my designs either. If someone wanted to take my tamers biomerge design for impmon and change it to something recognizable but slightly personalized, that’s them doing their own piece with inspiration from me. I can’t and won’t ever be mad at that. Hell, I’ve been doing this so long I now have 16 separate digimon designs- not counting outside commissions and my own fan line I’ve had bouncing about for over a decade.
What I’m saying is the mentality of closed species seems stupid to me. Adopts? Meh. I feel like someone can take inspiration from an adopt, but buying an adopt is essentially buying the example piece and the design.
A closed species is like a pure bred dog breeder telling you you can’t take your dog on walks on cloudy days or they’ll take him back. If I buy something, the only strings attached should be those pulling the money out of my wallet. Maybe some safety ropes to keep me from an “instructions unclear, dick stuck in ceiling fan,” situation.
As an aside… despite all of what I just said… I do love the concept for the dahlinkis. Both the narrative, and the idea that they aren’t sold, but gifted. Their race is handed down, so them being gifted to those who want them in a more wholesome manner is neat to me.
First dude had a point, some closed/open species have so many restrictions with how you can draw your character that most of them end up looking like clones, example: protogens.
My opinion on it is that it limits creativity, and it's completely stupid to make people pay to make their own oc
I googled closed species and found a closed species that was litarlly just a fox with two tail and larger ears and eyes like what????
Heyo, this has honestly been the most in-depth and genuine videos on this subject. I tried to think of what to say but I don't have much, just really good stuff--also love the editing and commentary pacing and style!! I've been so far removed (Pacapillars) at this point to really understand what all is going on in CS these days but I'm not surprised it is pretty much the same. Still very fun to kinda peek around the corner every now and then to see what everyone is coming up with. Keep up the cool vids :>
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! QwQ
Absolutely adore your art and the gooey colourful style, keep up making cute products for your shop!
this vid got recommended to me one week after i designed my character, i'm not someone that makes ocs nor furry like ocs, this was my first time for my minecraft skin. And god i went running to dA to see if it there was a closed species design close to it. And ofc, I found one that was similar. While the concept of a space matter creature inside a space suit robot is not new im soooo glad there was many features that were different because of the lore i gave it.
But also im glad i'm literally nobody on the internet so I can avoid conflict (even if its reasonable conflict i still get anxious)
I think I'd be in school 3 - they are cool and can be fun and full of community and belonging. HOWEVER some people like to ruin it for everyone and go on power trips. I've been kicked from one and left another because of some power tripping admin 😬
I love closed species and I actually have a few of my own but it gets weird when they cost upwards of like $40 for the permission to make one. Like if it's already a created character that's up to the artist to decide but like an MYO shouldn't be so expensive
I straight up just make my own characters within closed species. I draw what I want
I join closed species for the community and the creativity. I will admit I am a bit of a collector because I too love cute creatures and there is a certain charm about being able to call one your own. Throughout my years on deviantart I have participated in many species events and have gotten free characters or free myos through them, you don't always have to spend money to join in. Obviously there are some money hungry species that require a 'fee' just to get involved to begin with, but there are plenty of interesting and fun ones out there that are a lot easier to get into without the need to spend any money.
I own a few characters from closed species, but nothing over a base price of $80.
I see it a bit like designer brands, some exist due to being a business in their own right, others just using the closes nature of the species to help regulate the lore and characteristics of your species.
While some people will buy Gucci and enjoy spending their time and money hanging out with others who love the brand, others just don't care or choose to imitate with knockoffs, at the end of the day does it really matter? So long as it's not claiming to be that species directly, instead taking inspiration from them, it should be fine.
I have closed species, and though I don't sell them too often, I certainly don't mark them up for being a closed species. All the labels exist for is to monitor the world the species live in, just to keep the continuity constant. Inspiration is wonderful and if you're willing to pay larger sums of money for it, go for it! Just try and respect the species created, while also standing your ground and not letting strangers come at you for having a similar concept in your OCs.
Just have fun and don't worry too much.
Fun fact-one of my hobbies is poking around on DeviantArt for closed species ref, screenshotting them, and then trying to break as many rules as I can in one design. Or screenshotting refs of color palette adopts, making OCs based on them, and then using them in my stories.
i personally despise closed species. i think they can look cool and stuff, but they limit creativity because you can't even make something similar without people telling you it looks similar to something you've never seen before, you have to follow strict rules when you finally get them, etc. and why even pay for the right to design your oc for a species or pay someone else to make an oc for said species when you can make the oc or species yourself and feel more attached to it because it's your own original design and not have to face heavy rules?? same thing with adoptables, but i don't hate them as much. i don't really care for what people do but that doesn't mean i don't think they're pointless
My biggest gripe with some closed species is how they'll paywall e v e r y t h i n g. Like I had characters from a particular species [not naming names cause they don't need backlash], where you couldn't draw your feral design anthro, or with any other alternate version without special items- which cost in-species currency- which cost irl money to earn. Even if your alt version of your character wasn't canon or a one off fun style experiment. Needless to say I sold all the characters I had in that species; I wasn't about to pay 30 to 40 bucks just so I can draw my character anthro?? Also something I just came across recently was another species putting a paywall over if you want to remove a character YOU BOUGHT YOURSELF AND NOW OWN- out of the species [despecies]. Like at that point you're milking your members of their money; there's no reason to restrict to those degrees
as a creator and former owner of a closed species, there really are good and bad sides with the cs community. You could easily tell whether a closed species is created to build a loving community or to just earn money. As a former owner, I personally believe that there should be a good balance between the two; that a cs can earn money (to support the artists and designers that manage the species) but also be beginner friendly that anyone else can join the community even if they're broke. The problem is, the success of a closed species still ultimately depends on the popularity of the creator/designer (at least on Instagram). The more popular the creator is and the cuter their artstyle is, their adopts will sell now matter how generic or common it looks, design wise.
7:27
BZZT! too bad! the correct answer is:
if you like it and you can draw, then make your own character in a closed species. don't let other artists stifle your creativity.
what will they do? they can't do much to people who aren't chronically online or just literally don't care
In all honesty I gave up on trying to understand them. They seem sketchy as all hell. Especially when one friend drew one and went "I haven't bought it yet cause I need a few more points". And I'm just sitting here like-you just drew it though? They then explained that gaining points can be done through drawing other's Closed Species purchase and such and that just had me going "sounds like a way to just get free art".
I know there's some long history with Closed Species, I just don't get them and no matter how much I try to look into them I just don't get HOW they're a thing. Especially coming from following a group of adoptable makers who were all so willing to just let people be inspired by their works without making much of a fuss.
Adoptables, I get-you're buying a design that then can be adjusted and changed up however you want. And it just might be because of the adoptable creators I've follower but they all are just incredibly relaxed-also a lot did more unique poses and outfits than copy/paste pose and recolors.
In fact one artist did like a year's worth of magical girl adoptable one set for each color and then the super prominent holidays(Christmas, Valentines Day, Halloween)-and when somebody went "hey would you mind if I did my own adoptable sheet as magical girls, since I'm getting the inspiration from you?" Their response? "Sure, I didn't make the idea of adoptable magical girls , I don't own that concept. I would like to see more actually!"
3:18 The hound of Baskervill, Church Grimms, the Polterpup from Luigi's mansion, the dog from Corpse Bride, pet cemetery, million heartwarming and -breaking stories about owners reuniting with their dead pets one last time... There are too many undead dogs to count. I don't even know what a ghost doggo is and can 100% say that at least one of them fits the bill.
The worst thing is: each one has different lore (The hound of Baskervill isn'teven real in-story). They all therefore could be their own closed species. But, since art is a visual medium, there's going to be a war between Polterpups and Church Grimms, because they both look like ghost dogs. That's why I think closed species are bad. LORE DOESN'T GIVE YOU
OWNERSHIP OF COMMON CONCEPTS!
Hey, it's cool seeing Nudinyms as an example of Closed Species you like! (They're the first two examples in your CS showcase @ 23:06, and there's a couple more throughout by Lighterium!) This video as a whole was a very interesting retrospective on the concept, honestly! I actually wanted to point out though that Nudinyms specifically were merged in with an Art RPG called "Lythbound", which is more like Furvilla and Flight Rising (You get a free character to start, but others have to be earned in-game OR can be purchased) but with custom character designs and a heavy focus on Art mediums!
The species themselves are open though (including Nudinyms now!) so you can just make lil' guys to design and mess around with if you don't wanna play the game itself :D
These seem even more, or just as ridiculous as NFT's. The whole trading thing sounds stupid aswell. Like you don't even get a plushie of said adoptable? Or a digital pokemon like creature? Or even a bleeding card?
I'd be more understanding if you got a freaking plushie or some physical object of said critter that you can swap, trade or sell alongside the rights to it, but other then it just seems daft
Maybe someone should make a pokemon style game for these things or something
I like closed species as a concept and I definitely see the appeal and why artists would want to keep that to themself. Theres just too many loopholes for most of them to work tho. Lets just say that someone has never heard of a protogen (somehow) and makes a character that looks like one and has sort of the same lore and the creator finds out. Does the person who made the oc have to pay the owner now? Or give up their oc?
I like them as a concept and I see the appeal, I just think that theres so much that could go “wrong” for some closed species to work. Can some work? definitely, if they have a very unique concept (lore and design wise) but if theyre just a “____ dog” and the story is super generic then the owner has no right to force or attack someone for coming up with a similar concept. I rlly see it as a case by case thing rather than “all is bad” or “all is good”
Protogens aren't exactly a good example as they're an open species, their sister species Primagens aren't (and even then, if someone finds a protogen and mistakenly gives it primagen traits, that's something that could go wrong)
I honestly hate closed species as well, I have an oc that’s similar to, very popular species, cccats. And since I have an oc similar to the species I’m too scared to post my art with them since I don’t want to be accused of stealing.
But besides that, your video was very informational! :))
Darn a can of fresh air finally for the topic that isn't talked by someone who is either neutral or dislikes the closed species. Your species is so cuute omgg!
I once made a closed species of cats with magic and shit
Pretty basic stuff. It was made literally just because I was a money hungry kid and also really wanted to make my own species
I have a different unreleased species, which was from a few years later. By then I decided that I don’t really like closed species because of all the hate it brings people
I mean, some things are fine. A species that is purely unique and has its world building is one thing, and a cat that has wings, magic, and sometimes horns (my old species) is not at all good imo
Ok look, the reason why closed species are bad - especially the cute ones - are….
THERE ARENT ANY PLUSHIES OF THEM! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
The idea of some random trust fund kid spending 20K on a WaterDog as a "flex" like it's nothing, meanwhile I spent my childhood in poverty, sometimes not being able to eat for days at a time, angers me to no end. It pissed me off back then, and it still pisses me off now. The NFT craze has breathed new life into this disgusting trend from years ago.
Aw! Darlinkis are PRECIOUS. Also, I liked this take- I didn't even realize people on UA-cam had closed species beef but fell down a rabbit hole today, thanks for a more nuanced and in depth look at the subject it was interesting. I've been involved in various closed species and art games for years now so I have seen the good, the bad, and the holy crap. I could go on forever about all the best and worst practices, dramaz, and whatever else, but overall, dude I'm not stopping anytime soon, you can pull my dumb little guys from my cold dead hands. To me, it's exactly the same as if I collected like little figurines, but I don't have to store them or dust them. I can just page through my TH and go "my pretties yesss" and it just makes me smile because they're cute and I like them and I like making up lil stories about them. And if you looked at my TH you'd be like omg are you rich like nah dude I live on a fixed income most of these I got for totally free or maybe for some art. I'm actually a mod for one because I love it so much, was stoked to see a couple of them in your roundup of super cute ones you like (I didn't make it I just love the community there, also you can do basically anything you want without spending money if you don't want to/ don't have it). My entire dA account is more or less just to post my art game stuff and my dumb comics. XD As a kid, I had friends where we'd sit and draw together and make up stories about the stuff we were drawing and it was like my favorite thing to do and I've been chasing that ever since, and these groups let me do it, because now that I'm old I no longer have so many art friends IRL, and none who will do that game with me. XD
4:02 FUCK impims. I was in the hospital with no wifi and once I got my MYO FINALLY submitted, they told me no because I was 10 minutes past the deadline, despite me trying to explain that I literally was in the hospital.
I did a double taks when you said "soul parasites", your darlinkis sound like the nice version of my soul shadows (open species)
Soul shadows are also parasites, but they attach themselves to damaged souls and make their host dependent on them to survive by blinding them. Maybe I'll make a post about them, but that was definitely a funny coincidence!
I actually have a closed species oc done through a create-your-own type situation in an rp community. In effect, you gained a fictional currency through interacting with other ocs and bought an item which, when consumed by one of your ocs, would produce a member of the species similar in form to the character that consumed the item. The new character would temporarily take the old one's place before sloughing off into its own entity, leaving both characters unscathed. This species of sentient ink given form was one of several colored variations when created in this way. The first two colors were part of a closed rp event by the same creator, and this is where it got contentious, because even if you were around for the event, making a character of this particular color could earn you the creator's ire if you weren't one of the lucky few who managed to get a slot in the full event.
So needless to say. I have a bit of a mixed opinion when it comes to closed species.
cant wait for human to be in closed species
The only closed species that I really loved but never was able to afford back in my DA days were called 'Iceberg hounds' and they were like little iceberg dogs with polar themed animals that live on them and they sleep in the water on their stomachs because their berg on the back keeps them afloat, so for me I really like CS when there is an obvious amount of thought into them
The Darlinkis concept is so SO CUTE. I would definitely have one if it motivates me to love and care for myself qvq
interesting to see a positive take on cs ! I fell down the species hole years ago and have yet to escape..
despite positives in species, I beg everyone to please make your own stuff. Cs is one of my biggest regrets.
There is open species and semi-open though!
this all reminds me of the gaia online form adoptable culture 🥺 both similar and not at all the same but ohhh it makes me nostalgic 😭
Damn I NEED a Darlinkie now. Super cute and I like the lore. Gonna have to keep an eye on you now so I can get one!
Yeah, it is a community thing, but the problems come because creators make it a hostile environment on purpose. Things like blacklists and such that go out of their way to enable harassment are (in my opinion) the biggest reason closed species have such a bad sigma.
It's just such a shame because I wanna support the amazing artists, but I don't want to support the stupid "you need to play 75 extra dollars to make the ears fluffy :3"
I personally have a love hate relationship with Closed Species. Yes, they're really fucking cute most of the time. But I want them and can't get them because I am broke. I usually end up just taking bits of the species and making my own character based off of them, like my character Matches, who's partially based off of teacats.
This reminded me of an oddly wholesome closed species interaction I had way back in my high school DA days. I found a really cute closed species of drink themed ungulates, soda horses, milk cows, juice deer, that kinda thing (not the most original, but I really liked the whole glass body idea and the way the og artist drew liquid). I didn't have the money to buy one, so I started asking the artist questions about the species, like, how did families work, if one parent was limeade and one was cherry juice, would the kid be cherry limeade? What if it was a hot drink like coffee or tea, would there also be steam? Could there be ice? I had no intention of trying to make my own, I couldn't afford a vending machine snack let alone a DA closed species, but I wanted to interact so much, I asked a LOT of questions. After a while the Artist messaged me and said that no one had expressed that level of interest in any of their species before, that I had asked questions that they hadn't considered before and made them develop the species further beyond what the original design doc had said. I basically ended doubling the canon for this closed species, and that they wanted to design me one of my very own as a gift for free as a "thank you". I nearly cried, I was so happy.
Honestly I'm 100% in school 4! Alot of CS groups are pretty similar, and others are super toxic. For example: I hate Jolleraptors! I just don't like how to group is run or how they're a 'pet' species. On the other hand, I love Nebnoms! I find space explorers to be WAY more interesting! (And yes I know, they used to just be the same species ((Nebnoms)) but I didn't know that until like a year ago.)
And yeah, I run my own CS group (A 5 species Art-RPG ((ARPG)) called Cerifikn-Nation) so I may be just a tad bias but I know damn well how much work some groups put into their species! I've been doing this for two years and I actually been studying speculative/ standard biology to make sure my group is accurate.
I also agree with those that thing CS are super restrictive- That's kinda the point sometimes? But it does limit creativity sometimes. (And It kinda gets annoying when you get so used to just making whatever you want.) Even resale rules can be straight up bullshit. Like: Why can't I trade this character for a character outside of the group? Why can't I gift/trade a character I got for free?
However I do like the idea of only being able to resell for what you bought it for + (MAYBE) extra commissioned value.
1- I really hate it when people try to scalp for a fucking character worth 7$ (((COUGH COUGH CHIMERONS)))
2- It helps build a sense of trust between the buyer and seller rather than the buyer blindly going to trust that the Seller is being honest during the sale. (I know I've been scalped before and it fucking sucks)
And the originality argument? (Lemme shoot myself in the foot for a sec)
Krenchis - Cobras with Legs but Amphibians
Giglins - Worms on a String but Demons (Actually Semi-Open but I gotta remake the old-ass species-info)
Nameless - Cat Goat Birds/Bats without eyes (Used to actually be a Cccat offbrand but I got this species in a trade and redesigned it!)
Smog-Imps - Bird-Skulled Single-Celled Organisms but Demons
Grellex - Sugar Glider but I Fucking Nuked Them With Radiation
Lol nothing is original when you break it down to it's bare-bones aspects. Sometimes a species just looks super cool and people just wanna hop onto the trend.
And yes- Species thrive on trends, as do many other forms of creative media like Cartoons or Toybrands!
This video is actually pretty great for explaining CS in a way that isn't just completely bashing them for the follies of a few groups that seem to have become the unofficial "Face" of all Closed Species.
(And Honestly, I don't really care about offbrands unless they start to hurt me financially- Go make your own Cerifikn Characters! Just please don't sell them or try to use them in my ARPG unless you earn the game-items to bring them into the official universe.)
Finally. Someone who's mature and polite about things. Thank you for that
closed species are literally nfts i swear
As someone who isn't an artist I didn't know about Closed species, but watching you I guess for me it comes down to copyright/ how much control does a creator have over their work. There is the obvious don't just remake what someone did, but for the more generic things like water dog or Ghost Doggo that is far too broad in my opinion for anyone to reasonably try and claim ownership of it. Though to clarify it would be the additional details you put into the design, lore, etc that would IMO make it yours. Taking Ghost Doggo if you took from Dia De los Meirtos (Day of the Dead) and used that aestetic along with your own spin/take on that and the lore of that specific species sure I see no issues in it.
My other main issues would be both just how much people would pay for some of it. (though that is utterly subjective and since people are paying that kind of cash obviously there is a market), and how some might abuse their power from owning a closed species. Petty Drama is also dumb BTW don't be petty, or dumb.
Because this is also just my inane rambling as I watch/rewatch the video to come to a better understanding I would be foolish to not admit I am not the largest fans of communtities/fanbases in general (cause they can get dumb/annoying quick and the loudest voices aren't always the best), so take all of what I am saying with that in mind. I like stuff, and I am happy that you dear reader like stuff too just don't be a jerk.
Now as a final note I love the Darlinkis immedietly. The lore sounds like it could be interesting and they look adorable! Out of everything this is but a straight fact and I shall not be convinced otherwise!!!!!!
I think the term you're looking for at the start is original species! it just refers to creatures made with the intent to be used by other people on the internet to make their characters and splits off into closed and open species ^^. hope this helps
Ooh this going be interesting since I have always found this kinda weird. Can’t wait to see your take on this
I love origional species
But that might just be my evolutionary biology special interest talking
Closed species are like nfts but better
i think they can exist, just find it weird when people go crazy about them saying you can't make a character that coincidentally looks like one y'know especially if it's just a dog with wings
The concept of closed species makes me feel icky. For a variety of reasons.
They're capitalist money sinks, under the guise of a cute collectible creatures. Being exclusive isn't a good thing. Like you noted in the video, it leads to toxic, gang-like mindsets among community members. I'm also not a huge fan of the speculative market aspects. In a lot of ways, they're no different to NFTs, a known scam.
Also, the designs being cute is actually a problem. Being exclusive means that similar designs cannot be used or made, and with such broad appeal, that can be really discouraging for artists, especially young artists. In this comment section alone I've seen more than a few examples of young artists who were bullied by people in the closed species communities because their artwork too closely resembles a closed species.
It's much more accessible to people if your community isn't behind a paywall, and you're also a lot less likely to have a bad reputation if you aren't sending young artists hate mail for drawing something too similar to an (oftentimes very vague) organism with shallow worldbuilding attached to it at best.
Thanks for explaining these. I'm so far out of the loop that when I went back to DA I was confused with all the drama
14:56 IVE BEEN TRYNA FIND THIS MOVIE FOR YEARS THANK YOU T^T YOU MADE MY YEAR!!!!!
I mean
I’ve designed species for my fantasy works in the past, and I can understand the desire to be protective of your creations.
I do get the sentiment that any lore and worldbuilding I’ve written for that species gets ignored, or outright disrespected.
But realistically, you neither can’t nor shouldn’t try to control the creativity of others. From a logistical perspective and from a principle standpoint.
The healthy standpoint I have built around it is saying “mine and the ones I’ve granted explicit permission to” are canon. Everything else is fan art or homebrew. I’m personally not always a fan of people who will intentionally design something and “call it” by the same species name. But theft is not what I’d call it. Even “counterfeit” is too extreme for my taste. If anything it’s more of a “cheap imitation brand instead of the name brand”
I’m sure my own ideas aren’t fully unique, and that’s ok. It only starts to rub me the wrong way if someone makes a similar product and markets it with the same name/branding/etc.
But even then, you can’t control the internet
are your species still around to this day? this is my first time seeing you and just, the little darlinkies are adorable, and showl is adorable and I n e e d one. and if they are, where can I find a refrence to the species so the one I make fits?(and hopefully can eventually snatch a darlinkis, they can have my soul-)
Losing my mind over the "Ghost Doggos" as someone who... made a "closed species" as a child that was a hound with a skull face and lizard tail
first off, i just wanna say that i love your species and i hope to see them around the art community! i don't know if we're really in the place to join any new species groups right now, even open/free ones, but i hope the people that do join have a lot of fun!
ive always had a love for species, and still have all of the species we ever obtained back on deviantart. we even have a few species of our own, though most aren't out yet, and idk if they ever will be. that said, much as i love species, i do agree that many of them lack creativity and originality. most species i see today are "human with a feature" and it's kinda sad, especially when their lore is little more than "they were made in labs and can exist in any world!!"
but more than the lack of originality, i'd definitely say the biggest issue with species right now are the individual communities (clubs as you call them) and not just the owners of the species, but often the mod teams. not even getting into the fact that most species mod teams are made up of the owner's friend group, creating a lot of bias and a lot of favoritism, a lot of owners and their mod teams can let their personal views affect the community.
we modded for hoodmakkas for a while, and things when very south when i brought up some cultural appropriation issues that needed to be handled. we were accused of the big bad p crime and kicked off the mod team only to be replaced with someone who's name literally had 'daddy' in it...in a server for 13+
but the worst was when the owner of pillowings publicly confirmed they are a ""map"" and the mod team of impim supported them and their "defense" that because they're disabled, it's okay to have those attractions because they "can't act on it anyways"
No contact or not, having that attraction is not okay, and supporting someone like that is just as bad.
I noticed a lot of screen time going to impim in this video, and i really think you should remove them, censor them, or at least put a disclaimer. when clover came out about their attraction, the mod team for impim were very gross to members of the community who were talking negatively about it and defending clo at every turn. maybe things have changed now, and if so, thats great, but as far as i last heard, the owners of impim support clover, the owner of pillowings and all cloverse species, and clo has publicly embraced being an adult who is attracted in that way (jumping though hoops here, yeesh)
my mind is half happy hoarder/collector and a business person, but this video is making me think on my choices that ive made. I adore the ups and down of closed species so this video really made me think about how i look at them, and this video will be in the back of my mind now
27:07 the feral one is absolutely adorable 💕💕
love how the pic at 7:54 is not a closed species but actually an ad for a product in Secondlife lol
I love a lot of the designs for closed/ semi-open species, but after dipping my toes into the actual communities...... yeaaaaaaaah I'll stay away for the most part haha
(but i admit it could've been the groups i was in, a lot of them very much felt like "if you don't match the OG creators _exact_ style you're getting a warning")
According to my one braincell, wouldn't pokemon technically be considered closed species?
This is your sign to make a character of a closed species without permission
Awwww your species is so adorable!
English accent Mali made me double take like who IS THAT
Darlinkies are ADORABLE!!! I would simply adore one. I will have to join your next art stream :)
i find darlinkis absolutely adorable! i'm not much of a fan of the idea of closed species but your one is so cute! i can't wait to try and get my hands on one!