Hi everyone, Jonathan Leung here (or "JonLeung" or "JonLeung1"), the guy who created, has always owned, and has always run and put up the content for the original "VGMaps.com: The Video Game Atlas" since the beginning back in May 2002, and still owning and running it today, and still intending to do so for the foreseeable future.
(I saw when this topic was posted in the forums but I was busy with other things at the time, and then there was Christmas stuff, so I haven't had a chance to respond in the forums until now.)
This is my word on the matter.
Yes, I have indeed known about "Better VGMaps" for a while now, since probably 2023. I have also occasionally responded to others' emails (from concerned and curious mappers) during that time, and there was a brief discussion on the VGMaps Discord server earlier.
The short answer is, as has been stated earlier by others,
"Better VGMaps" is a knock-off site. It has no affiliation with my VGMaps.com: The Video Game Atlas. "Better VGMaps" has very clearly harvested the content from VGMaps.com, without my permission. I was not informed of its creation by its creator, and all the mappers that I have talked to about this also say they did not hear from "Better VGMaps", nor gave them permission to use their maps on that site. Attempts to communicate with them have been fruitless.
If you hear only one thing from me about this, I would say,
do not give "Better VGMaps" any attention. Why go there anyway? VGMaps.com still has more content, as "Better VGMaps" hasn't harvested many of the obscure platforms yet, and they don't keep up with the updates as I put them up. So don't bother with them; they don't deserve it.
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To elaborate if you want a longer answer: It is ridiculous, and I have indeed attempted to get them taken down. I was successful at knocking them down, twice, through DMCA takedowns when it was at other URLs. But it resurfaced. It was at another site before, maybe a couple times, then took a .ru domain, and now it's at .de. When attempting to take it down again, I got some notification (the only communication I've gotten from them) about legal action if I tried to disrupt their "business" again. Now, I wasn't put off by this; I've got some stuff prepared if it comes to that, and am always amassing more proof. I will not say what I am specifically doing about that at the moment, but you would think that over 23½ years of being on the Internet, as thankfully archived by The Internet Archive Wayback Machine at
https://web.archive.org/web/20020301000000*/vgmaps.com, and other longtime references like these forums, that have existed long before that knock-off first appeared, would already be plenty of evidence as to which is the original.
But that's if legal action needs to be taken. I'm thinking that "Better VGMaps" might just go away eventually if people don't give them attention.
That's actually why I didn't mention it in the forums... it's like the "Streisand Effect" (so named after singer/actress Barbra Streisand didn't like someone taking pictures of the California coastline to document coastal erosion, which ended up including photos of her residence - and when she told everyone "don't look at my house", inevitably, everyone who heard that got curious and looked at her house, so she would've been better off not saying anything in the first place), so, I figure, there's no point for me to mention it if it's only going to give them the attention they are probably seeking.
Seriously, someone that's so lazy as to use AI to generate images and blurbs including cheesy "testimonials" is bound to eventually get bored/tired of any actual work of maintaining and updating it, if that's what they actually want to do. What is their aim, anyway? Is it really someone that wants to replace VGMaps.com? Would they actually want to do the work that it takes to accept others' submissions, sort them out, upload them, etc.? Or maybe they just don't care about doing updates, they just want to have enough to appear to make my site redundant... but that's not going to happen, as I own VGMaps.com - and now other variations that direct to the .com URL - and I don't plan on letting them go. Why would I? And I certainly wouldn't bow to someone just taking maps that others originally or only intended for my VGMaps.com.
Whatever they're doing, they are clearly antagonistic towards me. I haven't made many maps myself, but the ones that I have, they've either removed them, or have reattributed them or replaced them with others. For example, my Maniac Mansion (NES) map is no longer there, and my maps for Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) and The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (Super NES) have been replaced with Rick Bruns's maps. Clearly they're just removing my work in particular if they think I would use them as evidence against them in some legal action. If anything, the specific scrubbing and redaction of just me but not others makes them look more suspicious (as if it wasn't bad enough already) to anyone with common sense.
Earlier, when my maps were still on "Better VGMaps", credit for them was given instead to "Climate Change". I don't get what that's about. Maybe they think I'm a joke, and think climate change is a joke, though it wouldn't surprise me if they had "climate change-denial" levels of idiocy...
They're "biting the hand that feeds them". If they did take me down - which they wouldn't, but if that is their aim, that I would somehow give up on this, so that they think they lay claim to the catalogue of maps and replace VGMaps.com - I don't imagine that they would do the work necessary to accept and sort out new submissions (it's actually more work than you might think), and then the video game mapping world would be worse off. Not to toot my own horn, but come on.
There's lots I could speculate about why they are doing it or why they don't do it this other way, but I don't want to give them any ideas on making it "better". But, hey, they think they know "better" anyway, don't they?
The level of audacity reminds me a lot of someone who I called out many years ago (those who have long been in the VGMaps.com community might know who I'm talking about) for similar levels of digital kleptomania, and that makes me wonder if it's the same person. Other than that, I have no other "enemies", and don't understand how I would have made any more. There are a lot of stupid people on the Internet that clearly need to get out more to see how real people behave. I mean, we're talking about 17 or 18 years ago. If it is the same person, wow, they really need to get a life; they're old enough to know better. If it's not the same person, that's even more messed up, because I don't get how I could make enemies by... making a web site hosting video game maps? I don't think I've done anything with YouTube or anything with social media to make enemies. I've disagreed with some people on social media over stuff, including political stuff that I probably didn't need to fall into the rage bait for, but those were usually brief occurrences that I can't imagine someone being so mad about it to then copy my web site and maintain it for over two years in some weird roundabout retaliation... it doesn't make sense. All I know is that they are messed up.
If people are hearing about "Better VGMaps" more than VGMaps, maybe "Better VGMaps" is actually better at actively posting about it. As I've found when randomly Googling "VGMaps" sometimes, posts on random forums will be like "hey, check out these maps from (whatever game)" and link to them on "Better VGMaps". When that happens, I usually give them the benefit of the doubt (as it might not NECESSARILY be "Better VGMaps" themselves), and I register just to post and point out that VGMaps.com is the original. When I do, people often respond (whether the original poster or others) and are quite understanding about which is the real deal and which is the knock-off site. Still, the links are out there. Which is a reminder that I should be talking about VGMaps.com more on social media... I'm on X/Bluesky/Facebook too much as it is, but I post about random geeky stuff when I ought to be mentioning VGMaps.com... or working on YouTube videos, which I could also mention VGMaps.com more in. (I had a whole blurb about my "JonLeung1" YouTube channel here, but I deleted it as that could be saved for another time...)
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So, to wrap this up... Though I have concerns, I'm not worried, as I am confident that VGMaps.com would win over "Better VGMaps" if there was any kind of legal motion. I should take more effort in promoting this, the original VGMaps.com, and I fully expect that "Better VGMaps" will either give up, or keep burning through their resources, but to what end? VGMaps.com is still going to be here, if I have anything to say about it.
Again, my suggestion is to not bring up "Better VGMaps". If someone else does, just kindly explain that VGMaps.com is the original, and actually better.
And that is my word on the matter.
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