You must know that the LDW games categorizes as casual games,
( here's a link to wikipedia here )
of the sim(mulation) genre.

And since FT and VV1 were released ( around 2003 and 2006 ) there was a LOT of parodies, spin-off or games based in these of LDW, like...
Wild Tribe, My tribe, Totem Tribe(maybe, look at the review in Gamezebo), Artist Colony, Gemini Lost-(hence in the name of the all the games )

Also, the first time that i have seen Insaniquarium and Plants VS. Zombies, both from PopCap, i thought that were based in FT and PT,respectively. And ironicaly, VF looks like The Sims series( from Maxis, Electronic Arts )
What do you think about this idea?

I've become quite a fan of "casual" games after previously being mainly a player of commercial offerings. Casual games of many years ago were pretty simple, offering limited gameplay, but they've come one heck of a long way since. Some of them offer fantastic value for money nowadays and the whole casual gaming scene has become very competitive.

Many games have tried to copy VV. Totem Tribe may have been inspired by it, but is a totally different game altogether that stood on its own two feet. However, My Tribe and Gemini Lost are almost identical in gameplay to the VV series. But they both failed imo ... My Tribe was rather simple and became very repetitious, and although Gemini Lost looked fantastic, it was like VV on steroids as it ran way too fast.

I may be wrong, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Arthur played and was a fan of the commercial game Black and White. It was a great game but had it's shortfalls. It was also quite a long game and definitely not something for a casual gamer. It also appealed mainly to a male audience, with elements of combat etc - yeeeez, you could even sacrifice your villagers, pick them up and throw them around etc! Many of the game play features in VV are almost identical, take for example breeding - in Black and White you drop a male onto a female villager, you hear a kissing sound, the villagers embrace, and with luck a baby is on the way. Anyway, it lacked a personality in that the villagers mostly looked the same as each other and you couldn't assign them names.

Most commercial games seem to be directed at a male audience ... it seems to me that what LDW has done is taken some of the better elements from B&W and made a whole new game that has more appeal to a female audience (and they haven't ignored the guys in the process), simplified things, added a whole lot of other little things in the process (one of the most notable things imo being the game progressing when you're not playing), made it look attractive and added a personal touch to the whole thing. I could be way off mark with these guesses - apologies if so, but whatever, what they did worked very well and kudos to them for that.

I must admit, when I first tried VV about a year ago, I went into it with a bit of a negative approach, thinking "Black and White Lite". But I was totally wrong, and soon came to enjoy the game so much I couldn't wait to play the sequels

I tried the Sims a number of times but it doesn't do much for me and it seems a bit fiddly. VF on the other hand was ideal, easy to get into and I'm still playing it on and off. And that's where casual games are great - not everyone wants to read hefty game manuals or start into a 200 hour long saga. I still play my commercial games, but only when I have time. Casual games though, I can play when I have a spare half hour here or there.

I did play Black and White. I loved that game.

I really appreciate these supportive words. Nothing is more frustrating than when we work hard on a design and it is shamelessly copied.

In the defence of Popcap, Insane Aquarium came out before Fish Tycoon, and they really have never cloned us in any way. Gemini Lost...I would describe more as 'inspired' by us, as they made so many changes.

Anyway we're really happy you enjoy the games. It means a lot to us to hear feedback like this, and we have plans for the franchise(s) that we are really really excited about. We are working on it now.

Fantastic to hear there's more in the works I can understand the frustration of seeing others try to cash in on the gameplay you've created too, but you only have to read what fans say about them as they're all recognized as being such and are always compared to the VV series. Not one of them has been able to live up to it yet though.

Lol ... I loaded Black and White to show my wife what I'd been talking about, and she wasn't too keen at the poor villagers screaming as my creature ate one of them! I think that turned her off straight away ... it also made me realize how all the villagers looked the same ... my wife's comments were "the kids don't look nearly as cute as the ones in VV" Actually that was what won her over to the series at first, when she saw me playing VV1 and there were all these little kids running around - she knew then she wanted to play it

Yes, I think the kids are a great 'hook' to get people interested in VV. They are definitely cute, but not so cute that you need a sick-bag.

Another weird fact:
A lot of games attend to "recycle" data from previous games, specially if that games are of the same developer.
Here in the LDW games, reuses thing like clothes, the mushrooms, even the mysterious and (in)famous yellow mushroom. Also we find "the same birds" in VF, VV3 and VV4. And now in VV4 even puzzles from the first three(hint,hint). Another example is in the Diner Dash series with the same clients.Or one more newer: Inca Tomb from Enkord. Inca Tomb uses images, music and backgrounds from Totem Tribe, and elements from others previous games.
Examples: the "mysterious statue" is in a bonus level along with the music from the (just i'll say one) Skull Island and a icy background.

There are two very good reasons for recycling elements from older games: time and money. Usually, if not always, the developer is a coder and not an artist. Paying a professional artist to produce images for the game is probably a substantial chunk of the cost. The less items that need be created, obviously, the cheaper.

I like having similar elements in each VV game. I feel like it ties it together. I too have tried VV ripoff games, like My Tribe, and they fell flat compared to VV.