Erik Twice | Often, games must be difficult

[marurun]

Tetris has managed to circumvent this with design and look-and-feel patents, which is incredibly annoying. It is an anomaly and shouldn't legally exist.

[Erik_Twice]

I think the issue is kind of known, but people generally are used to blatant plagiarism and just don't care about this kind of thing.

There were similar issues with 2048 coming after Threes and being more popular, and many, many more examples of the kind.

I'm a bit thorn on the issue. On one hand, I doubt the people that wrote about Gwent being designed in the bath knew about this. They just took Monnier to his word, because why wouldn't they?

On the other, I find it hard to believe that nobody in the press knew about this. The need to avoid souring relationships with game developers and the risk of ruining your writing career must have weighted in someone's head, I'm sure.

Still, I mainly think this is yet another example of the massive issues with credit and recognition in gaming. I've written before about this, but it's beyond pathethic that videogames don't credit game designers on the box like every other medium does.

Game rules are the sort of thing you can't copyright or patent, at least in the US.

It is indeed legal to take any boardgame, change the art and sell it as your own. In fact, if Mr Monnier so desired he would be legally entitled to print Witcher-themed versions of Netrunner, Chaos in the Old World and Settlers of Catan.

It was also legal for Zynga to copy all those indie games just like it was legal for The Great Gaiana Sisters to copy Super Mario Bros, to name an obvious example.

Of course, it being legal doesn't change the fact that it's appropating someone else's reputation, ideas and work.

[Sarge]

Well, actually, you can go too far. I think genre mechanics can be copied, but I don't believe you can outright plagiarize level layouts, stats, and so on. For instance, I could re-implement Super Mario Bros. in another engine, but if I basically just clone the game in it, and change the graphics, this doesn't mean I get away with being able to sell the product as my own.

[Erik_Twice]

Well, actually, you can go too far. I think genre mechanics can be copied, but I don't believe you can outright plagiarize level layouts, stats, and so on. For instance, I could re-implement Super Mario Bros. in another engine, but if I basically just clone the game in it, and change the graphics, this doesn't mean I get away with being able to sell the product as my own.

As far as I know, you can indeed recreate a game like that without running afoul of the law.

The rightful owners might try to get you through a related matter, like reused code, art being too similar or the like. For example, Sega sued the makers of The Simpsons Road Rage over patent infringement.

For example, there are hundreds of D&D clones. In fact, Pathfinder IS D&D 3.5 under a different name and Wizards has been unable to do anything about it.

[marurun]

For example, there are hundreds of D&D clones. In fact, Pathfinder IS D&D 3.5 under a different name and Wizards has been unable to do anything about it.

Well, there are actually two components at work, here.

1. You can clone mechanics as long as you don't copy original creative material.
2. When D&D 3.0 and 3.5 were released, Wizards also created the OGL and released certain basic rules content (and some minor bits of creative content and language) under a free license. You'll notice that most Pathfinder books have an OGL license page in the beginning of the book per OGL requirements. It's basically a kind of open source license for gaming content.

The combination means that Pathfinder can copy not just rules, but also certain creative wordings and content.

[Erik_Twice]

Fair enough, OSRIC or Dungeon Crawl Classics are much better examples. Same principle.

[Erik_Twice]

So the article has been making its round through Reddit. Reaction has been mostly positive, except in the Gwent/Witcher boards where all the fanboys have gone insane, accusing me of manufacturing a controversy in order to make corrupt press money.

I'm a bit surprised nobody has accussed me of being a jew or a SJW yet.

Anyways, the important bit here is that Mr Jaki responded. Not to me, of course, on Reddit:

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Sadly, he claims that he offered me to contact him when he didn't respond to my messages. Given approaching him for comment is a courtesy extended to him this is pretty rude.

[Erik_Twice]

I heavily rewrote my review of Theme Hospital. Woo!

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I'm surprised at howmuch fun this game is. I beat it once when If irst wrote about it and now I'm thinking of beating it again.


THEME HOSPITAL ★★★

[Erik_Twice]

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I used to think that beat'em ups were a fairly dumb genre. You know, get close to the enemy, hit A, rise and repeat. But they are actually a very strategic genre and playing Final Fight truly showed me why. It's a flawed game, with several design oversights that make it extremely punishing, but I liked it even if all its successors have made it obsolete.

FINAL FIGHT

On an unrelated matter, you might have noticed I haven't written much lately. Job search, learning German and several real-life issues forced me to stop for a while. I'm going to try to recover and write regularly again, I have 3-4 articles lined up after this one and I'm rising the stakes

[Erik_Twice]

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If you had the power of giving, how would you take over the universe? I analyze one of my favourite pieces of game design: Philanthropist, from Cosmic Encounter.

Cosmic Encounter: Philanthropist, or the gamebreaking power of giving

I know most of you guys aren't that much into boardgames but I do remember that some are and that they have even mentioned Cosmic before. So I decided to update here too. And, hey! I'm writing again which I think is worth celebrating.

Thanks!