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DanC on Plagiarism in the Game Market
AutemOx
Member Posts: 1,704
I ran across this interesting article while reading Raph Koster's blog, and I thought I would draw some attention to it. Although it is relavent to MMOs I would like to point out that he is not necessarily accusing games like SWTOR or RIFT copying WoW (because in this case, none of the games were innoventive). This is more about games that are completely innoventive like Minecraft being copied onto platforms that Minecraft is not already on like XBL.
http://www.lostgarden.com/2011/11/plagiarism-as-moral-choice.html#comment-form
Snipplet of above article by DanC
Thought: Most professional game developers are also professional plagiarists. Here's a quiz for all the game developers who are reading:
Do you follow the rule of thumb "90% familiar, 10% fresh"?
When you look at the game you are working on is there a direct comparable?
Do your designers say "Oh for that feature, let's model how X did it" and consistently refer to the same pre-existing game?
Is your primary reference a game considered original or innovative in the last 3-5 years?
Is your primary philosophy of design "I could totally make a better version of game X"
Do you copy mechanics and assume that adding different content such as levels or graphics makes your game unique?
If you follow these patterns, you are likely a plagiarist. To rewrite the industry's golden rule in the language of other arts, "90% is plagiarized and 10% is remixed to give the illusion that the player is engaged in an original work."
While reading this, I was happy to find that as a indie designer I have rarely answered 'yes' to any of those questions. On the other hand, I have made very little money on what I consider to be a hobby...
At one point he asks the question that I think defines what the article is all about, "Why innovate when it costs you money and doesn't yield the competitive advantage you might hope due to the nearly instantaneous influx of copy-cat competitors?"
Do you think that games should be able to patent new gameplay concepts? For instance, what if Minecraft could have patented its world of blocks building gameplay for 1 year? I think it would hold little relavence for MMOs since they are typically behind the times in terms of gameplay mechnism, and even when they copy each other it ends up taking 5-10 years because the development time is so long.
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
Comments
Isn't Minecraft just a new take on Legos? How much variation do you need from an existing concept for it to be considered original enough to be patentable.
In recent times various companies tried to patent parts of web sites that to the users seem like fairly general ideas like clicking one button on a website. A few years back Wizards of the Coast got a patent on 'tapping' which is the act of roatating a card 90 degrees to indicate that i has used up its action for the turn.
Generally speaking, no, we've been down this road in tabletop gamesbefore funny enough. Mechanics themselves have been found to not be copyrightable. Specific instances, such as a sanity meter were able to be patented but I feel that's more of one or two slip ups in good judgement rather than how it would be treated for most concepts. I don't think even the concept that minecraft came along with is a good example, as Ralph has clearly no clue what he's talking about. Minecraft is an infiniminer 'clone', after all, and i don't think he realized that, not that many would. :-) Terraria, for all its worth simply being 2d is radically different enough that the concept of block placement in a game environment for building would be insanely restrictive to most games in an already underdeveloped sandbox genre.
Tolkien-->D&D-->CRPGs-->MUDS-->MMOs
A patent or copyright lawyer could have killed the industry at any stage of this progression. Innovation comes from basements and garages full of wild plagerism.
The problem is that MMOs are now a mature industry where budgets are enormous and appetite for risk is small. Adding patents at this stage will just create walled fortresses defended by an army of suits, attacked by trolls and home to very little innovation.
If you want more innovation, get the quasi-skilled hobbiests back into the industry. If you look at Minecraft's success, part of it comes from an innovative world model, but part of the energy of its community comes from it being a platform that modders can dig into and feel like they are making a real contribution with their add-ons (many of which then went on to inspire changes and additions in the vanilla game).