Episode #111 Episode #111 Episode #111 Episode #111
So as usual I am plenty late in getting this posted. Our massive mailbag episode is now done and over and so we will move on to our usual discussion.In today's world of internet games and ever increasing push for quick bucks in development we have seen a rash of games that are exactly the same. If you've ever played a number of the Snood clones, Bejeweled clones, or others than you know exactly what I am talking about. A wonderful site, Law of the Game, is a wonderful source to read about some of the concepts behind this. On top of everything else we have the added concept of cross-media plagiarism. Kotaku has one of the most prominent examples of this. So if you haven't figured it out we are going to talk about plagiarism and copyright issues in gaming. A few things to think about:
1) Can you think of any high profile copies that you have seen?
2) Have you ever seen an issue of a copy being better than the issue?
3) Are these copies really hurting anyone?
4) Are similar story lines like the Dead Rising issue an issue of plagiarism or are stories open to whoever wants to do it?
That's all I have for today. Back to my job search.
-John
3 Comments On This Post:
This is "anonymous listener" from last week. I'm actually a female btw.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 7:28:00 PM CDT1. I can't really think of any off the top of my head, I guess. I do have this game called "Balloon Pop" for the Wii--extremely addicting, very similar to Bejeweled, and I do think it's better than Bejeweled. I also play Scrabulous on facebook--just like Scrabble, but you can sometimes play words that aren't "normal" English words.
2. I'd say Scrabulous is better.
3. I don't think they are hurting anyone, unless I'm being super naive. I'd say at least Scrabulous is giving Scrabble free publication.
4. Can I say both? Even if you say no, I will still say it's possible.
From the BANDLEADER:
Friday, May 30, 2008 at 1:21:00 PM CDTPlagiarism is a very serious thing as anyone who went to any sort of college will know. In the world of videogames it is a different beast. The high profile games don't have so-called copies. I mean the really high profile games. I know there are copies of less profile games or at least less complex games. It is easier than dirt to make a copy of snood, but harder than rocket science to make a copy of Gears of War, Halo, or Mass Effect. I believe there are no copies of the high profile games because of the difficulty of creating and producing the game and a fear from the companies coming after you for making a copy. I have to agree with anonymous that copies are not really hurting the original games. I have no clue what the dead rising issue is, so no comment. Keep up the good work.
Paul "Bandleader" Ahlemeyer
The big boss battle e-mail might be late. I've had a lot of trouble getting it done, with two complete rewrites being necessary because of crashes. You might get it by the show, you might not. If you don't, it should come soon after.
Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 10:07:00 AM CDTPost a Comment