FW: [casual_games] Copycats -- What Can Be Done?

[Lennard Feddersen]

Well it is something that people who labor over original titles do get 
worked up over.

I too like flowers. Beer and a good blue cheese bacon burger are fine as 
well.

Lennard Feddersen
CEO, Rusty Axe Games, Inc.
www.RustyAxe.com

Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
3521 Dogwood, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4Y7



Paul Thelen wrote:
>
> Jamie –
>
> I just subscribed so I could respond.
>
> Big Fish Games did not develop nor publish this game, Oberon did. We 
> are investigating with James if they swapped out original sounds prior 
> to ship as the video was made from a beta build. First pass appears 
> that they did so we just removed the video and will redo it.
>
> A big to do about nothing ;-)
>
> Paul
>
>
> p.s. I do accept flowers for apologies
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* casual_games-bounces at igda.org 
> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] *On Behalf Of *Jamie Carlson
> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 19, 2006 9:55 AM
> *To:* casual_games at igda.org
> *Subject:* RE: [casual_games] Copycats -- What Can Be Done?
>
> I've always been on the somewhat "ambivalent" side of the Copycat 
> fence. Which is to say that I really don't like how all of these 
> developers just change the theme of the game but keep the core game 
> mechanics almost entirely untouched, but what can you do about it? As 
> this thread has proven, it is a very tough legal battle.
>
> Conversely, in the example of Luxor vs. Zuma, I think that the Luxor 
> devs changed a pretty sizable amount to Zuma's Match-3 formula and 
> made a compelling alternative play experience that is more than 
> worthwhile on its own.
>
> But... (and this really just seems wrong)...
>
> Bigfishgames has a new exclusive Zuma/Luxor clone called "*Dynasty*" 
> and one of the things I love about Bigfishgames (any portals 
> listening, you should Clone this feature!) is that they have that 
> little video Flash app running on each of the new game pages with 
> gameplay footage. So I'm watching the video for Dynasty and notice 
> that they have a "free roaming" flying dragon (which seems to 
> eliminate much of the difficulty if you ask me, but I digress) and 
> admit that is probably going to be a sufficient change to the gameplay 
> to make it "different enough"... So that's fine...
>
> However, when I turn up the volume a bit I notice that they are using 
> some of the sound effects that are EXACT copies of sound fx straight 
> out of Zuma! (the "slow down" sfx and "explosion" sfx sound exactly 
> the same)
>
> Take a listen:
> http://www.bigfishgames.com/downloads/dynasty/index.html?src=bfg12y0xenl0113 
>
>
> I mean, the devs can't do THAT! Can they? To be fair, I suppose 
> there's the chance that Bigfishgames lazily just added those sound 
> effects for the video without thinking about it, but I'm very doubtful 
> of that...
>
> Don't get me wrong, I've created a bunch of sound effects in the past 
> by using stock samples from audio libraries and then bringing them 
> into my Audio Editor and would just "tweak 'em" enough to make them 
> sound unique... But to lift "copyrighted" content/media from another 
> product in your own field, that's a no-no from a legal perspective so 
> it's so easy to compare/contrast the two samples.
>
> - Jamie
>
>
> >> On 4/27/06, *Jim Stern* <jstern at iwin.com <mailto:jstern at iwin.com>> 
> wrote:
> >>
> >> I know there have been quite a few discussions in the past about
> >> developers and publishers being frustrated with all the cloning that is
> >> being done in games. In some cases, the new games are clearly an
> >> improvement from their predecessors, and they can help to push the bar
> >> toward higher quality games. In other cases, they literally are
> >> mimicking the same UI, layouts, game play, and art style. I would like
> >> to know if anyone has information on:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 1) Legal steps that can be done to thwart this kind of activity
> >> (whether certain parts of the game are copyrightable or if there is
> >> legal precedence to get the offending party to cease and desist), and
> >>
> >> 2) Whether people are taking a stand against working with
> >> developers who are clearly violating the rights of those who developed
> >> the original idea
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks.
> >>
> >>
> >> Jim Stern
> >> iWin, Inc.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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