[casual_games] Gameplay patents

[Lennard Feddersen]

I don't agree with your last sentence Adam.  We got from Wolf 3d to 
Unreal Tournament - IMHO pretty clearly a good thing as far as FPS 
players are concerned - because id software did not (in fact, quite 
likely Carmack created some of his competitors with his amazing code 
release policy) stop future innovation and enhancement upon which 
consumers got more and better products that they seemed happy to 
purchase.  Many people were employed and new and strong companies were 
built. 

IMHO this is the strength of capitalism - somebody makes something that 
sticks so many people dive in and figure out how to make a better mouse 
trap.  The very powerful computers we are now all enjoying came about 
because of this very marketplace mechanic - if early developers had been 
given technology patents that were too broad then we most surely would 
not be where we are today.

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

Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
P. July & August 518-863-2317
5014 Walsh, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4H2



Adam Martin wrote:

> On 14/02/07, Tom Hubina <tomh at mofactor.com> wrote:

>   

>> We _should_ be able to patent UNIQUE game play. We _should_ be able to

>> leverage some form of legal protection to stem the tide of rampant copycats

>> that is absolutely destroying the casual games industry (buy me a drink at

>> GDC and I'll talk your ear off about this topic). However, the current

>>     

>

> I'll bite. Where/when can I find you? :)

>

> I'll wager that the much faster and more appropriate solution to the

> copycat problem is for the retail market to improve. My turn at a

> provocative statement until GDC: claiming that the ease of cloning

> games is destroying the casual games industry is like claiming that

> the second-hand games market is destroying the mainstream games

> industry - both are merely the customers showing that the industry has

> fundamentally misunderstood what their market actually wants, or has

> fundamentally failed to satisfy the needs effectively.

>

> Adam

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