[casual_games] Gameplay patents

[Cormac Russell]

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007, Tom Hubina wrote:

> For example, in Wolf3D and DOOM, you couldn't aim up/down. In Marathon (on

> Mac around same time as Doom) you actually had "real" 3D physics and the

> ability to aim up/down, etc. Quake (which shipped after Marathon) mostly


what you are describing there are the outcomes of the technological 
limitations of faking 3D with a 2D BSP based engine, vs. actual 3D engine 
based games. This isn't innovation of gameplay, it is an outcome of 
technical limitations, none of those ideas were particularly new or 
interesting.

Even on the technical side, Carmack didn't invent BSPs, he merely saw that 
the performance gain he could get from using it would support better 
looking graphics on the particular hardware he was aiming for.


> Each title is the sum of many different inventions, some borrowed from

> others and some of your own. The first guy into the market probably has

> dozens of inventions but many of them get improved upon (replaced) quickly

> by the next several generations and you end up with a bunch of different

> people each holding inventions for various pieces. This allows for

> reasonable cross-licensing to happen (which keeps the rates down) and the

> goal of each product is to create something new.

>

> Of course this also sounds like a hell of a lot of work - so much so that it

> could get in the way of actually making games in a reasonable time frame ;)

> *sigh*


which is a huge part of what people are saying. I want to spend my days 
thinking up interesting ideas for games, not worrying that somebody out 
there has managed to get a bogus patent on a method of representing a 
series of game choices as a collection of objects displayed on a screen 
with distinct characteristics.

Of course I find software patents in general to be evil, and people who 
support them to be thieves, so YMMV.

    Cormac
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