Thread for Gamers IX: God Howard Anniversary Edition

[The New California Republic]

It allowed them to go with the whole "You're SPECIAL!" thing as well. "You're GURPS!" doesn't really have the same ring to it.

I think Bethesda Fallout was first where I saw that...
...unless I'm getting senile with age...

Yes I can't remember it ever getting used in 1 or 2.

[Atheris]

Has anyone here played Pokémon Gaia? I have a bug. I just beat Marina, but she's not showing up in the Atsail Laboratory.

[The New California Republic]

The maker of popular video game Cyberpunk 2077 has been hacked in a ransomware attack.

CD Projekt Red said hackers had accessed its internal network, digitally scrambled some of its data servers and tried to blackmail it.

The perpetrators claim to have stolen source code for several of the firm's games which they said they would leak unless a payment was made.

But the Polish games company said it would not negotiate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55994787

[The Huskar Social Union]

The maker of popular video game Cyberpunk 2077 has been hacked in a ransomware attack.

CD Projekt Red said hackers had accessed its internal network, digitally scrambled some of its data servers and tried to blackmail it.

The perpetrators claim to have stolen source code for several of the firm's games which they said they would leak unless a payment was made.

But the Polish games company said it would not negotiate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55994787

Spicy

[Ifreann]

There is a difference between copyrighting a game engine and patenting a game mechanic. The equivalent would be if ID Software patented the concept of first person perspective video games, and thereafter no one was allowed to make a first person game without their permission until that patent expired.

You know you can license right? Just because a patent exists, doesn't mean that door is locked for a set years. Besides why shouldn't a game company pay the original creators of the system? Id's known for selling licenses of its patented engines and code.

...without their permission until that patent expired.

The point of the patent system is to give an inventor first dibs at profiting from their invention, thus encouraging investment in innovation, but that dibs being only temporary, so that further innovation isn't discouraged. But that's obviously not how it works any more.

Cry me a river, a patent only defends the patented system. If you can prove that the product is different enough, or innovative enough, not to be considered a copycat. You can make that system and sell it, even patent it yourself! This is how developers get around patents all the time.

You're arguing that the system doesn't work to defend the system. If it's so east to get around patents then lets not have patents at all.

WB have made about as much money as they're likely to make from the Shadow games. They have reaped all the rewards from their new idea that they could. Their dibs should be well and truly up, but no, it's going to last for twenty years starting now. Twenty years! That is aeons in videosgame development. GTA3 came out twenty years ago, could you imagine if Rockstar had secured a patent on third person open world games? No other devs could have even tried new variations on the idea until this year. The Shadow series certainly wouldn't exist.

First off, they can profit by selling the Nemesis system, so they can make more bank and reap even more rewards from the idea.

Which is to say, they can stifle innovation by charging a premium.

As for GTA3, a bad example considering GTA3 didn't make the open world genre. You can't patent already common game mechanic features. There's a reason why Nintendo regrets not patenting jumping.

The point stands, videosgame would be far worse off if every time someone had a new idea, we had to wait twenty years before anyone else could try to make a good game with it.

It's a minor issue to take on a media giant like Warner Brothers in court. Just a trivial little thing that any small dev team can handily manage.

Patent lawsuits in the game industry are exceedingly rare, and are almost always settled outside of court. This is mainly due to the court being relatively unpredictable in its conclusions. The last lawsuit I heard over patented code was in regards to Fallout Shelter, which was never really settled in court due to the software being pulled down before things started brewing.

So...patents are super easy to get around? The WB can't make any money selling licenses to use the Nemesis system.

[Holy Tedalonia]

You know you can license right? Just because a patent exists, doesn't mean that door is locked for a set years. Besides why shouldn't a game company pay the original creators of the system? Id's known for selling licenses of its patented engines and code.

...without their permission until that patent expired.

Cry me a river, a patent only defends the patented system. If you can prove that the product is different enough, or innovative enough, not to be considered a copycat. You can make that system and sell it, even patent it yourself! This is how developers get around patents all the time.

You're arguing that the system doesn't work to defend the system. If it's so east to get around patents then lets not have patents at all.

First off, they can profit by selling the Nemesis system, so they can make more bank and reap even more rewards from the idea.

Which is to say, they can stifle innovation by charging a premium.

As for GTA3, a bad example considering GTA3 didn't make the open world genre. You can't patent already common game mechanic features. There's a reason why Nintendo regrets not patenting jumping.

The point stands, videosgame would be far worse off if every time someone had a new idea, we had to wait twenty years before anyone else could try to make a good game with it.

Patent lawsuits in the game industry are exceedingly rare, and are almost always settled outside of court. This is mainly due to the court being relatively unpredictable in its conclusions. The last lawsuit I heard over patented code was in regards to Fallout Shelter, which was never really settled in court due to the software being pulled down before things started brewing.

So...patents are super easy to get around? The WB can't make any money selling licenses to use the Nemesis system.

Patents are really meant to prevent coders to reuse the code they used with one company with another, as well as protects companies from blatant copycatting. I.E. Westworld and Fallout Shelter.

Anything beyond that, patents really struggle beyond that. Since interpretation and perception mainly decide court cases at that point.

In other words are better and easier to defend tangible things, rather than concepts. The nemesis patent is incredibly vague and more likely a paper tiger if anything.
"Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games," the final one is the weakest as one needs to ask what constitutes as a follower. Nemesis characters and forts mainly pertain to map design and character design, and social vendetta's (most likely neuter thanks to being rejected by the patent office so many times).

If you want more on that, here's a brief summary on the rejection by gamerant. Sadly though not many people focus on stuff like this. Some articles outright ignore it,

However, Warner Bros. has had to file multiple times in an attempt to push the patent through. In most cases, the patent was rejected due to similarities with other patents, such as ones held by Square Enix or even Webkinz.

If you can get past the fact webkinz almost preventing this patent...

[The Huskar Social Union]

Tried to boot up KOTOR on steam and its absolutely broken and crashed my pc, so i bought it on the xbox for 10 quid to give it a play through there.

[Holy Tedalonia]

Tried to boot up KOTOR on steam and its absolutely broken and crashed my pc, so i bought it on the xbox for 10 quid to give it a play through there.

KOTOR 2 on steam has access to mod patches that added lost content to the game. I sadly realized that after purchasing KOTOR 2 on GOG. There's a way to get it on GOG, but I can't be bothered to go through all of the troubleshooting to get it to work. But KOTOR series is very nice, love those games.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Tried to boot up KOTOR on steam and its absolutely broken and crashed my pc, so i bought it on the xbox for 10 quid to give it a play through there.

KOTOR 2 on steam has access to mod patches that added lost content to the game. I sadly realized that after purchasing KOTOR 2 on GOG. There's a way to get it on GOG, but I can't be bothered to go through all of the troubleshooting to get it to work. But KOTOR series is very nice, love those games.

Its soo good to play this game again. Brings back soo many memories.

[Ifreann]

You're arguing that the system doesn't work to defend the system. If it's so east to get around patents then lets not have patents at all.


Which is to say, they can stifle innovation by charging a premium.

The point stands, videosgame would be far worse off if every time someone had a new idea, we had to wait twenty years before anyone else could try to make a good game with it.


So...patents are super easy to get around? The WB can't make any money selling licenses to use the Nemesis system.

Patents are really meant to prevent coders to reuse the code they used with one company with another, as well as protects companies from blatant copycatting. I.E. Westworld and Fallout Shelter.

Anything beyond that, patents really struggle beyond that. Since interpretation and perception mainly decide court cases at that point.

In other words are better and easier to defend tangible things, rather than concepts. The nemesis patent is incredibly vague and more likely a paper tiger if anything.
"Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games," the final one is the weakest as one needs to ask what constitutes as a follower. Nemesis characters and forts mainly pertain to map design and character design, and social vendetta's (most likely neuter thanks to being rejected by the patent office so many times).

If you want more on that, here's a brief summary on the rejection by gamerant. Sadly though not many people focus on stuff like this. Some articles outright ignore it,

However, Warner Bros. has had to file multiple times in an attempt to push the patent through. In most cases, the patent was rejected due to similarities with other patents, such as ones held by Square Enix or even Webkinz.

If you can get past the fact webkinz almost preventing this patent...

If patents are so ineffective then lets not have them.

[Holy Tedalonia]

Patents are really meant to prevent coders to reuse the code they used with one company with another, as well as protects companies from blatant copycatting. I.E. Westworld and Fallout Shelter.

Anything beyond that, patents really struggle beyond that. Since interpretation and perception mainly decide court cases at that point.

In other words are better and easier to defend tangible things, rather than concepts. The nemesis patent is incredibly vague and more likely a paper tiger if anything.
"Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games," the final one is the weakest as one needs to ask what constitutes as a follower. Nemesis characters and forts mainly pertain to map design and character design, and social vendetta's (most likely neuter thanks to being rejected by the patent office so many times).

If you want more on that, here's a brief summary on the rejection by gamerant. Sadly though not many people focus on stuff like this. Some articles outright ignore it,
If you can get past the fact webkinz almost preventing this patent...

If patents are so ineffective then lets not have them.

Patents are more so to prevent developers that hop between companies to reuse the code that they worked with a company with. If you want to protect your code that was used for your software, you need to patent it, so the developers you previously worked with doesn't spread it. Its also used to patent niche systems and functions that software industries wish to protect. However, bigger the system harder to protect. Patents have a purpose, and it functions fairly well (for software industries). I don't see why the game industry sees itself, so unique that it should be free of patents, whereas every form of industry has them in some shape or form.

[Ifreann]

If patents are so ineffective then lets not have them.

Patents are more so to prevent developers that hop between companies to reuse the code that they worked with a company with. If you want to protect your code that was used for your software, you need to patent it, so the developers you previously worked with doesn't spread it. Its also used to patent niche systems and functions that software industries wish to protect. However, bigger the system harder to protect. Patents have a purpose, and it functions fairly well (for software industries). I don't see why the game industry sees itself, so unique that it should be free of patents, whereas every form of industry has them in some shape or form.

If a patent on something like the Nemesis system isn't going to be effective then why did Warner Bros go to such effort securing the patent? If it is effective then they are stifling innovation by preventing other developers from freely using the Nemesis system.

[Holy Tedalonia]

Patents are more so to prevent developers that hop between companies to reuse the code that they worked with a company with. If you want to protect your code that was used for your software, you need to patent it, so the developers you previously worked with doesn't spread it. Its also used to patent niche systems and functions that software industries wish to protect. However, bigger the system harder to protect. Patents have a purpose, and it functions fairly well (for software industries). I don't see why the game industry sees itself, so unique that it should be free of patents, whereas every form of industry has them in some shape or form.

If a patent on something like the Nemesis system isn't going to be effective then why did Warner Bros go to such effort securing the patent? If it is effective then they are stifling innovation by preventing other developers from freely using the Nemesis system.

What it seems like to me they want to prevent a westworld v fallout shelter scenario. You know, blatantly stealing someones code verbatim. But if I we're to make a system let's call it the rival system, that creates interesting chains of encounter. So long as the events, characters, and personalities are different, as well as stay away from "social vendetta's". I should be in the clear. I think Warner Brother's did want patent as much as they could regarding the system, but I think already existing patents and the patent office prevented them from doing so. And Warner Brothers decided to patent what they could. You can think of it as petty, or giving into the sunk cost fallacy if you'd like. I simply don't think the patent is as threatening as people think it is.

[The New California Republic]

Pigs can play video games, scientists have found, after putting four fun-loving swine to the test.

Four pigs - Hamlet, Omelette, Ebony and Ivory - were trained to use an arcade-style joystick to steer an on-screen cursor into walls.

Researchers said the fact that the pigs understood the connection between the stick and the game "is no small feat".

And the pigs even continued playing when the food reward dispenser broke - apparently for the social contact.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56023720

Watch out, they'll be pwning the nubs on your favourite FPS before you know it.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Pigs can play video games, scientists have found, after putting four fun-loving swine to the test.

Four pigs - Hamlet, Omelette, Ebony and Ivory - were trained to use an arcade-style joystick to steer an on-screen cursor into walls.

Researchers said the fact that the pigs understood the connection between the stick and the game "is no small feat".

And the pigs even continued playing when the food reward dispenser broke - apparently for the social contact.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56023720

Watch out, they'll be pwning the nubs on your favourite FPS before you know it.

[Ifreann]

If a patent on something like the Nemesis system isn't going to be effective then why did Warner Bros go to such effort securing the patent? If it is effective then they are stifling innovation by preventing other developers from freely using the Nemesis system.

What it seems like to me they want to prevent a westworld v fallout shelter scenario. You know, blatantly stealing someones code verbatim. But if I we're to make a system let's call it the rival system, that creates interesting chains of encounter. So long as the events, characters, and personalities are different, as well as stay away from "social vendetta's". I should be in the clear. I think Warner Brother's did want patent as much as they could regarding the system, but I think already existing patents and the patent office prevented them from doing so. And Warner Brothers decided to patent what they could. You can think of it as petty, or giving into the sunk cost fallacy if you'd like. I simply don't think the patent is as threatening as people think it is.

The code of the game is subject to copyright. The patent is on their "invention" of the nemesis system.

[The Huskar Social Union]

XCOM2 is on sale on steam at 92% off, so its like £3


You can get the XCOM2 bundle with all the dlc for about £16

[Holy Tedalonia]

What it seems like to me they want to prevent a westworld v fallout shelter scenario. You know, blatantly stealing someones code verbatim. But if I we're to make a system let's call it the rival system, that creates interesting chains of encounter. So long as the events, characters, and personalities are different, as well as stay away from "social vendetta's". I should be in the clear. I think Warner Brother's did want patent as much as they could regarding the system, but I think already existing patents and the patent office prevented them from doing so. And Warner Brothers decided to patent what they could. You can think of it as petty, or giving into the sunk cost fallacy if you'd like. I simply don't think the patent is as threatening as people think it is.

The code of the game is subject to copyright. The patent is on their "invention" of the nemesis system.

And I'm saying other parents already conflicted with the warner brothers patent. Limiting to what can be considered "part of the nemesis system". Just because you patented the idea, it's hard to prove that developer B is stealing your idea, unless you make a damn good explanation to what your idea is, while fighting their counterarguments off.

The reason I bring up the code, is because that is often the easiest way to win a court case, when someone steals your intellectual property.

[Heloin]

Someone doesn't understand the differences between patent infringement, copyright law, and actual theft. That's fine, most people don't.

So anyways. I was bored so I got Keanu Reeves Fun Time Adventures. I quite like it, most of the time it's really fun.

[Alvecia]

Since it's relevant, they talk about the nemesis patent on the most recent Play, Watch, Listen episode.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Thinking of getting into that Escape from Tarkov game. Gives me a game where i just get to shoot fuckers and where i actually have to use my headset so it doesnt just sit there longing for attention.


Which.... actually leads me to question. Where is my headset? Because i cant seem to remember where i put it

[Ameriganastan]

Thinking of getting into that Escape from Tarkov game. Gives me a game where i just get to shoot fuckers and where i actually have to use my headset so it doesnt just sit there longing for attention.


Which.... actually leads me to question. Where is my headset? Because i cant seem to remember where i put it

I keep mine in my dresser drawer. Mostly cause the cat likes to mess with it if I leave it out.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Thinking of getting into that Escape from Tarkov game. Gives me a game where i just get to shoot fuckers and where i actually have to use my headset so it doesnt just sit there longing for attention.


Which.... actually leads me to question. Where is my headset? Because i cant seem to remember where i put it

I keep mine in my dresser drawer. Mostly cause the cat likes to mess with it if I leave it out.

I found it, it was behind some of my miniature cases on the other desk. I should probably keep it in one of the drawers on my main desk just so i know where it is at all times.

[Holy Tedalonia]

I keep mine in my dresser drawer. Mostly cause the cat likes to mess with it if I leave it out.

I found it, it was behind some of my miniature cases on the other desk. I should probably keep it in one of the drawers on my main desk just so i know where it is at all times.

I hang my headset on my lamp. Has like 4 bars leading from bottom to top, and several platforms. I just hang it on their like a hat rack.

[The Huskar Social Union]

I found it, it was behind some of my miniature cases on the other desk. I should probably keep it in one of the drawers on my main desk just so i know where it is at all times.

I hang my headset on my lamp. Has like 4 bars leading from bottom to top, and several platforms. I just hang it on their like a hat rack.

Genius