In the Gaming Industry, developers and producers face many
problems when designing a game and how it can affect the target audience. They
have to consider ethical, legal and regulatory issues in order for their
product to survive in the gaming world.
Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism
Finally when designing the game it’s important to understand
that the initial thoughts on when creating the brief for the designers is that
it’s original and not a copy of someone else’s work, this stands for everything
from brief to the producing of the game. Copyright protects people’s work from
others who dares to commit plagiarism, meaning that there are people who try to
steal the original work of someone else because they haven’t given credit to
the original owner, or proclaim the work is theirs when it isn’t.
A recent example of this is the plot behind Assassin’s Creed
III which is supposed to be released in North America on 30th October 2012
under the PS3 and Xbox 360, later being released on 18th of November as a Wii-U
platform and the same for Europe but on the 30th of November. John
L.Beiswenger, who’s a research engineer and sci-fi author, claims his book
‘Link’ shares various similarities as the game- insisting Ubisoft are
‘allegedly ripping off his novel’ .
The book ‘Link’ explores an idea of memories recorded by an
ancestor that eventually get brought to life only by using a special device
known as: ‘Bio-synchronizer’. Another reason for the claim, made by plaintiff,
is the book talks about assassins and assassinations which at one point in the
novel, someone is trying to fit the pieces of the past together. Finally
spiritual and biblical tones with references of Jesus, God, the Garden of Eden,
forbidden fruit and a reliance on historical moments portrayed through
ancestor’s memories all lead identical occurrences in Assassin’s Creed series.
"Ubisoft have directly copied, and directly and
contributorily infringed on the whole of Plaintiff's copyrighted work"
with the release of games, guides, comic book series and trailers”
Quoted from John L. Beiswenger
In addition to this Beiswenger is currently suing Ubisoft
for nothing less than $1.05 million with an increasing sum to $5.25 million
depending on the judge’s decision. Also he hopes to prevent the release of
Assassin’s Creed III and all related franchise. If this works in his favour it
will not only disappoint millions of fans across the world, but it will leave
Ubisoft possibly bankrupt if one of their best-selling games were to crumble
right before their eyes due to copyright infringement issues.
An additional case would be EA’s copy right infringement
lawsuit against Zynga not so long ago. ‘The Ville’ created by Zynga allegedly
shares identical reactions with EA’s ‘Sim Social’ game. Normally copyright
issues are exceptionally rare because it could cost a gaming company everything
they’ve worked for, sending them bankrupt and making the opposition richer and
seem more ‘innocent’ to the public eye.
‘The [games] industry has developed a dysfunctional culture
of copycattery’
Quoted by Prof. James Grimmelmann
Prof. James is correct in a way because the technology and
the stories have developed that much in such a short space of time, people are
running out of original ideas and are turning to features they’ve experienced
in a game and enjoyed or just simply taking a lot of things from an older
version of the game and tweaking a few bits. An example of this would be
Pokemon (not Ranger, Link, Dash, Pokepark or Mystery Dungeon versions). From
personal experience I’ve noticed each game starts the same, contains the same
plot with the same goals and it became ominous as I grew up. The only things that
change in that game is the character names and designs, regions and the extra
150 new Pokemon that appear every 2-3 years, leading me to go off the new
versions and play ‘old-school’
However going back to the original topic this is way some
people and wander unknowingly down the path of copyright. Under copyright law
everyone if free to possibly copy a basic game concept as long as some details
are altered during the development stage which is what Zynga did during the
development of ‘The Ville’. However the EA complains that Zynga didn’t do
enough to change some of the detail, and evidence has been shown of this, even
though it’s minor identical details which don’t create a very strong complaint
for EA.
However their plan is to create aggressive arguments about
copyright law to fit legal beliefs to its facts. In the end it will either seek
protection for its game concept-losing proposition under copyright law or if EA
does make progress on that, the new legal precedent would undermine the current
industry-standard practices about imitation. EA is no doubt going to argue that
Zynga needed to change its execution further if they wanted to avoid
infringement issues, on the other hand it will also mean EA have to work in
more development when they want to imitate someone else’s game meaning the cost
of development for them and Zynga will rise.
It is known however Zynga has built its business on
imitating other people’s games meaning if EA did win this lawsuit; it will harm
Zynga’s business significantly as well as eroding EA’s profits because they’re
threatening to destabilize the current industry’s rules on imitation. In my
eyes and other people’s it’s a battle Zynga can’t afford to lose and EA can’t
afford to win.
In the end it’s believed that neither company will win with
the case being settled on the outcome of Zynga making some low-cost changes and
keeping their basic implementation, giving EA a certain victory, even though
some believe when looking at the bigger picture about legitimacy and the
boundaries of game imitation are not going to be resolved during this case.
Thus, the big-picture legal
questions about the legitimacy and boundaries of game imitation are almost
certainly not going to be resolved here.
Copyright nowadays is a huge issue and it’s because of a few
reasons. Mentioned before about disk-locked content if you download a game
illegally, then all the content might be available to you whereas in the shops
it not- not a legal reason.
The games are too expensive, fair enough they are in some
respects as one game could cost £40 but then look at how much money had to be
put into the game. Designing games costs billions to do not to mention the
staff like developers, producers, animators, testers ect have to go through
hell because of the workload to finish these games in time, so it’s only fair
they get a decent amount for their work. Whatever excuse we use to commit
copyright with games it’s never right. One exception could be copying old games
that no one can gain money from or you can’t find it anywhere no matter how
hard you look.
Bibliography
(Accessed on 04/10/12 at 10:33 for Assassin’s Creed release
date)
(Accessed on 04/10/12 at 10:54 for Assassin’s Creed
copyright infringement issues)
(Accessed on 04/10/12 at 11:36 for EA copyright claim on
Zynga and Prof. John quote)
(Accessed 08/10/12 at 11:36 for Assassin's Creed Image)
(Accessed 08/10/12 at 11:38 for The Ville Image)
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