I honestly think it’s absurd you can be doing something for nearly 30 years (longer than a patent lasts) and then try to get a patent on it retroactively. That seems like a completely insane cheat code for the patent process.
Nintendo reportedly gets even more obnoxious about patent law by taking a 'mods aren't real games' stance against a Dark Souls 3 mod that could invalidate its Palworld lawsuit
Submitted 20 hours ago by inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
Comments
markovs_gun@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
“I want to control an idea I came up with, but that person who came up with that idea first doesn’t count”
Is an insane argument
Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
It’s basically a non-sequitur.
A mod isn’t a standalone game, sure. It requires the base game to have meaning. Unitl it gets spinned off and becomes a “real” (standalone) game.
However, that has no connection with the original problem: Did anyone who isn’t Nintendo ever animate a cartoony person throwing a ball that does something, before Nintendo filed for a patent?
Of course they have. That’s prior art, and the patent itself is under serious question - whether the animation was in a “real” game, a “fake” one or in a Blender animation has very little influence on that fact.
cmhe@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
A mod isn’t a standalone game, sure. It requires the base game to have meaning. Unitl it gets spinned off and becomes a “real” (standalone) game.
Many standalone games are nothing without the game engine, which many developers have bought/licensed.
In this case the “standalone game” can be considered the game engine, which allows the modder to create their own game, within the limits of that engine.
From the point of the player, they need to pay for the game engine and the game/mod in any case, either by paying with one transaction, or, incase of payed mods, in two.
To play a specific DLC, you also have to pay twice. And I am pretty sure that Nintendo will argue that game mechanics in DLCs developed by them can be patented as well…
Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Sure. It’s just that the user doesn’t install Unity (or any other engine) themselves when installing a game. They install the game and “it just works”.
For a mod, you have to either have the game, or go get it before you can play a mod.
I know what a game engine is. A court clerk or judge most likely - doesn’t.
And it’s in Nintendo’s interests to paint mods as something lesser - that’s why they take this strawman angle to mods. They couldn’t care less about “games” or “mods”. They care about protecting their IP with any groin punches and baby mario noises they can get their divorced-from-reality hands on.
cmhe@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
So game mechanics in DLCs cannot be patented, because they are just mods?
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
DLCs are not mods because they are official (read: paid)
NavySqueal@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Didn’t Nintendo c&d a Pokémon mod for palword like super early on in release? cough cough they did / reddit.com/…/pokemons_team_released_a_statement_a…
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
i mean that one smells more like IP lawyers being IP lawyers and overzealously defending trademarks
NONE_dc@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Every day I am more convinced that someone made a wish to the monkey paw for Nintendo to do something about Palworld, and now we are where we are.
themagzuz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 hours ago
the monkey paw in question is intellectual property law. everytime a case is ruled in favor of ip law it becomes slightly more restrictive, which generally benefits corporations more than the public. every time you cheer for ip law to be enforced in some big landmark case, you’re invariably rooting for the noose around our necks to get just a bit tighter.
it’s for this reason that, despite really not liking ai stuff, i think openai and meta being fined for training on “stolen” work will inevitably do more harm than goodbassomitron@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
I truly don’t understand why anyone gave a fuck about Nintendo caring about Palworld.
JayGray91@piefed.social 7 hours ago
There’s a group of citizens of a nation that supports what Nintendo doing to Palworld devs. Back when I read the noise on Xitter when Nintendo first filed against Palworld, lots of Japanese support it because something something disrespect or some bullshit. It sickens me that they are just lying belly up drinking the shit Nintendo puts out and trying to snuff competition
reksas@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
oh the poor shareholders, i’ll lose sleep thinking about their potentially lost dividends!
Cybersteel@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Yeah at the beginning Nintendo weren’t doing anything despite people complaining about Pal World which I don’t really get why they would do such a thing.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
nah a series of weasels broke the universe
einlander@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
The issue is game mechanics, not the game. If a games mechanic that existed as prior are can’t be used, then neither should they be able to sue about it.
Nikls94@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Well well well.
Looks like Shin Megami Tensei is able to make a patent for catching and training monsters.
Game in question: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 11 September 1987
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 19 hours ago
So if someone created a mod for palworld that put Pokemon in the game that would be fine?
_core@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
That’s like lawsuit squared
skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
That already happened and they already C&D’d it according to someone else in this thread
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Of course not, then it would be a game infringing on their IP. That’s just common sense.
cepelinas@sopuli.xyz 13 hours ago
capuccino@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
a videogame isn’t a big mod out of an engine? Like, GTA V, is a mod of RAGE engine?
Matriks404@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
It depends how mod is made. If it depends on a base content of a game, it’s generally a mod for that game. That’s what Counter-Strike and DOTA for example was at first (they required Half-Life, and Warcraft 3 base files respectively).
If you make a game for a specific engine, it’s generally considered as a standalone game, not a mod. Also in olden days code for the engine and the game wasn’t separated so you couldn’t easily reuse the game engine. AFAIK Id Software was one of the first companies that made reusable game engines that were also licensed to other companies, and even made map editor available for free.
capuccino@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Thanks for your reply, I just forgot add ‘/s’ at the end of my comment.
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Im not even mad at Nintendo, they’re a mega corporation, they constantly fuck around like this. I blame the horrible laws and geriatric lawmakers who won’t stand up to these corporations and put in laws to stop all this fuckery. These mega corps will always take the loopholes and play these games
SalamenceFury@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Counter-Strike being the most popular PC game in the planet must be a figment of my own imagination, then.
kernelle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
Also Portal Stories: Mel, Portal Reloaded and many more mods for the game all add one extra component to Portal which makes them completely separate games.
psx_crab@lemmy.zip 18 hours ago
Can’t believe Valve didn’t make real game. CS, TF2, DOTA2, all fake.
MHLoppy@fedia.io 12 hours ago
Yo, don't shit talk the makers of the award winning game Ricochet like that