• cmhe@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 hour ago

    So game mechanics in DLCs cannot be patented, because they are just mods?

  • Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    2 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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 hour 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…

      What I mean is Nintendos argument hat mods aren’t ‘real games’ is flawed…

      • Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 minutes 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.

  • Nikls94@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 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

  • einlander@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    8 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.

  • Sal@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    114
    ·
    13 hours ago

    Counter-Strike being the most popular PC game in the planet must be a figment of my own imagination, then.

  • NONE@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    42
    ·
    12 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.

    • magz :3@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 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 good

      • reksas@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        4 hours ago

        oh the poor shareholders, i’ll lose sleep thinking about their potentially lost diminished dividends!

    • Cybersteel@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      12 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.

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    12 hours ago

    So if someone created a mod for palworld that put Pokemon in the game that would be fine?