The Woke morons are going after Steve Jackson Games

Pat · May 27, 2019, 04:02:01 PM

Quote from: Winterblight;1089609Sorry, you stated that you had to be "rich", which what I'm stating isn't true. I can assure you that I am not rich and I have put venture capital into dozens of of startup companies, some that don't even have a product. I don't want to derail the thread. I'm simply pointing out the irony of the fact that the reason it no longer holds true is because of crowdfunding, which is what Kickstarter does/is, which is the very thing that is being debated.

I stated you had to be rich to be an accredited investor, which is true.

But I agree we're arguing about semantics, it's tangential to the main point being discussed in the thread, and the change was driven by the rise of crowdfunding.

Lynn · May 28, 2019, 11:45:56 AM

Quote from: Lychee of the Exchequer;1089595Have you ever been in the business of selling something to clients ? The difficult part is not listening to clients, the difficult part is analyzing their feedback, in order to devise a successfull marketing strategy.
And clients may believe that companies listen to them so they can sell them the products they want, but companies (hopefully) listen to clients to understand the products the clients need or crave, and to sell it to them at a price that can make them a profit.

I was going to reply to Omega but you've given a great answer, and also illuminates my point about the hobbyist that goes into the business and needs to become a business person fast enough to keep themselves from going under. For all the criticisms of Paizo (and I have a reasonably long list myself), they've survived this long not just because of the opportunity created by 3.5 and the OGL.

Shasarak · May 28, 2019, 04:51:31 PM

Quote from: Omega;1089634This gets spouted regularly. It needs to die.

Which game mechanics have been copyrighted?

Spinachcat · May 28, 2019, 08:49:25 PM

Quote from: Shasarak;1089708Which game mechanics have been copyrighted?

Tapping in Magic:the Gathering got patented which I thought was insane.

Charon's Little Helper · May 28, 2019, 08:55:43 PM

Quote from: Spinachcat;1089720Tapping in Magic:the Gathering got patented which I thought was insane.

I was under impression that they couldn't actually copyright the mechanic as plenty of other games use it. I thought that they just can't call it "tap" in their system. (though I certainly haven't done a bunch of research of the subject) Sort of like how only D&D can have "Dungeon Masters"; even Pathfinder has a "Game Master" instead, because the term was copyrighted.

Shasarak · May 28, 2019, 09:38:54 PM

Quote from: Spinachcat;1089720Tapping in Magic:the Gathering got patented which I thought was insane.

I played a lot of Legend of the 5 Rings and that had a shit load of tapping.

Quote from: Charon's Little Helper;1089721I was under impression that they couldn't actually copyright the mechanic as plenty of other games use it. I thought that they just can't call it "tap" in their system. (though I certainly haven't done a bunch of research of the subject) Sort of like how only D&D can have "Dungeon Masters"; even Pathfinder has a "Game Master" instead, because the term was copyrighted.

Maybe L5R called their form of tapping something different like "bowing" a card.

Lurtch · May 28, 2019, 09:50:25 PM

You cannot copyright mechanics. It's why Kenzero & Company were able to release 4E products and ignore Wizard's OGL or things.

L5R called tapping bowing. Tapping is the trade mark name the mechanic was used in almost every CCG.

Spinachcat · May 28, 2019, 09:58:10 PM

Quote from: Shasarak;1089722Maybe L5R called their form of tapping something different like "bowing" a card.

L5R absolutely uses bowing and plenty of CCGs use "tapping" under another name.

Here's some info on the patent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tap_(gaming)
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5662332
https://www.quietspeculation.com/2014/05/understanding-the-wizards-v-hex-lawsuit-in-plain-english/

Shasarak · May 28, 2019, 10:01:09 PM

So it looks like Wizards of the Coast didn't patent tapping, they patented Magic: the Gathering.

EOTB · May 29, 2019, 01:39:47 PM

You can patent game rules, but you can't otherwise protect any processes following a mathematical algorithm.

You can copyright series of numbers that aren't derived from the same algorithm. I couldn't copyright an XP progression of 2k/4k/8k/16k. I could copyright an XP progression of 2,250/4,128/8,333/16,234

You can trademark nearly anything that isn't generically used, such as how photocopying used to be called xeroxing, etc.