News of the Week; January 9, 2019

GAMES Bethesda resolves copyright lawsuit against Westworlddevs Bethesda, Behaviour Interactive resolve copyright infringement dispute: Lawsuit over similarities between Fallout Shelter and Westworld game settled “amicably” Challenges in Filing Successful IPR Petitions for Video Game Patents  Supercell Oy v. Gree, Inc. (December 17, 2018 Patent Trial and Appeal Board, USPTO) A Patent on Games? No Dice. In […]

Au revoir Co-hort 11

Au revoir Co-hort 11

Posts on everything I remember promising to post – done. Papers marked. Marks up. A few extra emails done. Out of excuses for delaying this post. You have been an extraordinary class. It was just so much fun…I really owe a lot to all of you. There are many reasons for how I feel, but […]

News of the Week; January 2, 2019

GAMES Star Control: Origins pulled from sale following DMCA takedown notice Star Control creators block Origins release: Stardock denied injunction against Ford and Reiche’s DMCA notice, title removed from GOG and Steam Original Star Control creators deploy nuclear option against Stardock [Updated] China issues 80 new game licenses, Tencent not included China lifts a freeze on new video […]

Can you defame an Avatar? Some tentative clues at the beginning of the path…

Can you defame an Avatar? Some tentative clues at the beginning of the path…

The above is the only avatar I’ve ever used out of its game-given context. It was generated on an X-Box 360. An article on some (gaming?) website showed me how to export it, and so I did. It is slimmer and more jaundiced looking than I actually am (or was at time). The blue shirt […]

“Magic Circle or Not”: Interactive Entertainment Law Review 1:2 – Post # 2

“Magic Circle or Not”: Interactive Entertainment Law Review 1:2 – Post # 2

In the second issue of the first volume of the Interactive Entertainment Law Review you will find the editorial (linked to through the above screencap) titled “Magic Circle or not?”. The material therein was essentially worked through with the help of the class during the past semester as can be evidenced through bits and pieces […]

Interactive Entertainment Law Review 1:2 – Post # 1

Interactive Entertainment Law Review 1:2 – Post # 1

The second issue of the first volume of the Interactive Entertainment Law Review is out. Click on the screencap above to access the webpage. Aside from the Editorial (more on that in the next post), there is a free to download piece titled “Top 10 video game cases (US): how video game litigation in the […]

“Nazi symbols in German video-games” – More Than Just A Game | Frankfurt; Post # 3

“Nazi symbols in German video-games” – More Than Just A Game | Frankfurt; Post # 3

The above set of slides are at least in part fictional. They are an attempt to recreate post-facto the comments I made as part of a panel titled “Youth protection, censorship & culture: is anything possible in computer games now?” at “More Than Just A Game | Frankfurt”. Jon

More Than Just A Game | Frankfurt; Post # 2

More Than Just A Game | Frankfurt; Post # 2

On October 21 I posted about “More Than Just a Game/Frankfurt which I had just returned from. Within that post were the slides I presented on “Streaming (video-game) boxes” and their legal trajectories. Attached above is a summary from the law firm of Beiten Burkhardt of the event, the topics presented, and some interesting real […]

World Changing Game Ideas – Student Edition

World Changing Game Ideas – Student Edition

In Class 8 on October 31, 2018 the class did some group work creating a game with impact. The pedagogic purpose behind the work was the hope that having “built” a game no matter how ephemerally, the consequences of regulation of games in various guises could be explored more fully and functionally. That said (and […]

gameindustry.biz 2018 Year in Numbers

gameindustry.biz 2018 Year in Numbers

Fantastic piece from gameindustry.biz on 2018 statistics for video-games. Article (with embedded link) and infographic below….   Jon