Independent Contractors and NIL Rights: EA UFC 4 Highlights the UFC’s Shady Labor Practices

In August 2020, gaming giant Electronic Arts released EA Sports UFC 4, the latest iteration of its popular MMA video game franchise. The game was highly successful, being ranked as the month’s “second best-selling game” in the US and “se[tting] a new franchise launch month sales record.” Unsurprisingly, the buzz around EA Sports UFC 4 […]
From Video Games to Drug Cartels: How Mexican Narcos are using video games as a recruitment tool

I came across this article and thought it would be interesting to share. With the anonymity of video games, like that of social media comes recruitment. We have seen terrorist groups connect and grow anonymously online, recruiting people who are in mutual threads and have the same “goals” or “passions” as them. We have also […]
Black Mirror’s Playtest, Fear, Existentialism, and Law

My presentation is on Netflix’s Black Mirror episode Playtest (season 3 episode 2), a haunting portrayal of augmented reality gone wrong. If you have not seen this episode, I would highly recommend watching it. Playtest touches on many of the issues relevant to concepts discussed in our video game law class and raises questions about […]
Shadows in the Spotlight: Predatory Management/Agency Contracts targeted at Video Game Streamers

Hi everyone, Hope you all had a wonderful reading week! For our presentation on Wednesday, we will aim to tackle the questions below. Please have a look at the following articles addressing each question: Playing video games as a professional: Who is a video game streamer? Gaming – Athletes vs Entertainers What is the relationship […]
Loot Boxes: Gaming or Gambling?

Hi everybody, I hope you are all enjoying your reading break. Please take a quick look through these articles in advance of my presentation on Wednesday. https://www.businessinsider.com/classifying-video-game-loot-boxes-as-gambling-2020-7 https://www.fasken.com/en/knowledge/2020/11/3-opening-pandoras-loot-box ‘Loot boxes’: Blurring the lines between gaming and gambling?
From speculative sentimentality to utility: Reimagining the valuation of NFTs in a metaverse-linked future

Introduction On the 28th of October 2021 a pixelated digital artwork of a cartoonish character called “Cryptopunk 9998” was reported to have been sold on Ethereum blockchain as a Non-fungible Token (NFT) for 124,457 Ether — valued at more than half a billion US Dollars at the time of execution of the transaction.[1] On the […]
Class 9 – 11.3.21; “Personality as Property in Video Games” + “Consumers & Users: Cases, Clauses, & Contexts, Part 2”

Video & slides below… Jon
Class 8 – 10.27.21; “Consumers & Users: Cases, Clauses, & Contexts, Part 1”

Slides below. Video to come… Huge thanks to Perry Bahniwal of EA for joining us for the second part of the class. The lecture-capture of that part of the class will not be posted for understandable reasons. Jon
Is Zuckerberg’s Meta playing catch up to video games?

Hey all, Wanted to share this article I came across which discusses how much of what Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing as the promise of Meta has existed to some degree within video games for years. Experiences like virtual hangouts, avatars and exploring virtual worlds exist in games from Roblox to Assasin’s Creed. Here’s a […]
Personality as Property in Video Game Law

Hi All, Please read or have a brief overview of the below material for our presentation on Wednesday. Our presentation will focus on questions such as: What is the relationship between video games and the professional athletes themselves? What about the relationship between video game law and esports athletes or popular streamers? Can player ratings […]
Why Can’t Anyone Turn Video Games Into Successful Movies?

Earlier this week, Sony Pictures released the first full trailer for their upcoming movie Uncharted, which is based on a wildly successful video game franchise that included four games and has sold over 40 million copies worldwide. At first glance, this project would seem to be almost guaranteed to succeed. The Uncharted games have a huge fanbase and feature […]
Finally, the Jersey Shore Comeback We’ve All Been Waiting For

Hi Everyone (and especially those of you who, like me, never left their MTV’s Jersey Shore phase), I recently came across a bit of news that I thought you all might find interesting in the context of our recent Video Game Law lectures. Last week, a news article came out titled “Why ViacomCBS could turn […]
Class 7 – 10.20.21; “Licensing Negotiations for FIFA; + Regulating Video-games”

Video & slides below… Jon
A “Classic” Oversight in ESPN’s new NHL TV Coverage

The NHL’s 2021-2022 season kicked off last week, and for the first time in 16 years, a network other than NBC was behind the broadcast. Disney’s ESPN is now the NHL’s lead TV partner in the US, paying a hefty price of $400 million a year to serve that role. Not far behind is Turner […]
Class 6 – 10.13.21; “Connecting Ourselves: Gamer Vulnerability in Virtual Realities, Part 2”

Video & slides below… Jon