Comments on: Trust Me, We Don’t Want Rights

By: darrenl

darrenl — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:17:23 +0000

“Games with ‘rights’ aren’t games anymore. They’re extensions of reality and by definition no longer exist purely for fun.”

I sooooo disagree with that. Are you saying that games MUST be decoupled from reality in order to be fun? Games are already extensions of reality because money is already involved. If you can make the imaginative leap from monthly credit card payment to virtual world, why the heck can’t you make the same leap from owned digital property to virtual world?

…all in your head people.

By: Following Up on the Virtual Property Discussion | Random Battle

Following Up on the Virtual Property Discussion | Random Battle — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:39:29 +0000

[...] quite a lot of debate in the comments, which was great. While I was mulling things over, both Michael and Grimwell weighed in on the topic with what I thought were particularly compelling arguments. [...]

By: Grimwell

Grimwell — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:15:57 +0000

I like the Monopoly analogy! I wish I would have had that in my register of ‘Wise things other men said.’ before I wrote yesterday, it makes the point in a great way.

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:50:25 +0000

Gotta agree with you, and especially with Bartle. The board game analogy is apt. You leave a game with memories and stories, but that doesn’t imply any rights.

I’d like to hear a legal discussion about EULA’s and character ownership. Well, actually, I’d like to hear the outcome, the actual discussion would probably put me to sleep. I’m pretty sure we’d find out that our rights extend to playing characters on an account that’s current, and that’s about it. Everything you take out of the game world is just your memories. It’s not like you can take your character and publish a book about their adventures in Norrath, Azeroth, etc., not without lawyers breathing down your neck about copyright infringement.