Copyright infringement in the game industry
A discussion of originality
My bridge project 3 for both studio and seminar is to create a “Monopoly” game(it won’t be titled Monopoly) as a simulation of the market in the gaming industry, which reflects the consequences and potential dangers caused by copyright infringement.
The final idea includes an instruction book, 3 piles of cards, a chessboard, dices, etc.
The players will act as three parties: players, producers of original games, producers that copy other’s work
Through playing this game, the players will understand the opinion and choices from the perspectives of different parties, and eventually learn why copyright infringement should be avoided by reflecting the economy and other issues.
The instruction sheet will include all the case studies and information I researched.
I am studying the infringement in the game industry, because I want to understand how to distinguish use for reference, parody, tribute, and infringement, and to what extent infringement contributes to the failures of the gaming industry. The biggest and most important question: What is originality (in not only the game industry, but also other fields such as music and arts)?
Many mobile and pc games, such as the game “Identity V” and “Kings of Glory” that are popular among the young gamers encounter copyright infringement. This phenomenon has been more serious in the recent five years as the booming of mobile games. More serious problem: The copyright infringement prevents the producers of the original games from getting profit by doing original games, which leads to their unwillingness of making original works.
Other problems & Importance
-failure on the economy in specific fields
Show how copyright infringement prevents the artists and the producers to create original artworks and games, which hopefully can guide the creators to protect their works properly.
The object of This War of Gaming is to simulate the marketing system of the gaming industry in the real world, as well as help the players understand the correlation among all parties within the system via perspective taking.
The game aims to reflect the issues encountered during the productions of games, having discussions on copyright infringement and originality and considering their implications for the promising future of the gaming industry.
This game includes lots of calculation. Here’re my notes on the equations.
(The following notes are translated from Chinese using google translate)
(1) specific action
Considerations: time/cost/earnings/credit rating. Specific value /
Basic development (no copying original works) :
The general input cost per round is X, and the total final input cost is T*X.
General development: T= (1d4+2), input per round is X, total expected time 4.5t, total expected cost 4.5x.
Rapid development: T= (1d3+1), 1.5x input per round, 3.0t total expected time, 4.5x total expected cost.
Slow development: T= (1d6+3), input per round is X, total expected time 6.5t, total expected cost 6.5x.
(remove the large amount of investment in basic development, because the large amount of investment in development overlaps with the large amount of money invested in the rapid development function. If the regular input cost X has a rule upper limit, then there will be a large amount of investment in the development program.)
Common harvest: get money $= (1d10+2) X, expected value 7.5x, expected profit 3X, expected profit rate 0.66x /t.
Credit changes = [($* 1 d4 + 1) / 6 】 point (round down), expect credit (3.5 * $/ 6), expect credit rate (0.77 * $/ 6)/t
Quick start: get money $= (2d6) X, expected value 7X, expected profit 2.5x, expected profit rate 0.83x /t.
Credit changes = [($* 1 d4-1) / 6 】 point (round down), expect credit (1.5 * $/ 6), expect credit rate (0.5 * $/ 6)/t
Slow drive acquisition: get money $= (2d6+4) X, expected value 11X, expected profit 4.5x, expected profit rate 0.69x /t.
Credit changes = [($* 2 d6) / 6] point (round down), expect credit (6.5 * $/ 6), expect credit rate (1.0 * $/ 6)/t
Original route action:
1. Original development
A) the original development mode, namely the basic development form mentioned above, has three speed development options, and the final income will be different, as mentioned above
2. Authorized production:
A) the harvesting effect of the authorized production shall be the same as that of the authorized original game. Monetary reward & reputation reward shall be given in accordance with the same input/output ratio. The credit reward shall be Shared equally between the licensor and the licensee.
3. Tribute works
A)
Sue the copying company
A)
5. Advertisement (considering the reasons of the basic audience, the original advertisement is slightly different from the copied one)
A) for originality, in order to simplify the rules, it is proposed to combine all advertising costs and publicity and distribution operations into the basic development form. By default, normal advertising is carried out before the game is released, and the cost has been recorded in the development cost.
Buy the company/partner
Copycat route action
Because it is a plagiarized work, the relative production cost and publicity cost will be low, and the harvest will be relatively stable.
1. Copying development
A) direct plagiarism development, first of all to choose which existing game in the market to copy, and then according to the copy of the game development of each round input cost X, development time T, according to the plagiarism operation scheme, and then copy the cost correction.
I. conventional plagiarism development: T= (T*0.5+1, round down), input X for each round.
Ii. Quick cash development: T= (T*0.5, round down), 1.5X per round.
Iii. Increase investment in development: T= (T*0.75+1, round down), 1.5x investment per round.
B) the profit after plagiarism is related to the plagiarism scheme selected this time. The base Y is the harvest of the game copied. (prompting players to copy games that were highly profitable in the first place)
I. Constant base gain: get money $= (1d4+5) /10*Y, round down,
Ii. Quick basic harvest: get money $= (1d4+3) /8*Y, round down,
Iii. Big investment base gain: get money $= (2d6+4) /10*Y, round down,
2. Authorized production:
A) the harvest effect of the authorized production shall be the same as that of the authorized original game. Monetary reward & reputation reward shall be given in accordance with the same input/output ratio. The credit reward shall be Shared equally between the licensor and the licensee.
3. Advertisement (original and copied advertisements are slightly different considering the reasons of the basic audience)
A) for plagiarism, in order to simplify the rules, it is proposed to combine all advertising costs and publicity and distribution operations into the plagiarism development form. By default, specific advertisement publicity is carried out before the game is released, and the cost has been recorded in the development cost.
B)
Buy the company/partner
Back of the cards
Front of the card
Currey
book cover
I also create a commercial to “promote” the game.
The title on the wood box and chess pieces are laser cut.
