Gamers Rights Law » Developers Corner

Game developers; protecting yourself (Developers Corner)

jaymoffitt — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:53:11 +0000

A few thoughts about games and what they are; and then after the fold a couple of insights about protecting your intellectual property. If you like the blog, please comment, and subscribe to the RSS feed you use regularly. Thanks.

Journey across the Main Stream (from Gamasutra) Great discussion about what makes a game playable for all types of people.

What do Games have in Common with Jam (from Gamasutra) New thoughts about how games are reviewd

http://gamecareerguide.com/features/888/playtesting_is_sovereign_part_.php (Playtesting is sovereign; by Game Career Guide)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gastev/2960556197/ (Photo Creative Commons; Attribution required; photostream Gastev)

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Examples of playtesting rules

http://www.microsoft.com/playtest/FAQ.aspx

http://gamebizproam.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/the-microsoft-play-test-experience/

Blog about the Playtesting experience

Gamasutra examples playtesting revolution

http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/3367/non-disclosure-agreements-have-no-saving

Dungeons and Dragons NDA has no expiration date

http://bloodofkittens.com/2010/07/21/meat-for-meta-the-truth-behind-gw-playtesting/

GW playtesting

http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07311.11208.pdf

Real-Time Sweetspot: The Multiple Meanings of Game Company Playtests

Commentary: I’m often asked by other lawyers what happens when someone asks me for a legal document for a boardgame or videogame testing. I reply that I draw it up paragraph by paragraph from scratch. Sounds like a backwards way to work; except when you consider I’m trying to make a client for life. Whether I make several hundred net or several thousand net really doesn’t matter as much as the fact that I build a good relationship. (Note: I’m a better lawyer than businessman).

Read the above links to see what you need in your playtesting, and know that if it’s YOUR IDEA… it is your legacy. Protect it in some fashion; not a boiler-plate form but a real IP lawyer (in your state, or some state you do business). At the very least have an NDA if you playtest: if no other things are protected… (1) the idea is yours and no one playtesting can make money re-selling or being a derivative of that game(2) No one can discuss or publicize the testing results or the basic ideas of the game. The best thing obviously is to get a full assessment by an attorney.

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.

(Mid-week Meat) Contract from the Bottom Up

jaymoffitt — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:52:53 +0000

Most attorneys do things opposite. For instance, I’m greatly in favor of reading a contract (player/company, developer/potential-publisher) from the bottom up. So the next couple of weeks, I’m going to focus on a common theme of the bottom of those contracts: Locality; Globality; and Longevity. Today, an introduction into Longevity as regarding Developer Contracts.You would think the length of the contract would be important enough to put near the top of the contract. It’s an essential part of the agreement. If you’re approaching a publisher about a deal for your game, or your storyboard idea of a game; it’s a good idea to get their commitment to you as long as possible, and your commitment to them as short as possible. You might think they have the leverage, but that would be incorrect.

You have only one game to push; while they have hundreds to pursue. Therefore you MUST go in trying to get a long-term commitment from a publisher if they are to “lock you in” to working with them. What they lose from a long-term commitment on their part is neglible (just a little time and some opportunity costs from pursuing/building/marketing other games besides yours), but what you lose is GREAT… any opportunity to sign the game with another publisher, any chance to market/publicize the game in ways other than approved by the publisher, basically any chance to do anything with the game other than just wait, wait, wait for the marketing department to set up a schedule or push any advertising towards propelling your product forward. For your Longevity portion of the contract, make certain to have “opt-out” clauses at any particular “milestone” in the project. If they have a hammer, MAKE SURE you have a hammer too.

Sorry if this seems a little basic to some of the more experienced developers out there, but for many people eager to get that “first game” accepted by a major publisher, they are afraid to negotiate….. EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE.

How to make a “forum” policy (Developers Corner)

jaymoffitt — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:25:22 +0000

There are four essential parts to a fourm policy: 1. Instruction 2. Limitation 3.Legal protection 4.Input/Discourse Of course, there’s more to it than this: full discussion after the jump…

The first part is instruction. Even though a game maker has seen dozens of forums, for many users they have no idea what is OK or not OK to talk about. The instructions should be fairly clear about the general range of topics allowable in the forums, or if the forums are categorized, the instructions should direct the user towards what category where a certain post should be posted.

The second part is limitation. Most common limitations include language, racism, religious discussions, personal attacks, and other common-sense limitations on touchy subjects. Also often excepted is discussion of the developer’s choice’s in the game making, known bugs and cheats, and unsolicited suggestions as to how to improve game-play. This part depends upon the developer’s concept of what a forum is for. Other limitations include commercial posts, spam, linking-out to other games/sites, or any subject that doesn’t help the game-player.

Legal protection: This in some way reiterates the topics in the second section. Limits on personal attacks on other forum users, racism, religious rants, off-color language, and off-topic posts are prohibited. This gives a legally defensible position if there is litigation related to some one feeling they were libeled or illegally attacked on a forum topic. For the legal protection to have the best effect, the developers’-publishers’ have to have a person(s) moderating the forums for these unacceptable posts. If the legal protection language is done properly, then the administrators have the right to warn, and then eventually ban the person from the forum, and even from the game/MMO itself.

Input/Discourse: This is why most people come to a forum to participate. If the first three elements are taken care of efficiently and seamlessly, the valued customer can discuss, suggest, and gently vent to their hearts content. A little teasing, good-natured ribbing, or even over-familiarity are allowable if the administrators can guide the discussions in a firm yet direct way. And the meaning of community is most at evidence here if you can use that forum to worry about building inertia and good-will for the game rather than constantly fighting the legal aspects, which can be invisible yet well-done if you use some foresight, planning, and a good lawyer (with the common sense of a gamer). Most gaming lawyers will have a solid template that you can customize for your independent or small gaming site.

Finally, here are some links (for example’s sake only) given without commentary.

World of Warcraft Forum Rules http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/forum-coc.html?sid=1

Eve Online Forum rules http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/W/index.php

Second Life Forum rules https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2009/02/25/second-life-discussion-guidelines

Activision Forum Rules http://forums.activision.com/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=517

EA Forum Rules http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/335106.page

Developer’s Corner (Nondisclosure Agreements)

jaymoffitt — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:23:00 +0000

Many, if not most beta programs for new MMOs require users to sign a Nondisclosure Agreement to play the game. But a recent major Beta program did not require this. (according to story on Big Download). I’m going to cover just a few of the pros and cons of having a NDA for a beta program on your game release.

Now keep in mind this is for your game’s beta testers. Typically, the game should be 80 to 90 percent complete, with no functional issues and only minor interface or playability problems.

Pros: First, there appears to be no common law or state law protections against speaking ill about a game, denigrating it in online forums, or attempting to show how easily a product can be “gamed” or “cheated”. That’s one reason the NDA must have a confidentiality obligation between the developer(s) and the tester, and should preferably state that bugs should be reported as part of a beta-tester’s duty (and explicitly forbid disclosure of those bugs to outside parties).

Next, Reverse engineering, or ”breaking the code” as to how a program works. http://kfsone.wordpress.com/2006/05/09/interview-with-kfs1/ (Probably not a violation of NDA). But the more hard-core gamers, or specifically programmers or game engineers that participate in your beta, the more likely one or several of them can, if they wish, be able to duplicate a particular function or effect of your game.

Cons: Gamers believe it is an attempt to curb their freedom of speech. (Blog post by 2404 blog). This article, which you should really read in its entirety, claims NDA are cynical attempts to stifle discussions about poorly-made games.

Some users are critical of the time frames. Read this article at Workbench that talks about the length of time that the Dungeons and Dragons beta is effective for. (Hint: forever)

Peripheral mention of NDA in this article from Techrepublic about beta testing. Whether it is a “marketing-based” beta program might influence a slightly softer and more conciliatory tone in the language of the NDA.

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External Link: here’s a resource that contains some blank NDA forms as well as basic explanations….

If you’ve read a lot of attorney blogs (I don’t know that’s true because most of my readership is actually developers and gamers rather than other attorneys) you’ll note not a lot of attorneys have pro/con about certain agreements. That’s because I really don’t care one way or another if you choose to use a NDA or my services. There are pros and cons, and you have to decide if you are willing to risk a little alienation (or ridicule) from your beta-testers in order to protect your hard-fought code. If you decide that you’d rather spend a little cash on the front-end and save your resources for other fights later, you’ve got my email address in the link. Similar to many who read my column regularly, I hate to talk on the phone and do most of my conversations from the keyboard. (15 years ago that made me a decided outsider, but I’ve found it’s a lot more common today).

Attribution for the photo:

http://creativecommons.org/ns#” about=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightmatter/95600250/”> rel=”cc:attributionURL” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightmatter/”>http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightmatter/> / http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>CC BY 2.0

Developers’ Corner(Audio importance)

jaymoffitt — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:12:19 +0000

As an aspiring writer and a failed musician, I have a great deal of respect for those people who write the scenarios and set up the sound effects for video games (whoever they are).

Gameaudiopodcast has a regular series that details the adventures of the people working on the audio side.

Great article on the Designing Sound Webpage about tips for sound designers.

Great article on Gamasutra about two game music specialists. They have some interesting discussion in the middle about how it’s much easier as a company to negotiate, than merely as an individual. You should read the whole article, though.

A simply amazing site (for game music geeks) called Gamemusic4al that has a weekly column entitled “This Week in Game Music”.

For an assessment of older game music, go to Critical Game Studies and read the post here. They list the tech specs of the NES, the SNES, and the Sega Genesis among others.

For the latest consoles: Xbox360, see Teamxbox web site: , but as a summary, “The console has a multi-channel surround sound output that supports 48 KHz, 16-bit for over 256 audio channels”… For the PS3, Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell-based processing), from Playstation official specs. (Quick note about audio specs: This Gizmodo article points out the firmware updates through PS3 network (assuming you are connected) enhance the built-in hardware capabilities as technology evolves.) Nintendo Wii: An article on GizmoCafe notes that the Wii features ” Dolby Pro Logic II, an upgraded implementation of the popular original Dolby Pro Logic.” The article also adds that the Wii features actual speaker from the Wiimote.

Freesound is a collected repository of free (CC-licensed) sounds. (If you’re a developer reading this and saying, “Why is he giving this out for free?”; I found these resources in less than an hour; imagine how much I could save you if you paid for an afternoon of my time!)

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Below the fold; for those of you with the drive and the desire:

Rob Bridgett’s article on Post-production on Video Game Sound. Wonderful template for designers working on finishing up the sound in a video game. Worth it entirely just to read Footnote 14.

“The majority of sounds in thePlaystation 2 and Xbox versions of the
game were at 24khz. For Tony Montana’s M16 the sample rate was increased to
32khz. This had the effect of rendering it much clearer than all
the other sounds in the game.” If you don’t know what he’s talking about ask a teenager.

Another gem from IGDA, The Ten Commandments for Game Developers.

Developer’s Buffet

jaymoffitt — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:07:48 +0000

Well, in the spirit of the holiday I can’t decide on just one main course; so I’ll give you a little of everything.

Difference between a cheater and a spoilsport, towards the end of the lecture. The rest is a nice discussion of the roles of role-playing and the importance of narrative.. as well as games’ limitations.

Incredible lecture. Talks about the difference between one trying to belong (by winning) and one trying to defile (by destroying the environment or the gameplay mechanic). To a developer it may seem the same result; but different types of personalities which require different sorts of safeguards.

Related article discussing “griefers” (those who dissent/protest within a virtual world). My favorite quote is “The larger point however is that when designing any MMO, you either live in fear of your players, or you embrace and guide them.”

Distribution issues discussed by a developer. Good breakdown of the percentages of distributors, and a frank dialogue about the pros and cons for an independent studio.

Great collection of articles by a game attorney who pioneered the idea of a game attorney. Don’t know him personally, but he seems like the kind of attorney interesting enough he’d never have to pay for his own lunch. A very comprehensive bit of work, and has a gravitas that all IP/game/contract lawyers need to aspire towards.

Raph Koster talking about game mechanics. Nothing to do with law; today is just a great excuse to get in a great game mind like Raph Koster in my blog.

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Once again, below the fold, some intellectual egg-head discussions (which I admire).

How War has influenced Game Design

Are Virtual Worlds Waiting in the Wings?

From SSRN: login required “Politicization of the Online World”, paper by Olivier Mauco.

Free to Play Model (Developer’s Corner)

jaymoffitt — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:22:38 +0000

Free to play is the newest model for income-producing games. Here are some authoritative articles to help familiarize you with this new game model. No cases, since free-to-play is so new, especially to the North American model.

Game design as marketing: How game mechanics create demand for virtual goods, download link: Cite as: Int. Journal of Business Science and Applied Management, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2010, Juho Hamari and Vili Lehdonvirta

The most notable quote, “they also suggest a radically new perspective to marketers of ordinary goods and services: viewing marketing as a form of game design”.

“Conclusion: Based on the findings, we assert that game designers, by creating and modifying the rules and mechanics of the game, SNS or other online hangout, have an essential, but sometimes unrecognised role in planning the marketing of virtual goods.”

Here is an oldie but a classic of game design: I Have No Words & I Must Design:Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games, by Greg Costikyan.

A notable thought is “A game’s structure creates its own meanings. The meaning grows out of the structure; it is caused by the structure; it is endogenous to the structure.” The article is worthy of a full read, but for my purpose let me give you his conclusion. “But your changes of getting that beautiful, wonderful, superb game will be much higher if you begin with intentionality, begin by thinking about the experiences you want your players to have, understand what makes a game, and understand what pleasures people find in them.”

This is the best article I’ve found by far about a detailed model for free-to-play. It is by Matthew Warneford, permission granted to share. (By the way, you should read some of his other ideas, too).

Free-to-play on Apple’s Iphone?

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And a couple of dissenting voices, and warnings of challenges, amid all this harmony.

Top 10 free to play growth killers

The Power of Free to Play: a recap of Adrian Crook’s presentation at the GDC (Gamer Development Conference) Most importantly, he notes the pink elephant in the room. “First, there are virtual property challenges. At some point that’s going to be decided by the courts.”

Shuttering Free-to-Play Servers Most shocking quote; “Nexon is pulling its disappointing ZerA and taking an unexpected road: repaying the people who purchased virtual items for real money”

MMO billing headaches, covering billing issues of free-to-play versus subscription based games.
The most important quote about the metrics of free-to-play is “And although it is much more difficult to calculate the average customer’s lifetime value using this model, Hoffman points out another way to measure the financial success of a free-to-play game.”"Another good approximation of the revenue success of a FTP model is charting the growth in average revenue per player, per month -– this would also account for the players who pay nothing,” he says.”

Finally, some notes about free-to-play from Asian, and also European markets, where free-to-play is more prevalent because of more extensively implemented broadband networks (among other factors).

Download link: Game Design on Item-selling Based Payment Model in Korean Online Games Gyuhwan Oh and Taiyoung Ryu Situated Play, Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference © 2007 Authors & Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA)

The most surprising and important quote, “Finally, we discuss game design issues to efficiently accommodate item-selling based payment model in online games: how to balance betweenitems obtained by game-money and items purchased by realmoney, how to abstract the function of such items, and how to strength events and communities.”

A great slideshow (and transcript) about the European model of free-to-play games

Developer’s Corner, more than just a game

jaymoffitt — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:18:52 +0000

Today’s post is: we’ll get a lawyer when we have a dispute… why bother beforehand!

Back in the Game, Great article about when your hobby becomes your Job

Working out the legal issues is important because virtual worlds are becoming more mainstream. Sony Online Entertainment said that its Free Realms virtual world drew more than a million users in its first 17 days. World of Warcraft has 12 million users. Linden Lab’s Second Life had 732,526 unique users in the first quarter, up 25 percent from a year ago. Nexon’s MapleStory has 92 million members worldwide, including 6 million members in North America. Virtual worlds raised $594 million in venture money in 2008, and there are more than 200 virtual worlds for kids in the works.

Forbes has a recent authoritative ariticle on the worth of virtual worlds, saying ” the worldwide virtual “goods” economy, which some are calling Virtual Street, is estimated at about $5 billion right now”.

A Screen Digest article touches on the longterm growth of virtual worlds. The most provocative quote is “overall, the outlook for subscription-based MMOGs remains positive over the next five years. By 2013, we expect the subscription market to top $2bn in consumer spending and for it to maintain its role as a key business model for monetisation alongside micro-transactions.”

Virtual Worlds News predicts 400 million to be spent on virtual goods. A highlight of the article is “(Viximo founder) Balfour values the global market for virtual goods in 2009 at $5.5 billion”.

Clickz has some updated Virtual Worlds figures, saying “by 2010, the online game market is expected to reach $4.4 billion, up from $1.1 billion in revenues last year. That figure is based on interviews and estimates of different segments of the game industry including publishers, distribution services, casual Web-based services, and also derivative revenue like in-game advertising and commodity exchange.”

I want to conclude by pointing out some disparities in these figures, and to define some terms. These raw figures incorporate different types of income, and thus must be further broken down. A value in “virtual goods” is from those services and products sold in-game to enhance the game experience. A virtual good can be bought in a free-to-play game or a subscription-based game. We’ll look at “game models” in a different post, where we talk about the different risks in either subscription-based or free-to-play.

Jay Moffitt is a TN attorney. The statements here are not legal advice, and no attorney/client relationship is created. Jay Moffitt claims no certification in this specialty, and TN does not offer a certification in this area of law. Copyright, Jay Moffitt, 2009. Comments are welcomed and will be answered promptly and courteously.