The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Josquius]

I thought this was already patented from years ago?
I'm sure I've read gamer moaning on that at least.

[Syt]

I thought this was already patented from years ago?
I'm sure I've read gamer moaning on that at least.

They've been trying to patent it for years as per the article and had to keep iterating the application till it was accepted.

[celedhring]

WB Games have, after multiple attempts, managed to get their nemesis system from their Middle-Earth games patented:

https://www.ign.com/articles/wb-games-nemesis-system-patent-was-approved-this-week-after-multiple-attempts

Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, publishers of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its 2017 sequel, Shadow of War (both developed by Monolith Entertainment), have finally managed to secure a patent for the franchise's signature Nemesis System.

The US Patent and Trademark Office released an issue notice on February 3, 2021, stating that the patent would go into effect on February 23 of this year. Warner Bros. has the option to maintain the patent through 2035, providing they keep up with the necessary fees.The patent, filed as "Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games," effectively codifies the functions of Monolith's Nemesis system and the sum of its parts as the property of WB.

While the language in the application is fairly obtuse – as most patent claims tend to be – the "short" version is that the patent covers a system featuring procedurally-generated NPCs that exist in a hierarchy and interact with and will remember the actions of players, have their appearance/behavior altered by players, and whose place in that hierarchy can change and affect the position of other NPCs in said hierarchy (and yes, that's the simplified version).

It also covers the Social Conquest battles from Shadow of War, wherein players can fortify or attack one another's strongholds to see how their army of orcs fares against their friends'.

Warner Bros. has been trying to secure the patent for the system since 2015, but has had to repeatedly revise and resubmit the application. Initial rejections claimed that there were too many similarities in the application to other patents – including ones held by Square Enix, the mobile game QONQR, and even Webkinz – though recent rejections were more focused on the specificity of language throughout the patent.While it's unclear what would happen were a game to release with a Nemesis system of its own between now and February 23, after that date any developer wishing to build a feature with all the aspects detailed in the patent (or at least enough to be considered infringement) will have to secure a license from WB.

Developers can still create similar systems that aren't a 1:1 recreation of Monolith's program, however – the Mercenaries in AC Odyssey or Watch Dogs Legion's fascinating Census system are recent examples of dynamically-generated NPCs and social networks that would likely not be met with a legal challenge – though as members of both the Mordor games and Ubisoft teams have said, such systems are a major collaborative effort requiring considerable resources and development time.

Rumors late last year year hinted that WB Games was potentially going to be acquired by Microsoft after reports that Time Warner was interested in selling its interactive division, though any talk of sales seems to have gone the way of an unfortunate orc captain.

Not sure I agree with patenting game mechanics like this. It might also explain why other companies have been reluctant to replicate it in their games.

I presume that the patent filing is more deep than the cliffnotes version the article gives. You can patent technologies, not concepts or ideas. Those are IP (which is not as strongly protected as industrial patents). So I presume people will be able to develop similar mechanics as long as the underlying technology is different.

[Syt]

I presume that the patent filing is more deep than the cliffnotes version the article gives. You can patent technologies, not concepts or ideas. Those are IP (which is not as strongly protected as industrial patents). So I presume people will be able to develop similar mechanics as long as the underlying technology is different.

Not necessarily. Namco patented "mini games in loading screens", preventing others from copying the idea (though others managed to skirt around it). From 2015:

https://www.technobuffalo.com/mini-games-loading-screens-patent-expires#:~:text=Now%2C%20if%20a%20developer%20wants,screens%20on%20the%20original%20PlayStation.

Ideally, we'd never have to look at a loading screen at all. They're pretty boring. Especially on consoles, though, they're sometimes necessary. It would be nice if we had something to do during these moments of downtime, right?

Now, if a developer wants to add a mini-game into its loading screens, it can!

For the past 20 years, though, that's been impossible. Back in 1995, Namco filed a patent on the use of "auxillary mini-games" in loading screens to protect its use of Galaxian in Ridge Racer's loading screens on the original PlayStation.

As PC Gamer points out, though, this patent had a lifetime of 20 years and expired on November 27, meaning that developers can start making use of this once forbidden feature. Some games have gotten around this by implementing things that didn't quite fit the definition of "auxillary mini-game," such as Assassin's Creed letting you walk around an empty loading space, but very few games have skirted it because so many options would have fallen under the patent.

Fallout could use the Pip-Boy mini-games during these sequences, for example. Assassin's Creed is ripe for something like this thanks to the story conceit of everything taking place in a simulator. Long-running franchises could load up emulated versions of their predecessors. These screens could even affect the main game.

To celebrate this, a Loading Screen Game Jam has been organized to come up with ways to make use of this new opportunity.

Again, it'd be better if loading screens went away entirely. I'd rather just play the game I paid for. But if they have to happen, it'd be nice to have something to tinker with while I wait.

Activision filed a patent for incentivizing mictrotransactions (MTX) a few years ago: a player without MTX would be matched against a player with MTX who has an advantage to incentivize the first player to also buy MTX. If he does, he would would be matched against players without MTX to reward and validate his purchase decision. Again, primarily a design "philosophy" rather than a technical blueprint.

Besides, I expect such patents can have chilling effects on other developers who would rather not try to create a similar feature for fear of litigation.

[celedhring]

Seems patent abuse to me, but if it stood for 20 years I guess the courts found it valid. My "entertainment law" classes never touched upon patent law that deeply, but the concept was that you can't patent ideas, concepts, etc... just the technology/means to execute them. 

[Syt]

Considering how video games are built around iteration/expansion/retooling of existing mechanics, I find such patents rather problematic. Imagine if the concept of RTS created around resource harvesting and base building had been patented, or some key concepts from Doom or Wolfenstein.

[The Brain]

How easy is it to patent a technology that has already been in general use for years, like patenting loading screen games in the 90s (if we accept that it is in fact a technology)?

[Grey Fox]

Considering how video games are built around iteration/expansion/retooling of existing mechanics, I find such patents rather problematic. Imagine if the concept of RTS created around resource harvesting and base building had been patented, or some key concepts from Doom or Wolfenstein.

It's a stupid thing to patent anyway. You won't gain any revenue from it unless you sue other developers/publishers.

[Syt]

The makers of the rather good Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock will reveal a new game tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/SlitherineGames/status/1358721677958479874?s=20

Black Lab Games, the developers of #BattlestarGalacticaDeadlock, are proud to announce that their latest title will be announced this Tuesday, the 9th of February at 5pm GMT on our #Twitch channel Right pointing backhand indexhttp://bit.ly/24QeEv4

We will be showing both a trailer and gameplay footage.

[Syt]

Considering how video games are built around iteration/expansion/retooling of existing mechanics, I find such patents rather problematic. Imagine if the concept of RTS created around resource harvesting and base building had been patented, or some key concepts from Doom or Wolfenstein.

It's a stupid thing to patent anyway. You won't gain any revenue from it unless you sue other developers/publishers.

Unless you are worried that someone does it better, or adds it to a game that sells more than yours.

I recall a lot of people were asking for adding such a mechanic to other games, and I could easily see this fit into an Elder Scrolls title, a Fallout title, a Far Cry games, or a GTA title.

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2021/feb/08/are-video-games-too-expensive-assassins-creed-cyberpunk-2077

Pay station: are video games too expensive?

In the Guide's weekly Solved! column, we look into a crucial pop-culture question you've been burning to know the answer to – and settle it, once and for all

Last year, something terrible happened. No, not that. Or that, even – something else, that you might not even be able to blame on the Tories. With new consoles from Sony and Microsoft expected, a raft of video game publishers announced that the RRP of their new releases would increase for the first time since the mid-00s. Games such as PS5's Demon's Souls would land at £69.99, not the £50-£55 of previous console generations. Most gamers reacted sensibly to this news. Others, not so much: remarks such as "GAMES RUINED 4EVA SO I FLUSHED MY XBOX DOWN THE DUNNY", written by users with names like n00bsl4yer135 and @URMUM69s, were a common sight on comment threads.

But do the Sl4yers and 69s of Reddit have a point? While an extra £20 won't break the bank for some, games might already be stretching what little disposable income many people have, particularly when twinned with the £250-£450 cost of the shiny new console on which to play them. A hardback book is £15-£20. A Blu-ray is more or less the same, as is the new Steps album on picture-disc vinyl. Compared to these, £70 for a single entertainment product seems ludicrous, particularly when there are monthly subscription services through which, for much less than that £20, you can gorge on books, films, TV and music to your avaricious little blood-pump's content.

The (virtual) reality is, though, a little more complex than this apples-and-orangutans comparison suggests. For starters, the cost of producing an AAA game – big-budget, big-studio, tentpole titles – is now akin to that of making a Hollywood blockbuster. Grand Theft Auto V, released in 2013, cost £195m in development and marketing. December's Cyberpunk 2077 – despite being unfinished, riddled with bugs and, on consoles, uglier than a pooing pug – came in at £228m. That's in the same ballpark as the budget for Avengers: Infinity War. No offence to Steps, but if they spent similar sums making their new album, it was not reflected in the final product.

So if blockbuster films are analogous to games in terms of the sheer cost of putting them out, why are Blu-rays only £20? It's here you also have to consider bang for your buck. A Martin Scorsese film lumbers in at three hours long. Most narrative-led games clock in at 15-or-so hours – five whole Scorseses; a hundred quid's worth of Marty. You'll get 25 hours out of 2020's The Last of Us Part II, and you'll have sunk 100 hours into the most recent trio of Assassin's Creed games before seeing all they have to offer. And open-ended games like racers, sports sims and multiplayers are truly bottomless. You'll be counting their per-hour cost in miserly fractions of pennies. Services such as PS Now and Xbox Game Pass even bring the Netflix model to games: as many titles as you can handle for £9 a month. Suddenly, the value on offer starts to look pretty good.

New games were £40 in the early 90s, back when they were short, shallow, unsightly, simple and rubbish. Adjusted for inflation, that £40 is £86 in 2021. The best modern games are slick, deep, beautiful pieces of art and are, in real terms, cheaper than they've ever been.

Yes, £70 is a lot. But choose wisely and you'll never, ever feel short-changed.

This felt like an odd article choice for the Guardian, what with supporting ever increasing video game prices?

[Syt]

Cyberpunk and Hitman 3 made their money back within a week of launch. I don't think pricing is an issue.

[Syt]

This is an interesting take on wargaming. Instead of hex based map movement, you assign units and resources to operations. Sprinkle some strategic decisions between turns on top. And at 4.99 you can't complain much about the price.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1265220/Cauldrons_of_War__Barbarossa/

Historical gamer has videos about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRgYh__d3cQ&ab_channel=thehistoricalgamer

And RPS has a review of sorts: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-flare-path-stirs-cauldrons

[Syt]

The makers of the rather good Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock will reveal a new game tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/SlitherineGames/status/1358721677958479874?s=20

Black Lab Games, the developers of #BattlestarGalacticaDeadlock, are proud to announce that their latest title will be announced this Tuesday, the 9th of February at 5pm GMT on our #Twitch channel Right pointing backhand indexhttp://bit.ly/24QeEv4

We will be showing both a trailer and gameplay footage.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295500/Warhammer_40000_Battlesector/

Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector is a fast-paced turn-based strategy game set in the grimdark universe of the 41st Millenium. Pick your force, develop your army, field mighty heroes and fight for victory using superior strategy, awesome abilities, and devastating weaponry.

Age of Crimson Dawn
Experience an epic twenty mission single-player campaign that explores the aftermath of the Devastation of Baal. Help Sergeant Carleon and his allies purge the Tyranid infestation on Baal Secundus, and preserve the honour of the noble Blood Angels.

Skirmish Mode
Fight across the surface of Baal on maps of your choosing and select either the Blood Angels or the Tyranids in the Skirmish mode. Completely customize your army list by picking your units, heroes and their loadouts.

Forge Your Armies
Command iconic units like the Sanguinary Priest, the Librarian Dreadnought, and the Hive Tyrant to annihilate your foes. Use over 60 abilities and 50 weapons to orchestrate your opponent's bloody demise.

Build Momentum
Each faction has a unique Momentum system that can result in a Surged unit. Units that Surge are able to string together superhuman chains of actions, or use the opportunity to further upgrade their abilities.

Call In Air Support
Use Command Points to call in faction-specific air support abilities. The Blood Angels Stormraven can obliterate xenos with a missile barrage, or deep strike a unit of veteran Assault Marines behind enemy lines. Meanwhile, the Tyranid Harpy can devastate the enemy defenses with its Sonic Screech, or scatter the battlefield with its deadly Spore Mines.

Face Your Friends On The Battlefield
With live and asynchronous multiplayer, and hotseat modes available, there's no excuse not to take your friends to war.

Bit underwhelming, maybe?

BSG: Deadlock had a lot more going for it at launch (freeform campaign of first Cylon War, plus skirmish mode), with DLC adding more to it. Though I guess this game looks like a starter set with more armies/campaigns to be released at a later date? 20 missions is not exactly knocking my socks off, and a skirmish mode with two races seems quite ho-hum.

[Syt]

Anyone interested in a new Apple II RPG?

https://www.gog.com/game/nox_archaist

An 8-bit RPG modeled after the iconic games of the 1980s. You control a party of adventurers who travel the Realm, talk to NPCs in towns and castles, explore dungeons, and fight monsters as you seek to save the world from a terrible danger.

Key Features
60+ hours of gameplay
Complex storyline and open world
Fast character creation and in-game tutorial
Hundreds of non-player characters to talk to
Created on an Apple II computer, for faithful reproduction of 8-bit graphics
8-bit sounds and in-game music

Included with the Game
DRM-free application for Mac and PC
Apple II hard drive and floppy disk images
PDF and eBook manual
Quick reference guide
High-resolution map
Custom soundtrack
Digital wallpapers