Conclusion

I disagree almost 100% with Diana's article. We should have been scared if Hasbro lost, not if they won. If Hasbro lost, then it would have meant the death of copyright laws and intellectual property rights as we know them.

Lose intellectual property laws, and nobody's games would be safe from plagiarism any more. Fly-by-night pay-nothing publishers would rise up out of the cesspits of the world and tell gullible coders to steal, copy and rip whatever works they wanted to cash in on. And nobody would be able to touch them for it.

Creating a new game genre from scratch is a long process, usually involving a number of released products. The first is the proof-of-concept. "Dune 2(R)" was the first RTS Westwood(R) created, not "Command & Conquer(R)". Every subsequent release in the series has been an evolution, a refinement, of that original concept. Each attempt was an attempt at improving the overall gaming experience.

Others, such as Ensemble(R), looked at these works and, instead of simply plagiarising it, they created their own 'take' on the basic concept called "Age of Empires(R)". This game is clearly based on the same concept used in Westwood's product, but the execution -- the actual gameplay -- is very, very different. The important issue here is that both games were successful in their own right.

But what's the point in spending all this R&D time and money on a game if people are only going to plagiarise and undercut you? Some may not consider this a bad thing, but few people get into this industry for the fame. Creating games is a team effort, and no single individual can lay claim to being solely responsible for creating a hit.

Fame is vastly overrated and usually ends up hindering rather than helping your career. And fame alone won't buy you the development software and hardware you need to make great games.

Usually, professionals will tell you they do it because it's a bit more fun than designing and building databases or flipping burgers at a fast food chain. But fundamentally, they're doing it because people need to work in order to make money. And we need that money to pay our bills and taxes.

* * *

The computer games industry is growing up and that means it has to be more mature. The pioneering days are over for the time being. Other frontiers await us, but we need to take stock and consolidate what we have until we're ready to strike out again.

Hasbro aren't evil. They just don't want people stealing their property. Is this so wrong?

Sean Timarco Baggaley

DISCLAIMER:
This article reflects the opinions of its author, and does not necessarily represent the position or opinions of GameDev.net, LLC or its ownership, staff, or affiliates.