Category: Games and Politics (Page 3 of 9)

Blizzard to Canucks: No Looking Over Your Neighbor’s Shoulder

April 3, 2008 / Damion Schubert

My Canadian coworkers got a kick out of this: our gaming neighbors to the north do not have to pay an entry fee to enter Blizzard’s arena tournament. However, they do have to sharpen their number two pencils.

Canadian residents are not required to pay an Entry Fee in order to enter. Instead, Canadian residents may enter by submitting a 250 word typewritten essay comparing the video gaming culture in Canada to the video gaming culture in the United States on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper and mailing their essay to Essay Entry for The North American Blizzard Entertainment Arena Tournament, P.O Box 18979, Irvine, CA 92623. Essay entries must be received no later than March 31, 2008 in order to be eligible. Essay entrants represent and warrant that the essay is their original work and does not infringe the rights of any third party. By entering, essay entrants hereby grant, without further consideration, all right, title and interest in and to their essay to Sponsor.

Also, it is not an acceptable excuse that your sled dog ate your homework. I kid! I kid! Anyway, it’s nice to see a new growth industry for gold farmers.

Romantics= Buzzkills

November 23, 2007 / Damion Schubert

The Romantics are suing Activision (the publishers of Guitar Hero) for including a cover of ‘What I Like About You’ in Guitar Hero II Rocks the 80s. Developers Harmonix are not mentioned in the article.

The twist – the Romantics concede that they gave Activision the right to include a cover of their song, but feel that the cover was TOO FAITHFUL. The fact that it sounds so alike ‘infringes on the group’s ability to control its own likeness’.

On the flip side, any Guitar Hero/Rock Band fan will tell you that playing covers of songs that aren’t faithful are downright painful. Evidence A is the so-called cover of Rage Against the Machine in Guitar Hero II.

Update on Fantasy Sports Law

October 17, 2007 / Damion Schubert

Some time ago, I linked to a story about how fantasy sports owners were being sued by Major League Baseball, claiming that only MLB had the rights to the stats that come from Major League Baseball. Briefs in support were supplied by virtually every major American sports league, including the NFL, the NBA, the NHL and even the WNBA (there’s fantasy women’s basketball? I’m sure there’s a joke about porn that could go here, but I digress) Anyway, a year ago, they lost.

Yesterday, the case finally wound its way through the appeals process. End result: MLB baseball lost again. One viewpoint: Continue reading

Next Week, China Bans Unregulated Griffin Flight Paths

August 29, 2007 / Damion Schubert

True story: once upon a time, I pitched a game idea to China that revolved heavily on player created content. Their response was to reject it, because the game leaned heavily on players voting on good content vs. bad content. China doesn’t like games that espouse democracy.

Cut forward to this article: China bans real-life reincarnation (thanks Amber). Continue reading

Bragg v. Linden

July 2, 2007 / Damion Schubert

Linden Labs has filed their paperwork in their court case which has the potential to be a landmark in the virtual world domain. Matt’s got a good writeup, as does Prokofy Neva. I heartily recommend taking the time to read the writeups, and contribute discussion on Matt’s blog whose following details of the case much closer than I am, but I think the whole case has deep ramifications for anyone trying to protect their environment from troublesome elements.

Everybody Sues Everybody

June 1, 2007 / Damion Schubert

Is it an industry coming of age, or a legalopolypse that kills fun as we know it? Who know, although I suspect most of the doom and gloom is overstated.

First order of business: Blizzard sues gold spammers. The forum responses so far seem positive, with dissenters mostly arguing that said spammers should instead be dipped in honey and planted in an anthill near a bear cave. Still, definitely more positive than their last lawsuit. Continue reading

Big Brother Keeping An Eye On Second Life

May 8, 2007 / Damion Schubert

Not long ago, I wrote my opinion that the two core visions of Second Life are on a collision course.

Scott writes that he can see where the train tracks cross.

Short form: what happens when you tell an audience of idealistic libertarian technocrats they need to register with a site that is, among other things ‘Patriot Act compliant’?

When All the Ghouls Come Out to Play

April 20, 2007 / Damion Schubert

Virginia Tech was one of my backup schools. I spent my formulative years in Northern Virginia, and I had many friends who went to college at Tech, and I’ve been watching news reports in the off-chance that one of them might have still been there as a teaching assistant or something. Watching the news reports has been eerie – even though I’ve never been to that campus, the climate and trees in the background reminds me so much of where I went to high school, that I’ve been depressed and distracted all week. I can only imagine how it must affect those who actually were closer to the incident, and my deepest condolences go out to those who were touched by this horrible tragedy.

In the dark days of the Katrina disaster, the only saving grace of the whole episode was that it was the media’s shining moment. The 4th estate came in, managed to capture all the right stories, conveyed the desperation to the people, and captured the outrage over how the entire thing was handled from top to bottom. Continue reading

A Rare Flurry of Linkworthy Blogtivity

April 12, 2007 / Damion Schubert

Lots of good reading on the web today. Be sure you check some of these out.

First off, Scott talks about the Armory, and his surprise that the villagers haven’t gone to Irvine with pitchforks.

Blizzard should enforce 100% opt-in for the Armory because:

– Tactical transparency in PvP is important
– The ability to research other players in game is important
– The ability to research message board posters is important
– It’s just a game, who cares, Blizzard is cool and we like them
– stfu noob lrn2ply

Blizzard should offer an opt-out for the Armory because:

– Some people don’t want to have their player’s data open to ridicule or data mining

At first glance, it seems fairly conclusive. And given Blizzard’s stated stance on in-game privacy (they’ve been quoted as saying that an /anon command goes against what they see as the social nature of MMOs) it’s doubtful that this decision would be reversed.

Online Gambling Puts Second Life at a Crossroads

April 9, 2007 / Damion Schubert

Raph has been following this story for a long time, and he links to an excellent analysis over on PlayNoEvil. Short form: Second Life is no longer accepting ads for virtual casinos in their space (which, of course, traffic LindenBucks, which can be exchanged for real simoleans with relative ease). The official link from Linden Labs is here.

As Raph notes, the comments thread is particularly intriguing, with many people channelling Martin Neimollar to say “First, they came for the ageplayers, and then the casinos…”. The fact that this meme was repeated several times was significant, as it points to players concerned that their way of life is threatened. Continue reading