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I don't think it's particularly great for indie creators Maybe not, but the alternative is worse. I don't want federal judges declaring that Torchlight is ille

I don't think it's particularly great for indie creators Maybe not, but the alternative is worse. I don't want federal judges declaring that Torchlight is illegal because it's too close to Diablo. games are basically yet another starving artist industry Yes, this is the market correctly telling potential game developers that there's an oversupply and they should consider doing something else.

pengaru 5y ago
> Yes, this is the market correctly telling potential game developers that there's an oversupply and they should consider doing something else. Shouldn't the abundance of clones naturally cease in an oversupply scenario, since they'd be unable to garner any returns? I'm no economist, but it doesn't seem to make business sense. Perhaps what's really going on is the act of creating and shipping low-effort clones has become a game unto itself. That doesn't have to be profitable for the "creators"; they're being entertained and paying app store fees so Valve is still happy selling proverbial shovels.
- leppr 5y ago
  The number of game developers and studios is more or less fixed for a certain period of time. Since returns on games are so low, game creators have to save money on development. The easiest way to save money on development is to make a clone. So there will be a higher percentage of clones during periods of oversupply. (Nothing empirically measured but this mechanic makes sense to me).
deleted 5y ago
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HWR_14 5y ago
> I don't want federal judges declaring that Torchlight is illegal because it's too close to Diablo. It would be a jury and a judge who agrees that they are too similar. And why the fuck not? It's the same system that keeps me from debuting my new book and movie "SandHill" a sci-fi story about a bunch of sand worms and spice or my new hit song "Elder Rural Highway" under my country/rap name "Smaller Nos Y". For some reason, writing, music, movies, TV and even boat designs are all granted copyrights. But we have yet to extend the same practice to game designs.
- michaelmrose 5y ago
  Well lets start with the fact that you have no moral right to keep people from making any work they please with their own time and materials. No sane argument in favor of using the government to restrict citizens freedoms begins with "why the fuck not". The argument to make for example distributing Harry Potter epubs to your million closest friends is that its vastly easier to transmit a few MB than it is to sit down and write the thing and fewer people might write if they had to compete with people spending 1/100th of a cent in electricity vs their months or years of work. It's not remotely clear that the same argument holds for the game industry. We have an embarrassment of riches in terms of tools/distribution/games and its not clear that Torchlight for example is as good or better replacement for Diablo unless they just do it better. The tools you suggest we create would overwhelmingly be used in favor of those who can afford all the lawyers not to protect indie developers and the entire world of art is so very very derivative that in 10 years no game would be created without the largess of a tiny number of owners whose undeserving great grandkids would inherit the rights to the entire industry or whatever is left of it after you assassinated it.

pengaru 5y ago

> Yes, this is the market correctly telling potential game developers that there's an oversupply and they should consider doing something else. Shouldn't the abundance of clones naturally cease in an oversupply scenario, since they'd be unable to garner any returns? I'm no economist, but it doesn't seem to make business sense. Perhaps what's really going on is the act of creating and shipping low-effort clones has become a game unto itself. That doesn't have to be profitable for the "creators"; they're being entertained and paying app store fees so Valve is still happy selling proverbial shovels.

leppr 5y ago
The number of game developers and studios is more or less fixed for a certain period of time. Since returns on games are so low, game creators have to save money on development. The easiest way to save money on development is to make a clone. So there will be a higher percentage of clones during periods of oversupply. (Nothing empirically measured but this mechanic makes sense to me).

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

HWR_14 5y ago

> I don't want federal judges declaring that Torchlight is illegal because it's too close to Diablo. It would be a jury and a judge who agrees that they are too similar. And why the fuck not? It's the same system that keeps me from debuting my new book and movie "SandHill" a sci-fi story about a bunch of sand worms and spice or my new hit song "Elder Rural Highway" under my country/rap name "Smaller Nos Y". For some reason, writing, music, movies, TV and even boat designs are all granted copyrights. But we have yet to extend the same practice to game designs.

michaelmrose 5y ago
Well lets start with the fact that you have no moral right to keep people from making any work they please with their own time and materials. No sane argument in favor of using the government to restrict citizens freedoms begins with "why the fuck not". The argument to make for example distributing Harry Potter epubs to your million closest friends is that its vastly easier to transmit a few MB than it is to sit down and write the thing and fewer people might write if they had to compete with people spending 1/100th of a cent in electricity vs their months or years of work. It's not remotely clear that the same argument holds for the game industry. We have an embarrassment of riches in terms of tools/distribution/games and its not clear that Torchlight for example is as good or better replacement for Diablo unless they just do it better. The tools you suggest we create would overwhelmingly be used in favor of those who can afford all the lawyers not to protect indie developers and the entire world of art is so very very derivative that in 10 years no game would be created without the largess of a tiny number of owners whose undeserving great grandkids would inherit the rights to the entire industry or whatever is left of it after you assassinated it.