After typing up my post on KC Munchkin, I thought to myself: "Wouldn't it be helpful if someone made a comprehensive online list of early IP lawsuits related to video games?" Of course, as these things tend to go on the Web, someone already has. Today I stumbled across The Patent Arcade, a blog by lawyer Ross Dannenberg (who is also an adjunct IP prof at George Mason) that features a continually updated library of video game IP decisions, with blog-format postings about the opinions (including screenshots).

I really have no idea if that’s true or not, but there’s no doubt that there are certain fundamental differences in how the two cultures look at the graphics in games (much less look at gameplay). It also makes me wonder what Blizzard has done that appeals so strongly to both Westerners and Easterners in terms of visual style. I won’t presume to guess, but it’s an interesting thought to think. This is an attitude (deeper than that, it's a disposition) which I'd suggest is rooted in developer practice generally, and computer games developer practice specifically. It is a view which recognizes that which is scripted, modeled, or otherwise generated according to the practice of software development as seemingly both the (only) site of creativity and (therefore) the ultimate locus of value. Cheap FFXI Gil are on hot sale on all servers, especially on American servers.

MOGs have a thing called MUDflation (Raph Koster referred to it once as 'database inflation') that seems to have been part of their fabric from the beginning. Now, recently, a website (of dubious origin and with shady claims - not recommended) has created some charts that basically reveal what everyone here knows: the value of almost all game currencies against the dollar falls over time (although through back channels Nick Yee says that the price of WoW gold has stabilized recently; I am in EQ2 these days). Nothing new in this. Yet now that the numbers are posted this way, we get other sites (thanks Jessica) making alarmist (though tongue-in-cheek) analyses, as though something's wrong. This is an attitude (deeper than that, it's a disposition) which I'd suggest is rooted in developer practice generally, and computer games developer practice specifically.

Unggi just alerted us to this: The Chinese General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has declared that on October 1, a fatigue system will be instituted in many major MMORPGs, including WoW and Lineage 2. See this report. The Chinese regulations are aimed at reducing time spent playing. According to the linked report: "The system will only award players full experience points for the first three hours of each day, half experience for the next two hours, and no experience after five hours." If you read Chinese, see this and this too -- and feel free to translate for us.

(And this approach is not just applied externally; within software companies one frequently sees similar efforts to address organizational issues with precise and enumerated systems that can be, above all, measured.) Heather Kelly, one of the developers on a panel on Monday asked a great question about game development that she hoped researchers could help answer: Why does money trump everything? The answer lies in the remarkably good 'fit' between the market and code, and in the existence of a lot of well-trained people who can find ways to exploit it.

(And this approach is not just applied externally; within software companies one frequently sees similar efforts to address organizational issues with precise and enumerated systems that can be, above all, measured.) Heather Kelly, one of the developers on a panel on Monday asked a great question about game development that she hoped researchers could help answer: Why does money trump everything? The answer lies in the remarkably good 'fit' between the market and code, and in the existence of a lot of well-trained people who can find ways to exploit it.

(And this approach is not just applied externally; within software companies one frequently sees similar efforts to address organizational issues with precise and enumerated systems that can be, above all, measured.) Heather Kelly, one of the developers on a panel on Monday asked a great question about game development that she hoped researchers could help answer: Why does money trump everything? The answer lies in the remarkably good 'fit' between the market and code, and in the existence of a lot of well-trained people who can find ways to exploit it.

(And this approach is not just applied externally; within software companies one frequently sees similar efforts to address organizational issues with precise and enumerated systems that can be, above all, measured.) Heather Kelly, one of the developers on a panel on Monday asked a great question about game development that she hoped researchers could help answer: Why does money trump everything? The answer lies in the remarkably good 'fit' between the market and code, and in the existence of a lot of well-trained people who can find ways to exploit it.

(And this approach is not just applied externally; within software companies one frequently sees similar efforts to address organizational issues with precise and enumerated systems that can be, above all, measured.) Heather Kelly, one of the developers on a panel on Monday asked a great question about game development that she hoped researchers could help answer: Why does money trump everything? The answer lies in the remarkably good 'fit' between the market and code, and in the existence of a lot of well-trained people who can find ways to exploit it.

(And this approach is not just applied externally; within software companies one frequently sees similar efforts to address organizational issues with precise and enumerated systems that can be, above all, measured.) Heather Kelly, one of the developers on a panel on Monday asked a great question about game development that she hoped researchers could help answer: Why does money trump everything? The answer lies in the remarkably good 'fit' between the market and code, and in the existence of a lot of well-trained people who can find ways to exploit it.