Almighty Game Designer - Chapter 45

Su Jinyu said, “Manager, we should sue this company!”

Jia Peng also nodded, “Yes, Manager you should send a lawyer’s letter!”

Chen Mo shook his head, “It’s useless.”

Su Jinyu was stunned, “Why? Manager, don’t jump to conclusion and let’s ask a lawyer first.”

Chen Mo said, “Referencing the rules of the game is difficult to constitute as plagiarism. Game plagiarism is best determined in two aspects, one is similarity of art resources, and the other is the similarity of text content of the rule documents. If neither of these two aspects is certain about plagiarism, then it is basically difficult to defend the rights.”

“Therefore, even if you send them a lawyer’s letter, they will mostly be thrown into the trashcan.”

Su Jinyu felt somewhat unconvinced, “But this game is too much like 《Plants vs Zombies》, people with discerning eyes can see it!”

Chen Mo calmly said, “But this is not enough to convict them.”

Su Jinyu was somewhat angry, but she couldn’t refute it.

In fact, after crossing to the parallel world, Chen Mo have done some research on the game industry in this world, especially in the area of “game plagiarism”, and he also found several cases.

Similar to his previous world, the parallel world determines game plagiarism mainly in 2 aspects, one is the art resources, music and sound effects, text content, and so on, and the other is the basic rules of the game documents, which is roughly equivalent to his previous world’s source code.

These two aspects are the best way to determine plagiarism, as long as they get tangible evidence, you can get a verdict.

However, the most critical part, “gameplay”, is difficult to judge whether it plagiarized or not.

In his previous world, the famous board game 《Legends of the Three Kingdoms》 once filed a lawsuit against 《Three Kingdoms Cut》, believing that 《Three Kingdoms Cut》 constitutes “plagiarizing other people’s works”.

However, 《Three Kingdoms Cut》 argued that the work done by their game designers, including the determination of design direction, design framework, and design rules, belonged to the idea in the sense of copyright law and was not the object of copyright law protection.

Simply speaking, from the rules of the game, 《Three Kingdoms Cut》 proposed that the entire design idea of 《Legends of the Three Kingdoms》 had also imitated the Italian card game 《Bang!》and now it accused others of plagiarizing.

Eventually, the event ended with a grand withdrawal of the lawsuit.

There are many examples in his previous world. There are many “referencing” and “plagiarism” incidents in the game industry. Apart from individual cases with sufficient evidence, most of the “plagiarism” incidents were settled by leaving it unsettled.

Of course, this is not entirely just because the law is not perfect. A very important reason is that the boundary between plagiarism and reference is very difficult to define.

Even the famous 《Monument Valley》 in his previous world, has the suspicion of over-referencing (plagiarizing) 《Echochrome》.

Of course, the so-called “referencing”, we call it “plagiarism” in a unpleasant way, but to put it in a good way, it’s “inheritance” or “tribute.”

The same is true in the parallel world. Although people’s sense of authentic and anti-plagiarism is much stronger, it is also easy to infringe, difficult to defend your rights, long litigation time, difficult to prove, and the time and money costs are very high, which often leads to the benefits of the litigant’s being far lower than what they have spent.

Therefore, there were also some cases of “plagiarism” in the parallel world, which ultimately were settled by leaving them unsettled.

Chen Mo roughly looked at the content of the game 《Battle for the Moon Protection》, the art resources, the music and sound effects were all renovated, leaving no shadow of 《Plants vs Zombies》.

While the rules of the game are similar to 《Plants vs Zombies》, it is clear that the game designer rewrote the design document from the beginning to the end and made some changes in many aspects to consciously avoid legal risks.

It can only be said that this Fei Xian Interactive Entertainment is probably a recidivist. They are very clear about where the legal boundary is, and perfectly hit the edge.

Therefore, Chen Mo knows that if he goes to sue, although the public opinion is on his side, but it is basically impossible to take advantage of it.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

However, this does not mean that Chen Mo was helpless, he has already long expected it.

Chen Mo downloaded the game and started 《Battle for the Moon Protection》 and played two levels.

“Don’t worry, this game won’t be popular.” said Chen Mo.

“Ah? Why?” Su Jinyu asked.

Chen Mo handed the phone back to Su Jinyu, “You will know once you play it yourself.”

“Can’t be popular? Manager, are you sure about this?” Wen Lingwei frowned.

Chang Xiuya also nodded, “Yes, Manager, the graphics of this game is quite good, and it is free.”

Chen Mo said it with certainty, “I am sure that it won’t be popular.”

Jia Peng hesitated and asked, “Then, Manager, are we still going to spam bad reviews?”

Chen Mo smiled, “It’s up to you.”

After Chen Mo said that, he turned around and went back to the second floor.

“Manager, don’t leave, you haven’t told me why this game won’t be popular!” said Su Jinyu.

Chen Mo turned back and said, “I have to plan the new game. As for why this game won’t be popular, you are a game designer now. You should have some judgment.”

Chen Mo then went upstairs.

Su Jinyu curled her lips and then began to play 《Battle for the Moon Protection》.

She was slightly curious, why was Chen Mo so sure that 《Battle for the Moon Protection》 would not be popular?

The others were also very curious.

Jia Peng doubted, “The Manager seems to be confident. How does he know that this game won’t be popular?”

Wen Lingwei said, “It may be because of the score. You see, everyone is spontaneously boycotting this game. With this reputation, even if it is free, how many people will play it?”

Another boy said, “I think it may be because of this charging method. The Manager did not use the advertising space to charge money when he was doing 《Plants vs Zombies》. Therefore, he must have his own considerations.”

Jia Peng hesitated, “So, we will go spam bad review?…”

Wen Lingwei said, “Of course, come on, everyone. Follow me to spam bad reviews and then uninstall it after spamming!”

Su Jinyu felt that everyone has a point, but she always felt that Chen Mo had another reason.

Su Jinyu decided to play 《Battle for the Moon Protection》.

The first level, the game guides the player to arrange the energy supply station at the lunar base, then install a machine turret to defeat the invading Zerg.

The second level, new Zergs began to emerge and new defense facilities were unlocked.

The third level is still constantly unlocking new ways of playing…

Su Jinyu played the game. By the time she reached the third level, she wanted to uninstall the game.

It’s so similar to 《Plants vs Zombies》 that Su Jinyu felt like she was playing 《Plants vs Zombies》 adventure mode for the second week. A lot of contents that she has long been bored with, and yet 《Battle for the Moon Protection》 is still guiding her to complete it with great care.

“Weird, why is this game with a very similar content to 《Plants vs Zombies》, and the game’s quality is not bad, but I can’t play it at all…”

Su Jinyu could not help but ponder.