Contracts
Employment - When it comes to the gaming industry individuals will have to sign a contract, in this contract it will include the benefits of you working for the company, what they expect you to do and stuff and also what you will get in return. It will also contain some sort of confidentiality agreement, an inventions clause and a non-compete clause. The benefits part of the contract shows you how much you will be paid throughout the experience of working for the company, it will also entitle you to any vacation, health insurance or bonuses that the company are willing to give.
The confidentiality agreement (also known as the non-disclosure agreement) a makes sure that you stay quiet about any projects that the company is working on, the company does not want their
secrets leaked to the public or to other competitors so that hype is maintained and ideas are not stolen as these two cases will have a wide effect on sales. Written in this part of the contract is also the effect of what will happen to you if you do decide to leak the information. Usually in this contract they cannot speak about certain aspects before and after the launch of the product, where they will be able to talk about a bit more obvious stuff after launch they will not be able to talk about more the confidential background stuff.
Another part of the contract will include something about inventions, this states that while working and developing any part of a game, the ideas that you create automatically belong to the company. Even if they do not decide to include a small idea or create a game that you have been working on then it still belongs to them and cannot be worked on by you once the contract is terminated. However, this only works for games so any ideas unrelated to games can be kept and continued to be worked on by you. It is not always done but is a common clause within the games industry.Non-compete clauses are mainly aimed towards hierarchy's in the company, this clause states that if a higher up (executive producer, director etc.) worked on a game, learned about it and then left then he/she would not be allowed to start a competing company or join another company for a certain amount of time due to the company not wanting stolen ideas.
Development - When a publisher wants to hire a development studio then they will have the development team sign a contract, this will include the ownership of things like the IP (internet protocol), any royalties that will be made and what those royalties are, how much the development team will be paid, the warranty, what actions can cause termination of the contract and the appendices.
When it comes to the warranty this includes information about how the development team won't use assets like code or art that was already developed so that the publisher will get sued even though it was the developers fault and the publisher has to have the right to ask for the development team to create the particular game so the development team don't get sued for the wrong doing of the publisher.In the termination section of the contract, it allows for the publisher or developer to end the agreement if they violate any of the rules that are placed forward. It also explains what will happen to the future of the game if the contract is terminated.
The appendices include the most important details of the contract such as the milestone and payment schedule, this will inform the development team of when the publishers would like certain parts of the game complete by and explain the schedule of the payment such as will it be paid each milestone, be weekly or be monthly. How the royalties will be calculated and split between the publishers and development team and even more.
Collaboration - Collaboration contracts and agreements are used when two or more developers come together to create a game. In a collaboration contract it will be discussed what the characters will be used for, how the game will be created and the type of game it will be, how the sales will be split, which developer will get ownership of copyright, what will be included in the game and etc. If the game will be involved in the making of a movie then the developer who owns the copyright will deal and make a licensing agreement, the other development teams will have no say in the project unless the owning development team allows or asks them too. An example of a game which uses the collaboration agreement is playstation all stars battle royale, this includes a range of characters such as Sly Cooper, Dante, Kratos, The Big Daddy, and even more. These are all characters who belong to a range of publishers. The majority however, belong to sony computer entertainment who are also the publishers of this game. Due to them owning characters like Sly Cooper, Kratos and Ratchet and Clank then it makes it easier to include a higher range of characters with less negotiations.
Legal
Copyright - Copyright is the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the creator of an original idea. It is used to stop content being stolen or used by someone else without giving the owner/creator any credit and protects artistic and literary expression. Sometimes the creator of an original product may not have the legal copyrights to it, this can be because of certain reasons, especially in the games industry, these reasons could be because the original owner sold the rights of the creation to someone else or a different company or the creation could have been done while the creator was working for a company and had signed a contract for any creations that are made to belong to the company, the owner may also give consent for someone or a company to use the idea or work, this allows the company some use but only within the terms and guidelines that the owner gives them. Copyright can last the duration of the creators life and even up to 50 - 100 years after death. In most countries the copyright law allows people to basically have the work created become copyrighted instantly instead of having to go through any legal system making it easier and more beneficial to those who do not want their ideas stolen. If someone wishes to make it fully proven that their work is owned by them then they may get a copyright registration. This is where they register the idea or creation with a central agency allowing for easier proof that the individual has full rights to the item at hand.
To show people that work is copyrighted you will usually see this symbol next to the concept © if someone uses an image or idea that has been copyrighted then the owner of the copyrighted item can take legal action agains the person who has technically stolen their idea. The creation can be taken and used for work without consent or consulting the owner as long as it is within a certain criteria such as giving credit to the owner, naming the source that the work was taken from, it is not used for personal use or gain (e.g. it can be used for educational purposes) and more. However, it is more courteous and it is 100% guaranteed whether you can use the work or not if you ask the owner. If you used or owned the content but sold it later on in life then you can still showcase the fact that you used an item by showcasing the copyright symbol along with the years that you owned it and the name of the creation e.g. © 2004-2012 moogle man.
Some elements of gaming cannot be copyrighted and come under a doctrine known as scenes a fair. This stops companies from copyrighting typical things such as a score system, environment, health system etc. It also protects genres e.g. shooting games, people can still make guns, bullets, enemies they just can't make the same gun or enemies unless the guns are ones used in real life or history, if this doctrine was not here then the majority of video games (if any at all) in our lives would not have been made. Copyright can be dodged however as parodying is a way around it. Parodying is like taking a creation but making it look different, it will not entirely be different and you will be able to tell the similarities but it will not be an exact copy of the item that someone is parodying. An example of this is the weird Al song eat it. The original song was made by Michael Jackson known as beat it, the way that weird Al parodies is by changing the lyrics. The music will be the same but the words that are sung will be different altogether.
In the video game industry a court will determine copyright by taking two approaches, the first is the subtractive approach and the second is the concept and feel approach. In the subtractive approach they take apart elements of a game and check the protectable and un-protectable elements of a game. Once they have found the protectable parts then they compare them to the copied game, if they are substantially similar then action will be taken. In the concept and feel approach they do not dissect the game but instead look at its elements and facts as a whole, they look at creations that usually can't be protected and attempt to make them protectable. After looking at all the combinations that make the original game and looking at the combinations of the second game then they will decide whether action will need to be taken. If someone is suspicious of you stealing their work then you will not be taken to court straight away but instead receive a warning that you are violating the DMCA.
Trademark - Trademark works similar to copyright but is used more on logos, names, phrases etc. they are usually centred around more of the marketing, branding and business practicing side of the industry. There are three types of trademark when it comes to it and these include:
Registered trademark which is shown with this logo ®
Unregistered trademark which is shown like this ™
Unregistered service mark which is shown like this ℠
Trademarks serve to identify or show that a particular business are the source of the goods or services being provided. With the registered mark there are certain exclusive rights that come along with it such as someone not being able to steal the logo design.
If a logo or character is trademarked and someone wanted to make merchandise out of it then licensing is involved, if a company wanted to make merchandise of professor genki from saints row then they would have to contact THQ, sort out a licensing agreement. If they started making the merchandise with unauthorised use then they would be making brand pirated merchandise which can lead to legal action. Trademark infringement is also a violation of the exclusive rights that come with trademarks law, this is where one party uses a trademark on an item that is similar or very similar to one that is already trademarked. This can be punishable again by law and legal action can be taken. An item becomes a registered trademark once the owner or creator registers the design, logo or character and makes it officially trademarked. Unregistered trademark is where a creator or owner does not register the trademark but instead just publishers the design online, this can still be protected but not as much as a registered trademark. A service mark is used mainly when to identify a service rather than a product.
Patent - A patent involves someone registering an invention, it is similar to trademarking or copyrighting. However, patenting stops people from commercially making, using or selling your work and gives you the sole right to said item. You are given full rights to this item and you decide whether someone is allowed to use it. In the gaming world it is hard to pin down the many ways of patenting due to the different elements that make it up, it has to be determined by the relativity to video games, financial value, technological importance and how much it stands out.
An example of a game that was patented is the crazy taxi game created by Sega, the objective of this game is to drive around, collect passengers and drop them off as fast as possible. This game was created in 1999 for arcades and ported to the dreamcast in 2000. In 2003 a video game was developed called the Simpson's road rage which used closely similar gameplay with the same objectives. Sega filed a lawsuit against Fox Interactive, Electronic Arts and Radical Entertainment and claimed that the game they made was a patent infringement. The case was settled in private for an undisclosed account.
Patent infringement is what happens when someone a similar idea to something that has already been created. In the gaming industry's case this is where someone creates a game that looks relatively close to one that has already been made and patented. However, patents can only be done for one country so if you patent an idea in America then the patent will only count and be prohibited there leaving the rest of the world to exploit the invention. A patent can only last a numerous amount of years before it can be used by others, for example, if the creators of assassin's creed patented the logo from 2002-2015, then anyone will be able to use that logo commercially for their own use as it is not protected under the patent law anymore. This also means that someone else could patent the logo themselves.
Registered design - A registered design right is like copyright but for designs that someone has created. It is an intellectual property right in the British law. There are two different types of design right laws and that's registered and unregistered. It works similar to copyright under the fact that once a design has been made it will be unregistered and will be protected but can only be limited to being protected for at least 15 years. A registered design right is what happens when someone legally goes and registers a license to prove that the design is theirs.
Ethics
Violence - Violence causes a huge debate for the gaming industry, the world has become quite lenient towards how violence is portrayed nowadays but at one point it would cause a huge world wide spark, especially when it is being portrayed in any type of media. The reason so many parents and adults were against violence in video games is due to the fact that they didn't want their children to be influenced by what they saw on the screen, they believed it would brainwash their children into becoming outcasts that would run chaos in society. However, it has been proven to be quite opposite and those who do copy what they see from video games suffer from some sort of health issues.
Violence has been a concern both to parents and to companies, depending on the amount of violence and how gory it is then the sales can get hugely effected. It can stop parents buying the game and can stop it from being showcased on certain online sites. A game that recently got banned from being streamed on twitch is known as hatred. Due to the amount of violence it has the company that owns the twitch website has decided to crack down and stop any sort of streams on it. This hinders at an audience and causes a big chunk of possible buyers to not buy the game but violence can also benefit the company as media will spread news across the world about how bad it is which will interest a big fanbase who are into violent games.
Where games like GTA are unethically wrong, they do not change our moral understanding of the real world. The violence in video can be debated to be unrealistic, they defy the laws of physic and the real world, if we take GTA 5 for an example, one man can go around and cause as much chaos as he wanted using an array of guns and getting shot multiple times without having any effect on how the player moves or carries, both these defy any laws of real life physics as getting shot would cause some sort of effect that would hinder you from carrying on the chaos and we don't have any sort of power where we can pull up a wheel, select a rocket launcher and then pull if out of our jean pocket. We morally know how wrong it is because of our understanding of the real world, we know the consequences and we know that if we killed someone in real life then we are taking something that could have an effect that is both devastating for their families lives and our own. Some games can be very unethical though and show scenes of extreme behaviour and violence which can cause some sort of discomfort to the player depending on their morality and mental health, in some cases scenes can scar players. These are reasons for why parents will hate and go against violent video games.
An example of violence affecting someone is when an 8 year shot his own grandmother who was 90 because he had been playing GTA IV. This is a very sad and shocking article to read but cannot be blamed on the video game itself. This child was too young to be playing GTA IV, his morality is still developing and is quite hazy on what is right and wrong.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/8-year-old-boy-played-violent-video-game-killed-90-year-old-woman-not-charged-cops-article-1.1435828
Rating - This is where ratings come in, ratings are essentially put on games to show people the age range that people should be playing them they are supposed to be a guideline. By law you are needed to be the age on the game case to buy the game so an 18 and over game can only be bought by someone who is 18 or over, if it is sold to someone under 18 then it is illegal. However, it is not illegal to play the game if you are under 18 as it is in the hands of the buyer on who plays this game and no responsibility belongs to the publishers, developers or distributors of the game.
One reason they are there are to avoid chaos, as stated before it is easy for a younger person to be influenced by what they see since they have no morality, they grow up learning from the people they live with and hang out with and from the things they see both from media and the environment they live in. If GTA was able to be bought by a 5 year old then they could easily be influenced to kill, learning no morality for later life. The age rating also helps an adult understand whether or not they should buy their child the game.
In Europe we use the PEGI rating system, PEGI stands for pan european game information. Games are either put into 3+, 7+, 12+, 16+ or 18+ depending on the contents of the game. Other continents and countries will use a different rating system.
Education - The main purpose of video games can to bring enjoyment to someones life, it lets us escape reality with story, violence, magic and more. They are usually made to relax someones mind from reality but a few have been made for educational purposes. Where I think that they are quite bad since most educational games are made from low budgets and don't sell that well or are created using software like flash for websites like BBC bitesize, they are quite ingenious. I can see the ideas of mix something that will help learn with something that children love to do but they are portrayed very poorly and mainly developed for children of 5 or younger.The initial idea is to overcome the boring aspect of learning since children don't really take an interest as they want to experience non human like adventures and imagine out this world creations, which is why video games are a brilliant idea for education. Video games can be made up of anything, they are creative and dynamic and if done right would be able to give children a good education, but high end publishers and developers don't want to work on games like that because where freedom is great in games, education can be quite limited compared to ideas that they wish to make which is the downfall of most educational video games.
I got to say Call of duty: modern warfare 2 was quite educational for my religious education as it helped me in homework and exams. How? The quotes when you died were quite helpful and got me credit.
Stereotyping - In the video games industry stereotyping is massive, there are all types of stereotyping too including gender stereotyping, racial stereotyping, Minority stereotyping, environment stereotyping and more. It is a huge thing across all types of media where it can be quite offensive depending on how far the developers take the stereotype and depending on how the person reacts to it themselves. A lot of stereotyping is done negatively and can influence how people see others. Lets start with gender stereotype, when talking about video games it is instant that you think of men, video games are categorised with them just like make up is categorised with women. It seems like a nerdy hobby that only males are into but in fact females make up quite a lot of the industry, due to it being seen as a man's hobby a lot of negativity can come towards women with men claiming them to not
being actual gamers or getting excited when hearing a female in the chat. Another gender stereotype are the body images that video games portray, the women are usually seen wearing skimpy armour or clothing. This can be seen as sexualising women and treating them as objects and I agree since most females have taken up this image of being this perfect shaped person, but I also agree that they should be shown like that, not because I want to see the whole skimpy clothing but because video games are meant to be a playable entertainment where you become this person who you wish to be and I would think most women wish to have the bodies of the females in gaming just like men would like the bodies of men in gaming. Not all games do this though and one of the first games to break this trend was metroid which had a female character in a suit of full armour (so no one could see her) fighting off aliens. Everyone thought it was a male until the end of the game where it was revealed females didn't have to follow the sexualised trend.
Racial stereotyping in games is also big as well with a lot of games white male characters as there main roles. When a character of a different ethnicity is introduced then they can be presented quite offensively like Augustus Cole from gears of war, his speech pattern, loudness, bigness and even cursing is very stereotypical. They even made it so that he was an athlete before the alien attacks which all point to the average stereotype of a black person. This does not mean that the character is badly done though, he has a great character and brings humour to the game but fits under the stereotypical agenda. We can also say this about Franklin from GTA V just by looking at the ghetto environment that he lives in.
Addiction - Addiction can happen when playing a video game for too long, your body becomes adjusted to being lazy and can get comfortable with prolonged sessions, this can cause physical problems and make you become unhealthy, it can also distract you from important things in life and stop you from doing certain hobbies as you replace them with sitting at home and playing video games all day. Video game addiction can become so bad it can ruin people's lives, they will get so caught up in gaming that they will forget to do work, miss out on sleep, miss out on eating and more hindering them from completing daily task that are essential for survival and proving to be quite unethical.However, where physical damage is done video games can help mentally. They bring up our reaction time, problem solving, multi tasking and more. They can help improve a lot of our mentality and can be quite beneficial, they help to distract trouble makers and out casts to society and also help to escape people from the real world where they could be getting bullied or feel like a reject. People need to find a fine line between work and relaxing but video games can cause relaxation more than work, which can be beneficial but only to an extent.
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