- Joined
- Aug 2, 2021
Thanks to the recent Nintendo-Palworld suit, I've been looking up some of the patents and some of this shit is downright insane.
The ‘7677976 patent describes a type of role-playing game where the user’s character has different attacks available that do different damages and have different effects (think Final Fantasy). The invention determines whether an attack is direct of a specific kind of attack. The invention also provides for a panic reaction where the player’s character’s attacks change depending on the level of panic the character is experiencing. If the panic is too high the user can neither attack nor defend against the enemy character. The player may also check the level of panic in the opposing character and strategically plan an attack against the enemy, creating more damage than a normal attack.
U.S. Patent No. 5,885,156 (the ‘156 Patent) describes a method for achieving experience points through dialog. The ‘156 Patent specifically relates to Konami’s Pawapuro or Power Pros series, which is a baseball game that features some role-playing game elements. Power Pros features a mode called “Success Mode,” which entailed users playing the life of an up-and-coming baseball player. Users start off with low stats and must train to become a better player. Part of the mode is managing the baseball player’s social life as well. The game generates random events that impact the baseball player’s stats. The ‘156 Patent describes the method of how the social events affect the player’s stats. For every random event, a set of options are given to the user, each generating a different outcome. The user earns experience points for choosing an option, but not every option is treated equally. Some options may give players more experience points than others, while some may hurt a player’s stats. Every play-through of “Success Mode” is different because the events are randomly generated.
This shit's unreal. Basically any game is illegal and can be sued for $$$ at these big companies' discretion.
U.S. Patent No. 6,595,858 (the ‘858 patent) relates to infection data for tracking whether or not captured characters in a game have been infected with a virus. The ‘858 patent details an image-display game system with information storage, having temporary storage including infection data regions where infection data is stored. The infection data is stored for every character captured during course of a game, indicating whether or not a character has been virus infected.
