> It just goes to show how thoroughly designed every aspect of the game is, whether apparent or running in the background.
That sure is a weird way to say 'patent troll'.
Nintendo filed numerous patents for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mechanics
101–110 of 135 posts
Re: Nintendo filed numerous patents for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mechanics
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meh, I'd rather have lots of side quests with mundane rewards for the quest-enjoyers than a bunch of "not actually side quest" side quests with near-mandatory rewards. Side quests should feel optional.
The side quests are quite boring and uninventive though. 95% of them are not even worth the reward, and then of course they sprinkle in 5% that really are, so you feel you don't really have a choice of missing out.
Okay, which game has better side quests?
Re: Nintendo filed numerous patents for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mechanics
#103Huh, didn't think there were that many new and innovative things even though the game was fantastic experience. The two things I really liked about TOTK was the ascend ability and the rewind / recall ability. Those were pretty cool and seemed novel to me. Admittedly, I don't play a ton of video games other than Zelda titles and the odd indie game so maybe those features are not novel and have been implemented before…
I'm sure there are other, but Forza Horizon also has a rewind ability.
Re: Nintendo filed numerous patents for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mechanics
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
No thank you. That's not a unique benefit of the patent system, that's a minor ancillary benefit that has already been replicated elsewhere. The patent office doesn't have a patent on historical records of so-called inventions. And the patent process is not optimized to produce documents that actually help other inventors or future historians. In fact, to the contrary, as it exists within a particular narrow legal IP…
I think your post reflects several misunderstands or false assumptions about the patent system. First, you misstate the purpose of disclosure. It isn't to become a record of historical inventions, it's to encourage inventors to disclose their innovations, as inventors otherwise would not disclose their inventions. Inventors and their businesses would instead be incentivized to wrap their inventions up in trade secret…
Inventors and their businesses would instead be incentivized to wrap their inventions up in trade secret and never disclose anything at all.
In the past there was perhaps more benefit from this exchange: manufacturers disclosed special knowledge of their products in patents and the world at large gained knowledge that would otherwise remain secret. But this theoretical exchange breaks down if the secret is easily reverse engineered or otherwise unlikely to remain secret. Reverse engineering all manner of products is much easier now than it was 100 years ago but the duration of patents has remained fixed at 20 years. I doubt that it would take more than a year to reverse engineer these patented Zelda features (or how to make a new small molecule drug, for that matter) in the absence of disclosure through patents.
There's still an argument for patents to incentivize investment in R&D. We still want people to invest the time and effort in developing and proving new small molecule drugs even though modern instrumentation and synthesis planning makes it easy to copy a drug. But the "disclosure is better than secrets" argument in favor of patents has been weakening every year as secret-keeping becomes harder.
Re: Nintendo filed numerous patents for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mechanics
#105If anyone has worked with an IP attorney before then they know that filing patents is a stength-in-numbers approach. You don't file patents because you think you're a genius, you file patents to defend yourself and ensure an end state of mutually assured destruction. It looks like Nintendo threw everything against the wall to see what sticks, which is what a good IP attorney would recommend. It's unlikely these would…
> what a good IP attorney would recommend. I think we could find a more useful word than "good". How about "useful"?
Incentives-aligned
Re: Nintendo filed numerous patents for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mechanics
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or like every 2D platformer ever?
Not quite. It’s pretty rare to be jumping off and standing on top of moving physics objects in 2D platformers. Like in Mario almost everything you can stand on is static or following a fixed movement pattern.
Megaman X has an ice-skateboard that you can summon and then ride.
Re: Nintendo filed numerous patents for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mechanics
#107If anyone has worked with an IP attorney before then they know that filing patents is a stength-in-numbers approach. You don't file patents because you think you're a genius, you file patents to defend yourself and ensure an end state of mutually assured destruction. It looks like Nintendo threw everything against the wall to see what sticks, which is what a good IP attorney would recommend. It's unlikely these would…
> I would be surprised if Nintendo uses any of these aggressively -- do they have a reputation of doing so?
2 years ago, Nintendo successfully sued a game developer for $30 million over a patent on touchscreen virtual joysticks. (https://www.dualshockers.com/nintendo-lawsuit-colopl-white-c...)
Re: Nintendo filed numerous patents for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mechanics
#108Nintendo doing Nintendo things again. Honestly the whole article gives me flashbacks of the various legal battles that they've been involved in [1]. They seem to pay no mind to the effect their litigiousness has on competition and innovation in this area...as if it wasn't already hard enough. 1. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/switch-hacker-gary-...
I'm still wondering how there isn't a GoFundMe for Bowser yet. Is it something in the terms of service?
Re: Nintendo filed numerous patents for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mechanics
#109Nintendo doing Nintendo things again. Honestly the whole article gives me flashbacks of the various legal battles that they've been involved in [1]. They seem to pay no mind to the effect their litigiousness has on competition and innovation in this area...as if it wasn't already hard enough. 1. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/switch-hacker-gary-...
I'm still wondering how there isn't a GoFundMe for Bowser yet. Is it something in the terms of service?
nm, I just found it, but it is not for paying the financial penalty
Re: Nintendo filed numerous patents for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom mechanics
#110Nintendo doing Nintendo things again. Honestly the whole article gives me flashbacks of the various legal battles that they've been involved in [1]. They seem to pay no mind to the effect their litigiousness has on competition and innovation in this area...as if it wasn't already hard enough. 1. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/switch-hacker-gary-...
I'm certainly not defending Nintendo, but Gary Bowser is not as innocent as he was made out to be by viral media.
The guy stole FOSS code by making a closed source fork to sell for a profit, tweaked it to be malicious (bricking devices that ran homebrew software that he personally did not like, notably the FOSS competitor to his product), and explicitly advertised his stolen product as being used for software piracy (or unsanctioned copying if you're a stickler for that). Boneheaded actions like that hurt the entire homebrew scene by branding people who just want to run their own code on their own devices as criminals. Gary was in the wrong both legally and morally. It's people like him that incite action against hackers as a whole.