UK Court: videogame ideas can be copied
The terrific Tobold points us to this article about a ruling in the UK's Court of Appeal that has ramifications for our whole industry. The judge there says that ideas behind computer games can be freely copied-- it's only the source code and the graphics that cannot. Tobold ties this directly into connections players have been making between Lord of the Rings Online and WoW-- the two systems have lots of similarities (the UI layout is almost exactly the same at first glance)-- and says that Blizzard, for example, would never be able to sue Turbine, maker of LotRO.
Of course IANAL, but I'm pretty sure this isn't a groundbreaking ruling. While graphics and the code are undoubtedly covered by copyright (because you can clearly look at them to tell whether they're identical or not), it doesn't seem like gameplay ideas would be-- game designers have always borrowed popular ideas from each other, going all the way back to the idea of experience points and hit points. Even something like Madden's "Playmaker" feature can be copied-- while other companies can't call their feature "Playmaker," they can definitely use the analog stick to direct plays.
Besides, if you ask me, Blizzard has nothing to worry about, especially from LotRO (I hear Turbine couldn't get the rights to the movies, so while you may see the Treants or visit Lothlorien, it won't be anything you recognize from the films). The magic of Blizzard's game is in the design and the polish of how it's put together. Even they borrowed familiar MMO ideas to try and improve on them, and I'm sure they have no problem with Turbine doing the same thing.
