[MUD-Dev] Re: Black Snow Revisited

[Derek Licciardi]

From: Adam M
> Derek Licciardi <kressilac at insightBB.com> wrote:

>> Norman, please do yourself a favor and look at how much these
>> services cost to bring them to the masses we are trying to
>> "stunt".  Think about how your view on this topic might change if
>> you were the one forking over the 5 - 15,000,000 $US it takes to
>> get these off the ground.  Think about how you would feel if
>> everyone took your Star Wars idea and used it to make profit
>> without your consent.  What if in doing so they trashed your
>> franchise in the eyes of consumers?  If Blacksnow is allowed to
>> succeed, there isn't an investor on the planet that will fund an
>> MMORPG in the foreseeable future.  A genre of gaming will die for
>> many years and suffer a HUGE setback.  I would reconsider your
>> position if I were you because you could find yourself with no
>> game to play if we truly are full of ourselves.

> I'm confused; by saying "[no] investor on the planet ... will fund
> an MMORPG in the forseeable future" you seem to imply that you
> think BSI is preventing Mythic from making the expected level of
> profit? I would be very surprised to hear that Mythic are
> currently suffering crippling loss of income due to the actions of
> BSI, significant enough to prevent other people from investing in
> future MMORPG development.  

Currently there is investment in the MMORPG community but if you
take the already tremendous risks of a project and increase them,
investors will place their money elsewhere.  I do think that many
projects would fold up shop because the investors behind the project
would close them down.  The end result in my eyes, if BSI wins, is
that the developer will not own any of the content it just poured
some $5 million US into to create.  Investors demand intellectual
property(IP) rights get protected in every possible way.  Without
the IP, the games don't get published.  I know this is strong, but
the US courts are holding a big issue in their hands at this time,
and the results frankly scare the hell out of anyone in the
industry.

>> Blacksnow wins, MMORPGS die as a genre for a pretty long while.
>> The problem here is that the law hasn't told us developers what
>> is right and wrong and that is scary as hell.

> Norman's post was clearly strongly opinionated, but I don't think
> he went as far as to make a statement like the one above - do you
> REALLY mean to say that if BSI wins this court case, then you
> believe there will be no more MMORPGs developed for the next few
> years (or have I misunderstood)? I'm sure Verant/Turbine/NCSoft
> would be absolutely stunningly delighted to hear that their
> competition were all going to walk away from millions of dollars
> of profit...

I believe that a BSI victory will all but crush the market for many
years to come.  It doesn't matter how much money you have, if a
simple lawsuit can convert your IP to someone else's property.
Aside from the depreciating infrastructure, and the software
code(also depreciating technology wise), your IP is your only
long-standing asset in the project/service.  It is the major asset
that allows you to make money.  If that IP can be converted against
your will, investors won't touch the genre.  Lets hope BSI doesn't
win.

Derek


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