Video games have recently hit the mainstream and the reasons for this are varied and complex, especially when analyzing the casual market. However, two key factors seem to be largely responsible for this new trend in the AAA-space: Narrativism and Production Values.
Thinking back, video games did not hit the mainstream before a certain threshold of production value was reached, one that approached movie production quality. Today, games often proudly brand themselves “cinematic” and “story driven” with budgets close to many blockbuster Hollywood movies. Interestingly, the short era of Full Motion Video (FMV) games in the late 90s did not attract a fraction of today’s audience where Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare can easily compete with Hollywood’s best.
This disconnect is interesting as FMV games often incorporated heavily story-driven elements and were the closest to cinematic experiences a game could get without becoming an interactive movie. Wing Commander IV for example incorporated interactive cutscenes, dialogue-choices, outcomes and endings long before even a single line of Mass Effect’s script was written, and it featured an all-star cast including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Malcolm McDowell (everything ever) and John Rhys-Davies (Gimli, Sliders).
FuRuy has opened a Twitter account called “Project Alice” teasing a new game announcement on April 25 at 20:30 JST.
Filing a false DMCA claim costs nothing, requires no proof, and can destroy an indie game's launch in minutes. Fighting back can cost tens of thousands of dollars and take weeks (if you can afford it at all).
Copyright is copyright. DMCA is a good thing that protects creators IP., revenue and usage. and you can absolutely appeal a wrongful DMCA takedown. It’s happened to me. Was easily resolved.
it's a good thing, but it's also long been reported, across a variety of industries and websites, that currently the system is ripe for and full of abuses. From fair use strikes, to matters like the one reported in this article. It's clear the law needs some tooth to punish bad actors and that parameters need to be set in how reports are filed; ie human review of said content and not some AI bot false flagging stuff. As is the system is far to easily abused by those who have motive to suppress and flag content they have no business or right to.
No system will ever be perfect, but there needs to be a review, unless it blatant.
Until there's genuine consequences for this type of abuse, it'll keep happening across all media. DMCA is in principle a good thing, but it needs an overhaul.
The Montreal-based team behind March of Giants joins Ubisoft to continue development on the free-to-play 4v4 MOBA game where players take on the role of giant combatants.
