From the way back machine. Fire & Movement #79, deals with an issue that is likely dear to all our hearts theft!! More important than more than one or more of writers of the faux stories from C3iMagazines most recent edition, ‘What is a wargame?’ ‘That is not a wargame’ ‘Ethics of gaming’ clique of writers who deign to bang the demise of wargaming drum if we don’t stop ‘defining things’…..its SOOO exclusory.
Give me a break.
But lets leave that by the way side where it belongs to be dealt with in an upcoming post all of its very own. The issue at hand copyright infringement of designs. The rest of C3i #35 is FABULOUS!
Read this:
.
Now I know that this may not shock the grognards who were around back in the day. Or who knew all of this because of the very small size of the community of wargamers. But this comes as a surprise to me, that a designer or publisher would stoop so low as to copy hex for hex maps and game etc. Perhaps Fresno indeed got all it deserved with its shuttering. Now in todays world of design, and widely spread information and digital archives, it is indeed much easier to ‘copy, steal’ or appropriate a system or a map or a design. Is it happening?
I am afraid it maybe.
In fact the very minor wargame publisher with issues has seen several owners of their games approach me with comment and details that indicate just such activity may be happening. Albeit with some very lovely new maps. I cant confirm or deny those allegations of IP theft of older classics [or even if they were classics ;)]. But the haunting similarities ad verbatim rules sections I’ve been shown sure make it look like a company is not really honoring the spirit of ‘borrowing’ a mechanic so much as copying whole cloth.
If you have further details or specific indications that this is or indeed is NOT happening, then please drop me a note bigboardgaming@gmail.com . I’d like to know, I think we would all like to know and we should give all parties a chance to present their side of story as it were. I’m not naming the company on purpose as we should wait, unlike F&M did to verify before we denigrate a publisher or designer.
[EDIT].
Well it would appear that at least one publisher has not had their xanex today. CSL games owner has gone out on a limb in social media with his usual name calling and hate speech. But also resorted to ‘calling out myself and this blog’. Making all sorts of wild accusations.
Very sad Ray. I really feel you matey. I dont know if this response is a reaction to some shameful thing that happened to you in the past, or something you did that triggers you or your inability to control your emotions [ as we have all seen with your attacks on Blue Panther], and as I have seen first hand when trying to have discussions with you and help you with your early design efforts.
See Ray, what you seem to forget is several years ago you, myself and one other person spent many an hour in video chat and text chat discussing your tough life, your issues with your fathers lawyer who runs your trust fund, or maybe it was an accountant I cant really remember as it was several years ago. While it was hard at the time to feel sorry for someone living trust fund check to trust fund check in Brooklyn in NYC while I was bouncing around jobs, trying to pay for three kids and a wife and pay my taxes…I did empathize with your emotional issues, and your instability that your felt.
But as you demonstrate in that lovely newsletter you often shoot before you aim. You will need to retract your letter and defamatory comments about me mate. Tsk Tsk. Not nice. I have made no such claims in this post about you. Calm down.
As for not agreeing with you on Social media, that’s ok. You have never really had statements of fact discussions with me, just raging bile, swearing and hate speech when ever politics reared its head. Also very sad. I may even have bitten back once or twice. Mores the pity. But, I do recall fondly playing PBEM Red Eclipse I think it was from Frontline games with you on PC.
That was nice.
Now, since you have been in an uncontrolled rage for a few hours, I will edit up this post and even make it private, if you apologize for your newsletter and recant it too.
Sound fair?
If not you carry on and you do you, and I’ll continue as your online friend said to be ‘a notorious asshole.’ – I kind like that.
Reminds me of the NOTORIOUS B.I.G. Maybe I could make a rap song about us?
Most of the ‘opinion’ articles on C3i are poorly written. The last one written by a finance educator who lives in one of the most affluent areas in Southern California, opened the article with a quote from a Communist Slavoj Žižek, an extremist. I see this authors work, to be a waste of the paper it is printed on.
I will never invest my money in a company that supports extremists.
Hey Mate,
C3i’s for chumps. It’ll be a Euro magazine in no time!
I stuck with it as long as I want the GBoH articles and scenarios! LOL
Thanks for your post Kev. As always, very interesting reading.
As for theft, some might argue that it’s culturally bound or socially constructed or what have thee. I’m not sure I’d agree with that take, but I can say that here in The Middle Kingdom of China, wargaming has thrived in part by at least studying and learning from games published elsewhere, without having to engage in wholesale appropriation. Retail distributors interested in carrying games do so with their products sealed and shrink-wrapped, and there are a few design studios putting out games of their own, often on neglected topics and with very fine graphics. A few have partnered with US publishers (I think you had a sort of awkward encounter with the game St. Lo, and posted about that) and appear to have maintained both good relations and respect for intellectual property.
But there is the other side of behaviour as well. I have seen a best-selling game here that is a direct copy of ‘Twilight Struggle’ applied to China’s dynastic history, something pointed out by Chinese reviewers who are already great fans of the former and cry foul. There is at least one online seller who offers scanned PDFs of old SPI games and current GMT titles for people to purchase and print out. And one of the aforementioned design studies has taken a handful of ATO’s postcard games and upgraded the components and provided Chinese rules, claiming rather dubiously that as the games are free, there is no IP protection. I’ve also seen games cobbled together, using rules and concepts and approaches from other games–a sort of ‘borrowing’ (or ‘theft’) that hardly ever works in practice anyway.
But in the main, there’s enough interest in titles originally published outside of China that one might get translations and house rules but surprisingly so far, little actual theft in the sense of copying and reselling. It’s worth keeping an eye on, as wargaming gains a firmer foothold in these parts.
All bests,
Russ
Thanks for your post Kev. As always, very interesting reading.
As for theft, some might argue that it’s culturally bound or socially constructed or what have thee. I’m not sure I’d agree with that take, but I can say that here in The Middle Kingdom of China, wargaming has thrived in part by at least studying and learning from games published elsewhere, without having to engage in wholesale appropriation. Retail distributors interested in carrying games do so with their products sealed and shrink-wrapped, and there are a few design studios putting out games of their own, often on neglected topics and with very fine graphics. A few have partnered with US publishers (I think you had a sort of awkward encounter with the game St. Lo, and posted about that) and appear to have maintained both good relations and respect for intellectual property.
But there is the other side of behaviour as well. I have seen a best-selling game here that is a direct copy of ‘Twilight Struggle’ applied to China’s dynastic history, something pointed out by Chinese reviewers who are already great fans of the former and cry foul. There is at least one online seller who offers scanned PDFs of old SPI games and current GMT titles for people to purchase and print out. And one of the aforementioned design studies has taken a handful of ATO’s postcard games and upgraded the components and provided Chinese rules, claiming rather dubiously that as the games are free, there is no IP protection. I’ve also seen games cobbled together, using rules and concepts and approaches from other games–a sort of ‘borrowing’ (or ‘theft’) that hardly ever works in practice anyway.
But in the main, there’s enough interest in titles originally published outside of China that one might get translations and house rules but surprisingly so far, little actual theft in the sense of copying and reselling. It’s worth keeping an eye on, as wargaming gains a firmer foothold in these parts.
All bests,
Russ