Copyright and Battle Systems Question..
Author
I was curious on this. Has Square Enix copyrighted the "Active Time Bar" system?
Can companies copyright battlesystems for their games? Because Square has used pretty much all the turn based ideas you could use to make an rpg with, and the only ones I can think of are lame, my backup is to use the old turn based, but that's kinda boring....
Me and my friend sat their for a few hours trying to think of something...(Ironically, while playing FF12, which is S-I-C-K by the way, gonna pick me up a copy soon! :P)
Same with the Ogre Battle 64 Military RPG system thingy. Such a shame OB is dead. Square bought out Quest, so I guess I'm screwed :(
Dear Square,
STOP BUYING EVERY RPG COMPANY!
Sincerly,
Gamers around the globe...
lol
Thanks for the help...
sliceanddice
i am not sure if this will help you, but as far as i know, the system/program (turn based) for Jagged Alliance series of games is free to use. Dont know how much freedom is allowed, though. if interested check the site Bear's Pit, they know everything of Jagged Alliance that is to know. hope it helps.
Creative works are copyrighted.
Identifying names are trademarked.
Processes are patented.
Active Time Battles is a trademark, which yes, Square owns and you can't use. The system isn't patented, as far as I know.
Identifying names are trademarked.
Processes are patented.
Active Time Battles is a trademark, which yes, Square owns and you can't use. The system isn't patented, as far as I know.
I’m no expert on these kind of legal issues but I strongly suspect you could get away with using it if you called it something different and made the graphical interface so it didn’t look identical to squares.
Yes, if you change the name and the appearance, the functionality is yours to do whatever you want with.
Game mechanic can't be copyrighted, and in case of ATB only an idiot would allow patent on that. (not to mention that patent will not apply for Europe) Considering game developers are using systems that are "trivial" (however working extremely nicely) none of these systems could be patented even in so backward country as US.
Actually, Square does have ATB patented:
Click
Welcome to the USA.
In any legal battle, of course, the patent needs to be enforced and enforcable. Usually big companies only sue other big companies over patent infringment, and only when they are trying to purposely tie that other company up in legal trouble during important launches, otherwise the legal expenses aren't worth it. It's fairly likely that Square would not care about something that was close to ATB but not quite the same, as long as it wasn't too popular.
Quote:
Disclosed in a video game of enhanced realism in which actual combat is closely simulated. The game is so adapted that an enemy character on a display screen may launch an attack against a player character on the same screen, even while the player character is the process of inputting a command, at elapse of a set time period specific to the enemy character. The attack is made without an interruption in the flow of time of the game.
Click
Quote:
Game mechanic can't be copyrighted, and in case of ATB only an idiot would allow patent on that. (not to mention that patent will not apply for Europe) Considering game developers are using systems that are "trivial" (however working extremely nicely) none of these systems could be patented even in so backward country as US.
Welcome to the USA.
In any legal battle, of course, the patent needs to be enforced and enforcable. Usually big companies only sue other big companies over patent infringment, and only when they are trying to purposely tie that other company up in legal trouble during important launches, otherwise the legal expenses aren't worth it. It's fairly likely that Square would not care about something that was close to ATB but not quite the same, as long as it wasn't too popular.
Quote:Because Square has used pretty much all the turn based ideas you could use to make an rpg with
Really? I could have swore that they only have used three: Regular turn based, Active Time Battle, and Active Dimension Battle. If there are only three possible battle systems for RPGs, it is a very sad genre indeed [grin]
Unless it was a direct ripoff of ATB they wouldn't have a leg to stand on if they filed a lawsuit over the use of a time bar in battle. But don't fall into the trap of thinking that Final Fantasy is the only way to do role-playing combat... most of them have pretty mediocre combat anyway.
Author
I don't intend to use the ATB system, it was an example for the question. But thanks for the info.
hahaha I should copyright the int main() function, so if someone used it I'd make part of the money :o
jk jk
sliceanddice
hahaha I should copyright the int main() function, so if someone used it I'd make part of the money :o
jk jk
sliceanddice
Quote:Original post by sliceanddice
hahaha I should copyright the int main() function, so if someone used it I'd make part of the money :o
Wasn't it patented already? Wheel for sure was.
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