HA 3 -Task 6 - Legal and Ethical Obligations

When working in the games industry there are legal and ethical obligations that you must be aware of to avoid making mistakes that could cripple your career before it has even started.

Legal: 

There are 4 main legal obligations which are copyright, trademark, patent and registered designs.

Copyright:

Copyright is a law that protects your original ideas such as characters or maybe even a game concept that has been illustrated though drawings or a written piece. For a copyright to be official there must have been some skill involved meaning that you don't just take someone else's work or template and just slightly change it. There must also be labour meaning that you have actually put time and effort into this project to create a completely finished and detailed illustration not just a couple scribbles on a page or a few notes/ideas write down on a page. To claim copyright against someone else who you think is stealing your idea you must have proof that the idea is yours with the piece of illustration and the date that illustration was recorded.

Trademark:

A trademark is basically where people legally claim a word or words to belong to them so that other companies don't use them in the title of their games. Personally I feel that trademark is an outdated law that needs to be re-thought because it is outrageous that someone can own a word that is in the English dictionary to stop other people from using it. A recent example of this is that a YouTuber named CaptinSparklez decided to make is own can to release and the community decided on the name "Fortress Fallout" and he begun development with this name in mind but recently revived a cease and desist letter from the company Bethesda as they legally own the word "Fallout" and claimed that his game would cause confusion with the Fallout series of games.

Patent:

A patent is when a business or company protects how something works such as a new technology or a game engine that they have created by themselves without any outside help. Having a patent means that nobody can use your technology or develop it further to use in their own products. This system is quite broke as you get these people known as "patent trolls" who create a very basic piece of technology with no plans to develop it or even use it but when a bigger company has a really good idea but they can't make it without this basic tech so they have to pay loads of money to the other company for this patent.

Registered Design:

A registered design protects how something looks weather that be a console, a game title, etc. This means that another company couldn't create a similar product to yours so that people get confused about which is which, the Xbox console design is a registered design.

Ethical: 

Violence:

Violence has also been frowned upon in the industry as violent games get blamed for mass murders or for horrific events that have occurred. Games are allowed to be violent but not to extreme where its too graphic or non-stop killing. Examples of games that have gone overboard with violence is Manhunt which was banned due to its violent nature at the time and also Hatred which was recently banned for being sold in the USA because the government felt that it would have a negative effect on the country overall. However, violence isn't always a bad thing as people can see it as a release for their frustration instead of taking it out on a friend or a loved one but violence in video games will never be accepted by everyone.

Rating: 

Video games will always have a rating on them as it is a legal requirement so that children underage aren't exposed to games that are designed for adults. However this doesn't always work as parents will often buy their children a game rated 16+ because they really wanted it which is an issue as children of a young age shouldn't have violent images going into their mind or have to listen to people use foul language over the mic when online. The rating system starts with "3" which basically means that the game is suitable for children of all ages with comical violence, nothing that could scare them, nudity, bad language, etc. Next is "7" is basically the same as "3" except there may be some nudity but not in sexual context and may have images that some would find frightening. The next rating is "12" which means the game could have more graphic violence, a bit more graphic nudity and foul language that must be mild and not include any sexual references. After this is the rating "16" which basically is worse language, promotes the use of drugs and crime, violence and sexual activity which looks the same as real life. Finally is the rating of "18" which is a step up from "16" meaning that the level of violence is high and graphic and should make some people feel repulsive and also more graphical sexual activity so genitals may be shown.

Education:

Educational games must follow a set of rules depending on what they are actually trying to teach to the public and weather it is for a young audience or for an older audience. For example educational games wouldn't be able to use guns or drugs to help teach as those things especially are mostly illegal in this country, they also couldn't involve such things as racism and discrimination as those are things which we are trying to avoid teaching to young children as we want everyone to be treated equally.

Stereotyping: 

Stereotyping certain groups has become an issue in games as companies will often do this as a joke but not everybody finds this funny but hurtful instead. I feel that the biggest issue currently is sexism/stereotyping women in games with such characters as Laura Croft who is a tomb raider but has this perfect body and big boobs and wearing clothes that aren't practical but just to  appeal more to the male audience. Also in video games racism is not allowed in any games as we should be teaching to treat everyone as equals instead of putting people into different groups.

Addiction:

Addicting video games isn't a big as a problem as people make it out to be as people think that all teenagers will drop out of college or miss school just so they can play a certain game which isn't the truth, well not for everyone. The issues with addiction is lack of sleep because people will often stay up extremely late because they just can't stop playing that game which leads to a lack of concentration the next day in school, college or work which could have negative effects. Also kids and teenagers could consume too many energy drinks just to keep them awake for longer which could cause health issues in the future for them.