NCsoft Accused of Patent Infringment
by Nathaniel Ed on December 31st, 2008 at 7:10 pm EDT - 450 views
MMO giant, NCsoft, has been accused of infringing on patents put in place by Worlds.com. Worlds.com believes that NCsoft’s products infringe on their “System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space” patent. Paraphrasing some of the things that NCsoft is being accused of, NCsofts products, including:
- Guild Wars
- Lineage
- City of Heroes
- City of Villains
- Tabula Rasa
These are violating and infringing upon the patent, which reads:
“The present invention provides a highly scalable architecture for a three-dimensional graphical, multi-user, interactive virtual world system. In a preferred embodiment a plurality of users interact in the three-dimensional, computer-generated graphical space where each user executes a client process to view a virtual world from the perspective of that user. The virtual world shows avatars representing the other users who are neighbors of the user viewing the virtual word. In order that the view can be updated to reflect the motion of the remote user’s avatars, motion, information is transmitted to a central server process which provides positions updates to client processes for neighbors of the user at that client process. The client process also uses an environment database to determine which background objects to render as well as to limit the movement of the user’s avatar.”
Now, in my opinion, this sounds like every MMO in existance, but if Worlds.com succeeds in suing NCsoft, every other MMO creater is in jeopardy. Which could be either good or bad. This could inspire your favourite game company to attempt something new and currently unheard of. Or your favourite company could go out of business. Let’s hope all goes well!
Sources: Virtual World News; PC Magazine.
For the official complaint visit here. Image courtesy of Guildwars.com.
Category: Games, Industry News, Online
Tags: Guild Wars, MMORPG, NCsoft, Worlds.com
There are 11 comments so far
-
Taylor Flatt - posted on December 31st, 2008 at 7:26 PM MST - Link
This is very interesting. I can’t wait to find out how this one ends up. Pretty bold if you ask me though.
-
Andrew Kao - posted on January 1st, 2009 at 2:04 AM MST - Link
NCSoft is a big name in gaming especially with their Guild Wars franchise. Whatever the result it’s going to have a significant impact.
-
Stephen Spring - posted on January 1st, 2009 at 6:49 PM MST - Link
NCsoft is the trash heap of mmo’s other than GuildWars. With far too many different games and no focus on content releases for any of them. If your thinking about buying an NCsoft product, other than GuildWars think again.
-
Nathaniel Ed - posted on January 1st, 2009 at 7:02 PM MST - Link
Haha, true. I really never like Guild Wars much. The only MMOs I ever got in was Tibia and Runescape. Guildwars is too hard at some spots, and it makes teamwork a necessity, which I’m not a big fan of. The bots that they let you use suck.
I tried Dungeon Runners also, which I thought was bad, but that was when it was in beta.
I think Worlds.com should have gone after Blizzard’s WoW first, because I find it hard to believe that too many people care about Guild Wars. Besides, Blizzard is too greedy for it’s own good.
-
Taylor Flatt - posted on January 1st, 2009 at 8:44 PM MST - Link
Which is exactly the point. I think their plan is to go for a smaller fish and then if they win, use that win as a basis to get the big hitters (Blizzard).
By going after NCsoft, they don’t have to face the multi-billion dollar Blizzard until they have something to back them up (a win).
-
Nathaniel Ed - posted on January 1st, 2009 at 9:02 PM MST - Link
True. Hmm.
So who are you guys rooting for in this case?
-
Taylor Flatt - posted on January 1st, 2009 at 10:31 PM MST - Link
Frankly, I am rooting for the plaintiffs. The MMO industry has had a long and glorious haul, but it is time for change and I think through this way, we will see it. I am sure, however, the change will be for the good.
NCsoft has some powerful titles, but they, and all other big MMO companies, need to take a hit. You lose some and win some, both improve the community…not so much the company bank accounts.
-
Nathaniel Ed - posted on January 1st, 2009 at 11:19 PM MST - Link
True. But with this, it’s possible that the entire existance of MMOs could be halted.
It depends on what the verdict is though. If the judge wants them to cease and desist… well, we’re in trouble. If they have to pay a hug fine though, that might make them try harder to win more customers, creating a better game.
Frankly, I got tired of Tibia because it couldn’t stand the DDOS attacks, so there were requent kicks. Maybe they’ll try harder if they’re fighting to bring in more customers…
I’ll definately have to follow this case.
-
Taylor Flatt - posted on January 1st, 2009 at 11:43 PM MST - Link
Yes, and that could be a good thing. Some people might actually see the light of day.
Alright, all jokes aside, the MMO companies really brought this upon themselves. have you thought of it in this fashion…With all their money…all their time and all their law cases, why haven’t they spotted such a patent when it is painfully obvious that it would effect them?
I think these companies are getting more sympathy than they deserve. They need to have the hammer brought to them. If it is the end of MMOs, then this company will probably be bombed or shot up or something and I know they know better than to seek they end all activities. They are probably just looking for some cash or maybe to just send a message.
Oh well, I suppose it will just take time to see what develops from both sides.
-
Nathaniel Ed - posted on January 1st, 2009 at 11:47 PM MST - Link
True. Worlds.com is going to be hated by many. Maybe they want to go back into the world of gaming though. The article said that they made a few older ones back in the day. I’d hate to see a monopoly though.
But who knows.
-
Taylor Flatt - posted on January 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 PM MST - Link
Well, either they win and gain control over the whole genre, or they lose and nothing more happens. Those are pretty much the only two outcomes. Unless Worlds decides they don’t want in and they just want money, we will just have to see.
