Vortrag im Graduiertenkolleg "Innovationsgesellschaft heute" der TU Berlin, 21.06.2016

1. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
INNOVATION DURCH IMITATION?
ZUM VERHÄLTNIS VON KOPIEREN UND
PRODUZIEREN IN DER SPIELE-BRANCHE
Christian Katzenbach
Humboldt Institute für Internet und Gesellschaft (HIIG)
Graduiertenkolleg "Innovationsgesellschaft heute“
TU Berlin, 21-06-2016

2. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
MEDIA
REGULATION
POLICY &
GOVERNANCE
RESEARCH DEPARTMENTS
INNOVATION CONSTITU-
TIONALISM
AREAS OF COMPETENCE
The evolving digital society: What are relevant concepts and theoretical approaches?
Critical moments and structural transformations!
RESEARCH
PROGRAMMES
Structures of Coordination and Rule-making
The relationship between actors, data and infrastructures in the digital society.
What are key factors of change?
The knowledge dimension:
What are emerging patterns of research and knowledge transfer in the digital age?
Digital Business and Innovation
Internet-driven Knowledge Creation and Dissemination
Global Internet Governance Fundamental Rights in the Digital Age
…

3. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
Studies in Key Regulatory Fields
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Dialogue between Academia and Stakeholders
Theoretical and empirical work on
Internet Policy and Governance
Theories and Concepts of
(Internet) Governance
Copyright
Freedom of Expression
Internet Infrastructure
Digital Games, TV-
Formats, Algorithms
Regulating UGC on
Platforms
Peering Agreements and
Conflicts

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11. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
Juul, 2010
Evolution of
Matching Tile Games
Imitation als Genre-Entwicklung

12. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
Evolution of
2D Shooters
Koster, 2004
Imitation als Genre-Entwicklung

13. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
Wo ist die Grenze zwischen Imitation und Innovation?
1

14. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie1
Audio-visual
Layer
Ideas Expressions
Rule based
System
Spiele als komplexe Werke

15. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie1
Normen, Konventionen, Routinen

16. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
International Game Developers Association (IGDA)
‚One must avoid any outright stealing of other's work. It is not fair to
them and you would likely find yourself in trouble eventually.
You should also be mindful of giving credit to others where due.‘
(IGDA, 2003, p. 38)
Normen, Konventionen, Routinen

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Wie entstehen Innovationen und Erlöse trotz fehlendem
rechtlichen Schutz?
Wie gehen Spiele-Entwickler in der Alltagspraxis mit der
Spannung zwischen Innovation und Imitation um?
1
Forschungsfragen

18. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
Discourse Analysis of
Cloning Cases
Industry Handbook
Analysis
Interview Study with 25+ Designers, Programmers,
Artists, Producers/Managers, Lawyers
Reach-out Workshops and Panels w/ Researchers and Professionals
Forschungsdesign

19. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
Inspiration von anderen Spielen ist wichtig (Mechaniken), lerne von Ihnen!
Sei originell – kopiere nie Spiele eins-zu-eins.
Einschätzung: Fehlende Innovation bei Spiele-Mechaniken.
Ergebnisse: Handbuch-Analyse

20. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
‘Learn from other games and designers, but do not copy them. You
absolutely must invent something unique and compelling (one
without the other is not enough) to be a success.’
(Salen & Zimmerman, 2004)
Ergebnisse: Handbuch-Analyse

21. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
HANDBOOK ANALYSIS
- 'While the industry as a whole is extremely skilled at maintaining
steady technological innovation and cultivating core audience
demand for those innovations, the same isn’t true when it comes
to developing original ideas in player experience.‘
- (Fullerton, 2004)
Ergebnisse: Handbuch-Analyse

22. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
‘Making good games is hard, so developers keep their heads down,
stay focused, and get the job done. They usually don’t have the time
to seek out new techniques, figure out how to integrate them into their
games, and take the risk that a new technique might fail. So, they
play it safe, and stick with what they know, which unfortunately
leads to a lot of the “cookie-cutter” game titles that you see on
the market.’
(Schell, 2008)
Ergebnisse: Handbuch-Analyse

23. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY2
• The fine line between inspiration and imitation is not drawn similarly by all
à no strong social norms shared by all
• Copyright and other IP legislation is not prominent in daily practice.
• Game developers do not want more copyright protection.
• Imitation as remixing game principles and graphical elements is generally
accepted
• Cloning is not considered a problem in general
• However, in the mobile sector, the amount of 1:1 cloning is considered
problematic
Ergebnisse: Interviews

24. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
… ist akzeptierte Alltagspraxis in der gesamten Branche
“A lot of time it's more about picking the right
ingredients that are already there. I mean, 95%
of what we do, you can say, okay, in some way it
always exists somewhere.”
Remixing ...
Indie Developer

25. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
“I don't know the whole legal issue and stuff, but
legally it shouldn't be too strict of course,
because otherwise you could just interpret
everything as a copy. “
Brauchen wir härtere Gesetze?
Employee browser game developer,
Game artist

26. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
Developer: I don't think you can you can't protect yourself against
piracy or against getting cloned, it's just like part of the business. And
the more you try, there will always be people who will be faster
cracking your game than you can protect it in some way, so eh
Interviewer: so you would not even
consider it?
D: No.
I: also for the next project
you wouldn't do that
D: No.
Indie Developer

27. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-_4MDnXeaU

28. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
Rip-offs
Clones
Fast-Follows
Taking art Assets
Making a Reskin
Copying Code
Remixing Core Mechanics
Reuse Interface Elements
Stick to Genre Conventions
Improving and Iterating on Existing Games
Games in a Genre
IMITATION INSPIRATION
Where to draw the line?

29. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
Grey Area
“If you take the same art assets and eh do a similar game, that's a clone.
And from there the grey areas begin I guess. If you take a game, make it
slightly different in game design, put new graphics in, which don't look like
you made them in a week, it starts to get away from the original.
And if you would spend a few months more iteration and a few months
more work, you would be so far away from the original that it would be
something that's yours, so, somewhere in between there cloning stops.
But I don't know where to put down the stake and say ‘that's where it
isn't a clone anymore’“
Where to draw the line?
Indie Developer

30. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
Grey AreaDie Juristen
• Do not agree on whether and how IP law should change
• Like to use the wiggle room that IP law provides in the case of games
• Don‘t have a lot of confidence in the expertise of judges; rather prevent
case law caused by judges whose game expertise is lacking
• Heads of legal of various large firms form a community as well

31. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
Grey Area
‚I do have this kind of stuff with the lawyers, that I meet (.) that we we
have these rules that we don't sue each other but we talk first
((laughing)) and we we try to be a team, (.) without being a team.‘
Head of Legal, large mobile game developer
Die Juristen

32. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
Interviewer: is the community of the other heads of legal, would that mean not
to sue each other for instance?
Head of Legal: Yes. This is something that is kept between us. Sometimes we
have these law changes, for example some months ago. And we did a lot of
work to implement that. And then we benchmarked the others, and I saw that
one game company did not change anything. (...)
So I would ask them: Why didn't you do that? Did you see that there are
changes? So we try to (cope) and that we would never go further than that. So
we kept out outside lawyers, we are only internal lawyers, so we can speak in
a small group and we we choose the new ones, we don't take everybody.
Die Juristen

33. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie v
Unterschiedliche Strategien

34. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
“I want my games to be fun, and the second
important thing is that they sell, but the first thing
is they should be fun.”
Was ist ein gutes Spiel?
Indie Developer

35. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie v
Unterschiedliche Strategien

36. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
“To a certain degree, I think I identify my
personality with my work. […] I mainly focus on
personal stories and moral questions and
everyday life.”
Entwicklung von Spielen
Indie Game Designer

37. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
“Don’t start with an idea, start with your assets.
[…] I don’t want to say: don’t innovate at all – but
be smart about it.”
Manager, Large Studio
Entwicklung von Spielen

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Unterschiedliche Strategien

39. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUT FÜR INTERNET UND GESELLSCHAFTFolie
“I think in the hardcore indie industry, it's okay to share
ideas, because they are very strange nerds and they
would never steal. There is something like a codex.
But for example in our company (.) I have a lot of
friends who work for our competitors and I never talk
about our current games or the games we have in
development, because (.) that's a hard market, it's war.”
Unterschiedliche Stragien
Manager, Large Studio

40. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
Zusammenfassung
Remixing ist akzeptiert und geteilte Routine
Cloning wird nicht als großes Problem gesehen, ist „part of the deal“
Recht kaum relevant für Entwicklungspraxis
Unterschiedliche Strategien
- Indies → Low IP Regimes
- Larger Studios → TV Formats

41. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT INSTITUTE FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY
Christian Katzenbach katzenbach@hiig.de