Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Su Jinyu said, “Boss, shouldn’t we be suing this company?”
Jia Peng nodded, “Yeah, manager! Send a legal letter!”
Chen Mo shook his head, “There’s no need.”
Su Jinyu was shocked, “Why? Maybe we should contact a lawyer before you make that decision.”
Chen Mo said, “Infringement on things like game rules are very hard to prosecute. In order for it to be a valid lawsuit, it has to have a similar art style, and the design documents for the rules must be extremely similar. If we can’t be certain that they plagiarized either of those points, it is an impossible lawsuit.
“Therefore, even if we send them a letter, they would probably just treat it as garbage and toss it away.”
Su Jinyu said unhappily, “But this game is way too similar to Plants vs Zombies, anyone with eyes will be able to tell!”
Chen Mo said calmly, “But that isn’t enough for them to be convicted.”
Su Jinyu was still angry, but there was nothing she could say.
In truth, when Chen Mo was transmigrated into the parallel world, he had already done some research on the video game industry, in particular plagiarism regarding video games. He even looked up some cases on the matter.
It was similar to his previous world. There were two main categories protected by the copyright laws. One was artwork, music, and textual content, the other was the rules of the game, equivalent to the code for a game in the previous world.
These were the two points that would be easy to convict someone of plagiarism on. As soon as there was concrete evidence, the success rate of convictions was extremely high.
Coincidentally, it was very difficult to tell if someone plagiarized the playstyle of the game.
In his previous world, a famous tabletop game called Legends of the Three Kingdoms tried to sue Battle of the Three Kingdoms [1] on the basis that they were being plagiarized.
However, Battle of the Three Kingdoms argued that everything that the designer did, including the direction of the designs, design framework, and the details of the designs that were thought to be related, but were not protected under copyright laws.
From a pure game rules perspective, Battle of the Three Kingdoms argued that Legends of the Three Kingdoms was based on an Italian card game called Bang!, and tried to countersue.
In the end, the case ended and was settled out of court.
There were many more examples like this in his previous world, as referencing and plagiarism was pervasive in the video game industry. Other than a handful of cases with sufficient evidence, most of the plagiarism charges don’t amount to anything.
Of course, it wasn’t because the law didn’t cover them, but because the line between plagiarism and referencing was very blurry.
Even the popular Monument Valley from his previous life had been suspected of plagiarizing (“referencing”) Echochrome. [1]
Of course, reference could also be called plagiarism, or in better words, a “descendant”, or “honoring”.
It was the same in the parallel world. Although most people wanted to support the original and had a better concept of plagiarism, it was equally easy to plagiarize, hard to defend, took a long time for the case to be settled, and it was very difficult to gather evidence. The huge time and money spent were always significantly higher than the gains from the settlement.
Therefore, there were also plenty of examples in the parallel world of plagiarism cases that didn’t amount to anything.
Chen Mo skimmed over the contents of Lunar Defense; the artstyle and music were completely redone, with no trace of Plants vs Zombies.
As for the rules, although it was very similar to Plants vs Zombies, it was clear that the designer redid the whole design document themselves, intentionally changing some points to mitigate the risk of a lawsuit.
It could only be said that Sky’s Limit Entertainment was probably a repeat offender and knew where the line was, hitting it right on the boundary. Chen Mo knew that if he started a lawsuit, although public opinion was on his side, he wouldn’t be able to get anything out of it.
However, this didn’t mean there wasn’t anything Chen Mo could. This was already in Chen Mo’s calculations!
—
Chen Mo downloaded Lunar Defense and went through two levels.
“Don’t worry, this game won’t get famous,” said Chen Mo.
“Huh? Why?” asked Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo handed over the phone to Su Jinyu and said, “You’ll know after you try it out.”
“Can’t get famous? Are you sure?” Wen Lingwei questioned.
Chang Xiuya also nodded, “Yeah, manager. The graphics of the games are quite good. Moreover, it’s free.”
Chen Mo said firmly, “I’m sure, it won’t get anywhere.”
Jia Peng said after a few moments, “Then should we still give it bad reviews?”
Chen Mo laughed and said, “Sure, you do you.”
As Chen Mo finished, he turned around and retreated upstairs.
“Boss, don’t leave yet! You haven’t told us why the game isn’t going to be popular!” said Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo turned around and said, “I still need to plan out the next game. As for why the game isn’t going to be popular, you’re a videogame designer now! You should be able to tell.”
Chen Mo left. Su Jinyu pouted, unsatisfied, and started playing Lunar Defense. She was quite curious how Chen Mo was so sure that Lunar Defense wasn’t going to be popular.
The others were also equally curious.
Jia Peng wasn’t convinced. “The manager looks super confident. How can he be so sure the game isn’t going to be popular?”
Weng Lingwei said, “Maybe it’s the rating. Take a look, everyone is trying to boycott the game. Even if the game was free, who’s going to play a game with terrible reviews like this?”
Another guy said, “I think it’s because of its profit method. The manager must’ve considered why he didn’t want to use ads as a profit method when he was developing the game.
Jia Peng said hesitantly, “Then… are we still going to give it bad reviews?”
Wen Lingwei said, “Of course! Come, let’s all give it bad reviews, we’ll uninstall it once we’re done!”
Su Jinyu felt that the others made sense, but still felt that Chen Mo had other reasons.
—
Su Jinyu decided to try out Lunar Defense.
First level, the game instructs the player to put down a Supply Station and install a Machinegun Turret to attack the incoming aliens.
Second level, there were new aliens, and a new type of defense equipment was unlocked.
Third level had the same unlocking playstyle.
Su Jinyu wanted to uninstall the game before she even got to the third level.
As it was very similar to Plants vs Zombies, Su Jinyu felt that she was playing a second run of Plants vs Zombies. Much of the content she was already familiar with, so Lunar Defense was dragging her through it with tutorials.
“Weird. The game is so similar to Plants vs Zombies, and the quality of the game seems alright. Why don’t I want to continue playing…?” Su Jinyu couldn’t help but ponder.
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TL Note [1]: Two video games popular in China.