Re: (TFT) Supporting TFT with Nostalgia Goggles On

[Jay Carlisle <maou.tsaou@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 1:42 PM, Cris Fuhrman wrote:

> (much crunchy goodness for thought, as paraphrased by Jay)



Some observations and brainfart musings...

Pretty much anything appearing to be success financially speaking pretty
much means lawsuit these days regardless.
Appear to make a ton and rest assured of litigation fun, plan ahead for
settlements for anything shaky and put aside a warchest no matter how
squeaky things are clean as that doesn't really matter.
Otherwise, as long as you've taken what reasonable steps you can to be
diligent then you do what you do and don't let the mastications of the
litigation class concern you until such a time that you actually concern
them, i.e. money comes in at levels above the Kickstarter fund cap.
http://www.1up.com/features/trials-and-tribulations?pager.offset=0
(And don't con't on any of that as sacrosanct cause it surely ain't as yet
another feature of these days appears to be an "all bets are off" attitude
to a great many laws, policies, procedures, and similar traditional systems
that are finding ever more twisted and convoluted readings via
the theoretically eternally on going, in practice really just till somesuch
a parlamential body finds themselves not in quorum but in cue, right
behind the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.
Legislation is to debate like cattle is unto meat and should come with
an expiration/re-legislation date but that's another story...)
http://boingboing.net/2013/01/10/no-new-public-domain-works-for.html
And sometimes no matter how good it sounds in theory in practice one finds
oneself on the flipside of what seemed so absolute... take Sid Meier's case
for instance.
Some time after the release of Civ II, (a Brian Reynolds joint (All Hail
Alpha Centauri!)) MicroProse learned that Activision had reportedly
received a license from Avalon Hill to produce games under the original
Civilization name.
In response, MicroProse bought Hartland Trefoil, Ltd., the original creator
of Avalon Hillbs board game in the United Kingdom.
MicroProse argued that Avalon Hill had only served as Hartland Trefoilbs
distributor outside of Europe, and took both Avalon Hill and Activision to
the U.S. District court, citing:

bb&claims of false advertising, unfair competition, trademark
infringement,
and
unfair business practices as a result of Activisionbs recent announcement
of
plans to develop and publish Civilization computer games under a purported
licensing agreement with Avalon Hill. The lawsuit challenges Avalon Hillbs
ownership of trademark rights to the Civilization nameb&"

Six months later, the lawsuit ended in a settlement granting MicroProse all
rights to the Civilization franchise with Activision, under license from
MicroProse, acquired the rights to produce its own Civilization game,
Civilization: Call to Power. It also acquired the rights to the name bCall
to Powerb as well as the rights to distribute Civilization II on the Sony
Playstation outside of Japan shortly thereafter.

At the heart of Sid Meierbs gaming philosophy, he stresses the importance
of game-play over flashy graphics and eye-candy but the guy ends up the
Aunt Jemima of computer gaming who's company

bI kind of miss the days when games were judged on their game-playing merit
alone.
 I'm a little concerned about how far we (the game industry) are into the
licensed four-page-ad marketing blitz era these days, which may be a
natural evolution of the industry.
But I'm always worried when we put more emphasis on glitz and producti on
values than on the game. That's a trend that looks good for a while until
you realize there's no game industry any more.b
-Sid Meier (pulled of CivFanatics in an open letter kind of thing that
appears to have moved on me so pardon the vague here if you will)

Worth a note here I think... notice how much of that early lawsuit business
involved Atari? (means a chess-like check in the game Go just in case
someone hadn't caught that tidbit yet) Maybe I can see a touch of the start
of that here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7n_znPYuKM

It's unfair after all to assume big business plays fair much less the
economy... a two tiered deal with an investor class who moved the Wall
Street communication hub advantage lost with the advent of the Intern on
over to the legislative side to keep the leg up and let the rest roll down
hill. Selling me the same thing over and over is more than I'll sdand
personally but I'm also a big fan of the whole "Do unto others..." bit and
although I totally suck at it by stuff like liking to be alone while others
I've found really not so much sooooo Jay gets to hear lots and LOTS about
how "feelings" are supposed to work, a half notch down from being the
target of poetry readings but just because I dodn't do so to others doesn't
make it so awful to put up with... I'm MUCH worse to bear and that's the
better frame of mind mostly anyway... a super power if there ever was one
the whole glass half-full choice we get to make so often with so much.
Nostalgia has it's place as well... just not in accounting, purchasing,
etc. but a lack of nostalgic respect in this medium can be a killer blow
just as halting as writing a check on hopes and dreams rather than figures
and research. I'm not against business. I'm against the particular form of
neo-capitalistic nonsense (based on perpetual growth, with a "science" that
has failed to make a single practical prediction and a litany of ludacrous
lies for the howfore's, when's, and why's of how things came to be this way
like uninsured drive up the rates while the 100+k Syou'regonnagetitwhenU'r
Vehicle drops in the same pool as a 20+k 4 cylinder, new to hoopty driving
off the lot Huzanbu does but this isn't how it works, it's really very
complicated and.... uhhu. So let's please not forget that... no excuse in
the end but certainly no service to an understanding of the situation to
skip such. Just sayin...
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