Note to the following: yes, I realize that it's not all that relevant to
Atari programming (I only delurk for the tangent threads... oh well).
Is anyone following this discussion?
> Glad you can't patent this is real life. Substituting "player" for
> "player sprite", you described "jumping for joy while on a platform
> assuming gravity is pulling the player towards the platform in question".
> I don't think you could reach the state when describing platform games
> where you'd've accurately described something that could be patented (or
> else Activision is due a lot of money (or whoever made the first
> "platform" game)). The scary part is that this is the sort of
> nit-picking that people are doing in our courts about these same matters!
> ;)
A programming language is a form of description; obviously some description
can exist. The readability of this description as an introduction to gameplay
is irrelevant for legal purposes; only its scope and nonambiguity matter.
Well, we disagree on ethics; I think patents are very important things and
the originator of an idea does indeed have a right to disallow others from
using it. However, that would be a tangent here.
Yes, the description would also have to deal with gameplay goals and so on.
So? I claim that anything explicitly put into a game can be precisely
described, even to expected strategies which the game has been written so that
players may adopt, giving a pretty good idea of the feel of the game.
> > Sure it can. Relevant terminology would be "block-location grid",
> >"active block-entity", and so on. All depends on the original wording
> >actually used, of course.
>
> Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.
>
> The operative words were "clear idea". My point is that when you start
> using such terminology, you've painted such a broad scope that there's
> little that doesn't fit into your description. In this case, just
> looking at the words you've thrown out, Breakout and Tetris could fall
> under the same look and feel. There's a point where the words are so
Of course that was not a complete description; you'd use those terms to
say things like "When certain formations - such as horizontal lines from
one side to the other - are created in the block-location grid, they are
eliminated and the player's score is adjusted." This certainly includes
Tetris, Columns, Bust-a-Move, and so on, while excluding Breakout,
Concentration, and other games using grids of objects.
> broad they don't have any concrete meaning, and I think you'd have to do
> that to include Columns in with Tetris. Unfortunately, the courts have
> to ultimately draw the line in the sand. Nothing exists (boy I hate
> using this phrase) *a priori*.
Again that's why lawyers take their jobs so seriously - to prevent things
from being decided arbitrarily.
> Does anyone know the meaning of the word "is"? (For non-USA-ers, that's
> part of the big stink over President Billy Bubba Boy Clinton's testimony.
> For a while, he's debating with the lawyers what "is" means in certain
> contexts. C'est la vie, n'est-pas?)
Sorry, you've touched a nerve. Language is not arbitrary or subjective, at
least not intrinsically. (In violation of copyright), here is a definition
of "is" from the online Webster's:
(One could claim that "equal" or somesuch is undefined, which is why I have
actually quoted this definition rather than just saying that it exists.)
>>>>>
Main Entry: be
Pronunciation: 'bE
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): past first & third singular 'was'; second singular 'were';
plural were past subjunctive were past part 'been'; present part 'be·ing';
present first singular 'am'; second singular 'are'; third singular 'is';
plural 'are' present subjunctive 'be'
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English 'bEon'; akin to Old High German
'bim' am, Latin 'fui' I have been, 'futurus' about to be, 'fieri' to become,
be done, Greek 'phynai' to be born, be by nature, 'phyein' to produce
Date: before 12th century
intransitive senses
1 a : to equal in meaning : have the same connotation as : SYMBOLIZE
<God is love> <January is the first month> <let x be 10>
b : to have identity with
<the first person I met was my brother>
c : to constitute the same class as
d : to have a specified qualification or characterization
<the leaves are green>
e : to belong to the class of
<the fish is a trout>
-- used regularly in senses 1a through 1e as the copula of simple
predication
2 a : to have an objective existence : have reality or actuality : LIVE
<I think, therefore I am> <once upon a time there was a knight>
b : to have, maintain, or occupy a place, situation, or position
<the book is on the table>
c : to remain unmolested, undisturbed, or uninterrupted
-- used only in infinitive form
<let him be>
d : to take place : OCCUR
<the concert was last night>
e : to come or go
<has already been and gone> <has never been to the circus>
f archaic : BELONG, BEFALL
verbal auxiliary
1 -- used with the past participle of transitive verbs as a passive-voice
auxiliary
<the money was found> <the house is being built>
2 -- used as the auxiliary of the present participle in progressive tenses
expressing continuous action
<he is reading> <I have been sleeping>
3 -- used with the past participle of some intransitive verbs as an auxiliary
forming archaic perfect tenses
<Christ is risen from the dead -- 1 Cor 15:20 (Douay Version)>
4 -- used with the infinitive with to to express futurity, arrangement in
advance, or obligation
<I am to interview him today> <she was to become famous>
<<<<<
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