Why don't game devs like put in a little shitty minigame for us to play while we wait for the games to load? Like just give us snake or something.
It feels like games are having more and more loading screens, or maybe I've just been playing too much GTAV and Fallout 4, but really it wouldn't be that hard to make such a thing, at least Skyrim and Fallout let us twirl that 3d model around.
because having a minigame during the loading screen is patented
forgot who owns the patent, tho. namco maybe
>>332983620
>>332983620
it expired recently.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/loading-screen-game-patent-finally-expires
I think it was Konami maybe Namco, but regardless, one bullshit company actually patented it and blocks their use.
I think it recently expired or is due to soon (iirc no chance of renewal) so there's that.
>>332983620
Namco, yeah. Though it recently expired, so people can add them now if they want.
>>332983620
The patent is up and I don't think they renewed it.
>>332983620
You can patent something like that?
I thought game mechanics were uncopyrightable.
>>332983620
I swear I played and H-Game that had a shooting mini-game between loadscreens.
>>332983896
copyrights and patents are two different things
>>332983896
Wasn't ATB from Square RPGs patented?
>>332983509
Most game devs can't create a decent game between the loading screens. What makes you think they can make a good one for the loading screens themselves?
>>332984261
>ATB
?
>>332984408
active time battle
>>332983509
Splatoon did this
it's okay
>>332984408
Underage please go
>>332983509
Because well-programmed games have no loading screens to begin with
And for not-so-well-programmed games it's simply unthinkable because the programmers barely managed to make the game run like it is
>>332983509
At this point in time we shouldn't need loading screens at all.
>>332984542
Disc drives can only spin so fast, and in the case of digital games console hard drives usually aren't top of the line.
>>332984261
Why would you patent the actual worst battle system ever to plague RPGs? Christ, I should be thanking them for keeping imitators from springing up. That garbage might be the standard now.
>>332983509
I'm happy if I can even manage to read one sentence of a loading screen tip, don't even have a SSD.
>>332983509
>2016
>Still seeing loading screens for more than 5 seconds
Though yeah, it's nice having a mini-game in the loading screen for long-loading games like GTA.
>>332984506
What games have that? What does it do?
>>332984738
Before I answer, how old are you and when did you get into video games?
Consoles in the future will have SSD's as their primary drives.
This will pretty much eliminate the need for noticable loading screens.
I'm going to patent story in games and become millionaire
>>332984640
because it was the early 90s I guess, they had just created it
>>332984808
your dumb
>>332984794
18, I think my first game was either a Sega Genesis or a Gameboy Color back in like 2002-ish maybe? A few years later I got a GameCube.
>>332984738
literally every mainline Final Fantasy game in the 90s bruh
>>332984992
Okay, see >>332985047
>>332984904
That Dragoon is fucking adorable
>>332984904
this is my new steam avatar
>>332985047
I've never played a Final Fantasy game other than the MMO my friends convinced me to try for a month, what made it patentable?
>>332983896
You can patent anything in the USPTO. You can patent things for individual games and unique gameplay mechanics though it has to be super specific and it's very hard to be enforced. It's a lot around trying to prevent outright clones than prevent other games from taking your work. That Simpsons Crazy Taxi clone EA made got them completely fucked in court and everything that game earned they had to pay to Sega (And it sold decent, so it was a hefty chunk) while GTA 3 credited Sega's patent for it's taxi minigame.
Also, there was a shitload of pressure on Namco to drop that patent anyway as a lot of patents were considered bad for the industry and usually the ESA would advise companies not to persue them. Midway used to own the patent on ghost cars and only occasionally sent a fax or e-mail to publishers if they weren't properly credited for payment. Microsoft bought the patent when Midway went under and now lets it just sit.
>>332985498
>ghost cars
Explain further
>>332985312
It was a new kind of Turn Based system that was never done before.
Every actor in the battle had a bar that would fill up in real time. When it's full, the actor is able to choose a command. Actors with higher speed will fill up faster.
It was meant to retain the ease of a TBS system, while adding the suspense and pressure an action game would have.
>>332985623
in a racing game, where it records your best lap and lets you race against a replay of yourself, represented by a "ghost car" that you can't collide with
>>332986038
Oh okay. For some reason the first thing that came to mind was cars fading out in the distance in games like GTA or whatever.
>>332985828
That sounds really neat, was it not in anything other than Final Fantasy?
>>332983964
Kek
>>332983896
vague patents are all the rage.
Nintendo patented the sanity meter for Eternal Darkness.
>>332986226
It's used a lot in RPG maker games, since that's where most retro JRPG-like games come from. OFF used it for example.
By and large though, it's mostly a Square thing, and honestly I haven't played many Square games.
>>332983620
Namco, though it expired (and from what I heard was fraudulent from the start apparently) a while ago
>>332986226
chrono trigger
>>332985623
Time trial ghost cars like in Mario Kart and GT. First introduced in "Hard Drivin'" in 1988. Patent didn't go through till 1993 as they only patented it after the designers got annoyed Nintendo lifted the idea for F-Zero and Mario Kart and Nintendo didn't credit them.
A WB Games owns the patent, but apparently doesn't enforce it these days as its tied up with a similar patent Microsoft did and the ESA asked them not to enforce it because it's too broad a patent that could give problems with development.
>>332986420
Can also get you fucked as well. Konami made an incredibly vague patent for Guitar Freaks. Then tried to sue Harmonix and Activision over Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The judge told them to get the fuck out because their patent tried to cover everything and was "Patent trolling" at best. Konami ended up settling out of court and being glad Kotick's army of jew lawyers didn't fuck them in the ass.
>>332983620
It expired nigger.
Now we'll see what happens (though to be honest I'm quite fond of being given a tid bit of lore or information)
>>332986226
Mostly just Square Enix RPGs in the 90s and games that base their battle system off of those.
>>332985498
>ESA
Yuropes pace program?
>>332986038
>>332986918
Isn't that gimmick in drift stage?
>>332986825
>>332987226
Did Square make games other than Final Fantasy and Super Mario RPG?
>>332987595
>Did Square make games other than Final Fantasy and Super Mario RPG?
