Magic the Gathering is owned by Wizards of the Coast, which also owns these cards artworks. Microprose had a license to use them.

Regarding MicroProse - it's intellectual property is now owned by other companies and/or persons.

Although you can clone MtG's gameplay mechanics. For example, MicroProse itself had copied some of MtG mechanics in their Master of Magic game, without bothering with any license. Although there is a story, that Master of Magic was initially planned to be set in MtG universe and use it's artworks

Russian game Etherlords also completely copies MtG mechanics, just uses different names and artworks. It is similar to Microprose's game and Master of Magic (has overworld map and enhancements)

Nikita, you seem to be in the know of copyright law, so I want to know the answer to this one as well.  There was a guy who ripped off Kotor II game from Lucasarts he copied the game assets all over into UNreal Engine and created his own Lucasfilm art rpg and chucked it up on youtube.    that's not my question because that's wrong what he did, he just He just ripped off all their assets.

So here's my question, can we base some of our game designs elements on what we already see done in other games, so we don't physically rip into their game and copy off any of their game asset files or textures, or meshes, like this naughty guy on youtube did, but that we just instead just use some of their ideas in our games when we are designing our own games. 

Because we need inspiration to draw from and and I look at what has been done already in other games and try to draw inspiration from that.  To try to design my own game with I need ideas, I need design elements I can work with..   Because there's certain game shapes and design elements I like that were done in Mass Efffect 3 that I thought were very good.  there was one idea they used I liked, putting a moving lift behind a wall while in the shopping area, but if I used that idea then I would do completely different textures and graphics and use a different lift. an probably use it in a different area instead of in a shopping mall.  But I would only use the idea or design element in my game only if I know the idea can't be copyrighted in the license and that only their game assets they create are what's protected under the license.

But what I want is some of the ideas they use to help shape my own game with.  And that one reason why I think those in the game industry write out these tutorials to share their ideas of designing in the game industry out to others like me who need ideas.. 

If we are planning on releasing a game commercially or even freeware then We need to know for sure is if we are allowed to copy an idea or design concept or not, but I think the rule of thumb here is, just ask and then we will know where we stand on the issue for We don't want any grouchy lawyers..

@Tozan

>So here's my question, can we base some of our game designs elements on what we already see done in other games, so we don't physically rip into their game and copy off any of their game asset files or textures, or meshes, like this naughty guy on youtube did, but that we just instead just use some of their ideas in our games when we are designing our own games. 

They could have patented these exact mechanics. Futuremore jurisprudence is not a hard sciense, so a judge may decide whatever he likes, especially when kickbacks are involved. See Tetris case, where judge forbade any game clones at all, despite no patents involved. There were even cases against Linux.

@Rainbow Design

>I am pretty sure ideas and concepts cannot be copyrighted.

If only judge knew it that well.

Okay, Then if we want to use an idea or concept from another game, is to ask the company who made the game if we can use their idea or concept or not. then we will know for sure.  Even though Bioware already knows that the fans of Mass Effect are already moddling the hell out of their game.  They are hacking the game to pieces in order to try to mod it.

The only way to sort it out is to ask Bioware concening some of the ideas and concept thing. I do like the some of the concept design inside their Normandy Ship.  The unreal engine makes it light up like a christmas tree with the Material Editor effects.

There's pretty strong precedent for games borrowing gameplay ideas and mechanics from one another.   As Nikita_Sadkov points out there are a few cases of companies successfully claiming a patent on a particular game mechanic, but historically that's definitely been the exception not the rule.

Honestly, at this point in the history of the game industry, there's very little that's not somehow derivative of something that's come before it.  I wouldn't worry at all about borrowing mechanics from Mass Effect.  Just about every mechanic you can think of in the game is lifted in some way from earlier titles.  It's the setting, story, and characters that make the game unique, plus the particular combination of gameplay elements as well I suppose. 

see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_clone

for further reading on the topic.

Well the game project I am working on now is Called Teseract Prime Outworlds, The Unknown Universe.   (original game title I came up with).    But my universe is not the mass effect universe, its totally different characters. 

But In looking more further into this, yes,  There's the copyright protection which I know all about, but when it come to Video Games some of them use a double layer of additional protection known as patents. 

So Far, all I can find on patents to do with Mass Effect is just about its wheel dialog system,  I don't use a wheel dialog system in my game, instead I plan to use the UDK Built-in Text Announcement System for the game diaglog. 

Or maybe find a way to get Unreal to read Dialog from a Dialog file for the scenes.  I still think they should (just like they did with rigging the models online) is create a Face Animation Database so we can rig the diaglog text up with the facial expressions.  By just loading up our model, typing in the text we want t animate with the model and the server builds it all for you, rather than muck around assembling all the facial animations manually yourself to go with your diaglog.

>The Internet is Supranational, what is legal in your country might be illegal in an other country.

Most countries recognize copyrights of each other. Even enemies of U.S., like Russia, recognize american copyright, maybe simply because distributing say MtG freely would greatly advance american culture and english language, while authorities don't want that.

Patents are different, but there are agreements to recognize pantents internationally:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_Cooperation_Treaty

>It's the setting, story, and characters that make the game unique, plus the particular combination of gameplay elements as well I suppose. 

Setting, story and characters are likely based on prior work. So you can take it as is, just replacing the wording and recombining few events.

I think following category can be mirrored at OGA too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Stock_characters

I think the whole entire system is pathetic why? Because its getting more and more complicated the more patents the more restrictions they introduce.  The more complicated things become..

.

Patent laws could be evil. But copyright benefits competition, otherwise everyone would be copying some bad solution, instead of creating new and better one from scratch.

Apparently after checking the patent office in america, ELECTRONIC ARTS Holds most of the Patents.   And that company has filed tons of patents recently, filled around 2007-2009 but in 2012-2014 is when they started to come all into force.  So its not just copyright law to worry about here but also a truckload of patents as well.

Can;t make story episodes (bummer),    Well that's a shame, no save installments, Can't have a mouse wheel dialog system, but when I read through the RIDICULOUS SIXTY LEVELS OF protection they have put got down for it, they seem to say, no graphic mouse shapes in your dialog. fine. for I don't need the mouse interface to navigate through my dialog tree anyway, These guys at Electronic Arts can have their wheel.  In the Mass Effect 3 game After the wheel dialog choices is done, when I click again on the model after the cutscene is over and they either have nothing left to say, or they get stuck in a endless loop an go on and on like a broken record.  They use a 1 dimensional dialog tree system attached to a mouse wheel interface, I plan on doing dynamic dialog in my game without use of a mouse graphic interface while these guys can just keep on running outta gas with the wheel and having broken record troubles when it runs out of options eventually...   

The User Profile Model reCreation, theres a  patent also on this as well, this one seems to say that we can't create a 3d modeling interface  to allow our players to change the default player mesh to customize their own mesh character while in the game....Even though we can freely customize a mesh in 3d modeling programs outside our games like Blender, and then rig them what a Bummer. 

Yup. That is very unfortunate. And you can accidently implement patented gameplay element, without knowing it, and get yourself a ton of troubles:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/patented-game-mechanics-that-might-surp...

LMAO Dodge all the patents.  I loving call Patents "Mines" because that's to me is what they are, Deadly Mines put in all the commercial waters just like how we put mines in the video games as obstacles for the player to steer carefully all around .   So the commercial ocean is all rigged up with all of these patents and they are deadly when run into.. Of course there is going to be overlaps of ideas and concepts with the more games that get designed and created...Take a Look at snowflakes.  As more of them fall down on the ground, you notice they blend in the same patterns and shapes with each other as more of them fall.  and likewise so do our ideas and concepts blend in with ideas and concepts already found in other games. So I don't think you can avoid all the criss=-crossing and overlaps because as the number of people making games gets more bigger, the more criss crossing and blending you see (the big picture)...... So this is why I can't understand why they these companies go out of their way to just lay down more mines. 

Why don't they should set up a main server where we can put our games through and they can check "debug' to see if there are any minefields "conflicts" and warnings with their rules then sugggest corrections to avoid running into the mines.  Just like how you would debug a batch script. If we only had that kind of technology to debug all the legal problems first before they even start... Then we would avoid the legal minefield.

This is properly why Epic wants people in the game industry to switch to the unreal engine to develop their games with in order to keep themselves all in line with Electronic Arts Patents.  Because I found a patent on the unreal shader and the texture effects the shader does on textures. 

So Developers who accidentally overlap or criss-crossing into other people's ideas wthout knowing it  should not be threatened.  We are not 100% perfect in everything and for some of these companies to expect absolute perfection or threaten legal blow ups instead of allowing people some breathing space to make course corrections in their projects to get themselves around the mines they laid out is just ridiculous............ These companies should just tell us how to steer away from the danger

@Tozan

>Developers who accidentally overlap should not be put in legal trouble, but instead just told how to avoid the danger instead of given legal threats.  

Ignorantia juris non excusat.

Any system that believes in just dishing just cold hard justice before showing mercy is a system that is not in balance.)

Do if Microsoft holds the right to make games with trophiy achivements for kills, is that what you are saying?,. If true then I can't put trophy kill achievements in my game unless I pay for a license fee ?I thought the whole patent thing is stupid, that system works only if there are few patents but when there are THOUSANDS to try to dodge or have to pay a licensing fees for, it just makes game development more difficult and much more expensive, myabe that's why game developers work in studios and groups to try to cover all these many licensing costs, production costs, trademark costs to use their label, marketing and advertising costs, media costs,, distribution costs, and so on. 

So that's probably how the small game developers are getting slammed to the wall by these big game publishing companies slapping with all these costs if you want to publish the game through their label. Maybe this is why some developers publish their game instead on Steam, maybe Steam is a cheaper alternative than publishing it thorugh a major game publishing ;company.  if we use unreal to develop our game with, then we have to publish it through Epic because of the patents of Electronic arts forces people to have to send their unreal games into Epic for the publishing and distribution rights so if you use their patent technology which is the Unreal Engine.  These companies sound more like the Ferengi !!

So is steam a better alternative?

wow does microsoft really hold a patent on achievement systems? thats insane. You know how many games use achievement systems. thats crazy.

IT seems to me that the small game developers have to not only worry about Copyright Law infringement, but also have to worry also about patents infringement, and also trademark infringement as well by the bigger fish that are in the pond who set up all these ridiculous rules on everything to dictate what you can make, what you can publish and so on.. It's just a dog eat dog world.  There's really no friends that I see here...

So we can't just model up any old item in Blender for our game if it has a company trademark symbol on it or some company is going to want to sue or threaten us if we publish the game with it, and the patent restrictions are worse.    So to me its just looks like a big truckload of endless legal tape entangements when it comes to developing a video game for the commercial market.  The more patents that there are from these video game companies,  the more chances of your ideas overlapping into them when you create something yourself and the more licensing fees you probably have to pay.

So by setting up all these patents all I see is these big companies just manipulating the market and trying to shut small game developers out of it by restricting what they can make or sell, Maybe that's why some developers choose freeware or creative commons to do their developing in. 

Ignore the patents.

You should not respect US Patent law if the US is not your god.

Do you worship or respect the United States? Does the US rule over you? Do you accept that rule?

If not: ignore them.

If they come after you to ruin your life: take more than an eye for an eye.

If they come at you with paper with which to cut you, respond with something more real, stronger. Do not fight on their battlefield. They will win. Fight them on one in-which no-one wins, and do so in reality, not in ephemeral arguments.

Remeber: The US has banned anything that could bring you happiness in life. The US drone bombs anyone opposed to it's culture (which is opposed to you if you are XY). The US bombs wedding parties and just chalks it up in jokes to "they were probably marrying a girl anyway" and "better dead than married to an older guy" etc.

That is the US. It is an enemy of every single man on this planet, except for it's elite. Do NOT obey them.

Remeber: there is nothing for you to lose if you go down: because if you ever got anything good you would be in a prison for the rest of your life. ALL natural pleasures are banned by the USA.

I agree the patent system is in need of reform, but I can't comment on what game features are under patent restriction.

However, I can say that the images on each Magic: The Gathering (MTG) card are the Intellectual Property of Wizards of the Coast (WotC), not MicroProse. Using any of the images from any MTG game anywhere, without license from WotC, will definitely get you served with a Cease and Desist order. Maybe not right away, but if you use them in any capacity that gets a lot of public attention, you'll get shut down. Doesn't matter if it's commercial or not. Sorry. :/

@chaosesquestream: not only is that terrible legal advice, it has also departed the realm of "relating directly to copyright" and entered firmly into violating the "no discussion of politics" rule. I don't think pursuing that line of discussion will be fruitful to the OP's questions.

That is correct, its not worth the bother to have a team of grumpy lawyers shutting you all down after doing all of that work.  That's why I didn't use the mass effect dialog wheel idea in my space trading game.   because of the Patent they put against it and I didn't use any mass effect universe characters or their storylines or their art concepts even though some of their art ideas for structure of buildings were great... Because Electronic Arts had filed patents against the Unreal engine graphics and the shader

That is why I didn't copy any of their graphic art designs but I made my own game characters and concepts up instead.  And if my game gets finished I won't release it under the commercial market but under freeware or Creative Commons because of all the legal trouble that these big companies are causing to independent game developers who try to release their games in the commercial market. It seems to me that these big publishing companies don't like independent developers.

Copyright lasts 70+ years, while I think the patents have a shorter life of about 15 years. ( I think).

The only problem I may have is that one of my homeworlds happens to be called Telos, but its got nothing to do with the Star Wars Universe.  and that you travel around in a spaceship from system to system, I do have a space gate travel system in my game, so I can beable to travel through my worls but its got nothing to do with Freelancer. 

So like I said before, game ideas do overlap each other even when you are creating something  completely new from scratch....