newtech.law - legal aspects of new technologies

Today, the benefits of using video games in education and training are no longer disputed. Simulation, sports, role-playing and strategy games help to improve eye–hand coordination, concentration and spatial orientation, exercise memory, develop perceptiveness, provoke logical thinking, and train users in making choices and decisions and foreseeing the consequences of their actions. Does this mean that teachers can use them in class without hesitation?

A game is only as good as its creators. Therefore, it is in the interest of game development companies to keep their staff happy, so they don’t even think about switching to the competition. In addition, however, it is worth taking preventive measures, e.g. including clauses in contracts preventing the poaching of valuable employees and independent contractors.

Sometimes, regardless of the industry, companies include clauses in contracts preventing actions unfavourable to them. The most common of such clauses ban:

Multiplayer gamesare an increasingly important market segment. All kinds of features allowing players to communicate during gameplay, such as voice communication and text chats, largely account for their popularity. While player interaction is desired by players themselves and game developers, it can involve inappropriate and even unlawful player behaviour. What is the provider of an online game to do in such a situation?

A chat in a multiplayergame can even be used to commit a crime. Therefore, providers of online games (in particular developers, but also publishers and distributors) need to be aware of the obligations this may entail. This is important given that a large number of gamers are younger people who may be exposed to criminal activity by other game users.

In our series we have addressed the issue of protecting a video game against cloning in the context of lack of legal protection for an idea for a game. In this article, we will take a broader look at this problem.

Nerves, feverish analysis, and refinement of details are typical crunch elements before a video game is released on the market. Crunch, a period of intense work, usually shortly before the launch of a game, involves long working days, nights and weekends in front of a computer, sometimes on tasks the worker has never performed before. Can the employer order the employee to work under such conditions, and must the employee comply?

Geo-blocking limits the ability to buy products and services based on the customer’s nationality or residence. The conditions for access to goods and services and payment terms vary according to geographical criteria. In principle, such practices are prohibited in the EU. Does this ban also apply to video games?