Gamma Law Blog
FEB
28
Over the last three decades, scores of musicians have experimented with and elevated tiny blips of electronic noise to chart topping records. But the concert hall of bleeps and bloops does not only host the likes of Daft Punk, Justice, and the Blue Man Group, this stage also belongs to video game music.
Flashing back to the era of Atari, Pac-Man was among the first arcade offerings to hit it big with its iconic tunes and “waka-waka” sound effects, which inspired rock duo Bucker and Garcia’s “Pac-Man Fever.” But even chiptunes have been copywritten, as rapper Lil’ Flip learned when he tried to sample Pac-Man’s soundtrack for his song “Game Over” and found himself in the middle of a legal battle between Namco and his record label, Sony Entertainment Music.(1) Most gaming copyright holders have not chosen to be so litigious, and the freedom to sample and rework the electronic melodies of old games has spawned thousands of remixed and re-imagined versions, like those featured at OCRemix.org. However, OCRemix.org disclaims any responsibility for copyright issues.(2)
Gamers not only enjoy making music, they like making music a part of their gaming experience. Learning from this, innovators in the field have picked up on something that popular musicians have known for years: people want to listen to music while doing just about anything. Trying to capitalize on this impulse, game developers have been experimenting with successfully integrating an entertaining musical experience with captivating gameplay.
In CipherPrime’s conceptual puzzle game, Auditorium, players are encouraged to fill containers with musical components, eventually creating a voluminous orchestral solution. As one reviewer noted, by using audible feedback with symphonies to indicate progress, you “don’t need scores or meters to tell you that the level is almost over, you just know.”(3) The immersive power of music was not lost on the cult-classic game, Rez, which combined electronica music with a classic rail shooter architecture to produce a completely synesthetic play experience. The draw of Rez, and games of its ilk, are that you aren’t simply playing a game on top of music, “[t]he sounds, visuals and vibrations come together as one to make the gaming experience something special.”(4)
It isn’t only game designers who are profiting from this fusion of bit and B flat, indie musicians are using games as their portal to fame and recognition. The indie game hit VVVVVV, a platformer inspired by the music and graphics of the Commodore 64 system, allowed composer Magnus ‘SoulEye’ Pålsson the opportunity to bring his chiptune inspired music to the gaming public. VVVVVV’s success and exposure lead to two of Pålsson’s songs (part of the game soundtrack entitled PPPPPP) being featured as DLC for yet another gaming musical sensation, EA and Harmonix’s Rock Band.(5)
Even before the days when teens screamed “I want my MTV!”, every era has craved some sort of musical soundtrack to their daily lives, and as gaming becomes a bigger part of our culture, so too will music and gaming become more entwined.
(1) Lai, Marcus. “Sony and Namco Settle Pac-Man Lawsuit.” PunchJump. (Aug. 29, 2005). http://news.punchjump.com/article.php?id=1272
(2) “Content Policy.” OverClockedRemix. (Jun. 29, 2011) http://ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy
(3) Green, Andrew. “Auditorium HD Review.” GamesRadar. (Dec. 14, 2010). http://www.gamesradar.com/auditorium-hd-review/
(4) Brudvig, Eric. “Rez HD Review.” IGN.com (Jan 29, 2008). http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/848/848434p1.html
(5) Vaneseltine, Carolyn. “Interview with Magnus ‘SoulEye’ Pålsson of the VVVVVV Soundtrack.” Rockband.com (Aug. 1, 2011). http://www.rockband.com/blog/interview-with-magnus-%E2%80%98souleye%E2%80%99-palsson-of-the-vvvvvv-soundtrack
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The value of the dollar has certainly dipped in the past few years, but there’s a number of new currencies that might have investors clamoring for a more digital kind of coin. Enter the world of gaming and digital economies, where industry leaders compete for consumers’ real-life money, hoping they’ll prefer their digital dough to ordinary dollars.
Facebook made news less than a year ago when it announced that many of its online apps, casual gaming favorites like Mafia Wars and Farmville, would be consolidated under a new system of Facebook credits. For users, this meant that in order to purchase in-game powerups and bonuses from their favorite Facebook apps, they would need to purchase Facebook credits at a rate of 10 credits per dollar.(1) For developers, it means that their own in-game currencies would need to be purchased using Facebook credits and that Facebook would take a flat 30% cut of anything purchased with those credits.(2)
And Facebook is far from alone in the e-currency economy; Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Nintendo’s online marketplace both use a credit system that requires users to purchase Xbox Live points or Wii points in order to trade them for downloadable content. One of the pitfalls of this system — or perhaps one of its great strengths — is that users are often unaware how much downloadable content will actually cost. The conversion rate from Xbox live points to US dollars (currently 80 points/1 USD) is confusing enough that one user created an online conversion tool on his site to help Xbox players realize how many euros, yen or dollars their newly purchased content is extracting from their electronic wallets.(3)
Minting virtual currency in-game isn’t only giving game consumers new conversion rates to calculate, this phenomenon also draws the gamer closer to a global community, where she and many others use the same modality of exchange, free of political and cultural constraints. That was one of the missions of Bitcoin, a completely virtual currency which employed peer to peer technology to make transactions with Bitcoins possible anonymously, much like virtual cash.(4) One of the pitfalls of this approach is that Bitcoin’s value fluctuated with the market, leaving Bitcoin investors to either see huge returns, or to be left with only pennies after the currency crashed in June 2011.(5)
Risky investments in digital resources continue to be big business in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, where unverified resources like BankofWoW.com and Guild-Bank.com are in the business of turning players’ dollars and euros into in-game gold and items. Whether or not the sites are legitimate or legal businesses, the success of these sites and virtual currencies in general is the sense of freedom it gives the point or credit holder from the economic and political strings tied to our national currencies.
Virtual currencies may not have the stability or security of their paper and metal counterparts, but the capitalistic drive and the promise of immense gain will always keep gamers searching for just a bit more coin.
(1) Rueter, Thad “Facebook faces antitrust pressure for promoting its new digital currency.” Internet Retailer (Jun. 29, 2011)
(2) Diana, Allison “Facebook Makes Credits Sole Legal Currency.” Information Week (Jan. 25, 2011)
(3) http://thewrongadvices.com/2007/03/05/xbox-live-points-converter/
(4) “About Bitcoin.” Bitcoin.org
(5) Cohan, Peter “Can Bitcoin Survive? Is it Legal?” Forbes (Jun. 28, 2011)
It’s nearly Valentine’s day and love is in the virtual air. A million questions abound: Will he ask me to go on that raid with him in World of Warcraft? Can someone with only a +2 bonus to Charisma really charm her way into a date? How long will it take to build my romantic bachelor pad in The Sims? Yes, as geek chic and gamer culture have slowly become part of the mainstream social conversation, so too have virtual relationships become a mainstay in the gaming world. And as gamers become more and more willing to part with hard-earned coin in search of their one true love’s sprite, gaming industry leaders have been more than willing to provide.
As often as in real life, your pixelated partnerships are paramount to becoming successful in the overall progression of the plot as well as your virtual character. In Bethesda Studio’s, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, your avatar has the choice of marrying almost any non-player character (NPC) available in the expansive world’s many kingdoms. However, your eventual choice of spouse is not only a matter of how much gold they may earn for you but how you and your potential spouse will interact in your new marital home, of which several choices are also available.(1)
Economic issues are not the only problems for players who attempt to choose partners who are the same gender as their bitmapped beaus. In Bioware’s newest MMORPG offering, Star Wars: The Old Republic, the game’s “Companion” system allows a player to build relationships with other characters though several scripted events, and with a recent update this system may include same-sex relationships.(2) This announcement has prompted outrage from certain players and activists, voicing that Bioware has been co-opted by gay rights interests, similar to concerns about the studio’s successful Dragon Age 2.(3)
Gamers, however, are not just faux-frenching computers when they play, they’re also coupling with other players, in sometimes lavish and extravagant ceremonies. On February 14th, Trion Worlds hopes to break the world record for in-game marriages by encouraging players of its new MMO Rift to wait until Valentine’s day to get virtually hitched to their real life partners.(4) Meanwhile, in the mobile world, the social media startup the Icebreak is attempting to draw gamers into socializing by offering a mobile app for Android and iOS that will reward users with “Date Night Dollars” and rankings for continuing to strengthen their real life relationships.(5)
As Valentine’s Day approaches, it is smart to remember that love and relationships take many forms, both virtual and very real, and it seems a safe bet that gamers will continue to search for both as we pass another February 14th.
(1) Jackson, Leah. “Skyrim Marriage Guide: Who to Marry and How to Plan The Perfect Wedding in The Elder Scrolls 5.” G4TV.
(2) Vinson, John. “SWTOR: The Old Republic Same-Sex Relationship.” WebProNews.
(3) Kuchera, Ben. “Dragon Age 2’s gay character controversial with straight, gay gamers.” Ars Technica
(4) Fahey, Mike. “Breaking a World Record Seems Like A Fine Reason to Get a Virtual Marriage.” Kotaku.
(5) Smith, Simone. “Gaming Relationships” Harukosama.com.
Video games are now art. Legally.
The conspicuous categorization (that is, now, the “legalization”) of video games as art has been widely reported and debated, but never as intensely as last week, when the United States Supreme Court struck down a California law banning sales of violent video games to children. The decision in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, No. 08-1448, 564 U.S. ____ (2011), saw games as equal to—even the evolution of—other forms of expression, like “books, plays, and movies.” (Look forward to further analysis of the case in future Gamma Law posts.) Yet some prominent precursors had been blinking on America’s screens prior to June 27.
Video games actually attained legal recognition as art in May of this year, when the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced new eligibility guidelines for its grants. The NEA revisions reverberated a little throughout the art and gaming communities; the mainstream media frenzy accompanied the Brown decision. But the Supreme Court was not asked, and therefore could not answer, the question, “are video games art,” so Brown’s effect on video games is unclear and indirect. The NEA, on the other hand, is a practical endeavor.
From its inception, the NEA was tasked with developing democracy by fostering “wisdom and vision” and an ability to think independently. The stated objective of this use of public funds was to help citizens to “achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future.”
Congress established the NEA in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government dedicated to supporting “artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation.” So far the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion through partnerships (with federal, state, public, and private organizations), fellowships, and more than 135,000 grants. It is the largest annual national funder of the arts in the U.S.
Why does making games legal, as art, matter?
Well, of most immediate interest, “legality” matters because it allows games to be eligible for federal funds. The renamed “Arts in Media” category opens the federal vault to the games and media industries by categorizing them as works of art. Grants of $10,000 to $200,000 previously limited to work in TV and radio are now available to “[a]ll available media platforms such as the Internet, interactive and mobile technologies, [and] digital games.” (Guidelines at arts.gov.)
And, as we know from the Brown decision, the status of games as legal expression protected by the First Amendment is now confirmed as well.
I guess the conclusion is that games are finally getting some official respect, even by courts and government agencies.
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