The Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Fallacy Meets The Video Game Industry
from the that-makes-sense,-wait,-no-it-doesn't dept
As anyone who has studied debate or logic knows, it's easy to present reasonable sounding, causal arguments that are total nonsense. For example, a student might say "I never studied for tests, yet I still got A's, therefore it would be a mistake for me to study". Or, as another example, someone might say, "There's been a lot of innovation in the video game industry, and this industry enjoys strong IP protection, therefore strong IP protection is necessary to induce innovation." That happens to be the argument that Adam Thierer makes, as he calls out intellectual property skeptics for not attacking the video game industry. On its face, the argument isn't necessarily wrong, but Thierer does little to prove it's right. He states that the first-mover advantage wouldn't be enough to return profits to game makers, given the high expense of developing a game. But even in the absence of simple piracy, game makers copy each other all the time. There are plenty of derivative, first-person shooters getting made all the time. That hasn't stopped the good ones from being profitable, even though they're being copied. Almost any popular game has imitators, though people still feel they get value by paying up for the good ones. And then there's the fact that the game industry has emerged to have tightly-controlled platforms that aren't interoperable. It's just not as easy to copy and share an XBOX game as it is a CD, rendering plain vanilla piracy less of an issue. So if this strong IP argument is to be made, one needs to explain why other aspects of the video game industry don't explain its success before concluding that it necessarily needs IP to innovate.
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by Anonymous Coward on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 3:26pm
I'ma N U M E R O U N O!
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by Monarch on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 3:39pm
Jeez, I buy plenty of games. But I got burned too many times with buying before trying. Now I will torrent a new game I'm thinking about, to test it first. However, if it has Star Force, I WILL NOT EVEN TORRENT IT, LET ALONE BUY IT!!!!
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I love The Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Fallacy! by jsnbase on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 4:36pm
They rocked the Meadowlands in '74.
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by rijit on Jul 28th, 2006 @ 6:53pm
Thats because game makers share innovation, to a degree. Unlike Hollywood, who hoard IPs like a desperate mother fending off an attack on her children.
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by Me on Jul 29th, 2006 @ 7:40am
I have no idea what this article is trying to say...Xbox 360 has the best try before you buy system with demos over xbox live. That's a hell of a lot easier (and legal) than downloading torrents.
Also, is there a moderator who watches these posts and if there is, can they delete any post that has any sort of reference to being First. I really hate wasting the second it takes to read someone saying that they're first!
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Re: First by Anonymous Coward on Jul 30th, 2006 @ 6:12am
First to reply
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Re: I love The Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Fallacy! by Anonymous Coward on Jul 30th, 2006 @ 4:44pm
That was Star Castle, asshat ;D
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This may be because... by Sanguine Dream on Jul 31st, 2006 @ 9:21am
owners of video game IP know that there's no real point in crying infringement every time a similar game is released by a competitor. Take the Grand Theft Auto series. After the third title came out and was a huge success there were imitators (State of Emergency, The Getaway, and other "open ended" mission based games afterwards) that tried to piggyback on its success. Well State of Emergency nor The Getaway did as well as GTA despite both having sequels. The original hot games will stand out and the clones will fall to the wayside.
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Re: Re: I love The Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc Falla by jsnbase on Jul 31st, 2006 @ 10:53am
You might be right. I was pretty wasted....
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