#moralrights

[rickyderose]

#MoralRights, #MoralJudgement, #UnificationNotDivision, (at Derose Entertainment, LLC) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFwGqGgg_4i/?igshid=k7k7hu9s5428

[feymorgaina]

Jason Andreas' comment: "Well that is a very sour yellow note, Bioware." Indeed.

The question is: does the story belong to the writers or the fans?

With that question, we tread into the world of moral rights of the author and copyright issues. In an RPG game, who is the author? The initial writers or the individual players or both? If the players are also authors of the story, then under moral rights the players do have a say in what happens in an RPG game; and in the case of Mass Effect 3, a say in what options they should have for the ending. Furthermore, if a player is also an author of the story in an RPG, then should the player own a copyright to that character and that character's story if that player has customized their character and not played the default story? (Specifically, shouldn't the game saves be owned by the player? I mention the game saves because Dragon Age Origins game saves on the Playstation 3 are copyrighted, so that players can't even make a backup of the saved game.)

Clearly, there is a relationship between the writers of the game and the players who then define the story further. It seems to me that what that relationship should be is still being defined with gaming companies like Bioware wanting full control of their games on one end and players wanting a least some reasonable control over a game that they put just as much effort into as the original game developers. In the case of RPG games like Mass Effect, the game is not a standard product like a toaster oven (sorry, I'm thinking of a toaster oven because Mass Effect 3 had a scene involving a toaster oven) where you purchase it as is and can't modify it. The essence of an RPG game is that you can customize certain aspects of the game. Players of RPG games are not standard consumers, and it is completely and utterly wrong from a business sense to treat these consumers as your standard consumer (like a consumer of a toaster oven). Anyone with good business acumen should be able to determine this; and in determining this, should adjust their business and marketing strategies (and also customer relations approach) appropriately - that is, adjust to your consumer market. In the case of an RPG game though, companies like Bioware need to accept that their consumers are more than just consumers and they need to redefine that relationship to the benefit of both the players and Bioware.

Something to think about.