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Apple Patent Application Looks at Converting Video Game Play Into Comic Books
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This is an improvement-- at least there isn't a chorus of screams that Apple is trying to patent Mass Effect.
Sometimes patent applications are a way of moving on-- someone comes up with a creative, but maybe over the top, idea. Rather than explore it further, the company patents it so they don't lose ownership and then everyone moves on while waiting to see where the future leads.
Sometimes a call goes out through a company for patents in a certain area as a defensive measure-- gaming would be an obvious area to do this in. If Nintendo or Sony sue on some patent issue or other, it gives Apple a stable of patents to cross license.
Sometimes patent applications are a way of moving on-- someone comes up with a creative, but maybe over the top, idea. Rather than explore it further, the company patents it so they don't lose ownership and then everyone moves on while waiting to see where the future leads.
Sometimes a call goes out through a company for patents in a certain area as a defensive measure-- gaming would be an obvious area to do this in. If Nintendo or Sony sue on some patent issue or other, it gives Apple a stable of patents to cross license.
I can't tell, is this sarcasm?
Do you not recall the Where To? pseudo-scandal over the patent's use of their UI. It's an exemplary use of the patented technology. Same thing's going down here.
To anyone complaining about legality:
1) This is not an overly broad, general concept. They defined a method in the patent, read it. The methodology is there, if you couldn't tell by the first picture.
2) Even if it wasn't a specified method, the patent office approved it, therefore its legal. As with all things, it would have to be challenged in court now in order to revoke it.
Although, I imagine most of you aren't that stupid, and are instead being sarcastic, in which case good for you
1) This is not an overly broad, general concept. They defined a method in the patent, read it. The methodology is there, if you couldn't tell by the first picture.
2) Even if it wasn't a specified method, the patent office approved it, therefore its legal. As with all things, it would have to be challenged in court now in order to revoke it.
Although, I imagine most of you aren't that stupid, and are instead being sarcastic, in which case good for you
No of course it's not sarcasm, Apple was finagled into giving credit to those guys. It's just dirty stuff...I find it hilarious some people don't see it for what it is.
To anyone complaining about legality:
1) This is not an overly broad, general concept. They defined a method in the patent, read it. The methodology is there, if you couldn't tell by the first picture.
2) Even if it wasn't a specified method, the patent office approved it, therefore its legal. As with all things, it would have to be challenged in court now in order to revoke it.
Although, I imagine most of you aren't that stupid, and are instead being sarcastic, in which case good for you
That little diagram hardly seems like a "methodology" when compared to the complexity of real code.
This is what happens with big corporations. Steve Jobs said: "Think different." From a slogan it has gradually become an official corporate value. Now every employee is trying to "think different" to look good at his/her annual performance review. Expect more and more of this weird stuff. First comes weird and crippled iPod Shuffle, then iPhone 4 made of glass and now that...
LOL! Love it!
I'm guessing there may be a broader application of the patent. But, keep in mind, companies like Apple will patent the heck out of idea's because they can in hopes that one or two may be valuable in the future. May be silly now, but in 5 years may be the next big thing.... this one... I'm not sure.
What?
This might be the most retarded thing ever invented. Oh wait, not invented, I meant the most retarded idea stolen from "choose your own adventure" books 30 years ago. Remember those? Yeah, they sucked almost as hard as this piece of trash.
This might be the most retarded thing ever invented. Oh wait, not invented, I meant the most retarded idea stolen from "choose your own adventure" books 30 years ago. Remember those? Yeah, they sucked almost as hard as this piece of trash.
I find it funny that people claim such unfounded statements when they didn't even read the patent...
?
Cough* MASS EFFECT*Cough...Yeah, really original concept design. *Lame Apple...Spend all this time putting USB 3.0 and decent GPU's into your expensive machines.
Cough* MASS EFFECT*Cough...Yeah, really original concept design. *Lame Apple...Spend all this time putting USB 3.0 and decent GPU's into your expensive machines.
The difference here, though, is that you (or your character) is the center of the story. It's almost coming full circle back to the original mass-market computer game, Zork, which was essential a book in which you were the main character. People now have the chance to get into print in their own (tightly-controlled) visual story.
The next leap will be for this same concept to be used with video, so that you or your character are the center of a movie that you "play."
I just don't understand how generic ideas like this can be patented. Even if it's only the implementation that is being patented, often the implementation is just the obvious way of achieving it, so that anyone else who wanted to use the idea would obviously do the same thing... but now they can't because it's patented?
I mean how else would you create a custom comic book from a game besides using the save data? That's the obvious first step.
I mean how else would you create a custom comic book from a game besides using the save data? That's the obvious first step.
Let me tell you why your statement fails.
(1) Use of hyperbolic irony.
(2) Use of emotionally charged words (i.e. "lame")
(3) Poor utilization of English grammar.
(4) Sweeping generalized ignorance.
(5) Lack of an intelligent argument.
However, if you are 12, I will totally discredit your bias. In which case, please stick strictly to your Spongebob Squarepants discussion forum.
Prior comic book art.
PS. All the people who are saying, "Spend your time writing graphics drivers and putting USB 3 ports on your computers.", I don't think the people who came up with this idea are the motherboard designers or the people who write hardware drivers. I think it might have been Sue in accounting.
This is like telling a cockroach to do flips, it's redundant. These people will state what they feel, no matter how ignorant it is.
It looks like Apple's patent policy is to shotgun anything that they can think of and see what sticks. Again, this one has prior artwork.
A few of you may remember the FASA-based Mechwarror arcade game that got a lot of attention in the 90's. This was an enclosed booth game where you piloted an anime-style, military combat, robot-mech, had missions and overall had fun blowing stuff up.
Part of the game engine was recording the actions of the player and generating a narrative script for the player to take home. There was the option for the narrative script to include rendered views of the mech moving around in combat action and print out a comic book of your gameplay.
The graphical part was only shown at industry trade show expos and not sold to the public. Was told the reason was, back then, the SGI Reality Engine that ran the game was being overwhelmed by all the rendering requests and they ended up just doing the text narrative to customers. I am sure a modern, multi-core machine would fly well doing this. There is a lot of SGI Reality Engine code ported to graphics cards over the past few years.
This was all of an effort to revive the arcade experience in the "above coin-up" program that didn't see the return on investment as everyone expected. Then SGI had fiscal trouble and this campaign was halted I think around '99.
Love to see something like this run on a Mac tower.
Trolling? Just uninformed?
iPad from $499
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Aside from the MBA (which is due for a refresh), all of these other computers ARE the best, most advanced computers that normal customers can buy and have all been "refreshed" within the last few months up to immediately updated (Mini, iMac and Mac Pro).
Lot of great computers here from $499 to $2499 -- a price point for everyone. If you're a student, there are even deeper discounts. I just saved almost a thousand dollars on a Mac Pro set-up using my wife's educational discount.
But why? Apple has a meager library of games. All the A titles, which are like 10, are years old. Would it not be pointless?
All the time I've been using Apple, it's been my dream for them to become a solid gaming machine. And all this time, nothing of this sort has materialized. Not even a hint. Sure, we have casual iOS games, but I want serious games. Will it ever happen? Only if Apple gains a higher market share. In the meantime, I'll just have to stick with Sony.
You saved $1000 on a Mac Pro setup with an educational discount? Wow! Even on a $2000-$3000 MBP the savings are usually in the range of $200-$300. Is this a dual 6-core maxed out Mac Pro?