Microsoft patents not letting you play games and teasing you because you're fat

Renzatic on 2/1/2010 at 01:14

Fuck Micro$kkkitler. Use Ubuntu. It's freedom from Tyranny. :D

Jashin on 2/1/2010 at 03:15

Am I glad I'm fit.

Well, was fit. Gotta get back in shape after the holidays.

Silkworm on 2/1/2010 at 03:48

Even if this were a good idea - and it isn't - the fact that they filed for a patent is completely abhorrent.

*Goes to the gym everyday and gets laid like a rockstar*

Renzatic on 2/1/2010 at 04:03

Businesses file for patents over every stupid idea they have nowadays. It's the way of the software world, and isn't something practiced exclusively by Microsoft.

june gloom on 2/1/2010 at 05:23

b-b-but lost_soul's world would be shattered if he heard that

must keep up the secret, don't break the masquerade

nicked on 2/1/2010 at 07:14

I'm just pissed that Nintendo have the patent for Eternal Darkness style headfuck insanity effects. Now we'll never see another game like it. :(

june gloom on 2/1/2010 at 07:45

What the fuck? Do you have a source for that? I mean, ignoring the fact that ED was mediocre and its sanity effects fell far short of the mark, the concept isn't exactly something you can patent seeing as many of it are standard horror tropes. Hell, Batman: Arkham Asylum pulled one off brilliantly with Scarecrow. As I'm walking down a corridor, suddenly my game freezes and crashes. Now, I love my 360 and I live in constant terror that something horrible is going to happen to it, so I go to some lengths to keep it safe. So when my game seemed to crash and reset, I nearly shat myself. The cutscene immediately following, which is a simple replay of the intro sequence but with Joker and Batman's roles reversed (and a Joker-grin for a Batsignal) clued me in that Scarecrow was fucking with me, but man that was a terrifying few seconds before then.

Tonamel on 2/1/2010 at 08:46

Heh. I just played through that section. Nearly gave me a heart attack.

nicked on 3/1/2010 at 09:43

Here's the patent dethtoll - (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6935954.PN.&OS=PN/6935954&RS=PN/6935954) Click

I don't know much about copyright law though, so looking at that, it seems that the inventors are people from Silicon Knights, meaning perhaps they have the rights to use it? The Assignee is Nintendo though.

Tonamel on 3/1/2010 at 09:53

Okay, so it's not the insanity effects themselves, it's the effects reflecting the level of the player's sanity meter.

Which is still a dumb thing to patent, and is probably why CoC: DCotE went unchallenged when it did exactly what's described in the patent three years later.