There is has been a lot of talk in gaming circles about Universal Horizons and their attempt to patent an RPG mechanic.
You can find most of the details here:
http://www.bedroomwallpress.com/2014/06/patent-trolling-comes-to-rpgs.html
http://www.bedroomwallpress.com/2014/06/following-up-on-patent-issue.html
And here is their patent application:
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=20140038722.PGNR.
Now as is it read it is vague on what "Game 1" and "Game2" could be and some people are claiming that this patent could be used to convert from different games instead of the games within Universal Horizons' own catalog.
Also there is the fear of what happens if the patent is bought by someone else. You see it all the time in the tech market.
I don't have much more to add to this, outside of my realm of expertise, but I do know I have been converting from games to other games for years and have been posting about them for years too.
So then in my efforts to give back, here is my "super secret" method of converting and the tool I used to do it. My "All Conversions" excel sheet. I figured out the math and works for me. Let me know if you see ways to improve it.
https://app.box.com/s/ooffm0xcqwgy82ufnlip
You can also download this sheet from my Downloads area.
Cool. It's blocked by my work, but I look forward to checking out your conversion sheet when I get home.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reviewing the abstract, I'm going with patent trolls or at least folks who naively hired a patent specialist who has no understanding of what is being patented and expanded the language and definitions to such an extent the patent is absurd.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Universal Horizons is actually trying to do what most people think it is. Here's why.
ReplyDeleteThat was the purpose of my post. I don't *know* what they are doing.
ReplyDeleteStill don't really.