Games

Techno Elders: Don’t Miss This Fast Growing Market

June 4th 2010

The elderly population in the US is ready to zoom to 20%. According to the US government, the number of people over 65 in 2030 is projected to be twice as large as in 2000, growing from 35 million to 71.5 million and representing nearly 20 percent of the total US population. They Are Buying […]

TED Conference Preso: How Gamers May Save Your Business, or the World

May 10th 2010

Too many people make the “I’m not good at life” face. But in games, people apply themselves to overcome obstacles and often create alternative better selves. Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to […]

Offensive Game on Yahoo Kids Teaches Girls Age 6-12 to Win By Dressing (or not) To Please Boys

February 7th 2010

A few months ago we got the most offensive legal advertising ever taken down. (Remember,  it advertised a sex offender defense practice using a photo of a girl showing skin and looking guilty….and an adult hand keeping a scared child from speaking.) As the father of two girls who have never watched television, I’m astounded […]

Gold Farming: 400,000 Asian Workers Play “Dull” Video Games to Pad Americans’ Scores

March 23rd 2009

It’s called gold farming: video-game players perform routine tasks to gain points or abilities for other players. Such games often require the sacrifice of time to performing repetitive actions necessary to advance levels. So, what’s a time-strapped player to do?  Outsource part of playing the game. Here’s a link to such a service. Rowenna Davis […]

Video Games Emerge as Lucrative Law Niche

December 6th 2008

Are video games the future?  A colleague and I have been discussing what areas of legal practice will thrive in this economic downturn. There’s growing buzz about video-game law as a hot niche practice area. The Xconomy blog suggests casual video games, those without monthly subscriptions and fancy gear, may be recession-proof. Sheppard, Mullin, Richte […]

Software Maker Locks Customers Out, Uses Hacker Code to Let Them In

August 4th 2008

If you manufactured automobiles, you’d also likely need to make keys so that your customers could start their engines. Ubisoft, publishers of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2, recently missed the equivalent of that second step when they released their game for sale as a downloadable file on the Internet.  Unfortunately, the security program surrounding […]

Software Control Through Copyright

May 16th 2008

Who controls the software you use: you, or the software’s producer? That’s the question at the heart of a lawsuit by Blizzard, creator of World of Warcraft (WoW), against MDY Industries. Apparently, MDY has developed software called Glider that allows a WoW player to cheat by having their computer play for them in their stead. […]