Re:Show HN: 2048 turned 10 this year, I built an updated ver...
by xp84 on Thursday October 24, 2024 @04:15PM
(#41939289)
> three or 2048 might be
I think there can be a different line drawn for "what should be patentable or legally protected" and "what should be celebrated as creativity."
A clone of Tetris where the line pieces are 5 blocks tall, for instance, is not notable or creative. But also, I think someone should be legally free to make it if they're not infringing Tetris's trademarks or stealing their code.
Well the great differentiator between puzzle games is the idea of the playing mechanism. The great differentiator between FPS is implementation. If I make an FPS, I didn’t really steal from Doom because the idea is pretty obvious. But if I make a sliding game that’s very similar to 2048, you might say I stole the idea. It’s like with patents, subjectively the mechanism of a FPS shouldn’t be patentable to me, but three or 2048 might be.