Note : This comparison is about games but this works too about culture (numerized culture versus IRL culture) and software/real objects
For those who asks, yes this is a non-neutral philosophical essay.
Go out if you are :
- A lobby
- A corrupt political
- A corrupt lawyer
- A NSA guy
Q: I’m a lobby.
A: Stop corrupt peoples.
Q: I’m a corrupt political.
A: Just go out and stop do silly laws as ACTA, SOPA, PIPA or DCMA.
Q: I’m a corrupt lawyer.
A: One of yours destroy Chaplin life.
Q: I’m a NSA guy.
A: Follow Edward Snowden example.
So, do the comparison.
I’m not going to detail the comparison between a board game and a video game. It would be useless and it’s not my goal.
I will talk about law.
Q: I’m a corrupt lawyer, since I’m a lawyer, shouldn’t I speak about laws and all that.
A: GO OUT
It’s completely legal to lend or give a board game to a friend.
It is also legal to sell it at garage sale (or at the flea market).
We can do that with video games too because we can lend, give, or sell the DVD to put into the gaming console.
But lend, give or sell virtually, this is via a copy-paste (this is exactly the “numeric” equivalent of giving).
If I give Game Dev Tycoon to a friend via copy-paste (Internet make also possible to give it by forums, the numeric equivalent to offer it in putting it on a bench), this is illegal and peoples tells me I’m a “pirate” and companies bankrupt because of that.
No any IRL game companies such as Hasbro bankrupt because peoples lend, give and sell their game.
With IRL games, you can change the rules and modify board.
I think you understand for change the rules, but maybe not for modify board.
For this, I will take an example : the Monopoly.
I can easily create stickers to put on streets names for change them.
In video games… Yes, we have mods. But most of mod API are really limited. I think Game Dev Tycoon is the only game (with Minecraft and Minetest) to have a real possibility to mod.
But the fact is that we cannot with Game Dev Tycoon or Minecraft (with Minetest, we can) lend, give or sell a modified game.
In video games, we need a source code for create modified versions. The obfuscateds Game Dev Tycoon and Minecraft code (not with Minetest, because we can have the source code) makes hard the code reading. This is not really a “source”. Yes, we can ask the developers for have the source code. But modders wants to have the source code easily when they have the game obfuscated code or binaries.
Note : for non-gaming software, the NSA stuff are a reason to makes the source available, for verify that there aren’t stuff like mail("secret-agents@nsa.org", privateLife). This also are a reason for video games : set an example
This isn’t true for all games/software/cultural works. There is a list of software where this is false (I call that libertyware but the real name is free software. “libertyware” shows the difference between this and price), a list of libertyware games, a definition of libertyware, and the same definition but for cultural works.