Sony May Soon Let You Decide How Much NPCs Talk In Games
Sony May Soon Let You Decide How Much NPCs Talk In Games
Sony has patented to add multiple dialogue modes to let players switch between how many conversations with NPCs they want in the game.
Of course they've patented it. Are they going to patent volume sliders next? Fuck off, Sony.
Tbf, it only makes good business sense to try and patent everything you can. Either to hold it as a unique selling point over competitors or to license to others.
I think the real problem here is the concepts of patents in general.
I'm okay with patents in general, just not software patents, and other patents should be much shorter.
The original point was to encourage sharing of ideas in exchange for protection while you bring it to market. But it's mostly just weaponized at this point.
I'm thinking something like 5 years for most patents, with a one time extension of you can prove you need more time to bring it to market or establish first mover advantage (so 5 years from release or from expiry, whichever happens first).
If you want a market solution to correct this, it should cost more money to submit frivolous patents.
Or simply rate limit the number of parents a company can submit if they have a lot of failed applications.
Sorry, you've wasted our time with 3 failed applications this month, no more applications until next month.
There's got to be a new directive following this for the writers on those games: "Ensure the dialogue doesn't matter"
How's that gonna work?
Bet they'll patent it, just to make sure nobody can have nice things.
that is what the article is about, yes.
Patents are a joke. In the medical products field, it's just as worst. I worked on an ICU bed and we couldn't use electronics brakes because a company patented the electronic brakes for hospital bed.
New speed run strat, turn off all the NPCs and walk to the finish
I'm surprised something like this was even allowed to be patented. That's a super broad category. I thought you could only patent actual systems and not the theory on how that system works
Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?
So reading this, the patent isn't for an accessibility option to reduce the amount of dialogue by somethin like a necessity level but by in dialogue allowing you to pick an arbitrary option of say "get to the point" which is a lot worse than I was hoping
patent button mashing or not playing a game with fluff
if your game has more story than dark souls then it has too much story
i want go bonk
Didn't the most recent Bubsy game already have this? It's a "verbosity" slider. Annoying that they're patenting the idea.
That being said, I can't play a lot of Sony games cause the NPCs never shut the hell up. They spoil puzzles before you can even see them and constantly tell you where to go. No trust in the player, whatsoever.