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[witchwitchwitch]

came across Battle of Gundabad the other day, anyone tried that?

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/battle-of-gundabad/id416478731?ls=1&mt=8

[danshep]

It's almost a direct clone of the base set, with a couple of other things thrown in (a mutated ghost ship and a 2/6/12 scoring instead of a 1/3/6 scoring from the victory cards).

If you've got any skill at dominion at all, you'll find it almost laughably easy to play a random game.

The 'campaign mode' does things like give each of the other players a witch to start the game without letting you purchase any. The AI is poor enough that you can normally win such a game fairly easily, and in the levels that are actually tough it's more likely to be luck rather than skill that will let you succeed.

Unless you're truly desperate, I wouldn't bother.

[Fangz]

Do you think Donald has good grounds to issue a cease & desist? It seems to be pretty much a reskin of Dominion, with some of the cards being completely identical  (Paralyze = Cutthroat, Wolf rider = Warehouse), etc. It even copies the size 10 piles and the 5 card 4/3 opening split. I imagine that if not Donald X, then his publishers are going to be very angry about this. If they want to copy dominion, then they can at least think up their own cards!

[DStu]

(Paralyze = Cutthroat

...purse?

If they want to copy dominion, then they can at least think up their own cards!

I thought the whole reason to copy is not to think up your own game, so why should you think up your own cards?

[Toskk]

Do you think Donald has good grounds to issue a cease & desist? It seems to be pretty much a reskin of Dominion, with some of the cards being completely identical  (Paralyze = Cutthroat, Wolf rider = Warehouse), etc. It even copies the size 10 piles and the 5 card 4/3 opening split. I imagine that if not Donald X, then his publishers are going to be very angry about this. If they want to copy dominion, then they can at least think up their own cards!

I've been very curious as to if/when either Donald X. or Rio Grande will go after any of the dominion-related apps being sold via the iTunes store.. fan sites operate specifically by overtly not making a profit off of the copyright content they use, but even that can get tricky when a fan site wants to allow advertising. There's definitely money involved with the iTunes apps, and I could see lawsuits seeking monetary awards in the (near) future.. they'd win, too.

[danshep]

There's not a lot that can be done to protect the mechanics of a game. Once you rename and reword all the cards, you're fairly free to do whatever you want. The visual design elements of a game can be protected, but dominion is not dependent on any of those.

This is why games like 'who is it?' (guess who) and '4 in a row' (connect four) can be made fairly easily. Scrabble has a protection on the board layout, but if you make a different board (see words with friends) and don't use the word scrabble, you're pretty much free to do whatever you want.

The dominion-shuffler apps would generally be violating the trademark, especially if they do not make it very very very clear that they do not allow you to play the game, and copyright if they actually include card images or rule text, but I don't think there's much reason for such apps to be pursued (unless an official app comes out and can't get to the top of the search results for 'dominion').

(Note: I am not a lawyer, so don't go crying if you do rip off somebody's game and get sued because I don't know what I'm talking about).

[Fangz]

But I mean, I'd think that things like 'A card costing 4 whatever, that grants 2 whatever, and forces the opponent to discard 1 of 'basic currency' card' would be protected as the scrabble board layout is. The situation seems similar to the Desktop Dungeons case.

[barsooma]

But I mean, I'd think that things like 'A card costing 4 whatever, that grants 2 whatever, and forces the opponent to discard 1 of 'basic currency' card' would be protected as the scrabble board layout is. The situation seems similar to the Desktop Dungeons case.

No.

"Copyright does not protect the idea for a game, its name or title, or the method or methods for playing it. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in developing, merchandising, or playing a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form."

"Literary form" might be horribly stretched to cover the particular titles and text of the dominion cards, but renaming and rewording is sufficient.

[Razzishi]

I am not a lawyer, but I believe that in order to protect the intellectual property of the mechanics of a game, one would need a patent such as Richard Garfield got for Magic in its original form.