Namco patented the idea of playing a minigame on a loading screen just before the PS1 launched, and for about 20 years, no one else could do it, forcing us to endure boring load times on any game that wasn't theirs. The patent expired in the mid-2010s.
You could beat eight Galaga stages in Tekken 1 to unlock Devil Kazuya, for instance.
Koei also patented how many enemies could be active at any one time in a hack-and-slash, which is why no one has ripped off Dynasty Warriors. That patent is likely close to expiring as well.
You and u/Cyberguy64 are dead wrong about game mechanics shouldn't be patentable. That's literally the whole point of a patent. Your complaint about no one doing anything with that patent is legitimate, but the question shouldn't be "why should these be patented", but instead: "why is no one licensing these patents?"
I'm all for making patent trolling a capital punishment because it is the genuine abuse of the legal system to use fraud to claim that there's something you invented, when in many cases the patent trolls didn't even make anything to begin with, and didn't buy anything from the original creator themselves. But banning game mechanics from being patented would destroy innovation in much the same way it does everywhere else when you end patents on things that aren't game mechanics. Suddenly, everyone would do the same thing that worked once, and no one would be interested on improving that system, because their is no profit incentive to make a new mechanic because the new mechanic would be copied. There's also no logical boundary to stop this from destroying the concept of making new games, because all games are effectively a series of gameplay mechanics that create a gameplay loop.
I'm not unsympathetic to your complaint, Shadow of Mordor's enemy ranking system (I can't remember what it's called now), is also encountering a similar problem. However, I'd argue that what seems to be the problem is that there is a licensing & judiciary issue. It should stand to reason that the software creators are getting more value from literally doing nothing with the property, than there is selling it to others. Now, since one literally generates profit and the other is nothing, that suggests to me that there is some sort of problem with the judiciary. It means that either the government is awarding more money from lawsuits than the company's could get from licensing (meaning the courts are over-valuing damages), or it means the courts are willing to allow for the infringement of patent protections in the event that licensing is taking place (meaning that there's no way to monetize the patent beyond lawsuits).
There's no reason why the creators of any of these systems shouldn't be able to sell a license for other companies to create similar systems. It would both protect their mechanic's patent (as people would recognize that it was theirs), and it would also make them a continual stream of income from each game sold that used their system. That's literally a kind of passive income, which is what every investor loves. So, why the hell wouldn't they be doing it? I suspect that lies entirely with the courts.
Arguing against patenting this, is arguing against the nature of patents at all.
As someone whose name is on a couple of patents, I wouldn't be opposed to this.
When was the last time you saw a truly novel patent idea that wasn't just some slightly different form factor for some connector that allows some company like Apple to charge $100 for a power cable that should cost $2?
Or, say, the dude who invented a brake for table saws that make it impossible to cut yourself with them. No manufacturers have adopted the tech; most are likely just waiting out the patent duration before they start using it.
The patent system is 100% captured by large institutional players and used only as a bludgeon against legitimate competition.
The concept of patenting game mechanics is absolutely abhorrent to me.
Namco patented the idea of playing a minigame on a loading screen just before the PS1 launched, and for about 20 years, no one else could do it, forcing us to endure boring load times on any game that wasn't theirs. The patent expired in the mid-2010s.
You could beat eight Galaga stages in Tekken 1 to unlock Devil Kazuya, for instance.
Koei also patented how many enemies could be active at any one time in a hack-and-slash, which is why no one has ripped off Dynasty Warriors. That patent is likely close to expiring as well.
Just so I'm clear, yes, I agree with you.
You and u/Cyberguy64 are dead wrong about game mechanics shouldn't be patentable. That's literally the whole point of a patent. Your complaint about no one doing anything with that patent is legitimate, but the question shouldn't be "why should these be patented", but instead: "why is no one licensing these patents?"
Game mechanics were explicitly created using code, formed from an idea. Arguing against patenting this, is arguing against the nature of patents at all. See Raz0rfist's rant on why abolishing IPs are bad & Socialism.
I'm all for making patent trolling a capital punishment because it is the genuine abuse of the legal system to use fraud to claim that there's something you invented, when in many cases the patent trolls didn't even make anything to begin with, and didn't buy anything from the original creator themselves. But banning game mechanics from being patented would destroy innovation in much the same way it does everywhere else when you end patents on things that aren't game mechanics. Suddenly, everyone would do the same thing that worked once, and no one would be interested on improving that system, because their is no profit incentive to make a new mechanic because the new mechanic would be copied. There's also no logical boundary to stop this from destroying the concept of making new games, because all games are effectively a series of gameplay mechanics that create a gameplay loop.
I'm not unsympathetic to your complaint, Shadow of Mordor's enemy ranking system (I can't remember what it's called now), is also encountering a similar problem. However, I'd argue that what seems to be the problem is that there is a licensing & judiciary issue. It should stand to reason that the software creators are getting more value from literally doing nothing with the property, than there is selling it to others. Now, since one literally generates profit and the other is nothing, that suggests to me that there is some sort of problem with the judiciary. It means that either the government is awarding more money from lawsuits than the company's could get from licensing (meaning the courts are over-valuing damages), or it means the courts are willing to allow for the infringement of patent protections in the event that licensing is taking place (meaning that there's no way to monetize the patent beyond lawsuits).
There's no reason why the creators of any of these systems shouldn't be able to sell a license for other companies to create similar systems. It would both protect their mechanic's patent (as people would recognize that it was theirs), and it would also make them a continual stream of income from each game sold that used their system. That's literally a kind of passive income, which is what every investor loves. So, why the hell wouldn't they be doing it? I suspect that lies entirely with the courts.
As someone whose name is on a couple of patents, I wouldn't be opposed to this.
When was the last time you saw a truly novel patent idea that wasn't just some slightly different form factor for some connector that allows some company like Apple to charge $100 for a power cable that should cost $2?
Or, say, the dude who invented a brake for table saws that make it impossible to cut yourself with them. No manufacturers have adopted the tech; most are likely just waiting out the patent duration before they start using it.
The patent system is 100% captured by large institutional players and used only as a bludgeon against legitimate competition.
On a similar note, the best charge cable I've ever used for my Samsung Galaxy s9+ is...the one that came with the phone.
But it's so SHORT. So I tried to order a new, longer one.
...It's not available anywhere other than Samsung's own website. Which is so poorly-designed and hard to use, unlike the phone itself.
Why do I still use an s9+? It still holds a charge. Why would I change my phone before it doesn't?