Real World references - what do you think of them?

Hi everyone,

first of all, I'm not ever sure if most of the time they're allowed - is the creator of something, given that the game takes place on earth right now / in the future allowed to use existing and well known trademarks such as Coca-cola, Microsoft and Star Wars?

If it is possible to use them, what do you think of them? Do you see them as useful features that can make the world seem more familiar to the player or do find them annoying like poor product placement?

An example would be buying ''Coca-cola'' from the grocery store instead of something like ''Bubble Buddy'' or something like that.

What do you think?

Id be careful with real life merchandise.

If it fits in with the game.

Though I doubt you would be able to put coca-cola or microsoft references in your games since they are trademarks and not owned by you, same goes with Star Wars. Parodies are prolly okay though, as long as it's not to identical to the original content that is.
 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlandNameProduct

You could probably do what they do in anime or manga by changing a letter or so.  McDonalds is often showed by a W in a similiar fashion.  They have references all the time only not exact.  If you want to see examples, that's the best way to see how other people handle it. The link has references to brand names in stuff without using the actually name, like Coke but using caca cola.  It's interesting, at least, until we get copyright reform as copyright was never meant to be used this way.

I would absolutely not use the name of a trademarked product/brand in your game. Bad, baaaad idea, friend... :(

From my understanding, in novels, you are allowed to display trademarks such as McDonalds or Coca Cola in a modern world so long as they are not shown in a negative light, misrepresented etc. If they see your piece of work and they are depicted as bad products that can potentially damage their reputation, they could sue you for "defamation" or something similar. I recently read a few Stephen King novels, and in almost every book I read, there's a reference to McDonald's or Coca Cola. In The Stand, there is one character who is seen reading an issue of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books.

I don't think this extends to video games though. The company I work for has a legal department that scans all of the game's assets (models, textures, etc) to make sure they do not resemble real-life products or outright include real-life products. Example, if you have a Vending Machine, the textures cannot be similar to an existing brand of soft drinks. We've had to change textures because they resembled the original product too closely. And just to be clear, I do not know how this works - I can only provide what I've observed. It's best to do some research.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_figure


Mentioning public figures and common products "I got the Scotch tape and wrapping paper and started to wrap the present..." hardly seems like a legal problem I can comment on with authority, but if you want my personal opinion on things like that in story lines and art, I'd say:


Vending machines that look too exactly like Coke or shops that say StarBucks are a break in suspension of reality for me.


Mentioning current events only dates a product. Nothing dates a book like talking about a person as if they were a big deal when in fact they died last year, or (in movies) cell phone technology (lol.)


It is perfectly possible to talk without using mumbo-jumbo silly names for things. Don't do it. It's cheesy. So instead of saying "Are you thirsty? Would you like a bottled water, or a Cola-Colan?" which sounds like part of your digestive system, you should just say, "Do you want water or a soda?"


OTOH Community games are real world references gone out the window, and they are great!

non-commercial games probably won't draw any significant legal ire, i think public figures are fair game anyway. and if they do its probably nothing serious unless you're spooked by legal documents, never heard of any companies instantly slapping free indie game devs with the big fine, if anything happens it will just probably be take the references out and replace them with knockoff brand labelling. tbh most companies dont even care enough to stop somebodys little indie game. commercial games are more likely i guess, and the legal ire they draw will probably be more significant.

also knockoff products and companies have a different effect on the player than actual products. its weird to hear product names in fiction, because so many big mainstream tv shows/movies/books/games/storytelling entertainment mediums use brand knockoffs unless there's brand promotion (to avoid legal ramifications and/or licencing fees). you can do interesting things with how the audience perceives how your game world relates to reality. You can use it in extremes, to both ground a game's world in reality, or to remind the audience they're playing a game, which are probably both kinda meta-narrative things which are pretty cool.

Can you do them: Maybe, it depends.

Should you do them? Also: Maybe.