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For business reasons, I would like to know what constitutes satire in a game.

Also, is there a better place to ask questions like this on the business side of game development?

Tetrad
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PruitIgoe
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    I have recently asked loosely related question: http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/q/56771/30949 (more like the accepted answer might be of interest) – MartinTeeVarga Jun 14 '13 at 17:25
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    I don't think business questions are necessarily off-topic here. This one is, though. – Marcks Thomas Jun 14 '13 at 17:40
  • @sm4 - that was an interesting thread. We're making a tower defense/side scroller hybrid game. The main character has the same name as a minor character in an old movie...it was selected for it being a clever pop culture connection - most people will not even know the connection but if you do you should find it humorous in light of the game play. There's just been some concern over a CR infringement. I'll seek out legal advice but I think it falls under satire, in the same sense when SNL does a skit based on a movie... – PruitIgoe Jun 14 '13 at 18:18
  • @PruitIgoe - Welcome to GD.SE! Anyway, getting to it, it could, but you can also be sued for anything, that's why the usual answer includes is to Get a Lawyer, and don't take any legal risks that you aren't prepared to fight for (or change in the 11th hour). As for some other points, GD.SE isn't a forum, we are here to provide solid answers to questions that can help a wide variety of users, GameDev.net has a pretty neat business forum, and two of the mods are lawyers, but I think they'll have the same answer. – Jesse Dorsey Jun 14 '13 at 18:33
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    Oh yeah. And we totally welcome business questions here, as long as they are about Game Development. Your question, while tangentially related, is really more of a law question, you won't get a better answer out of us, just because we are game devs. – Jesse Dorsey Jun 14 '13 at 18:35
  • Related: http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/8634/when-does-a-game-idea-cross-the-line-between-homage-parody-to-ripoff/8676#8676 – Tetrad Jun 14 '13 at 18:40
  • @Noctrine - fair enough, I wasn't expecting legal advice more hoping to see if anybody else has barked up the same tree...I've got a couple of lawyer buddies so before we launch we'll wrap the product up nice and tight in legalize crap to protect us from the over litigious American population... : D – PruitIgoe Jun 14 '13 at 18:43
  • @PruitIgoe I'm assuming since you're asking about satire, you're wanting to know if satire is protected speech, correct? – Tetrad Jun 14 '13 at 18:43
  • yes, in the context I posted above in response to @sm4. – PruitIgoe Jun 14 '13 at 18:45
  • You may also be interested in this question and this somewhat related question. – House Jun 14 '13 at 18:48
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    Legally what I am asking about is parody. This link seems to answer the question though legal advice is still advisable. http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/parody-satire – PruitIgoe Jun 14 '13 at 18:49
  • This question appears to be off-topic because it is about general law. –  Dec 02 '13 at 17:40

2 Answers2

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I think that it would be better to ask on a different forum, but in answer to your question:

Satire is basically ironic humor (usually sarcastic). Satire in a game can be shown in a couple different ways. You can do it visually, by poking fun at a certain stereotypes of a culture (e.g. Have a american person eating a cheeseburger) or it can be verbally. Verbal satire is easy to make, (just look at south park) and is usually a lot funnier. It involves making fun of anything really, from celebrities to culture. (e.g. South Park)

RageGolem10
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To complete RageGolem10's answer, you need to add billboard messages. The ones you can see as false commercials, or wall grafitis, like "the cake is a lie". Duke nukem had some with false movie posters, like sister act III. You can criticize real life things by mocking them using one single in game image. This is more indirect than speech, because speech is necessarily encountered, so the user is 100% focused on it when it happens. Maybe at the exception of NPC speaking to each other like half life, or mass effect, which is more indirect.

v.oddou
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