City Research Online

Abstract

The video gaming landscape is experiencing transformational change with a massive growth in user-generated content (UGC), where players actively contribute to the gaming experience by creating and sharing their own content in a virtual world. This article seeks to investigate the complex interplay between user-generated content, the legal challenges it presents and the narrative frameworks that shape legal responses within the dynamic realm of the gaming industry. The advent of user-generated content has redefined the traditional boundaries of video gaming, giving players unprecedented opportunities for creativity and self-expression; however, the process is not without legal challenges. For example, one should examine the copyright issues and analyse the legal intricacies when players generate and share content within video games and explore the tensions between user creativity on one hand and intellectual property protection on the other. It is vitally important to investigate how legal frameworks and prevailing narratives surrounding UGC influence incentives for game developers to foster player creativity and examine the role of narratives in shaping approaches in their end-user licence agreement. The aim of this article is to examine the legal challenges of UGC in video games, with a focus on the processes influencing policy decisions and framing intellectual property protection.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
Publisher Keywords:	user generated content, video games, EULA, copyright, Let’s Play
Subjects:	K Law > K Law (General)
Departments:	The City Law School The City Law School > Academic Programmes
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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