This Train Terminates Here

I woke up this morning to an interesting, if unexpected, email. A company by the name of Cognosphere had sent me an invitation to download a new "space fantasy RPG" called Honkai: Star Rail. It sounded very intriguing, being set, by some manner or means, on a kind of space-train, known as The Astral Express. I was keen to find out more.

The email came with all the necessary buttons to press for registering an account and downloading the game, so I began pressing them. At that point I wasn't quite sure who the developers were or what games they might already have made but it seemed like a safe assumption it  must have been something I'd at least tried, since they'd gotten hold of one of my email addresses from somewhere.

There was one big clue. Honkai: Star Rail is part of something called the HoYoverse. That didn't ring much of a bell with me, although I thought it might possibly have something to do with Genshin Impact.( It does. See Note #1 below.)

It didn't seem like something that mattered enough to go look into it before I downloaded the game, so I just got on with it. I'd gotten to the point where the tiny zipfile I'd downloaded had unlocked an installer and I'd picked a drive location from the advanced options, when the inevitable request to accept the Terms of Service popped.

Terms of Service and EULAs are really boring to read. They're long and full of legal jargon and most people just tick the box to say they've read and understood them without actually bothering to do either. Sometimes I do that, too, especially with new games from developers whose games I already play.

With new games from sources unfamiliar to me I tend to be cagier. I wouldn't claim to read every line of every paragraph but I always at least skim the whole thing and close-read, often several times, the specific sections relating to what I can and can't publish about the game, here on the blog. These days, if there's a strict NDA or draconian rules about screenshots or video, I decline to accept the terms and cross the game off my list.  

The TOS for Honkai: Star Rail is exceptionally clear and well-written. While it uses a lot of legal language, it does so in very good, plain English. None of these things are fun to read but this one makes getting through it about as painless as it could be. 

Several key prohibitions are highlighted in bold and prefaced with straightforward explanations and warnings about why users should pay particular attention to them. Where appropriate, long lists of examples are included. All in all, it's a very impressive example of the species.

As is altogether too common these days, it includes a section relating to use or reproduction of "materials" from the game, the list of examples of which include, among many other things, stories, storylines and visual images of various kinds. It's forbidden to reproduce, republish, display, transmit or perform several other communicative processes on any of these aspects of the game without first receiving express written consent.

That, I figured, would really put a crimp in my writing about the game here on the blog so I declined to sign the TOS or to register an account or download the game, to do any of which would have implied acceptance of the terms. It may seem a little over-cautious but you'll note I'm not even quoting verbatim from the TOS here, let alone reproducing images of it. Can't be too careful.

Still, I would like to play the game. It's not every day - or every decade - you get the opportunity to ride a space train. I could, of course, just download it, play it and keep quiet about it, but where's the sense in that? I don't play these games for fun, you know! Well, I do, but much of that fun comes from writing about them. 

As I said, the TOS is exemplary in its accessibility so it shouldn't be surprising that it concludes with an email address to which you can refer any questions you may have before accepting it. It did surprise me, all the same. It's something I'm not sure I've seen before.

Since they'd been so kind as to include a way to contact the legal department, I thought I might as well use it. After all, you don't get if you don't ask. Here's the email I sent. I'm pretty sure it's safe to reproduce, seeing as how it's all my own work:

"Hi,

Could you please confirm whether the prohibitions on copyrighted materials in this section extends to screenshots from the user's gameplay when published online in a personal blog for the purposes of illustrating either an account of the user's activities in game or in a review or commentary on the game? Similarly, does the prohibition apply to video of that nature posted in a user's social media channel for those purposes?

If these actions are so prohibited without express prior written consent, can you issue such consent to me for those purposes or advise me how and where to apply for such consent?

I'd like to try the game but I'm not interested in doing so if I can't also write about it and show screenshots on my blog.

Thanks in advance for your advice."

We'll see what that gets me, if anything. Until then, I guess I won't be playing the game. And even if I do, you won't be reading about it here.

By the most extreme of contrasts, yesterday I also signed up to test an in-development mmorpg, Monsters and Memories. Currently at a very early stage of development and being produced by a pretty small team, M&M is a rather cosy-looking entry into the somewhat crowded field of retro-repro Classic MMORPGs. 

I've had my eye on it for a while but it's been too early to mention anything much about the project beyond that it exists. The days of getting all excited over some concept art and a few promises are long gone for all of us, I imagine. 

This weekend, though, Niche Worlds Cult, the amusingly self-deprecatorily named company behind the game, is running an open stress test. All you have to do if you want to try it is sign up. So I did.

The process is very straightforward. Just give them an email address, confirm it and download the game. Even that's part of the test so you're helping out whether you actually get to log in or not. There are two fixed sessions, which could be extended if things go well, but the proposed schedule is

Friday, April 28th, 9pm-1am EDT -- (3am-7am CEST)

Saturday, April 29th, 1pm-5pm EDT -- (7pm-11pm CEST)

I'll be sound asleep for the first of those but the second sits nicely across Saturday early evening for me so there's a good chance I'll be able to give it a go. If I do, I'll be able to record anything that happens here, with screenshots, because when NWC say open testing they really mean open:

The test is purely a technical one with any gameplay possibilities being merely incidental:

PLEASE NOTE: By registering for, downloading, or logging into Monsters & Memories, you acknowledge your understanding that this is a technical "stress test" of an early development build and not a pre-alpha, alpha, beta, or any other form of test indicative of the game being in a ready-for-release state. 

Even so, should there be anything to report, I'll be able to do so freely and without reservation. In a helpful clarification that appears during the registration and download process but which I unfortunately didn't screenshot and now can't find, it's explained in very clear terms that testers are free to record and discuss their experiences on whatever social media suits them. 

NWCs position seems to be that all publicity is good publicity, an old saw that's very much lost its teeth in recent times. In the case of games seeking to draw attention in an extremely competitive marketplace, though, I can't help but agree. I wish EULAs and TOSs would include some provision for "personal use", allowing players to share their in-game activities through social media. It seems counterproductive to make it harder than it need be for word of mouth to do your marketing department's job for them.

Note #1 - Cognosphere is the new (As of a year ago.) publisher of Genshin Impact. I remembered the GI publisher as miHoYo, which is how I came to connect it with the HoYoverse in the first place. As the linked article explains, it's not a substantive change of ownership. Cognosphere is "a company owned by miHoYo, registered in Singapore as opposed to the Shanghai-based miHoYo." This seems to be a response to the Chinese government's increasingly strict regulation of China's video game industry. 

Note #2 - Whether the Cognosphere TOS is significantly more restrictive than the miHoYO version that would have been in place when I was posting about the game and using dozens of screenshots, I have no idea. I guess either it is or I didn't read the old one as attentively as I did the new. I can confirm, though, that the current Cognosphere TOS for Genshin Impact looks pretty much the same as the one for Honkai: Star Rail, so I guess I won't be blogging about Genshin Impact any more, either. Not that I was planning on it.

Note #3 - All images in this post are taken from Monsters & Memories. For obvious reasons.