Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Video games play a part in many students’ lives. Sports games allow those who play them to relax, take their mind off of something, take a study break, or just have fun. However, some of these games are anything but relaxing for the players the game characters are modeled on, particularly NCAA athletes.
All games that involve college athletes are restricted from using the actual names of the athletes. The company that produces many of the games, EA Sports, releases these games without the names of the amateur athletes, but the players’ body types and facial features are often closely mimicked.
When is it okay for players’ likenesses to be used in a video game without the players themselves being paid for it? I understand not using the names and likenesses of current amateur athletes, but once the athletes are no longer performing in NCAA sporting events the names should be able to be used. Questions and lawsuits are rising from this very problem of players’ names and rights.
One such lawsuit was brought up this summer by Ed O’Bannon, a former UCLA Bruins basketball player, against EA Sports for making a character that resembled everything about him in its March Madness series and not paying him for it.
O’Bannon has not seen a single penny from the game and most likely never will while the video game companies keep getting richer and richer with the use of different players’ appearances.
The gaming companies and mainly the NCAA should allow the previous athletes who are no longer deemed amateurs to have their names placed in the games for money. If you put the players’ names in the game and don’t plan on paying them, then don’t put the characters in at all.
The fans that play the video games already know the names of the players, current and present. They know who they are. We all know the Christian Laettners, the Michael Jordans and the Brandon Rushes.
Let past players’ names be used in the current video games for a small fee to the players, but leave current players’ names out.
Once players leave their days of college basketball, that will be the time to put their names in the college games.
Going forward from that the NCAA will continue to make money on the current players through other merchandise sold, but would be able to let those who can make money collect the money that they worked for so many years to earn.
— — Edited by Abby Olcese
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