In casual games, imitation is no flattery

March 07, 2007 Recently, chatter within the Casual Games SIG of the International Game Developers Association heated up when developers proposed that copyrighting their work was the only way to prevent what has happened to such games as "Tetris" and "Bejeweled." The latter, generally considered the first "match three" game, challenges players to swap adjacent gems to make three or more of the same color line up horizontally or vertically. Since Popcap came out with the game in 2001, fans of "Bejeweled" have had no trouble finding dozens of other places to match gems, such as "Jewel Quest", "Paris Hilton's Diamond Quest" and "The Treasures Of Montezuma," for instance.

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