{
  "id": 13427907,
  "title": "The advent of first-person shooters introduced a wild frontier of unregulated video game level packs, and it ended in a lawsuit that changed copyright forever",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/10/the-advent-of-first-person-shooters-introduced-a-wild-frontier-of",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-10T14:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PC Gamer",
    "slug": "pc-gamer",
    "url": "https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/the-advent-of-first-person-shooters-introduced-a-wild-frontier-of-unregulated-video-game-level-packs-and-it-ended-in-a-lawsuit-that-changed-copyright-forever/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The rise of first-person shooters in the 1990s brought forth a new category of PC games known as level packs. These packs contained collections of levels for early first-person shooters like Duke Nukem 3D and Quake, sold as boxed products on shelves. However, level packs occupied a unique and somewhat amorphous position between regular video games, expansions/DLC, and mods. While some level packs were sanctioned and created by third-party developers, others were unauthorised and of poor quality.",
  "summary": "Revisiting the forgotten fourth state of PC gaming.",
  "key_points": [
    "First-person shooters led to rise of level packs in 1990s",
    "Level packs occupied gray area between games, DLC, mods",
    "Lawsuit changed copyright laws for level packs"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}