[MUD-Dev] (no subject)

[Michael Seifert]

Hi Locke,

Thank you for your email! I truly appreciate your
sincerity and I can inform you that none of the
DIKU group knows of this, nor would we endorse it.

I have registered DIKU with the US copyright office
many years ago. And if a major company like Sony
really is responsisble for such a complete lack of
ethics / decency, I believe that they should be brought to
justice. I know of many minor offenders (private)

Does anyone besides yourself know this fact? I.e.
how can I reach the other participants of the
presenation of Mr. Yee?

Did he state that the EverQuest server was acutally
based on our code, or did he say that he simply used
ideas from Diku ?

I appreciate your assistance, is there any chance that
I could call you voice? (Are you eastern or western time?)


Best regards,




Michael Seifert



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 10:27:14 -0500
From: Locke <theisles at mugs.net>
To: Palio at valhalla.com, mud-dev at kanga.nu
Cc: Holly J. Sommer <sommer at mugs.net>
Subject: Sony's EverQuest Admits Using Diku

Hello,

Tis a sad day for mudders!  Read on for some important information about
Sony's EverQuest.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of spending time in New York City,
visiting the New School University for a gaming conference, called
Re:Play.  Among the guest speakers at the conference, there was Bernard
Yee, the Director of Product Development for Sony's EverQuest service.  
Before the actual conference, there was a select group discussion the
night before where I and other students were able to participate in
intimate discussion with the speakers.

During Bernard Yee's presentation, he framed the entire demonstration by
saying that Sony's EverQuest was based on DikuMUD -- which I found at
first flattering (being a member of the mudding community) and then later,
perplexing.  Does the Diku Group know this?  Have they been compensated?

If you've ever played EverQuest, it does resemble in many ways Diku -- it
has 'grouping' as well as 'shout' commands, and the actual way the
characters interact is very similar to what goes on in your standard Diku,
with a veneer of bad 3D graphics layered on top of the, ultimately,
mud-like interface.

Personally, I wouldn't mind it if Diku had been the base as long as the
Diku Group had made some money to fuel their own projects (aka Diku ][).  
However, I find it hard to believe that this has happened, and the general
demeanor of Mr. Yee was very disconcerting.  He was deflecting of comments
or questions that were posed in a way that undermined his gaming
environment -- he ignored the hard questions and didn't really seem
interested in the mudding community at large.  ("Oh, you know, I don't
really know that much about mudding, why don't you send me some email?  
Here's my card.")  So this brings two important questions to light:  
first, have the Diku people been compensated fairly?  Secondly, if not,
will Diku sue?

-Locke
of The Isles
www.mugs.net/~theisles
Coder of Nimud
www.mugs.net/~theisles/nimud





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