[MUD-Dev] Libs for 3D Client/Servers

[Bryce Harrington]

On Tue, 3 Jul 2001, Travis Casey wrote:

> This is the only part that wouldn't work under the GPL.  You could
> sell copies of the base client, but you wouldn't be able to
> prevent forks.  (And there wouldn't be much reason for people to
> buy your base client... once someone out there had a copy, they
> could give it away to others.)

Regardless of how you license the art and the client, I would
imagine that a lot of people would be pretty pissed if they they had
to download 2000+ mb full of art and client over the net, and
couldn't just order a DVD or two with the requisite art already
there, the correct client (including a few compatible forks/clones
and/or a variety of other GPL'd games to try out?) and with a well
tested installer along with it.  Maybe you'd have to charge a fairer
price for the DVD ($20 instead of $50?)

I guess, in my mind, GPL'd games make _more_ business sense than
GPL'd operating systems (how many people buy 5 operating systems or
more a year?)  And there's a whole host of secondary services that
are just impractical for commercial games and with general purpose
open source software, but is probably worth exploring for free
games: subscription service to periodically send out cd's with new
clients/bug fixes/art/etc., separately purchaseable (closed source?) 
world/content editors (assuming a common protocol that the editor
could use to communicate with open game engines),
compatibly-licensed world "clip art" collections, etc.  Having the
core game technology Free (as in free speech) opens a whole
secondary space to competitive development that right now isn't
really viable to do to any degree of quality by the big name game
manufacturers, as well as opening the core to peer review and
optimization (or securing), and opening game world development to
increased creativity.

Of course, all the above is just pie in the sky dreaming unless we
make a concerted effort to pushing one of the various free gaming
projects through to a point where we can use it.  And of course,
getting involved now helps avoid looking like a freeloader later.
;-)


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