| commentid | objectid | typeid | userid | subject | comment | timestamp | parentid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10338 | PlaneShift | games | 4877 | Planeshift License | For anyone else considering getting in to Planeshift, here is a quick summary of the licensing situation in the game based on an hour or two browsing both the planeshift site and the CVS tree. The project leader is Luca Pancallo, and he directly approves, appoints and controls all of the other positions. Granting a position is based on merit, but otherwise there are no bylaws to the organization -- basically it seems from the published information to run entirely on whatever Luca's opinion is. Development positions are hierarchical with specific titles granted based on 'talent and dedication,' in the opinion of the person above you in the hierarchy, all being rooted in Luca. <p>The project source code is licensed under GPL, except for the rules, artwork, music, maps, and 3-models which are licensed under the Planeshift License, a license so restrictive that your only rights with regard to the content are to use when using the client to connect with an official server (where official is defined by the development team.) The Planeshift web site rationalizes this choice as follows: <ul> <li><em> Anyone can get all code and art and start building a similar game with a part of our team. This is bad because the new project will split our forces and will lower the chances of success; that is against Objective 1. We need to protect against internal division on the team to keep momentum and stay productive.</em> <li><em> Anyone can get all code and art and start building a similar game with a completely new team. The new project would be similar to PS and would destroy much of the uniqueness we are trying to add to the game. The game would be less appealing and more confusing to players, because they will have no common reference point for hall of fame, guilds, etc... The other project can also change the main guidelines/story of the game, giving races and NPCs a different background and history. That will cause a lot of confusion and will disrupt our effort to have the best quality in our game. This jeopardizes Objective 2. This is bad also because the new team is a waste of resources if they are trying to reach the same goal as PS. We can join and reach the same goal faster. So this problem detracts from Objective 1 also.</em> <li><em> Most artists don't want to release their work to the general public. They fear it will be used in projects they don't like. So we will lose artistic contributors doing the project this way. That is against Objective 1.</em> </ul> <p>The 'most artists don't want to release their work to the general public' part is particularly surprising for an open source project, so I decided to dig a little deeper. In reviewing the CVS tree on sourceforge it becomes clear that the main contributor to the artwork is Luca, the project director. The client and server source code have a small number of one-line edits by Luca, but are almost invariably written and maintained by other developers. It seems that the project director is interested in liberating all of the work in the project except for his own, and based on the rationalization it seems clear that the reason for this is to retain control over the project. <p>I should note at this point that even if you aren't interested in writing code or creating artwork for Planescape that you might want to rethink even playing it. Under the recruitment page you will find a list of benefits granted to development team members, among them are various ingame 'god' powers, stratified to match the development hierarchy. If you want to be bottom rung in such a power oriented group, and with no possibility of running your own server while respecting the Planescape license, then that is your cup of tea. | 2003-04-15 12:08:43 | 0 |
| 10339 | PlaneShift | games | -1 | Re: Planeshift License | What You've written here sounds really interesting to me, I've already thought about some strange parts of project, ie project source "under development" availability. yes, maybe sources ARE available in CVS as someone stated below, but it looks to me that it's not wanted too much to have sources available. I quite like this project, but really don't like approach, and maybe You're right. It'll be better to take a look on other opensource mmorpg projects. planeshift is not the only one. even it looks most promising. at least for now. pity. NiK. | 2003-04-15 12:36:01 | 10338 |
| 10340 | PlaneShift | games | -1 | Re: Some additional info | PlaneShift is NOT Open Source. Its code is Open Source but PlaneShift is not. It's a proprietary game. | 2003-04-15 12:39:02 | 5730 |
| 10341 | PlaneShift | games | -1 | Re: Some additional info | <i>Open Source is all about SOURCE. Art work is NOT source. </i><br><br> Art work is required data. With proprietary data, PlaneShift is neither OpenSource nor Free Software. A game using PlaneShift's code with free art work would be free. But that would be another game. You should accept that this game is non-free, it's so obvious, and of course that doesn't mean it's not a good game. | 2003-04-15 12:41:42 | 5745 |
| 10342 | PlaneShift | games | -1 | Re: Download? | Ever heard about rpm2tgz?<br> It is simple to use, just type <br> <i>rpm2tgz rpm-file</i><br> ;) | 2003-04-15 12:52:17 | 5765 |
| 10344 | PoopMUp | games | -1 | New release | Hi. Where is the changelog for this release? I'd like to see if the speed issues have been sorted. | 2003-04-15 14:51:17 | 0 |
| 10346 | Airstrike | games | 6952 | I haven't forgotten this game | And now I'm here to tell you that I'm waiting for a new playable release with joysticksupport. By the way I have 4 gamepads/joysticks working. So you could even increase the number of players and it would be great if I could enter js2 and js3 in the configuration without having to use js0. I like it if everyone has the same hardware but js0 is my analog gameport joystick and not always the best choice. *waiting4averyaddictivegame* | 2003-04-15 15:19:48 | 0 |
| 10347 | PlaneShift | games | -1 | Re: Planeshift License | The guy is spending years of his life making this. He's entitled to license his art however he pleases. The developers are not naive, they're not letting him take advantage of them. This is a pure troll by a GPL obsessive. Not everything in life can be given away. | 2003-04-15 15:34:53 | 10338 |
| 10350 | PlaneShift | games | -1 | Re: Planeshift License | That post was not a "troll"! I only wish you knew what that word means.<br> IT WAS A SERIOUS POST <br><br> Never once did he insult the team, he just gave us all the facts for those like me who can't be bothered to read it. If these people want to make a game for linux then will have to expect that the majority want proper GPL implementation. Linux would have never got where it is if it had been hindered by ugly liscences. <br><br> In all seriousness I would not have a problem with Planeshift if they allowed people to setup servers wherever. But no, they only allow a select few to host these servers, which in turn severly limits those without high speed connections. You may argue that more servers will split up the project, but in my experience the majority of people will always be on the offical servers (eg: UO). <br><br> With all this control over who can host a server and who can't, it wouldn't surprise me if they begin to charge people for the right to logon. And there is not doubt that they would probably say it's due to "bandwidth costs". <br><br> In my opinion this looks to be another dog, just like WineX. | 2003-04-15 17:02:13 | 10347 |
| 10351 | PlaneShift | games | -1 | Segfault on Mandrake 9.1 | It's from the new Linux binary, segfaults after character creation: <src/client/psengine.cpp:740> PreloadModels: Preloading complete loading definitions file /planeshift/data/custom.def... load successful (1 windows, 0 skins loaded.) Segmentation fault (core dumped) | 2003-04-15 17:03:53 | 0 |