[Nel] Greetings! And some questions / comments

Sun, 12 Nov 2000 14:58:30 +0100

Hi Sal,
+
+My name is Olivier Lejade, I am Nevrax's CEO. I won't be intervening too 
+much on this list since we really would like to keep things technically 
+oriented, but since there seems to be so a lot of questions, I figured it 
+would be a good idea to answer some of them here so that they can go in the 
+FAQ.
+I'll leave the technically oriented ones to the Code Team though.
+
+At 04:18 PM 11/11/00 -0500, you wrote:
+>I am also a Worldforge developer, like Bryce.  Though not nearly as
+>famous ;-)
+
+Or so you think... ;)
+
+>And a commercial effort such as Nevrax could be a powerful force in helping
+>to achieve such a goal.
+
+Thanks for the attention.
+We hope and believe so too.
+
+>So I then
+>came across Worldforge, and that is where I am. Finally a totally free
+>opensource project that met, if not exceeded my own standards for an online
+>gaming system.
+
+Yes, WorldForge is a very impressive project with a very, very large scope. 
+We are all admirative of your capacity to handle such a large and diverse 
+community. Managing a team of artists over the internet is especially 
+daunting and WF has accomplished an incredible feat in this area.
+As Bryce kindly reminded me, code is cheap compared to Art...
+
+Here at Nevrax, we do not intend to have such a large range of activity. We 
+are concentrating on a 3D client (no 2D, text, etc) and we are doing all 
+the artwork/game design internally.
+Nevrax.org will focus on fostering a "technical" community.
+
+>1) how compatible our projects are
+
+I'll let the coders answer on the technical aspect. However, on a more 
+philosophical point of vue, I'd say our project are very compatible, 
+siblings really, since they are both GPL.
+
+>1)  I understand that Nel will be a library to create games, but is this
+>project also developing a specific game that uses the library?
+
+Yes. we are currently developing a yet unannounced commercial MMORPG.
+
+>If so what
+>details of it are known?  As far as ruleset... gameplay...
+
+At this time, I'm sorry to say we cannot disclose any information 
+concerning game design / artwork. However things are bound to change as we 
+go along, and some information will start trickling out in the coming months.
+
+>2)  What is the development strategy?  For example Worldforge will be
+>developing several smaller diverse games in succession (Acorn, Mason... etc.
+>etc.) until we reach the final goal, entitled 'BelchFire'.  Will you guys be
+>doing a similar thing?
+
+Not in the sense of WF (i.e lots of intermediary games). We are working on 
+a single game. However, we do have a number of milestones. Also by the end 
+of the year, we will be disclosing a "sample world" under an open content 
+license for the community to kick around and have fun with. But this will 
+have nothing to do with our final game.
+
+>4)  I get this question a lot :-)  Why develop a 3d engine from scratch? Why
+>not use/build from an existing engine, such as Crystal Space?
+
+We checked out CS of course as well as many others, and while it is a very 
+nice engine, it did not seem to fit our particular needs.
+
+>6)  Is development open to outside influence? Or are you following an
+>internal-only plan, and just opensourcing the results?
+
+Well, we are following an internal plan and Freeing the resulting software, 
+however we are very open to outside influence on technical aspects. And 
+while we concentrate on our priorities, we will integrate any worthwhile 
+functionnality.
+
+On the game content side though, we are keeping things to ourselves for now.
+Expect to be really, really suprised though... :)
+
+>7)  Was there knowledge of Worldforge when this project was started?  And if
+>so,  why was it deemed necessary to start another,  independant effort with
+>the same goals?
+
+Yes, we knew of WF (actually, since the time it was called Altima !).
+We took some time to consider joining the effort, however we felt there was 
+a number of reasons for not doing so. I'll give you some of them :
+
+- We wanted to keep a tight focus on the game we are doing and did not want 
+to be hindered in political struggles to get the code where we needed. We 
+felt the WF community might ressent us steering in directions that they 
+would not care for. We have a tight schedule : we want the game out in 2002.
+Which means we could'nt spare to much time arguing about it.
+
+- We have different goals : we are a commercial entity. We don't have the 
+educational/hobbyist approach of WF. Nevrax has a complete team of seasoned 
+professionals not only at the programming level, but also on the design / 
+3D artwork / concept side working every day towards one goal : getting the 
+game out.
+
+- We have a highly original world which poses a great number of 
+constraints. We felt we would be in a better position to adress them by 
+leading our own effort.
+
+That said, I must emphasize that we do not see ourselves as "competing" 
+with WF. We are simply two different projects, taking two different 
+approach at building a Free Software system for MMORPGs. Diversity is A 
+Good Thing.
+I wish WF will succeed and I hope there will be as much cooperation between 
+the two projects as possible.
+
+>9)  How the heck do you guys manage to pay a full development team off of
+>free software? :-)
+
+Ah ha ! :)
+
+Free Software doesn't mean free content or free service.
+While our software is Free, we retain property of our game data. And to 
+access our servers in order to play our game, users will be asked to pay a 
+monthly fee just like with the other commercial games.
+
+Bottom line is : Free Software and commercial MMORPGs are a perfect match. 
+And we believe we have everything to gain and nothing to loose by opening 
+our source code.
+
+I hope this clarifies things a little even though I'm sure it will raise 
+even more questions !
+
+Thanks for your encouragments,
+
+Olivier
+
+
+