That was the general reaction when I arrived at the office this morning. I guess we knew it was coming but still, we weren't prepared : the network adaptor on our web server gave up almost instantly. Anyway, it was interesting to read the reactions of the Slashdot crowd but there seems to be a lot of misconceptions. So if you'd allow me, I'd like to sum up the most frequent questions and try to clear things up before everybody gets it wrong.

Is Nevrax for real ?

Yes, we are a real company with close to 40 real professional game developers. We are not a hobby project and we are not doing this on our spare time. The company's headquarters are in London (UK), the production branch is in Paris (France) and we are on the verge of opening a US subsidiary that will be in charge of running the game. We are backed by some major European venture capital funds.

So what is it you guys do exactly ?

We are making a Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game and releasing the source code as Free Software. We've been working on this for a year now, and you can check the code and download a sample game called 'Snowballs'.

Why Free Software ?

Well, it's the Right Thing to do. Plus, it makes a lot of business sense.
If the source code is Free, then everybody gets to look at it, fix it, improve it, port it to new platforms etc... You guys know the drill!
In the end, we all get a better game and a better gaming experience: everybody wins.

Ha ! If it's free software, you'll never make any money !

Err... Ever heard "Free as in speech, not as in beer"?
We are selling a service.
Although the code is Free, all the data/artwork for our game is proprietary. This data/artwork cannot be commercially used by anybody but Nevrax. Sure if you want, you can make your own and use it in a commercial game. But this takes a lot of talent, time, money and effort (that is if you want to make a nice world). And even once you've done that, it costs even more to host and maintain these Persistent Worlds (that is if you want more than a few simultaneous players).
So basically, we will be charging a monthly fee for the gaming experience we provide.

If anybody can get the code, you won't ever be able to prevent cheating !

Gee, we've never thought about that. I think we're going to close down and cry now. ;)
Seriously, there are a number of things to take into account when considering the cheating issue:

• Our game design and technology are specifically conceived with this problem in mind
• We place very little trust in the client software
• We are doing a RPG, not a FPS
• Security Through Obscurity does not work anyway

Why don't you sell the CD ?

Well we will, but you won't necessarily have to buy it to play. It's like a GNU/Linux distribution : you will be able to buy the CD in a nice box, with a nice manual, but you will also be able to get it for free in magazines, or from your friends.

So I hope this straighten things up a bit.
In any case, you'll be hearing a lot more from us this year: we are going to show that Free Software is the way to go for massively multiplayer online entertainment, and we have lots of great stuff coming. In the meantime, join us on the snowfields!

Olivier Lejade
CEO and co-founder
Nevrax