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<H1>[Nel] Something I don't understand about the license agreement.</H1>
<B>Vincent Archer</B>
<A HREF="mailto:archer%40nevrax.com"
TITLE="[Nel] Something I don't understand about the license agreement.">archer@nevrax.com</A><BR>
<I>Wed, 21 Feb 2001 18:26:14 +0100</I>
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<PRE>EagleEye wrote:
><i> This basically answers my question. You see, I realize that people can copy
</I>><i> my ideas, but I'll be damned if they're gonna copy the work that I put into
</I>><i> it to accomplish what I (will have) accomplished. If they want to copy my
</I>><i> idea, they'll have to implement it themselves, not grab all of my WORK
</I>><i> (because it's open source) and just "compile and run" my entire world. I
</I>...
><i> own game... that stuff I have to do myself. I don't care if people copy my
</I>><i> ideas, but I want to release them first, and I want them to have to put in
</I>><i> some of their own effort to make their "copy of my ideas" a reality.
</I>
One important thing to know is, until you have released something, you are
under no obligation to put any source available. The GPL doesn't prevent
you from doing anything privately. It just says, "once other people run it,
you have to share the source". So do not worry about not being the first.
There's also a fact that, even if you release your server code, without
the data it holds, it's worthless. You speak of plot, of situations,
of recipes for game dynamics. All this (reread my message) isn't code.
It's data. You might have a few specific bits here and there of code,
but it's chiefly scripts that say how mobs react, items, events and code
tables, and all that.
To take another analogy: You are now mandated to release your network
MP3 player source. You are not mandated to release any of the MP3 you
composed.
That ties into another typical false belief about modern game design.
Code isn't what makes your game. Data is. A typical game development
team often features twice, or three times as many artists, level
designers, and game designers as pure coders. All that data production
isn't in the GPL. Apart from the level proper (i.e. art), none of it
never ever needs to appear on any site. And that's what makes the game.
According to Dave Turner:
><i> If someone is going to implement the same ideas, why should they waste
</I>><i> their time implementing them from scratch if your code is already
</I>
Hmm, that's not reassuring the guy who's just said he did NOT want
somebody doing that :)
><i> so you won't get the benefit of their code. Also, they could well end
</I>><i> up being less inventive, because they have to spend time just catching
</I>><i> up, rather than really innovating.
</I>
That's the real clincher, of course. If all they are doing is taking
your game, and running it under their name, then:
1) They're going to be second on the market
2) They're going to be late in coming, because they WILL have to spend a
lot of time redoing your internal game data
If this is a commercial endeavour, the only way they can expect to
attract customers is if they do it a lot cheaper than you do.
That's where the real fun begins. People have to realise the difference
in paradigm between making, say, a Starcraft, and making a Shadowbane.
Running an on-line game isn't a software industry, it's a SERVICE
industry. The main costs isn't creating the game, it's dwarfed by
the cost of running it. A classic game costs $40 to buy. An on-line
game typically costs $150 if you play it for a year. Do you think
this means you've made $100 profits on the game? No. What this means
is that you've invested $100 in the game, the distributor got paid $20,
and got $30 profit, instead of investing $10, giving $20 in distribution
cost and getting $10 profit.
Those $100 invested are about $25 in game dev (heavier than classic games)
and $75 in infrastructure (server, bandwidth, customer service).
(that's simplistic, but it's relatively representative of what's behind
an online game)
Your competitor will reduce its investment, but the infrastructure costs
remain not only identical, but the MAIN factor in costs. Forcing your
competitor to maintain its price close to yours.
In other words, stealing your game to run a competiting business isn't
a major problem. And if it becomes one, you have legal recourse against
them. After all, they copied your copyrighted works (the game data).
Why go to the investment of making a massive world, if you open yourself
to lawsuit.
And anyway, if you want to make an immense effort designing everything
by yourself, your counterfactor will still gain a lot of time, because
*he* will use NeL to catch up on code quickly :)
--
Vincent Archer Email: <A HREF="mailto:archer@nevrax.com">archer@nevrax.com</A>
Nevrax France. Off on the yellow brick road we go!
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