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Re: [glob2-devel] An intriguing offer from a small group of developers


From: Sebastian Gerlach
Subject: Re: [glob2-devel] An intriguing offer from a small group of developers
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:29:25 +0200
User-agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.12 (Windows/20070509)

Hello guys,

even though I am somewhat of a lurker around here these last years, I would just like to make some comments on the 'unknown entertainment' case.

The web site they have provided a link to is a standard forum, an overview of which leads me to the following conclusions:

- They have zero track record (i.e. no proof of skills of any type, whether programming or artistic). Maybe they are actually very good, maybe not, but we don't know anything about that.

- They have a project to write some huge games with very few people, like hundreds of other people on the web thinking 'oh, I could do an MMORPG within 2 months'. I believe the glob2 community is already much wiser than that: glob2, through careful selection of goals and realistic objectives, has now reached a good level of maturity.

- They do not even have a website presenting their company/group/whatever, so the only guess that can be made about their resources is: none (except for some forum members).

My conclusion: I am strongly opposed to entering any type of agreement with this type of entity. Basic guess (and I believe this to be correct) is that the glob2 community is actually bigger, older, wiser, and has better resources (both technical and artistic) than unknown entertainment.

If unknown entertainment wishes to contribute to glob2, they may, however they should do so by the same rules as everyone else, getting the same benefits. Asking for an agreement to take glob2 under their control right off the bat and showing nothing in return is a pure show of arrogance.

Cheers,

Minas


Kieran P wrote:

I don't like this idea of advertisement at all. I do not see why there
would be two classes of contributors. If they want to contribute, they are very welcome. They will of course be added to credits. We can provide links
to homepages in credits. But that's all.


It wouldn't be major ads though. Just small text perhaps in the loading
screen: "Artwork and Sounds courtesy of Unknown Entertainment". Then another in the credits. Thats all it would take I believe. That wont affect the game
at all (the welcome screen on a good computer is only displayed for 2-5
seconds :P)

I don't want the game or the website to display advertisements.


The website wont have adverts.

Please take care not to morally engage the Glob 2 community on such
sensitive issues without consensus. There are people providing physical
ressources (Kyle, Drazak, I) or intellectual ones (Bradley, you, ...) for
free and because they like the game. We must be extremely cautious by making agreements with people that don't want to follow this free philosophy. And, in general, I would say we should refuse such agreements (of course it calls
for case by case analysis).


I understand that. Thats why I brought the issue here.

Now, I spent 10 minutes writing this up. I'm not a lawyer, so its not fool
proof, but it should give you some idea of what to expect. Feel free to
comment. Keep in mind, we are working on something to put forward, not
reject completely. If, once we come up with the final thing, they reject it,
then thats the end of it. It was worth trying, as apposed to not even
trying. So make constructive comments, with the thought of trying to make a
deal.

Regards,
Kieran



Agreements of partnership between "Globulation 2" and "Unknown
Entertainment"
-------------
1. Licensing
1.1 Under no circumstance is "Globulation 2" to be removed from the GPL
license (version 2, dated 1991) unless agreed upon by all developers of the
game at the time
1.2 Under no circumstance is "Globulation 2" to become commercial, that is,
it requiring payment of any kind before being able to play any part of the
game

2. "Globulation 2" (the game, its source, and all data files)
2.1 "Unknown Entertainment" has no control over what is changed in the game.
These decisions must be agreed upon by all developers of the game at the
time
2.2 Any major decisions must be voted upon by the developers at the time,
and a decision reached before anything is made final

3. Website
3.1 "Globulation 2" website/wiki remains freely editable by the public, and
no major decisions or changes to it may be made without it being agreed upon
by all maintainers of the website at the time
3.2 No advertisements (google, doubleclick, fastclick, or otherwise) are to
be displayed on the website or wiki for whatever reason.

4. Management
4.1 All developers remain in their current positions, and are not to be
restricted access of any kind unless agreed upon by all developers of the
game at the time

5. Service
5.1 "Unknown Entertainment" provides Artwork, Sounds, Music, and Programming
in exchange for advertisement's in game
5.2 The advertisement will be text based, displayed once in the game during
the loading, in the AUTHORS file, and on any applicable change logs where
new content has been added

5. Changes to this agreement
5.1 This agreement can only be changed with agreement of changes among all
developers at the time
5.2 The partnership may be canceled by any party, at any time, for any
reason and the game will go back to its original developers before the
partnership was formed


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