Re: [Nel] Would a complete gpl'ed and copylefted online gaming world be financialy succes?

[Loic Dachary]

Marc De Mesel writes:

 > What I was wondering, Would it be possible for a massive
 > multiplayer game to be gpl'ed completely, meaning, the engine as
 > well as the art and even make the title, the development website,
 > the promotional website, as well as all documents (everything that
 > is of use to the forker of your project) copyleft.

        My belief (and the belief of the Free Software movement as
represented by the Free Software Foundation) is that all functional
parts of an immaterial creation must be free (as in
freedom). Regarding the artistic parts there is no really convincing
arguments for a proprietary only policy or a free (as in freedom) only
policy.

        Is it legally possible for a MMOG to be under the GPL,
including artwork ? Yes. Is it necessary ? For the functional parts
(programs, data, documentation), definitely yes. For the artwork part
?  Noone knows for sure. Can it be sustained financially ? My personal
belief (not representative of anyone else ;-) is that a game with 100%
GNU GPL'ed functional parts and proprietary artwork can be a financial
success.

        Regarding the website, marketing documents etc, I can't say,
that's a question that is too vague.  For instance it seems to me like
a big mistake to market the game under a brand name that would not be
proprietary and protected by trademark laws. On this issue alone we
could discuss during hours.

 > You would make money by charging access to your serverpark (or some other 
 > way you make money at your server park). Others would be able to fork your 
 > project and setup servers themselves.

        Definitely. Let's assume the functional parts of the game
(code, data, documentation) are GNU GPL'ed, and the artwork is
proprietary. Someone willing to spawn a competitor need to :

        - Setup a game server
        - Create original artwork
        - Market the game

        If she can do that, she deserves to be a competitor. The
situation is in fact very similar to general purpose web hosting
nowadays. If you want to host an online service, there is a very good
chance that you don't have to write the software yourself. It has
already been done (apache, php, mysql etc), is Free Software and
you're free to base your commercial business on them. What you'll need to
do to run your web hosting service is:

        - Setup a hosting server
        - Create original artwork
        - Market the hosting service

        Of course the "original artwork" is less prominent in this
case.  A web hosting service with crapy images and ugly HTML pages
layout may sell anyway. That's unlikey to be true for a game ;-)

        Anyway, the key point is that a commercial MMOG is about selling
a service, not about selling a product.

 > On one hand this is bad for your business. There will probably pop up 
 > different variations, some closer to your project, look and feel, some more 
 > different. You will have to be more competetive. At the other hand it could 
 > be good for you as they will help create a bigger market as there will be 
 > more interesting products, online worlds in this case, as it will be more 
 > easy to make a world yourself, or with a little team since you can copy a 
 > lot of things from other projects.

        Based on the assumption that artwork is proprietary, it is not
bad for your business in any way. There is no drawback at all.

 > Developing everything in gpl and copylet allows you also to attract
 > more developers on the internet since you can develop your world in
 > the wide open. All the documents, code and art can be viewed and
 > played with. If someone shows interest and starts to contribute to
 > the project you take him, after a while, on your team and give him
 > or her a part of the profits to be made. (I though up a system that
 > would allow for dynamic scaling of percentage of ownership ( and
 > income) so that people who are of more value scale in popularity
 > and also income and vice versa, people who stop cooperating or do
 > stupid things will lose percentage (the other memebrs have some
 > voting power).) (I'm thinking of an online world here that has
 > monthly income).

        I don't know if Free Software ideas can be applied to artistic
works.  I would not run a business on this assumption. The very nature
of artistic work is different from the nature of software (functional
work in general).  Software has a useful purpose. Artwork is not
supposed to have a useful purpose. Software need to evolve, need to be
studied, fulfill a need when used, need to be shared among people.

 > You guys must already have had this idea so let me know what your thoughts 
 > were or are on this idea. Would it be possible to make money this way and 
 > hence be even be succesfull, financialy?

        I hope this provided one possible answer to you ;-)

        Cheers,

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