<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases (was: help me find 100% fre (fwd) --> <!--X-From-R13: X Q Znjerapr <pynjNxnatn.ah> --> <!--X-Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 20:31:56 -0800 --> <!--X-Message-Id: E129KsR-0007hr-00#dingo,kanga.nu --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases (was: </title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:claw#kanga,nu"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00089.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00091.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00089.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00086.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00090">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00090">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00090">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases (was: help me find 100% fre (fwd)</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases (was: help me find 100% fre (fwd)</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: J C Lawrence <<A HREF="mailto:claw#kanga,nu">claw#kanga,nu</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 20:31:51 -0800</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> ------- Forwarded Message From: mk270#cam,ac.uk (Martin Keegan) Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.admin Subject: Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases (was: help me find 100% free graphical mud) Date: 2 Dec 1999 23:56:35 GMT In article <383EC091.F94E9912#spam,free.gamecommandos.com>, Ilya wrote: >>I think that a mud will take care of itself. If a mud is >>run correctly, there will be people that play there. If the >>mud is a piece of crap, people might visit, but won't stay >>long. > >True enough. But I'm not worried about the player base or Just for the record I must dispute the "but won't stay there long" line and its blind acceptance, but that's not why I'm posting. >Too many of our most creative and productive minds in the >mudding world are finally forced by economic concerns to >abandon it in search of activities which can provide at >least a minimal reward. If more code bases were out there >and were promoted which allowed for commercial use, then Now the Linux "counterexample" raised against you actually comes back to help; since the Linux kernel, OS and operating environment are all largely under free licences, it is possible, paradoxicly, for the system to be exploited commercially. I'm sure we couldn't do this with Minix. So too mud server codebases. Geneticly we have various groupings of server codebases which are related to one another by derivation or inspiration. More important, however, is the typological distinction along a sort of hack'n'slash <-----> RPG <-----> MOO <-----> talker continuum. What we find is that there are almost two separate communities, the Diku/AberMUD crowd of D&D-style games (and I stress the word "games"), and most of the other types of mud on the other side of the divide. The Diku mob doesn't know or care about the existence of MOO/MUSH/LP, etc, and the MOO/MUSH mob look down scornfully on the Diku people (to whom they should be grateful for attracting losers and troublemakers away from their own systems). None of these communities (however you count them) is significantly communally aware of the issues familiar to the Free Software/Open Source movement, and it shows. One interesting cultural artefact demonstrating this is the way mud adverts will use the word 'code' as a count-noun "We use a SMAUG code" (which to an OpenSourcer is not a valid sentence, "We use SMAUG code" being the only option), implying that there is little communication between these groups. If there were greater overlap, there'd be more opposition to the use of non-free mud servers, not only for the ideological bigotry satisfaction reasons of the Free Software juggernaut, but also because these people would be able to put forward strong practical arguments against things like the Diku licence. Elsewhere in this thread which I have been watching with interest, Matt Chatterly identified three different types of reason someone might start a not-so-new mud: coolness / powertrip, etc ; breakaway / disaffection ; actual desire for originality. He said that the first two of these three ought to be taken out and shot. A while ago I should certainly have agreed. However, I have recently read a post [*] by Travis Casey on the MUD-Dev mailing list in which it was argued that most of these StockMUDs about there should be considered analogous to people running their own RPGs on pencil and paper and someone wanting to be DM. Should the DM have to invent his/her OWN regular polygon to get original dice? Of course not. The analysis of the StockMUD phenomenon has fallen victim to a category error. When I was compiling The Mud Tree, I counted as a single mud variety all muds which derived from the same source (e.g., Diku, Circle, SMAUG, MOO, Dirt, Mordor), but, not having the benefit of the insights of Mr Casey or of Eric Raymond's Cathedral and Bazaar essay (which I largely disagree with, but which would have proven useful), failed to see that a lot of these people just wanted to run their own game, rather than create their own unique virtual world (partially because of the assumed orthodoxy (namely that all mud administrators should want to be mud creators and innovators)). The first and second groups (the harmless DM wannabes and the splitters) ought to be considered separately from the innovators, even though they are doing roughly the same thing in the same environment. The conditions of this environment are that players don't communicate with a significant proportion of the mudding community and there is a strongly defined notion of acceptable variation. Players will tolerate changes in races, classes, etc, but will strongly reject muds which have a different set of basic commands or fundamentally different combat system. The "norming" effect whereby GPLed code in free software projects ensures that forks and splits don't occur too damagingly by all the useful changes being merged into a central tree has its counterpart in the mudding world: popular innovations within the permitted scope will propagate from mud to mud slowly through the word of mouth transmission mechanism of a fragmented community. There's certainly no central Diku clearing house for ideas, but there might as well be. So, why do all three groups choose the same old code? The first two groups obviously want to attract players, and familiarity sells mud time. The third group may (separately from the familiarity to the players issue) also select a familiar codebase because it will be easier to modify to their tastes, or because there is a particular set of desired features offered by the codebase. I submit that the most desired feature is mud socket code: it's the thing which constitutes a real barrier to entry for aspiring mud designers. The easy way out is to use someone else's code ... What this has led to is using not only stock socket code but a whole stock mud, probably due to the difficulty of separating the two. For the want of some socket code, the game mechanics and interface of an entire mud are copied. I think it would be quite beneficial (irrespective of the accuracy or otherwise of my ever-haughty and possibly self-serving analysis) to have a framework of LGPLed components (socket code, parser, game mechanics, "database" (Ok, so the middle two are interdependent)) making up a mud system, allowing coders to take only the bits they want, forcing them only to conform to a particular set of interfaces between these components, rather than forcing them to accept all the components just to get the single one they want. By no coincidence whatsoever I have been writing a component of just such a system ... :) and shall probably be releasing it (the networking code) this weekend. >perhaps we would have saved more of these creative/productive >minds for the hobby/art and this would have been a good thing. Perhaps as the maintainer of such a high profile site as gamecommandos you are in a good position to promote things like this ... Mk [*] <A HREF="http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/1999Q4/msg00467.html">http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/1999Q4/msg00467.html</A> ------- End of Forwarded Message -- J C Lawrence Home: claw#kanga,nu ----------(*) Other: coder#kanga,nu --=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=-- _______________________________________________ MUD-Dev maillist - MUD-Dev#kanga,nu <A HREF="http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev">http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev</A> </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00089.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases (was: help me find 100% fre (fwd)</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00091.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Community Relations</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00089.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases (was: help me find 100% fre (fwd)</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00086.html">[MUD-Dev] Community Relations</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00090"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00090"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] Databases (was Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases)</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00099" HREF="msg00099.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Databases (was Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases)</A></strong>, cg <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Sun 16 Jan 2000, 18:59 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00106" HREF="msg00106.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Databases (was Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases)</A></strong>, Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Mon 17 Jan 2000, 19:52 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00109" HREF="msg00109.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Databases (was Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases)</A></strong>, Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Mon 17 Jan 2000, 22:02 GMT </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00089" HREF="msg00089.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases (was: help me find 100% fre (fwd)</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#kanga,nu">claw#kanga,nu</a>, Sat 15 Jan 2000, 04:29 GMT <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00090" HREF="msg00090.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Commercial-use Restrictions on Code Bases (was: help me find 100% fre (fwd)</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#kanga,nu">claw#kanga,nu</a>, Sat 15 Jan 2000, 04:31 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00086" HREF="msg00086.html">[MUD-Dev] Community Relations</A></strong>, Dundee <a href="mailto:SkeptAck#antisocial,com">SkeptAck#antisocial,com</a>, Fri 14 Jan 2000, 18:39 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00091" HREF="msg00091.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Community Relations</A></strong>, Christopher Allen <a href="mailto:ChristopherA#skotos,net">ChristopherA#skotos,net</a>, Sat 15 Jan 2000, 07:02 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00093" HREF="msg00093.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Community Relations</A></strong>, Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Sat 15 Jan 2000, 09:33 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00105" HREF="msg00105.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Community Relations</A></strong>, Greg Miller <a href="mailto:gmiller#classic-games,com">gmiller#classic-games,com</a>, Mon 17 Jan 2000, 19:54 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>