01 Apr, 2013, plamzi wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
This is a serious offer to collaborate on a commercial project. Please don't waste my time, and yours.

As some of you may know, in recent weeks, I've been working on a major update to my iPhone GUI that I believe will bring it visually on par with any professional MMO sold in the AppStore. But, alas, my deeply customized server is Diku-rivative and subject to a license that leaves me with very limited monetizing options. It occurred to me that there may be someone out there with a server that is not subject to the dreaded license, and who is looking to gain access to a wealth of new customers.

What you will get:

    An iOS GUI app that looks like this, and this, and which drives new players to your game. (To give you some idea, you will most likely receive 10-20,000 logins in the first few months, though nothing else is guaranteed.) The app will be branded with your game name and logo (if you have any), pointed at your game sever, promoted and supported entirely by me.

    50% of all profit generated via the iOS GUI app. To be clear, that is 50% of the profit remaining after Apple takes its cut (30%). We will be in full compliance with Apple's terms and will be cutting them in by providing a method for app users to purchase game content via the AppStore.


What you must have:

    A functional MUD server to which you own full commercial rights, and which you are looking to monetize or which is already commercial (e. g. pay-for-perks).

    A developer (e. g. you) who is capable of customizing a significant part of the game output/input to specs that I will provide, who is professional, prompt, hard-working, and willing to see this project through in a minimal amount of time.

    A fully playable game with a good amount of existing content.

    The world should be fantasy-themed. It should have rooms, items, spells/skills, some form of PvP, and some form of player guilds.

    Willingness to adapt any aspect of the game, including the pricing model, to try and optimize AppStore conversion. Basically, this means being open to discussions about what will work, what seems to already work, and what presents an apparent obstacle to attracting a wide range of mobile players, including casual ones.


The ideal server would have a well-developed guild war system, no RP, an SQL database that can be interfaced independently, either directly or via server-side scripts / RESTful. The ideal server would already have a good number of game mechanics that make it attractive to casual players (e. g. command shortcuts, an easy way to quit and save your progress).

The ideal partner(s) will be someone who can provide me with enough solid evidence that they are capable and serious, e. g. by having an existing portfolio of things to show, including a live and playable server that I can take a look at. Some experience with JSON (GMCP) would be good.

What the project will involve:

We will exchange specs and work together in parallel to interface client and server to a point where the two form one seamless experience that can compete in the AppStore (this will include designing a fool-proof tutorial, making sure in-app purchases work infallibly, etc).

Neither one of us will be expected to grant any form of code access to the other, nor will we be signing over any rights to client or server code, client or server assets, etc.

You will not be expected to make your game server exclusive to the iOS app. It can be one client out of multiple clients that you are supporting, and the app's payment model may co-exist with other payment models if our preliminary discussions determine that it won't hurt our common cause.

Before we do anything, we will discuss details about our partnership, and when ready, we will sign a binding contract to make sure that both parties' interests are protected (e. g. we will set up a system where both parties can monitor profits). If you are not a single person but a team, the terms of my offer are the same, i. e. I offer 50% of all profit raised via the iOS app, to be split among you in any way you see fit.

Serious inquiries only, preferably using PM. If you have questions that you don't mind making public, I guess you can post them in this thread (though I can't imagine why you would).
01 Apr, 2013, Idealiad wrote in the 2nd comment:
Votes: 0
Just curious, does anyone know if LPs have a similar commercial restriction as Dikus?
01 Apr, 2013, Newt wrote in the 3rd comment:
Votes: 0
Idealiad said:
Just curious, does anyone know if LPs have a similar commercial restriction as Dikus?


Yep.

The Copyright file in the driver source said:
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to extend and modify the
source code provided subject to the restriction that the source code may
not be used in any way whatsoever for monetary gain.
01 Apr, 2013, quixadhal wrote in the 4th comment:
Votes: 0
DGD does not. Dworkin released it under the GPL/AGPL a few years ago, as his own commercial focus is now on Hydra (his multi-threaded LPC driver). DGD is the driver that powered the games done by Skotos.
01 Apr, 2013, Orrin wrote in the 5th comment:
Votes: 0
Idealiad said:
Just curious, does anyone know if LPs have a similar commercial restriction as Dikus?

Threshold and New Worlds are both commercial LPs. Make of that what you will.
02 Apr, 2013, Ssolvarain wrote in the 6th comment:
Votes: 0
Then again, Bedlam is diku based, so… bit of a fuzzy area there.
02 Apr, 2013, plamzi wrote in the 7th comment:
Votes: 0
Ssolvarain said:
Then again, Bedlam is diku based, so… bit of a fuzzy area there.


I'm not sure what you're implying, but you're wrong to think there's any similarity between Bedlam and commercial servers running on an LP or Diku codebase.

I have never made a dime off the Bedlam server–it's always been free to play, and all of its maintenance has been paid out of my own pocket. Since 2009, I have been marketing the iOS app as a graphical client, and making it perfectly clear in all cases that the server itself is free-to-play.

The iOS app is 100% original native code, and I feel absolutely entitled to sell it, just like one is free to sell a commercial MUD client like cMUD that connects to free servers. Even a license as wild as Diku's can't have anything to say about the clients that people are allowed to use to connect to the server. And it doesn't.

But, the Diku license expressly forbids selling in-game perks, and even taking donations in connection with running a server. Which is why I'm looking around to see if there's someone with a custom server who wants to team up. If the app is pointed to a commercial server, I can charge nothing for the client, and utilize the much more popular model of in-app purchases.

FWIW, I would never violate even the spirit of the Diku license. It's terrible, but I have utmost respect of the work those guys did.
02 Apr, 2013, Idealiad wrote in the 8th comment:
Votes: 0
I think Ssol might have been replying to Orrin regarding Threshold and NW…I don't know if those are DGD. @plamzi, the reason I brought it up was because there are some great old LPs with lots of content, maybe you should seek a DGD out if you can find a good one.
02 Apr, 2013, plamzi wrote in the 9th comment:
Votes: 0
Idealiad said:
I think Ssol might have been replying to Orrin regarding Threshold and NW…I don't know if those are DGD. @plamzi, the reason I brought it up was because there are some great old LPs with lots of content, maybe you should seek a DGD out if you can find a good one.


I did some research. It seems that DGD is not technically LP, just using the same general concept. It's released under AGPL, like quixadhal said. I didn't spend too much time on investigating the license, but seems like a variant of GPL that imposes stricter requirements on making any modifications open-source.

Maybe there are folks out there who run a commercial DGD server and make their latest source code public, but it sounds a bit unlikely (hard to run even a non-commercial game like that). What's likelier to find is people who run commercial DGD servers out of compliance, and I'd rather not go there.
02 Apr, 2013, quixadhal wrote in the 10th comment:
Votes: 0
DGD *IS* an LP MUD, it implements the LPC language (which is what defines an LPMUD). DGD's version of LPC is slightly different than Lars' original, but then so is MudOS/FluffOS, and I doubt anyone would credibly say those aren't LPMUD drivers.

As for the source requirements… it hardly matters. Unlike a DikuMUD, the entire game system is coded in the mudlib (LPC code), with the driver acting only to provide network and filesystem access. The vast majority of LPMUD games never make any driver modifications.

This is something I've found most DikuMUD people just don't get at all. The idea that everything, even the concept of rooms, is soft-coded in LPC, seems to just sound too much like science fiction I guess.
02 Apr, 2013, plamzi wrote in the 11th comment:
Votes: 0
quixadhal said:
DGD *IS* an LP MUD, it implements the LPC language (which is what defines an LPMUD). DGD's version of LPC is slightly different than Lars' original, but then so is MudOS/FluffOS, and I doubt anyone would credibly say those aren't LPMUD drivers.

As for the source requirements… it hardly matters. Unlike a DikuMUD, the entire game system is coded in the mudlib (LPC code), with the driver acting only to provide network and filesystem access. The vast majority of LPMUD games never make any driver modifications.

This is something I've found most DikuMUD people just don't get at all. The idea that everything, even the concept of rooms, is soft-coded in LPC, seems to just sound too much like science fiction I guess.


Like I said, I only read parts of the AGPL license, and I'm no legal expert so I may have mistakenly assumed that the game logic is covered by the license. If that's not the case, and if people clearly don't have to divulge their customizations to stay compliant, a DGD MUD that fits the bill could be somewhere out there. I suppose someone could have implemented a payment model with no driver mods, or minimal mods that they wouldn't mind sharing. In any case, the point is moot until someone with such a server expresses interest.

I don't know about "most DikuMUD people" but the regulars here all seem to know what LPC is and does. That's not the same as knowing how its license applies in different situations.
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