March 2000
- Portal Matthew Mihaly
- randomly dropped connections Matthew Mihaly
- randomly dropped connections cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
- randomly dropped connections Ben Greear
- randomly dropped connections J C Lawrence
- randomly dropped connections adam@treyarch.com
- randomly dropped connections Kevin Littlejohn
- Mud Network Setup Jon A. Lambert
- Mud Network Setup adam@treyarch.com
- Mud Network Setup J C Lawrence
- Mud Network Setup David Bennett
- Mud Network Setup Todd McKimmey
- Mud Network Setup David Bennett
- Mud Network Setup J C Lawrence
- Mud Network Setup adam@treyarch.com
- Mud Network Setup Jon A. Lambert
- Mud Network Setup J C Lawrence
- Mud Network Setup Emil Eifrem
- Mud Network Setup Dominic J. Eidson
- Mud Network Setup Emil Eifrem
- Mud Network Setup Eli Stevens {Grey}
- Mud Network Setup Todd McKimmey
- Mud Network Setup adam@treyarch.com
- Mud Network Setup cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
- Mud Network Setup Steve Boleware
- Mud Network Setup Joe Andrieu
- Mud Network Setup John Bertoglio
- (fwd) MU* hiasb@cc.gatech.edstory? claw@kanga.nu
- (fwd) MU* hiasb@cc.gatech.edstory? cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
- (fwd) MU* hiasb@cc.gatech.edstory? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- (fwd) MU* hiasb@cc.gatech.edstory? adam@treyarch.com
- (fwd) MU* hiasb@cc.gatech.edstory? 송재경
- Processor Usage Christopher Kohnert
- Processor Usage J C Lawrence
- Processor Usage Dominic J. Eidson
- Processor Usage Ben Greear
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #298 - 11 msgs Dr. Cat
- MUD timeline Koster, Raph
- MUD timeline cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
- MUD timeline Jon Leonard
- MUD timeline Richard Woolcock
- MUD timeline J C Lawrence
- MUD timeline Kristen L. Koster
- MUD timeline Kristen L. Koster
- MUD timeline Lovecraft
- MUD timeline Koster, Raph
- MUD timeline AR Schleicher
- MUD timeline Matthew Mihaly
- MUD timeline Matthew Mihaly
- MUD timeline Koster, Raph
- MUD timeline Dundee
- MUD timeline Darrin Hyrup
- MUD timeline Koster, Raph
- MUD timeline Moreland, John
- MUD timeline Darrin Hyrup
- MUD timeline jkerr@htech.withoutthisstuff.com
- MUD timeline __Deric___@yahoo.com
- MUD timeline Darrin Hyrup
- MUD timeline Erik Jarvi
- MUD timeline Travis Casey
- MUD timeline Jon A. Lambert
- MUD timeline Travis Casey
- MUD timeline Jon A. Lambert
- MUD timeline Travis Casey
- MUD timeline Bruce
- MUD timeline Daniel A. Koepke
- MUD timeline cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
- MUD timeline Dr Richard A. Bartle
- MUD timeline Koster, Raph
- MUD timeline Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- MUD timeline Koster, Raph
- MUD timeline Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- MUD timeline Sellers, Michael
- MUD timeline Jon Whitehouse
- MUD timeline Derek Snider
- MUD timeline J C Lawrence
- MUD timeline Sellers, Michael
- MUD timeline Matthew Mihaly
- MUD timeline J C Lawrence
- MUD timeline Ryan Palacio
- Mud Timeline Darrell Michaud
- Mud Timeline Klimon, Ian
- Mud Timeline Matt Mihaly
- ADMIN: Ooops, damn... J C Lawrence
- FW: MUD timeline Daniel James
- MUD timeline F. Randall Farmer
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #298 - 11 msgs Koster, Raph
- Skotos Website Up Christopher Allen
- CGDC dinner J C Lawrence
- CGDC dinner Joe Andrieu
- CGDC dinner J C Lawrence
- CGDC dinner J C Lawrence
- CGDC dinner Joe Andrieu
- CGDC dinner Koster, Raph
- CGDC dinner Bruce
- CGDC dinner J C Lawrence
- CGDC dinner Derek Snider
- CGDC dinner Ryan Palacio
- CGDC dinner Koster, Raph
- CGDC dinner Sellers, Michael
- CGDC dinner Derek Snider
- CGDC dinner Joel Dillon
- CGDC dinner J C Lawrence
- CGDC dinner Emil Eifrem
- CGDC dinner Richard Ross
- CGDC dinner J C Lawrence
- CGDC dinner Wes Connell
- CGDC dinner Suess123@aol.com
- CGDC dinner Joel Dillon
- ADMIN: Posting delays J C Lawrence
- javascript Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- javascript cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
- javascript Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- javascript Laurel Fan
- javascript Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- javascript Bruce
- javascript Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- javascript Bruce
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #302 - 6 msgs Dr. Cat
- Admin: Corrections, data loss, and interruptions in service. J C Lawrence
- Raph's collection of MUD design Laws Greg Underwood
- Raph's collection of MUD design Laws Wes Connell
- Raph's collection of MUD design Laws Kristen L. Koster
- Raph's collection of MUD design Laws Greg Underwood
- Raph's collection of MUD design Laws Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Raph's collection of MUD design Laws David Bennett
- Raph's collection of MUD design Laws J C Lawrence
- (OT) Admin: Library memberships J C Lawrence
- Open Source Online Gaming Aaron Mitchell
- Open Source Online Gaming Koster, Raph
- Open Source Online Gaming Bryce Harrington
On Mon, 13 Mar 2000, Aaron Mitchell wrote:
> Hello everyone on Mud-Dev,
> Something I am interested in working on is a MUD style game similar to
> AC, EQ, UO, etc. Technically speaking, there are a set of tasks that
> have to be tackled to start a project like this.
That's an understatement. ;-)
> First of all, has anyone heard of or built a successful business model
> in the online gaming industry centered around an open source project?
> I like the idea of open source products, especially the community
> development aspects, but still would like to develop a commercially
> viable product.
No, not yet. This may merely be an artifact from the lack of completed
open source online games, however. The commercial aspects have been
found to sometimes get tangled up with the community aspects; working
for free to help someone else earn money is sometimes seen as unfair.
> I know companies like RedHat maintain a completely open source project
> that they do pretty well charging for, and it seems that in the online
> gaming industry, it would be easy to extend this strategy to include a
> membership fee structure. The membership fee could be associated with
> use of the product on a specific set of servers, and the product could
> be sold on CD or downloaded for free. There would most likely be a
> host of free servers out there, since the server software (or maybe a
> portion of it?) would be open source as well. Would the availability
> of free servers destroy the commercial potential of pay servers?
Technically, I believe the product that RedHat bases its sales on
pre-existed the company, and the open source projects which they fund
are not the single income source. Establishing and maintaining an open
source project, especially one large enough to support a company, is
very hard, especially if you must by funding limitations do it on your
free time.
I agree with you that availability of free servers hinders the potential
of commercial pay servers, however it is important to recognize that
valuable commodity in online gaming is not the use of the software (or
access to proprietary graphics or sound), but access to the community
and to the world's plot. So, I wouldn't rule out the potential of
building a business around otherwise completely free game software.
I suspect though, that the openness makes it very hard to resist
competitors making inroads. Having funded (to some degree or another)
initial development of the software, is there any way to avoid another
company from sailing in and undercuting your margins by not having to
pay off the development investment?
> The things that I imagine would help pay servers remain desirable over
> free servers is most importantly bandwidth and low latency. I doubt,
> unless some sort of online connection limitations were implemented,
> that many popular free servers could be indefinitely maintained
> without an income to pay for bandwidth and server costs. Another edge
> pay servers would have over free servers is an abundance of high
> quality digital artwork and graphics. A company maintaining a
> profitable server could keep 2d/3d artists on staff to continually
> develop the visual aspects of the game, which I would think are very
> important to alot of mainstream gamers.
Personally, I have my suspicion that this Law of Open Source
Medialessness is erroneous, and am working at manually disproving it. I
doubt anyone's interested in hearing my theories, but could talk on for
hours about them... ;-)
> Does anyone know of any companies with plans similar to this? I'd also
> be very interested in hearing if any companies have thought about this
> but already ruled it out for whatever reasons. Most importatnly, any
> feedback on the potential problems or obstacles a project like this
> might face would be very much appreciated. Thanks,
Check out Loki, they do some amazingly cool open source work while still
maintaining a (profitable, I think?) game development company. I
do not know if they have any online game projects under way but to date
most of their projects have been ports of existing games to Linux.
--
Bryce Harrington
bryce @ neptune.net - Open Source Online Gaming Bruce
- Open Source Online Gaming J C Lawrence
- Open Source Online Gaming Bryce Harrington
- Open Source Online Gaming Ryan
- Open Source Online Gaming Erik Jarvi
- Open Source Online Gaming Derek Snider
- Open Source Online Gaming Aaron Mitchell
- GDC Dinner Matthew Mihaly
- GDC Dinner Justin Rogers
- ADMIN: looking for work? J C Lawrence
- [OT] Sound in games Erik Jarvi
- [OT] Sound in games Koster, Raph
- politics J C Lawrence
- Have openings Gary Whitten
- HTML as a MUD client . . . was javascript John Bertoglio
- ADMIN: Kanga.Nu will be moving (again) J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: Lost mail? J C Lawrence
- better usage through mechanics [from: CGDC dinner] Lovecraft
- better usage through mechanics [from: CGDC dinner] John Bertoglio
- better usage through mechanics [from: CGDC dinner] Joel Kelso
- better usage through mechanics [from: CGDC dinner] adam@treyarch.com
- better usage through mechanics [from: CGDC dinner] Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Dynamic Load Balancing Kevin Scott London
- Open Source Environments (was: Open Source Online Gaming) scott guzman
- Open Source Environments (was: Open Source Online Gaming) Nathan F Yospe
- Fw: [RRE]MediaMOO birthday Celebration, March 20th 2000!!! Bruce
- Open Source Environments scott guzman
- MudDev FAQ part 1 Marian Griffith
- MudDev FAQ part 1 Todd McKimmey
- MudDev FAQ part 1 Marian Griffith
- MUD Dev FAQ part 1 Marian Griffith
- MudDev FAQ part II Marian Griffith
- Questions about the MudDev FAQ Marian Griffith
- Open Gaming? J C Lawrence
- Open Source Environments / MacOS X J C Lawrence
- Open Source Environments / MacOS X Chris Jacobson
- Star Wars gmud? Nathan F Yospe
- better usage through mechanics [from: CGDC dinner] J C Lawrence
- [CODE] unique items J. Coleman
- [CODE] unique items Draymoor
- [CODE] unique items cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
- [CODE] unique items Matthew Mihaly
- [CODE] unique items Quzah
- [CODE] unique items J. Coleman
- [CODE] unique items Ben Greear
- [CODE] unique items Kevin Scott London
- [CODE] unique items Lord Ashon
- [CODE] unique items Marc Bowden
- [CODE] unique items J C Lawrence
- Kanga.Nu has a new IP J C Lawrence
- Licensing and Clauses Chris Jacobson
- The Meta list is now open and active. J C Lawrence
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? J C Lawrence
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Par Winzell
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? J C Lawrence
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Phillip Lenhardt
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? J C Lawrence
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Phillip Lenhardt
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Kevin Littlejohn
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really nec essary? Koster, Raph
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really nec essary? Nathan F Yospe
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Draymoor
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? scott guzman
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Chris Jones
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Dr Richard A. Bartle
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Lazarus
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Kevin Littlejohn
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Phillip Lenhardt
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Brandon J. Rickman
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Marian Griffith
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Kevin Littlejohn
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really nec essary? Brian Ashburn
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Par Winzell
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? J C Lawrence
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? adam@treyarch.com
- Object and class heirarchies -- are they really necessary? Kevin Littlejohn
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Koster, Raph
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Sayeed
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Matthew Mihaly
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Draymoor
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Vijay Weasel Prabhakar
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems J C Lawrence
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Sayeed
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems adam@treyarch.com
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Dundee
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems David Bennett
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Wes Connell
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Koster, Raph
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Fred Clift
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Draymoor
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Ananda Dawnsinger
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Koster, Raph
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Sayeed
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Todd McKimmey
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems AR Schleicher
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Sayeed
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Wes Connell
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Sayeed
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Koster, Raph
- Gamasutra: Online Justice Systems Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- (fwd) mud.design.ideas Nathan Fenenga Yospe
- Command interface for Coordinate based world WriterDL@aol.com
- Command interface for Coordinate based world Draymoor
- Command interface for Coordinate based world adam@treyarch.com
- Command interface for Coordinate based world Nathan F Yospe
- Command interface for Coordinate based world Vijay Weasel Prabhakar
- Command interface for Coordinate based world Jeremy Noetzelman
- Command interface for Coordinate based world Laurel Fan
- Command interface for Coordinate based world Lovecraft
- ADMIN: Moving house and posting delays J C Lawrence
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #18 - 17 msgs Dr. Cat
- Embedding C/C++ Draymoor
- Embedding C/C++ Justin Rogers
- Embedding C/C++ J C Lawrence
- multiplaying Tess Lowe
- multiplaying Lovecraft
- multiplaying Wes Connell
- Online Justice Systems scott guzman
- Online Justice Systems Matthew Mihaly
- Online Justice Systems J C Lawrence
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Justin Rogers
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Wes Connell
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Wes Connell
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Marc Bowden
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens adam@treyarch.com
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Jon Lambert
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Rasdan
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Par Winzell
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Todd McKimmey
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Justin Rogers
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Todd McKimmey
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens J C Lawrence
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Justin Rogers
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Dan Shiovitz
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Justin Rogers
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens J C Lawrence
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Chris Jones
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Justin Rogers
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens J C Lawrence
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Dundee
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Justin Rogers
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Zak Jarvis
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Todd McKimmey
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Fred Clift
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Gunnar Kreitz
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Justin Rogers
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Ananda Dawnsinger
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Kevin Scott London
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Marc Bowden
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Koster, Raph
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Jon A. Lambert
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens adam@treyarch.com
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens J C Lawrence
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Jon A. Lambert
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Koster, Raph
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Koster, Raph
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Par Winzell
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Jon Lambert
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Kristen L. Koster
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Tess Lowe
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Jon Lambert
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Tess Lowe
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Joe Andrieu
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Chris Lloyd
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens David Bennett
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Chris Lloyd
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Koster, Raph
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Matthew Mihaly
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Zak Jarvis
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens J C Lawrence
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Zak Jarvis
- Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens Par Winzell
- Online Justice Systems (response to J C) J C Lawrence
- Online Justice Systems (response to J C) scott guzman
- Meta: Questions about the MudDev FAQ Jon A. Lambert
- RE:Troublemakers and their M.O. Aaron Leslie
- RE:Troublemakers and their M.O. Baldur Norddahl
- RE:Troublemakers and their M.O. Chris Jacobson
- RE:Troublemakers and their M.O. Lovecraft
- RE:Troublemakers and their M.O. Tess Lowe
- RE:Troublemakers and their M.O. Kevin Scott London
- RE:Troublemakers and their M.O. Sellers, Michael
- RE:Troublemakers and their M.O. Kevin Scott London
- Object and class hierarchies -- are they really necessary? Christopher Allen
- ScryMUD 2.0.11 released. Ben Greear
- ADMIN: Spam filters and being unsubscribed J C Lawrence
- World and History Creation Ling
- characters per account Matthew Mihaly
- characters per account F. Randall Farmer
- characters per account Jeff Freeman
- characters per account Sellers, Michael
- characters per account LexaH@aol.com
- characters per account Jeff Freeman
- characters per account Matthew Mihaly
- characters per account AR Schleicher
- characters per account Matthew Mihaly
- characters per account AR Schleicher
- characters per account John Bertoglio
- characters per account Sayeed
- characters per account Matthew Mihaly
- characters per account Sayeed
- characters per account Brian Green
- characters per account Timothy Dang
- characters per account F. Randall Farmer
- characters per account Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- characters per account Kristen L. Koster
- characters per account Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- characters per account Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- characters per account Timothy Dang
- characters per account Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- characters per account Darren Henderson
- characters per account adam@treyarch.com
- characters per account Jon Lambert
- characters per account Darren Henderson
- characters per account J C Lawrence
- characters per account Zak Jarvis
- Richard Garriot's 'X' project Matthew Mihaly
- Richard Garriot's 'X' project Sellers, Michael
- Richard Garriot's 'X' project skeptack
- Richard Garriot's 'X' project skeptack
- Richard Garriot's 'X' project AR Schleicher
- Richard Garriot's 'X' project Jeff Freeman
- Richard Garriot's 'X' project Brian Green
- Debugging techniques adam@treyarch.com
- Lord British gone Geoffrey A. MacDougall