FOSS, Warzone, and making a buck.

[aubergine]

The game is moving steadily towards another Renaissance I do believe.

Amen to that.

Recently there has been a sharp increase in the number of maps, AIs, mods, artwork, storyline discussions, cam dev and ideas across all aspects of the game.

And I must convey enormous kudos to the devs who have been spending insane amounts of time improving and extending what's under the hood - did you know that WZP has made about 100 releases (incl. master snapshots, about 75 releases without) since 2006? Considering what state the code was in back when WZ was liberated, I think it's a stellar achievement. I'm not sure people who think it's progressing slowly realise just how much work it takes to progress it.

A growing number of people are quietly (or not so quietly heh) chipping away at numerous projects that will usher in a new era for WZ. We don't rush because the journey is long.

[aubergine]

This game didn't even make it into the RTS Wiki as the first 3D RTS no that went to Homeworld had that game to it sucked, and it came out after WZ2100 but they had the marketing we didn't.

According to wikipedia, Populous: The Beginning (1998) and Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds (1998) beat both Warzone 2100 and Homeworld when it comes to being the first to have full 3D in-game experience.

BTW, do you have a link to RTS Wiki - I've googled but don't seem to be able to find it.

[Rman Virgil]

.

Don't laugh guys....

Hovertank 3D (1991) - id Software

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovertank_3D


@ Aubergine: This looks like a cool strategy wiki with a well done RTS section:


http://strategywiki.org/wiki/StrategyWiki:Categories


http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Category:RTS

.

[Shadow Wolf TJC]

A growing number of people are quietly (or not so quietly heh) chipping away at numerous projects that will usher in a new era for WZ. We don't rush because the journey is long.

I'd say that it could be a bit more than that. Some of us here see Warzone 2100 as having great potential for future rts games to derive inspiration from, possibly to the point where some of these rts games would play quite similarly to Warzone 2100. I'm one of those people.

[Lord Apocalypse]

Well if your Project is microsoft only then its no use to me I run Opensuse.
As for tools there is plenty that can do all facets of warzone so your claim there is not tools is far from true.
Anyway Have a nice project.

Does this project have something like Customizer Kit? If it does I have not run across it and would love to see how it looks/works.

Oh don't worry, it will be of use, eventually... And at some point (once opengl is added) I am going to try to get it into the OpenSUSE Factory

You can't be really thinking of charging people money for this game its a dinosaur and you have many of other games out there today that offer much more just for the cost of the game. StarCraft 2, Supreme Commander 1 & 2, Warcraft 3, Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War...

Haven't played SC2 yet so don't know how it looks. Have both SupCom games, enjoy those, WC3 is about as old as WZ, haven't played Dawn of War though do have Dawn of War 2. If we gave WZ the same graphics engine as SupCom 2 would it still be a dinosaur? Is wz2100.net a dinosaur?

This game can become something great again, more than just a communities hobby project.

I'd say that it could be a bit more than that. Some of us here see Warzone 2100 as having great potential for future rts games to derive inspiration from, possibly to the point where some of these rts games would play quite similarly to Warzone 2100. I'm one of those people.

At least someone sees great potential

[Rman Virgil]

.

Selective exposure.

Greatness yet to be fully realized has been the core sensibility since retail release for many and explicitly - it was at the center of the driving force to liberate the source. Why else put out all that effort over so many years but to realize the full promise and potential already in evidence 14 years ago as something singular and unique and unlike any other RTS. Certainly for medocrity no such efforts would have been made, pre or post liberation, and we wouldn't be here having these many robust conversations about emergent work on all possible fronts.

.

[aubergine]

My worry is that if some commercial side of WZ springs up somewhere external to WZP, would the WZP devs stop working on the project (because they would essentially be doing free labour for the other project)?

[Lord Apocalypse]

I don't see that as a valid fear. If that were the case then there would be far fewer GPL projects since at any time someone could take this project (or any GPL project for that matter) and just try to sell whatever binaries that said project is already creating.

But, as has been pointed out before the problem with selling a GPL product is the fact that it can be redistributed by anyone for payment or for free. If you found a copy of warzone on another site for $5 and saw the exact same copy at this site for free which would you choose?

Now, slightly similar example. If this project started selling copies of what it develops for $5 and you KNOW that they are the developers and have put a lot of time and effort into it and found a free copy somewhere else what would you do? Its easier to just grab the free copy but a good deal will go beyond what has the better price and see the real value in showing those developers that they want to support their project in one way or another.

I would be more than willing to spend $5 on a stable release to show my support than go to another site and get it free. Not everyone will do this, but those who care about a project will find a way to show it support in one form or another.

[Rman Virgil]

.

I think we are all clear by now that commercializing WZ under the GPL is legal but much like trying to sell ice to Eskimos.

I have no interest and never have. I know how to make as much $$ as I want in RL and WZ is for me, and will always remain, a labor of love. It falls under the same sensibility as art for arts sake for me, and that will never change.

That said (and with my experience in creating business) I think the only real possibility of making $$ and doing something rather innovative at the same time, was expressed earlier in this thread, as the following, and entirely different, business model makes clear -

A possible revenue stream could be a hosted lobby server that authenticates players (to keep the riff raff out)? If it was monthly fee and number of subscribers were sufficient, it could generate a decent amount of revenue. (I've no idea how much because I've not tried that business model myself)

.....Now THAT has potential as a biz model.

The MP services would have to be kick-a§§, super attractive all around (which by no stretch exists at present nor likely ever will otherwise) to sell a subscription and possibly make it specialize in FOSS games to carve out your own niche apart from such services as Punk Busters......

( http://www.evenbalance.com http://punkbuster-services.software.informer.com/ )

I only know one guy best qualified to run the biz viabilty of this idea by..... and you know who I'm talkin bout LA.

EDIT: Now what I said in my earlier post - "Redistribution legal recourse rights.....you have NONE." would actually work in your favor under this type business model.... I'm pretty sure, as I understand viral marketing. But for sure run it by our expert in these matters of game MP services providing..... our successful entrepeneur WZ bud from all the way back to MPlayer days.

.