ubuntu-gaming team mailing list archive

[Danny Piccirillo <danny.piccirillo@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey everyone!

Team founder here, and i'm really excited to see what this team can
accomplish. New members just keep pouring in! We have a LOT to talk about,
but first i wanted to clear up a bit of confusion. There already exists the
Debian Games Team which does packaging for games that are already actively
developed but are not yet included in Debian/Ubuntu. The scope of the Ubuntu
Gaming Team is entirely different and should not overlap at all with the
Debian Games Team. We do not deal with requests for updating games in
Ubuntu. If you can help with that, please join the Debian Games
Team<http://wiki.debian.org/Games/Development>.
The Debian Games Team does packaging, whereas we are a community
activism/marketing effort to organize around and prioritize the biggest
issues with FOSS gaming and how to address them.

The biggest concern with this team has been where it's headed. Now that
we've gathered so much interest, we now have to talk about the specific
things we will be doing. Basically, we can do everything as long as there is
enough interest and support (but we leave packaging to the Debian Games
Team). We need to discuss the biggest barriers to the development of FOSS
gaming and then figure out the most effective ways to address them. For some
insight on some of the biggest problems, please check out this
post<http://pinstack.blogspot.com/2009/04/foss-gaming-needs-distributed-content.html>discussing,
among other things, the need for content over code. There is
also lots of valuable ideas on the lists, etc. Adoption doesn't seem the be
a real barrier yet because of other more fundamental issues (keep reading),
but for those interested in promotion, check out Spread
Ubuntu<http://spreadubuntu.neomenlo.org/>.


FOSS gaming seems to be in serious need of centralization for developers and
content creators (an effective distributed content development solution).
What is the most effective action to take to address this and what are we
capable of? Should we support the blender institute, push launchpad to
become better suited for content or start our own, pressure Canonical to
invest in FOSS games, or maybe throw our support behind the best FOSS game
we can find? It's all up for discussion at this very early stage! We can
also have sub-teams for connecting gamers, and
marketing/promootional<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GamingTeam/Marketing>activities
if there is enough interest for those to be self-sustaining.

I'm starting this discussion here on the mailing list, but there is the
option of planning a team meeting on irc (#ubuntu-gaming). Does anybody
think that is necessary?

Thanks everyone for expressing so much interest in this team! We really need
people to be assertive and step up to the plate so if there's anything you
can do that you think should be done, don't hesitate, just do it! Also, for
organization and holding the team together, should we assign some people to
specific core jobs?

Also, some miscellaneous things to address eventually: There is no team
artwork <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GamingTeam/Toolbox/Artwork> (Launchpad
logo, icon, etc), a website might be nice once we get things rolling, and an
idea from mattl on irc is to have a seal like Creative Commons
has<http://creativecommons.org/images/deed/seal.png>that free games
(free software and free content) could proudly display.

After all of this discussion, we will make a second announcement about our
refined focus and specific activites to gain even more interest and support.
The future of this team is in your hands! You're at the core of this project
and will determine its direction-- i hope you are all as ambitious and
hopeful as i am.

Let the discussion begin =]
.danny