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Re: Fwd: [FSF] Breakthrough for Free Software Gaming

 

Ryzom is still a fully functioning commercial game that requires a
subscription to play online. Ryzom never required the purchase of game
itself and for as long as I can remember has been available as a direct
(free) download and BitTorrent. This will not change. Winch Gate is still
running Ryzom and you can (and are encouraged) to try the 30 day trial and
subscribe yourself.

What has changed is that they've released the source code entirely (through
a SourceForge Mercurial repository), all of the media assets except those
with contested copyrights (music/sound that has a mixed history) is
available through the asset site and a FSF-hosted bittorrent. Ryzom will not
be charging for code or anything of that nature.

It is true that the level/world data for the main game world is not
available (which is largely just a collection of XML and similar files) but
the Ryzom Core community has put together a small world and shard that users
can connect to and experiment with modified clients and so on. There's more
information on the project's page: http://dev.ryzom.com/projects/ryzom

I'd be happy to answer any other questions here or in #ryzom on
irc.freenode.net.

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 9:31 AM, Ryan Swart <serjndestroy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> The game is still commercial, you pay monthly fees in order to access the
> game-server. The code (server and client) is free to download from the
> repository though, you just won't be able to access the "world".
>
>
> On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 6:13 PM, Moustafa Chamli <moustafa.chamli@xxxxxxxxx
> > wrote:
>
>> While this may be great news, there is still one issue to be adressed: Is
>> it still sold, or downloaded for free?  The reason most large companies
>> don't go Free is because of the fear of losing profits.  If Ryzom is still a
>> game you have to buy in order to get access to the code, this would be
>> excellent news as it could encourage more companies to do the same.
>>
>> Moustafa Chamli
>> Game designer, 3D modeler
>> moustafa.chamli@xxxxxxxxx
>>
>>
>> On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Danny Piccirillo <
>> danny.piccirillo@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: Peter Brown <info@xxxxxxx>
>>> Date: Thu, May 6, 2010 at 08:01
>>> Subject: [FSF] Breakthrough for Free Software Gaming
>>> To: info-fsf@xxxxxxx, info-press@xxxxxxx
>>>
>>>
>>> Breakthrough for Free Software Gaming--Ryzom Announces Full Release of
>>> Source Code and Artwork, and a Partnership with the Free Software
>>> Foundation to Host a Repository of the Game's Artistic Assets.
>>>
>>> Press release: http://dev.ryzom.com/news/13 and at
>>> http://www.fsf.org/news/free-ryzom-1
>>>
>>>
>>> By Brett Smith - FSF Licensing Compliance Engineer
>>>
>>> Ryzom is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG),
>>> where players work together to explore a fantasy world and set out on
>>> various quests. Today, the Ryzom team has released the game as free
>>> software: both the client and server programs have been released under
>>> the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, while its models,
>>> textures, and other art are covered by CC-BY-SA 3.0.
>>>
>>> This release is probably the single-biggest contribution to free
>>> software games yet. If you missed it, check out the press release. We're
>>> thankful to the Ryzom team for making this release, and excited about
>>> the possibilities it presents to all free software games. The code is
>>> tested and proven, having run the Ryzom game since 2004, and the
>>> art—more than 13 gigabytes of data—can be adapted and used in other
>>> games. This release can provide a lot of new resources and energy for
>>> free software game development.
>>>
>>> Since we're expecting people to have a lot of interest in this release,
>>> we wanted to provide some detailed information up-front about exactly
>>> what has and has not been released, and suggestions for ways developers
>>> can contribute to the project effectively.
>>>
>>> All of the code necessary to run both the client and server software has
>>> been released under AGPLv3. If you want to play on the official Ryzom
>>> server today, you can do that using only free software. Modified clients
>>> will not be allowed to connect to the official server, but a testing
>>> server is available to try them out.
>>>
>>> If you want to run your own server for the game, you have the software
>>> to do that, but you won't really have any world data—information about
>>> geography, special places, characters, quests, items, and so on—to run
>>> it with. Winch Gate Properties, the company that currently holds the
>>> copyright for all game materials and runs the official server, has
>>> decided not to release that data, to avoid causing disruption for their
>>> current player community. People who want to run their own server will
>>> need to develop their own world to do so—only a small test world comes
>>> with the code.
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, that development can't be done with free software,
>>> because most of the world creation process depends on proprietary 3-D
>>> modeling software. Work is already underway to eliminate those
>>> dependencies and use free software alternatives like Blender. This is
>>> the next big task that needs to be done to make Ryzom even more useful
>>> to the free software community, so if you'd like to help, please see the
>>> project page for more information. In the meantime, the server code may
>>> be adapted for other games.
>>>
>>> Art files from the game, including both textures and 3-D models, have
>>> been released under CC-BY-SA 3.0. The FSF is helping distribute these
>>> files by hosting a mirror for the Ryzom media server. You can use these
>>> files in other games, software, artistic works—anywhere, really—under
>>> the terms of that license. Music and sound effects are not being
>>> released today because Winch Gate does not have the legal rights to do
>>> so, but they are trying to find an arrangement that will see these files
>>> released under a free license as well.
>>>
>>> Today's release offers free software developers a lot of opportunities,
>>> both to contribute to Ryzom and to improve other software. If you see a
>>> project that you'd like to see benefit, please get involved! For more
>>> information about this release, including downloads and more projects
>>> underway, please visit the Ryzom team's page.
>>>
>>> http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/ryzom-free-software
>>>
>>> info-fsf mailing list
>>> info-fsf@xxxxxxx
>>> Unsubscribe: http://lists.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/info-fsf
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> .danny
>>>
>>> ☮♥Ⓐ - http://www.google.com/profiles/danny.piccirillo
>>> Every (in)decision matters.
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
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>>
>
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>


-- 
Matt Raykowski
/s

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