[DGD] Commercial Licenses?

[Felix A. Croes]

Alan Wood <alan_wood at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Wow.  That is alot more than I expected it to be.
> Many commercial 3d networking engines are not that
> expensive.  (For instance, NetImmerse from NDL which
> was used in DAOC)

People tend to expect that a commercial license for DGD is very cheap,
probably because the source is available as with an open source project.
And after all, MUDs can be no more than a hobby project to me, something
I do alongside my real job, right?  Well, not quite.  I've been living
almost entirely from DGD-generated income for many years, and I intend
to continue doing so a while longer.

Before 1996, a commercial license for DGD was $100 a month.  I received
hundreds of emails from interested people.  Upon learning the terms for
a commercial license, they would generally say, "gee, that's $1200 per
year.  Can we maybe work out some royalty deal?"  Others would say
that the terms were fine, tell me that they'd already started developing
a new mudlib, and then they'd fade away.  Nobody, out of all these
hundreds, ever paid me a cent.  Meanwhile, I had my own bills to pay.

I have come to see the response to the $100 a month license as symptomatic
for the text MUD "industry".  Almost everyone who contacted me severely
underestimated the difficulty of creating your own MUD, didn't know how
to run a business, and was unwilling to invest $1200 for the first year
to get their MUD running.

Then I got involved with ichat.  They were in the $100,000+ per year
licensing league.  Using DGD and 2 LPC programmers, they created
ROOMS and in 6 months they had 80% of the chat market.

Even if I were able at this point to live on DGD income through the
$100 per month market (which I doubt), I believe that, considering the 
lack of professionalism of many people in that group, I would be spending
a lot of my time dealing with contract violations and non-payment of fees,
instead of programming.  I consider DGD to be a professional, high-quality
product.  I would much rather deal with those in the $100,000/year league.

As for Netimmerse, in spite of the name, it is just a 3D graphics engine.
It is in a different class entirely.  Judging by my own DAoC experience,
it is not that good, either; I would recommend that Mythic switches to
the Quake engine at the earliest opportunity. :)


> Any chance to go on a royalty basis or % of profit or
> whatnot?  Or will there be a "you can't make a profit,
> but you can ask for donations" license?

Working with Skotos may be the best solution for you.

Regards,
Dworkin
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