[MUD-Dev] Libs for 3D Client/Servers

[Travis Nixon]

From: "Vincent Archer" <archer at frmug.org>

> Having the software free under the GPL doesn't preclude a
> subscription to a service (access to the server) to be able to use
> it. Consider the closest approximation of the CPL-ed game out
> here: UO. There's "emulators" (3rd party servers) available out
> there. You can easily get a copy of the client even if you've
> never played.

> UO still does fine; players still pay EA plenty of money to live
> on the original Brittania...

I have to wonder though...would that still be true if emulators had
come out earlier, and if the people writing the emulators, rather
than having to start from scratch, could have immediately started
with EA's codebase?

I'd be willing to bet the game would have progressed much more
quickly in terms of bugfixing and features, but would it really have
made EA just as much money?  I'm inclined to think not.

The questions are intriguing enough to make me wish UO or EQ or any
of the other big graphicals would have been publically released,
source code and all.  I think the aftermath would have been just a
wee bit different. :)

Of course, maybe everything would have went pretty much the way it
did, simply because of the hardware requirements for a world capable
of handling more than a few score people at the same time.

I dunno, it's hard to say.  I don't think a publically available
base would be a bad thing, mind you, I just don't think the authors
could expect to make much money from it directly.  And probably
really not all that much even indirectly (support and documentation
sales, providing original content, any other wacky ideas you can
come up with).  That doesn't mean it will never happen, it does put
sortof a damper on things though. :)

If I could accomplish such a thing myself, I'd be willing to give it
a whirl, but we're just not talking about a single person project.

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