Planeshift

Hi, your review is pretty good, and I want to start another thread on it, just because I think it's a different topic from this one.

This is a new update to my original post.

The original link to the article of an ex-PlaneShift developer's blog is back up with a July 2007 update:

rtfm.insomnia.org/~qg/planeshift.html

Update July 2007: Since I wrote this 3 long years ago the Planeshift project has continued to steam along. Shortly after these events the non-profit organization Atomic Blue was formed. Planeshift contributors are required to sign a copyright assignment document and no contribution from those who haven't signed the document is accepted. This makes it absolutely clear to all contributors that they do not maintain ownership of their work. For making this clear, this is a good practice. Talad, the still leader of the project, has compared Atomic Blue to the Free Software Foundation. I want to stress that, once again, Talad is not only wrong but deliberately trying to mislead. The stated goal of the Free Software Foundation is the promotion of Free Software and the associated ideals. The stated goal of Atomic Blue is to "make good games". Assigning your copyright to the FSF is a good way to protect the freedom of the users of that software. Assigning your copyright to Atomic Blue is not. Of course, if you have no interest in Free Software or the ideals it stands for, this isn't a problem.

It looks like "QuantumG" has become aware of the recent traffic increase to his PlaneShift article or perhaps someone has notified him by email. Either way, he makes his point clear and stands by his original statements, as well as adding a new one.

Hopefully this encourages more people to speak out and challenge the blatant lies that the "project leader" is deliberately spreading to the public to hide the game's unethical development.

I also stand by the statement that the "project leader" is bitter and envious of the commercial successes that other projects have experienced. He keeps stressing that his commercially failed project was "better" than any other similar project at the time. However, the results show the complete opposite.

If anyone has any doubts about this, feel free to do your own research.

Interesting update.

Deliberately trying to mislead people seems to be the main theme of the "project leader" in his public statements. Obviously, he has no respect for the Free Software Foundation and their ideas but tries to use their name in comparison in an attempt to give himself more credibility.

Assigning your copyright to "Atomic Blue" sounds like a trap for developers out there. It is clearly not the same deal as with the FSF.

makes sense why they won't fully open source the game. Still under false believe that it will one day become commercial. WIth out doing the right thing and moving the project to a full open source model I don't think this game will ever move into a profitable realm.

[I deleted my previous answer..] This thread is made to discredit PlaneShift out of falsity, they don't deserve any answer. This thread contains false/misleading/offensive information. They have no respect for our work, no respect for open source and no respect for small projects.

Originally posted by Talad

What are you saying? My comparison to FSF was to say that we are a non profit organization like they are. And that's completely true. Stop saying bad things on me without a clue of what you are saying. Go to whine is another place. Your continued insinuation and falsity is just silly and pointless. Developers have the same security about their work, because the code is GPLed.

 

Heres a question I have. If one wants to setup a full planeshift server "without the art of course", is that possible from the code you have "open sourced"

I will open a new thread on this point, because it's meaningful, and has nothing to do with this silly thread.

I deleted all my previous answers in this thread. While I originally tried to answer and to give explanations, I realized that this thread is made to discredit PlaneShift out of falsity, and they don't deserve any answer. This thread contains false/misleading/offensive information. They have no respect for our work, no respect for open source and no respect for small projects.

If you want real information, look at the informative material on our site and our forums, join the game, speak with our devs and fans.

The question that everyone should be asking is this - "Is this project/game open-source?"

The "Atomic Blue" website makes a deliberately misleading statement that it is. Go to www.atomicblue.org and click on the "Atomic Blue" menu link. This is what you'll see:

web archive backup link for www.atomicblue.org

Atomic.Blue is a Non Profit Corporation, built by a group of game development enthusiasts, to protect and promote the free and Open Source game, PlaneShift.

In reality, only the engine code is open-source, which is a license requirement of the free Crystal Space 3D engine that they've been using for PlaneShift development. The rest (art, music etc) falls under a proprietary PlaneShift license, which is NOT open-source. The proprietary PlaneShift license can be viewed here:

www.planeshift.it/license.html

Code is under GPL license, this means you can get all our source code, study it and reuse it as soon as you keep it open and give back to us your changes.

All artwork, musics, dialogues, stories, names, 3d models, etc... are under a proprietary license. This means you cannot reuse those in any way. If you plan to create another game based on our source code, remember you will have to redo all art,music,models,stories,etc...

You cannot host another server where PlaneShift Clients connects to, because our license on assets forbits it.

As for the "Bad English" claims that the apologists make for the "project leader", note that the statements he makes in the video presentation are confirmed by the .PDF file he uses for it (the link to it has been posted earlier in this thread), which he had plenty of time to prepare (same goes for his forum posts).

Also, note that "Atomic Blue" board of directors includes three people. They are "Andrew Craig", "Keith Fulton" and "Luca Pancallo". In other words, two native English speakers. This can be confirmed at www.atomicblue.org website by clicking on the "Members" menu link. Additionally, "commercial standards" translates to "commerciale standard" in Italian, so you'd have to try really hard to mess that one up. Last but not least, the "project leader" also chose to be the PR manager, which can be confirmed on this web site:

www.planeshift.it/team.html

Their "Public Relation Department" member requirements can be found here:

www.planeshift.it/recruitment.html

Will talk to press giving information about PlaneShift. Will create new opportunities for PlaneShift to be present on the major sites.
Will provide interviews with devs, on-line events, and others to increase the popularity of PlaneShift.

Skills:

    * Must be heavily present on-line in terms of hours/day.
    * Knowlegde of Net sites related to RPG, multiplayer, communities.
    * ICQ, IRC channels, Newsgroups.

Insert your application here.

Please insert this information:
- Previous experiences on public relations (press, magazines, ...).
- Previous experiences on RPGs. Which tabletop games you played. If you have been DM and for how much time. Which RPG computer games you played.
- Include info on 3 sites you know where we can promote PlaneShift. 3 sites where we can find new developers for any of the departments.

It's rather amusing that the "project leaders" are so interested in promoting PlaneShift on 3 major sites (apparently, this site is now one of them) but do not want you to participate on those sites' forums or believe anything that is posted there, as was stated by the "project leader" in his replies on this forum. Luckily, most people here have been able to call the "project leader" on his blatant PR spin and lack of professionalism.

If at any point the posted links stop working, you can always check their archives at waybackmachine.org. It is also a good reference for comparison, in case the content of those links ever changes.