Petition for release of source code!

[harold]

They could just go ahead and make it freeware. They can't be making much money out of it now - if any at all. Not compared with their best selling titles. I'd estimate at most ?1000 per year (and that would be generous).

[JBSnorro]

Lewin, I do think it is important to reply to this message and say that we are truly disappointed and to thank him for answering, although he didn't quite answer what we we're hoping for. These kind of message always stick to someone, so he might be more easily pursuaded when we ask him again in a year or so.

After this, you could say you understand that there are no concrete advantages to them, but you might argue that releasing it would be good for the name of the company, although this is a longshot.

And finally, you can ask them about the order of the price for which they would be willing to sell. (thousands or tens of thousands). This would be a rude question, so it'd be best if it were asked by refering to this community, as we can probably raise only a few thousands at most, and ask if that would be enough

[harold]

Yes that would probably be best.

[Krom]

Imagine that KaM could be ported to e.g. iPhone - thats a definite income for publisher. Thats why they like to keep it source unreleased. And after all the source somehow also includes all art and music, and title. In KaM case I'd say source code by itself is quite cheap compared to designers work put into art and concept.

I would try to find a way to make a message that we are asking for the right to use the source code (which is quite outdated and can be recreated in half a dozen months of man-hours).

Asking for the right to use artwork and official permission to make remakes is whole another story I'm afraid will never happen

[Dumdas]

Hi, i'm polish, so apologise for spelling errors.
I think we should arrange with ZuXXeZ sum to pay for them for code and then start to gather money from fans. Money rules the world now and until ZuXXeZ gets money form KaM they won't give us source code.
Other idea is to collect a group of programers which will do own version of KaM. I don't know are copyrights still valid. If yes there is no problem. But if they are valid we should find in internet informations about what we can and whot we can't get from oryginal KaM to our version.
Hope dies last so always have hope...

[FallenLeader]

"Here I have to be honest, ZuXXeZ product support is almost non-exsistant (I have to say I was surprised that Two Worlds recieved as many patches as it did, I guess it sold too well to allow ignoring). Well I guess we all know that TPR is bugridden, but the more important fraiche to ZuXXeZ, the Earth series have always been known for having massive amounts of bugs and generally ZuXXeZ has made a bad name for themselves by releasing buggy products and then doing little to please the fanbase in form of patches or other stuff. Source code releases usually give quite a friendly image of a company so they could at least partly clean their name by releasing the source code."

this is the type of thing i think they should be aware of. how customers feel, but then people are buying the products.

"Imagine that KaM could be ported to e.g. iPhone "

this is good and bad, older games with signifigantly less system requirements are now able to be ported over to handhelds and even cellphones, if the company decided to take the time, on a good game, it'd be like having made an entirely new one from scratch profit wise.

and yes, they might be thinking we want all the copyrighted material. we just want the numbers/letters/funny symbols, right?

[H.A.H.]

Why release game as a freeware, when they can release it in GPL? In GPL nobody have profit from game.

Warzone2100 source was released on GPL. Now when i quit the game i see a screen that show me who is the game owner.

And like Obama says: "Yes we can".

[Litude]

Have you read the GPL? IIRC it does allow selling besides the point here is that Zuxxez still wants to sell the game for profit and isn't really interested in letting anyone else get a piece of their cake.

[fallenleader1]

their biggest concern is parts of the code being used in other games for sale.

maybe they need to be introduced to the bugs and the updates everyone has been making.

[Litude]

Even though that is what he stated in the mail, I doubt that is his real concern (think about it, no one would use code that old in their software/game).

[Thunderwolf]

I doubt that, programmers ARE LAZY (yes, me too) and will copy/paste something they already have and looks like it a lot.

[Litude]

Well I'd never use TPR code knowing how buggy it is and do you honestly think that could be his main concern?

[FallenLeader]

why not make them aware of the attempts at having multiplayer?
KaM online lobby, without the source code of KaM

that topic. or make them aware of all the other games still being sold but have downloadable source probably 90% of people don't care about because they don't know what a source is other than an annoyance to download by accident while finding updates.
even if someone did take the source and make a game with it, no one would buy it, it couldn't hold a candle to todays standards and prices. it'd have to be free.

[H.A.H.]

os[dot]wildfiregames[dot]com - 0 A.D. is now on GPL, free for all, without sending petitions and ripping virgins at midnight. Maybe we can use this game to show them what is OpenSource.

--
There is still hope.
Yes we can.

[Lucbach]

Hello everybody.

Lewin, what are you planning now? Is there any hope?