[VANILLA-L:1450] Discussion

[Dave Ahn <ahn@vec.wfubmc.edu>]

I ran across Dan's article on rgn.  I was about to write the reply back to
rgn, but I'm thinking that maybe this is a more appropriate forum since we're
all presumably interested in the future of Netrek.  I'd like to hear your
thoughts on the matter.

ntcommon@heron.eecs.umich.edu (a tuber) writes:

>It is true that The vast majority of crustys don't play pickup anymore.
>My INL team, The Geriatric Ward, is made up entirely of crustys, and
>only a few of us play any pickup.  Heck, some of my team barely played
>the entire time I was learning the game (e.g. Ged), much less now. 

RL reasons aside, I think pickup games have lost its draw for us crusty's
in general.  The level of pickup play has always been mediocre in the past,
but it's just plain bad now.  So, we end up playing exclusively on clue
games which are rare and far between, and indirectly contributing to the
further twinkification of the pickup player base.

There are many reasons why Netrek has shrunk over the years, but I think
that the "glory" days (as we know them) are pretty much over.  That isn't
to say that Netrek will die off; there are a number of dedicated folks who
will keep the game going.  But the Internet, networked gaming and the college
computer lab environments have changed from what we had in our days, and the
Netrek community as a whole (myself included) have done a piss poor job of
adapting to the changes.

Lots of vocal advocates aside, I think that the final question is whether
we're content with the state of Netrek that we have.  I'm not.  But I also
don't believe that propagating Netrek to the average AOL.user is a good idea
either.  Netrek is a niche game for folks who can recognize its quality and
subtlety.  It's not appropriate for 14 year old kids who like shoot-em-up
Quake games.  There are a lot of intelligent people out there on the Internet
who could be hooked to this game if they only knew about it.  Yes, there
are technical details such as better documentation, friendlier clients, etc.,
but I think the key is proper organization and the tapping of resources that
are out there.

Toward that end, maybe we should consider piggybacking on the current frenzy
of OSS and Linux.  I'm not talking about adopting their coding standards
and using autoconf, but rather to take the server and (one) client source
base, put it under GPL, and submit the whole thing as GNU software(*).  Just
think about what would happen if Netrek became a standard game component of
the various Linux distributions...  At the least, the publicity should help
expand the player base and attract potential contributors.

The GPL'ed FreeTrek is trying to capitalize on OSS, but it doesn't have the
history of Netrek's developed game mechanics.  I think a GPL'ed Netrek, if
done right, could be very popular.

Comments?

(*) This doesn't turn out to be that simple, but I think the effort would
be worth it.  There are copyright, licensing and trademark issues (from
authors, contributors, RSA, Paramount, etc) as well as the coding standards
that would have to be met.  I suspect that vast portions of the server and
client would have to be rewritten to add features that were discussed or
mentioned on this list and to address any other issues/problems.

-- 
Dave Ahn <ahn@vec.wfubmc.edu>        |  "When you were born, you cried and the
                                     |  world rejoiced.  Try to live your life
Virtual Endoscopy Center             |  so that when you die, you will rejoice
Wake Forest Univ. School of Medicine |  and the world will cry."  -1/2 jj^2
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