Nexuiz Gets Forked, Turned Into Xonotic

[V!NCENT]

So the name and the source got licensed and not transferred because commercial game developpers see the game as a viable commercial title to invest money into.

So Nexuiz gets some serious amount of money they could spend on artwork and/or future development. Nexuiz devs arre getting some serious recognition. Linux FLOSS games are considdered a real succes by the industry; first Warsows first alpha already accepted in E-Sports and now Nexuiz.

What's the problem? There is no problem, except for the fact that Nexuiz will become even better under a new name.

I can't see the problem, really... I only see that the Nexuiz devs are so focussed on anti-capitalism or the fact that other people get paid for the work that they put out, but then again the income could be evenly split?

Just my $0,02.

[flice]

I only see that the Nexuiz devs are so focussed on anti-capitalism or the fact that other people get paid for the work that they put out, but then again the income could be evenly split?

"Anti-capitalism" is the reasoning invented by Phoronix. The project was forked for two reasons:
1. The former maintainer's actions caused damage to the game. This showed the need to bring the project under the community control.
2. There was a need to dissociate the free game from the commercial one in order to avoid unfavorable competition.

[Remco]

I look forward to not buying the XBOX 360 game, if it ever comes out. This reminds me of the CDDB debacle.

This also reminds me of the Wine / Cedega split. It's sad to see a company so blatantly leech off a free software project. Making money off free software is okay, but taking all the code, the name and the domain, through a legal loophole (this was GPL code!) and then casually saying that they don't feel inclined to contribute back... that's not okay.

If the tit for tat principle is anti-capitalist, then I guess I'm okay with that.

[Remco]

So the name and the source got licensed and not transferred because commercial game developpers see the game as a viable commercial title to invest money into.

So Nexuiz gets some serious amount of money they could spend on artwork and/or future development. Nexuiz devs arre getting some serious recognition. Linux FLOSS games are considdered a real succes by the industry; first Warsows first alpha already accepted in E-Sports and now Nexuiz.

How do you figure that original-Nexuiz gets any money? The inactive founder sold the code, the name and the domain. ??? PROFIT!

[[-z-]]

So the name and the source got licensed and not transferred because commercial game developpers see the game as a viable commercial title to invest money into.

So Nexuiz gets some serious amount of money they could spend on artwork and/or future development.

Your logic is flawed in the fact that you're assuming the profits go to Nexuiz and the developers. It's going straight into the pocket of one man, the "owner", Lee Vermeulen (who has been more or less absent for the past 4 years while the contributors built up the game, the community, the brand and the PR).


I personally spent countless hours promoting this game, the brand, the websites and "alientrap" (www.alientrap.org was designed by me)... only to find out I'm not considered part of "Alientrap" in the deal he's made behind everyone's backs. He and LordHavoc (engine developer) hid this for MONTHS from the development team. LordHavoc even went as far to include 'havoc mode', which we found out to be his personal playground for physics in the new console version.

As a contributor and community administrator, I tried very hard to reason with Lee Vermeulen who couldn't so much as cough up an apology to core contributors.

When we came to the realization that there was no room to compromise and IllFonic was only going to use the GPL version of the game to promote theirs, we realized it was time to fork.

Beyond leaving an owner of a FOSS project who doesn't care about his community, the fork allows us to reorganize in many directions and hopefully after we're all settled in, we'll be able to share our tale with our FOSS projects who are looking to distribute power and avoid this sort of situation and immoral behavior.

Xonotic is founded by people who believe in rising with their community and preserving the morals of FOSS. Not by someone who had a commerical game fail, release it as GPL and 4 years later stab their contributors in the back for individual gain.

[RealNC]

If you agreed to have your code re-licensed, then "the founder" had every right to do what he did.

If you never agreed to anything like that, maybe you people ought to get together (there's pretty many of you) and legally challenge what happened. Organizations like gpl-violations.org will probably help you.

If you don't do anything, then you should be aware that this will surely be viewed as you silently agreeing to what happened.

[SavageX]

The reason for forking Nexuiz is *not* being "anti capitalist", it's about giving control to the community.

Most players and developers have absolutely nothing against Nexuiz going onto consoles and some key people making an income from it. Actually, I am curious and excited as the new console game looks rather good (it's using the normal engine PC Nexuiz uses, but with completely new content) and the gameplay looks like some fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGYYnZQPZdU

Looks like serious effort to me.

Also it seems that legally everything is okay, too. The whole content is new. The engine is properly licensed with both the engine contributors and id software. The gamecode is either used with permission or possibly derived from Nexuiz 1.0, which originally was not GPLed.

The key problem is naming - the new game is simply called "Nexuiz", no subtitle, just "Nexuiz", which may highly decrease visibility of the original Nexuiz once reviews and news stories are concentrating on the console Nexuiz.

This naming move came as a surprise to basically all current developers. The founder of Alientrap, Lee Vermeulen, who made Nexuiz a reality, but wasn't involved with Nexuiz development beyond Nexuiz 1.1, apparently licensed the name to Illfonic without contacting those who kept improving the game for all those years.

Personally I have deep respect for Lee Vermeulen and others working on console Nexuiz and with the best of luck with this new project, which also contributes back to the GPLed game engine (Darkplaces received several new features directly stemming from work on console Nexuiz, so GPL Nexuiz/Xonotic will benefit to some degree, too), but I can understand the community of players and developers to be somewhat alienated.

There are exciting plans for Xonotic, it's a great opportunity to throw out bad and mediocre content and once again raising the bar for 100% open-sourced games.

[Melcar]

Xonotic. Can't say I find the name appealing. It has an illfonic ring to it and will forever remind me of that. Hope it all works out in the end and I can't wait for the first playable release.

[Remco]

If you agreed to have your code re-licensed, then "the founder" had every right to do what he did.

The legal right, maybe. But the moral right? Just because you can get away with being a dick does not mean it is acceptable to be a dick. Don't be a dick.

Many free software projects require copyright assignment. This makes legal matters much more manageable. But here you can see one of the pitfalls.

[MaestroMaus]

The reason for forking Nexuiz ... for 100% open-sourced games.

Finally a reasonable statement. Please do post more often here sir!