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"Open-source" Sandbox MMOG

Hey, I was wondering if it is possible to make a "open-source" MMOG, completely free with enough virtual space to allow anything and everything to be created and done by anyone, where game mechanics would not be the same at different places of the universe. Imagine that Everything is based on "open source" content, people create worlds and universes. at one point there will be a multitude of "games" in the game.

And now imagine all this based on player enthusiasm, no one pays, no one gets paid to make content (at least at start) as the "universe" evolves everything can be possible

Now another question is what it would require to keep a megaserver of this magnitude up and running or other policy questions (e.g. to prevent the "owner" of the server to take control of the "game universe" and do  whatever he wants)

It's hard to explain but just imagine something so big and so real that people will want to take part in and build it themselves. Done by players for players. The quintessence of "Sandbox".

 

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Comments

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 31,937

    I don't know the particulars but I believe ryzom is open source now...

    http://www.ryzomcore.org/

    Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb." 

    Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w


    Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547

    Try the "Special Edition." 'Cause it's "Special." https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/64878/?tab=description

    Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo 
  • CaldrinCaldrin Member UncommonPosts: 4,505

    Not open source as such but i believe second life lets you build basically whatever you want.. i could be wrong tho as i have not really spent much time with it lol..

     

    this is the map for it..

     

    http://maps.secondlife.com/

     

     

    http://secondlife.com/whatis/?lang=en-US

     

     

  • WereLlamaWereLlama Member UncommonPosts: 246

    OP,

    Of course its possible to do open source but I bet its much easier to:

    1. Raise starting funds and build your own software company

    2. Hire developers and build your own game taking into consideration any community ideas offered

    Sure, my way sounds hard, but open source feels less rewarding to me, as an example, imagine:

    1. You are herding cats up a cliff wall towards a bunch of barking chows.

    2. After years of time and effort, you succeed, but only after agreeing to anonymously sacrifice yourself to those very same barking dogs.

    -Werellama

  • birdycephonbirdycephon Member UncommonPosts: 1,314
    Word of caution, there will always be those with malicious intent who will use this to cause harm to others.
  • NitthNitth Member UncommonPosts: 3,904


    Originally posted by antidotik
    Hey, I was wondering if it is possible to make a "open-source" MMOG, completely free with enough virtual space to allow anything and everything to be created and done by anyone, where game mechanics would not be the same at different places of the universe. Imagine that Everything is based on "open source" content, people create worlds and universes. at one point there will be a multitude of "games" in the game.And now imagine all this based on player enthusiasm, no one pays, no one gets paid to make content (at least at start) as the "universe" evolves everything can be possibleNow another question is what it would require to keep a megaserver of this magnitude up and running or other policy questions (e.g. to prevent the "owner" of the server to take control of the "game universe" and do  whatever he wants)It's hard to explain but just imagine something so big and so real that people will want to take part in and build it themselves. Done by players for players. The quintessence of "Sandbox". 

    People will need to be compensated for their time and a lot of time is required to keep something this large functional.

    image
    TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development

  • DihoruDihoru Member Posts: 2,731
    Originally posted by Nitth

     


    Originally posted by antidotik
    Hey, I was wondering if it is possible to make a "open-source" MMOG, completely free with enough virtual space to allow anything and everything to be created and done by anyone, where game mechanics would not be the same at different places of the universe. Imagine that Everything is based on "open source" content, people create worlds and universes. at one point there will be a multitude of "games" in the game.

     

    And now imagine all this based on player enthusiasm, no one pays, no one gets paid to make content (at least at start) as the "universe" evolves everything can be possible

    Now another question is what it would require to keep a megaserver of this magnitude up and running or other policy questions (e.g. to prevent the "owner" of the server to take control of the "game universe" and do  whatever he wants)

    It's hard to explain but just imagine something so big and so real that people will want to take part in and build it themselves. Done by players for players. The quintessence of "Sandbox".

     


     

    People will need to be compensated for their time and a lot of time is required to keep something this large functional.

    F2P system in lieu of open-source, or perhaps a hybrid. Something which does not constrict player characters in terms of development but does limit an aspect of the game (say for example housing or politics or some such).

    image
  • NitthNitth Member UncommonPosts: 3,904


    Originally posted by Dihoru
    Originally posted by Nitth   Originally posted by antidotik Hey, I was wondering if it is possible to make a "open-source" MMOG, completely free with enough virtual space to allow anything and everything to be created and done by anyone, where game mechanics would not be the same at different places of the universe. Imagine that Everything is based on "open source" content, people create worlds and universes. at one point there will be a multitude of "games" in the game.   And now imagine all this based on player enthusiasm, no one pays, no one gets paid to make content (at least at start) as the "universe" evolves everything can be possible Now another question is what it would require to keep a megaserver of this magnitude up and running or other policy questions (e.g. to prevent the "owner" of the server to take control of the "game universe" and do  whatever he wants) It's hard to explain but just imagine something so big and so real that people will want to take part in and build it themselves. Done by players for players. The quintessence of "Sandbox".  
      People will need to be compensated for their time and a lot of time is required to keep something this large functional.
    F2P system in lieu of open-source, or perhaps a hybrid. Something which does not constrict player characters in terms of development but does limit an aspect of the game (say for example housing or politics or some such).

    I think you will have trouble with an opensource licence if you try to use micro transactions..

    image
    TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development

  • DihoruDihoru Member Posts: 2,731
    Originally posted by Nitth

     


    Originally posted by Dihoru

    Originally posted by Nitth  

    Originally posted by antidotik Hey, I was wondering if it is possible to make a "open-source" MMOG, completely free with enough virtual space to allow anything and everything to be created and done by anyone, where game mechanics would not be the same at different places of the universe. Imagine that Everything is based on "open source" content, people create worlds and universes. at one point there will be a multitude of "games" in the game.   And now imagine all this based on player enthusiasm, no one pays, no one gets paid to make content (at least at start) as the "universe" evolves everything can be possible Now another question is what it would require to keep a megaserver of this magnitude up and running or other policy questions (e.g. to prevent the "owner" of the server to take control of the "game universe" and do  whatever he wants) It's hard to explain but just imagine something so big and so real that people will want to take part in and build it themselves. Done by players for players. The quintessence of "Sandbox".  
      People will need to be compensated for their time and a lot of time is required to keep something this large functional.
    F2P system in lieu of open-source, or perhaps a hybrid. Something which does not constrict player characters in terms of development but does limit an aspect of the game (say for example housing or politics or some such).

     

    I think you will have trouble with an opensource licence if you try to use micro transactions..

    Depends on the license and who's using the micro transactions. I stated the above as an idea for the developer, the open source license could stipulate that the cash shop is off limits for non-official servers to use or it could allow them on a contract basis (basically the game would be free, the shop would be licensed for a certain fee).

    image
  • NephaeriusNephaerius Member UncommonPosts: 1,671

    OP there's a game on kickstarter that to some degree is basically what you're talking about:

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nerdkingdom/tug-1

    Steam: Neph

  • JemcrystalJemcrystal Member UncommonPosts: 1,983
    Second Life looks very expensive to me.  Never heard of Ryzom.  Is Minecraft and Little Big Planet open source?


  • NitthNitth Member UncommonPosts: 3,904


    Originally posted by Dihoru

    Originally posted by Nitth  

    Originally posted by Dihoru

    Originally posted by Nitth  

    Originally posted by antidotik Hey, I was wondering if it is possible to make a "open-source" MMOG, completely free with enough virtual space to allow anything and everything to be created and done by anyone, where game mechanics would not be the same at different places of the universe. Imagine that Everything is based on "open source" content, people create worlds and universes. at one point there will be a multitude of "games" in the game.   And now imagine all this based on player enthusiasm, no one pays, no one gets paid to make content (at least at start) as the "universe" evolves everything can be possible Now another question is what it would require to keep a megaserver of this magnitude up and running or other policy questions (e.g. to prevent the "owner" of the server to take control of the "game universe" and do  whatever he wants) It's hard to explain but just imagine something so big and so real that people will want to take part in and build it themselves. Done by players for players. The quintessence of "Sandbox".  
      People will need to be compensated for their time and a lot of time is required to keep something this large functional.
    F2P system in lieu of open-source, or perhaps a hybrid. Something which does not constrict player characters in terms of development but does limit an aspect of the game (say for example housing or politics or some such).
      I think you will have trouble with an opensource licence if you try to use micro transactions..
    Depends on the license and who's using the micro transactions. I stated the above as an idea for the developer, the open source license could stipulate that the cash shop is off limits for non-official servers to use or it could allow them on a contract basis (basically the game would be free, the shop would be licensed for a certain fee).

    Not trying to sound difficult, But im trying to express that alot of things need to be considered..

    As to your above post i don't know that you could actually put a clause in an open source license to do what you say.
    ...


    If under a open source licence which entitles users to:

    Freely modify, Build and distribute software

    1.Then i think its a hard to sell things to people that are already entitled to the software.

    2.It Will be hard (both legally, and Technically) to stop uses modifying there software to include items that would otherwise be available in a cash shop.


    Considering the above, I think it would be wise to re evaluate using an open source licence for a project like this.

    Maybe something along the lines of a closed source contracted licence for interested parties might be better?.

    image
    TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development

  • DihoruDihoru Member Posts: 2,731
    Originally posted by Nitth

     


    Originally posted by Dihoru

    Originally posted by Nitth  

    Originally posted by Dihoru

    Originally posted by Nitth  

    Originally posted by antidotik Hey, I was wondering if it is possible to make a "open-source" MMOG, completely free with enough virtual space to allow anything and everything to be created and done by anyone, where game mechanics would not be the same at different places of the universe. Imagine that Everything is based on "open source" content, people create worlds and universes. at one point there will be a multitude of "games" in the game.   And now imagine all this based on player enthusiasm, no one pays, no one gets paid to make content (at least at start) as the "universe" evolves everything can be possible Now another question is what it would require to keep a megaserver of this magnitude up and running or other policy questions (e.g. to prevent the "owner" of the server to take control of the "game universe" and do  whatever he wants) It's hard to explain but just imagine something so big and so real that people will want to take part in and build it themselves. Done by players for players. The quintessence of "Sandbox".  
      People will need to be compensated for their time and a lot of time is required to keep something this large functional.
    F2P system in lieu of open-source, or perhaps a hybrid. Something which does not constrict player characters in terms of development but does limit an aspect of the game (say for example housing or politics or some such).
      I think you will have trouble with an opensource licence if you try to use micro transactions..
    Depends on the license and who's using the micro transactions. I stated the above as an idea for the developer, the open source license could stipulate that the cash shop is off limits for non-official servers to use or it could allow them on a contract basis (basically the game would be free, the shop would be licensed for a certain fee).

     

    Not trying to sound difficult, But im trying to express that alot of things need to be considered..

    As to your above post i don't know that you could actually put a clause in an open source license to do what you say.
    ...


    If under a open source licence which entitles users to:

    Freely modify, Build and distribute software

    1.Then i think its a hard to sell things to people that are already entitled to the software.

    2.It Will be hard (both legally, and Technically) to stop uses modifying there software to include items that would otherwise be available in a cash shop.


    Considering the above, I think it would be wise to re evaluate using an open source licence for a project like this.

    Maybe something along the lines of a closed source contracted licence for interested parties might be better?.

    You're not being difficult:

    The software would be free, the items, all of them, would be widely available within the game, the right to sell anything (have a microtransaction system) would require a license/contract. How could this work? Well I'd imagine the official servers would always be the most stable ergo microtransactions would work with them quite well and if the software is open source you can evolve it for your own server up to a point where your server may not be more stable but it would offer a different experience ergo it would be able to compete thus the idea of wanting to put in a microtransaction system into your private server would appear and in that system you would only have to buy a license to do it and lets say pay a monthly fee to continue using it. It would basically be the ultimate evolutionary system as servers crop up with improved versions of the game but only the best managed ones survive.

    image
  • NephaeriusNephaerius Member UncommonPosts: 1,671

    Look at TUG on Kickstarter they already spell out how they plan to go about implementing their version of this idea.

     

    Steam: Neph

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