ArenaLive, an Open Source MMOFPS

ZeXx86 writes "ArenaLive is a new open source game based on the well-known OpenArena. Its aim is to become an open-source alternative to id Software's QuakeLive. The main idea is to make a game available in your web browser. So far, the game is playable and provides player stats, straight-forward settings for your account in a web browser and, of course, loads of fun with your friends. At the moment, it is available only for 32/64bit Mozilla Firefox on GNU/Linux, however, support for other platforms and browsers is coming soon. The game is licensed under GNU/GPL2. It's still in an early development stage, so players and developers both are welcome to join."

Comments

This is absurd

[Anonymous Coward]

Would someone like to explain why a game with a grand total of 5 Git commits (http://repo.or.cz/w/ArenaLive.git) and approximately 1 kloc is on the front page?

Re:This is absurd

[Anonymous Coward]

to increase that number?

Re:This is absurd

[Panzor]

Hey, I clicked the link and even started installing it. That's more than 95% of the articles on this site can say, for me. The reason I stopped installing it was because I already decided I didn't like playing quakelive, since I have Unreal on the windows side anyway, and because I genuinely suck compared to people that play that game. It is neat to see someone targetting the linux crowd before anyone else, but that feeling is overruled with the question "why?" I guess they're doing this just for the hell of it.

Also, I use Epiphany. \o/ I was going to wait for Chrome to be competent enough for me, but not anymore. Great app.

Re:This is absurd

[resfilter]

i wouldn't say they're targetting linux first it for the hell of it..

many horrible "our first opengl software project" FPS games target linux initially, and for good reason

people expect so much less out of linux games, as there simply isn't much good entertainment software available to them. linux gaming addicts end up appreciating any peice of shit game they can get their hands on

windows users laugh at you when you release a work in progress, or something that is simply a peice of shit, as they're used to commercial grade game releases. that can be very hard to compete with, considering the development time that goes into even a passable 3d game.

so if your game sucks (or is in "permanent alpha"), guess where your largest audience is going to be

Re:This is absurd

[w0mprat]

windows users laugh at you when you release a work in progress, or something that is simply a peice of shit, as they're used to commercial grade game releases. that can be very hard to compete with, considering the development time that goes into even a passable 3d game.

By your argument Linux should not exist since commercial OS's are so hard to compete with. Labor is not the issue with open software, it is more having a good idea that attracts people who want to work on it. So if a game sucks and stalls in alpha it is probably because it just outright isn't any good and nobody wants to fix it.

There are so many gamers so pissed off with the commercial game world who would leap all over a by-the-gamer-for-the-gamer open source revolution. So what's pissing us gamers off? How about paying upwards of $50 for a game only to have seven hours of single player game play and mediocre multiplayer with hardly any servers. Or amazing graphics, sophisticated sandbox gaming (Cryengine) and it's all over in that 7 hours of cookie-cutter linear storyline with little replay value (Crysis). Throw some buggy code and DRM and you have all the reasons to be angry.

Re:This is absurd

[shutdown -p now]

By your argument Linux should not exist since commercial OS's are so hard to compete with. Labor is not the issue with open software ...

Labor of skilled programmers is not an issue with open software. Labor of skilled graphics artists, UI designers, project managers, and various other professions vitally important to get a polished final product, is definitely an issue.

Re:This is absurd

[upuv]

??? Project Managers ???

Where do you live?
Where do you work?
How do I move there?
Who do I have to bribe to get a job there?

Clearly you have project managers of value for you to mention them as valuable assets! Actually contributers to the process and progression of a project?

I need to know desperately where this nirvana is!

What a second. Are you a project manager?

Re:This is absurd

[FishWithAHammer]

A good project manager is worth an order of magnitude more than a good programmer because they enable the good programmers to do good work without being hassled by things outside of their job of writing and documenting good code.

The fact that there are few good project managers doesn't make this any less true.

Re:This is absurd

[FishWithAHammer]

There are so many gamers so pissed off with the commercial game world who would leap all over a by-the-gamer-for-the-gamer open source revolution.

Horseshit.

The plain fact of the matter is that you're not going to get the same kind of quality, by any stretch, out of an "open source revolution." I don't suppose you've noticed that virtually all of the open-source FPSes out there are based off very old (originally proprietary) code, do you? Code that has to be hacked at significantly to get much beyond the nVidia TNT2 target that it originally topped out at (oh boy, the GPL'd Quake 3 code has hardware T&L!)? Even the really good open-source FPSes (I'm talking Warsow here) are extremely limited games, and sure as hell don't address what you complain about ("linear storyline").

Open source software is good in some cases. Games are clearly not really one of them. You aren't getting Half-Life 2 out of the open source world, I'm sorry to say. You don't have anything technically equivalent to even Source (and despite Valve making great, quality games, Source really sucks, it's one of the main reasons I'm glad my team is writing our own engine for our games). You don't have the kind of incentives to create a focused, quality project because you're not paying them to stay in line (people will just toddle off to play with your code--which is by no means a bad thing, but it kind of makes it hard to make a kickass game when everybody's off dicking around with their own thing).

Sorry, but no, open source is not always the answer. Like right here.

Re:This is absurd

[ZosX]

Pretty much all consoles now have an API. The only exceptions are probably like the game boy DS. Even the PSP has an OS. The XBOX runs direct X as its api. Don't know about the PS3, but I'm sure they do have some operating system to make calls to. Sure a lot of programming is still being done directly on the hardware via assembly, but we are not in the DOS days where the OS just took a back seat to the hardware.

why not AGPL?

[influenza]

It's too bad this isn't under the AGPL. Maybe it has to be GPL2 because of what it's based on. But with the GPL2 source only has to be shared with people who receive binaries. This does not include visitors to a website, or an in-browser game in this case.

The AGPL got me thinking about the relevance of FLOSS if everything moves to cloud computing. If this project takes off, it would be a "cloud" that is based on FLOSS. Meaning that others could take the code and run their own "clouds". It would be the same as it is now, only instead of connecting to player-run servers through the game menus you would surf to them in a browser.

Either way, I'm far to crappy on FPS, so unless the game has safe-zones for hippies that don't like killing it won't be very fun for me.

Re:why not AGPL?

[Antidamage]

You receive a binary each time you load the game. Hosting it on a website and re-downloading it with java each time doesn't circumvent the license. If you want the source, perhaps you could approach them about rectifying their license obligations.

Re:why not AGPL?

[TheRaven64]

I think you need to talk to better lawyers. The AGPL doesn't say anything about use, it says something about modification. If an AGPL program includes a download-the-source link, you are not allowed to remove it. If you do remove it, then you have created a new derived work, which is something restricted under copyright law and requiring explicit permission from the author. The AGPL provides you with explicit permission to create derived works as long as they do not remove the download-the-source link. Nothing about this is related to use.

Note, however, that the AGPL could be seen as violating the FSF's Freedom 1, which requires the program to come with the rights to 'change it to make it do what you wish'. If you wish to change it to not contain a download-the-source link, then you can not.

Fair enough

[GF678]

I guess it's better than the current option we have for running QuakeLive for Linux (i.e. nothing). Yes I know they're working on it, but it'd be nice if Linux wasn't treated second-class to Windows all the time.

Re:mmoRPG

[pandrijeczko]

Well in my days of playing 1st Edition D&D during the late 1970s it was "Role-Playing Game" but when Doom and other FPS games came out, it also became "Rocket-Propelled Grenade".

So I guess for a game like OpenArena, either could apply.

Re:mmoRPG

[Anonymous Coward]

The title says MMOFPS my good sir/madam. Not RPG.