Community-driven Ryzom as a last possibility

[praha]

Great idea. But it would be poorly executed in the end. We all know how CPU intensice the client is. Can you imagine how bad the server would have to be?

So I imagine if this was to be effective it would have to be used on a top of the line server box 1-2 yrs down the road. At best 5-15 clients would be able to connect also. I'm betting that alot of the code is commented in French (if any of it is at all). This could pose a problem down the line.

SWG community is also trying to do this. It's going very slowly and still many major issues lingering.

[kipestia]

I think it is a plausible idea, with a few dedicated programmers and access to the source code. The game would not evolve much...and certainly not very quickly, but it could be kept alive.

The problem with "community Driven" projects is that when everyone owns something, no one does. Who, precisly, has the last say on what features get worked on first. If there is money to be made, of fees to be paid, who deals with them? Should lawsuites happen, or other squabbles crop up, who gets the blame?

There is the ideal, and then there is reality. Reality wins 9 out of 10.

I wouldn't count on anything in a player-run server to "evolve" at all. it takes really talented coders to do that.

[jarko]

I think alot of ppl will agree with me if i say we would continue playing for a long time even with no upgrades on the game but just servers running it and a few CSR that do it for free ( i know we would find those) who can spawn mobs etc so basicly create events etc...the problem there is that we need servers and money to keep those...i can get 1 server prob to run it but offc sponsored which means i cant garantuee the uptime etc as with all private/illegal servers so that aint an option. Anyone got a rich daddy or something like that? let us know

[rheda]

Don't forget one thing... When a project becomes open-source, not only it quickly draws attention of interested coders who might not be playing the game now, but also means having many mods and improvements made on the codebase... that means a player-run server could simplily upgrade to the current improved code whenever he feels like doing that.

Apart from this, most of you are worrying about not being able to have big servers back up due to cost.. well, that would probably be true, but there are alternatives, and as I have refered to on a previous post, the Planeshift crew managed to get up an sponsored big server. Anyway, we don't really know the requirements of the server.. just keep in mind we're talking about a completely different machine, so who knows what would take to have a 20 player server up