tryzovia wrote:you rea;;y don't go to ryzom.org and read what they say do you?
Actually, yes, I did (Where do you think I got my quotes from?). I have been interested on the project since the day I received the first mail. First, let me point out that I had my "what if" cap on, and that I was playing devil's avocate. This does not preclude that I perceive a change, from the tone of the first mail to the "realization" that the "non profit" was not credible....
First the ones who want to put jolt out and buy servers ar the 3 foundators of the company which will be running the official servers.
Who are they? Olvier Lejade, Vanlentin Lacambre & the ryzom.org community. I think the first two know what they so, and what the do with their money...
Yes, I know who M. Lejade is, I've followed this for a while...., (curious about the story of Nevrax, reading somewhere about the creation of evolution of Nevrax, RNRT, Wanadoo, etc. read about M. Lejade's outputs, including his Poker3D:rolleyes
. I know what t Gandi is -- mentioning them cause somewhere it was mentioned while giving credibility to the project supporters, can't get the quote now -- (actually I had a couple of domains registered with them), and I recognize a few names from the list of contributors. Yet, we still don't know a lot of things. Why did they quit the company? what happenened? what were the "internal discrepacies", etc. as long as we only get one side of the story, it is to be taken with a grain of salt. But it does not change what I pointed out. As far as i know, they are a business company as well, interested in the profit. Good. Re-read my post ? What does it change? It seems that the project went from a pure non profit company to "triumvirate" including two non-profit one, just for credibility and to please french laws.
In short, the moment I read the word "investors", I can no longer consider it an uninterested non-profit, community based project. For good or for bad. The nerd in me wants GPLed Ryzom. The player in me wants a professionally with steady direction run game service.
My point was to raise some concerns, as stated. You can only blame me of being wary, specially with players money. At the end, most probably a company will be operating the Ryzom game for profit, with the resources they can afford. The email I recevied stated "A quelques uns, on souhaiterait proposer un plan de rachat, financé par un appel au don, pour passer entièrement Ryzom(code, données 3D, LD, etc.) sous licence libre, et en faire un projet libre"; it did not really mention that the "non profit wasn't credible", that they needed other investors too raise more funds, and so on. Is this a bad thing? not necessarily. Is this a thing that needs to be clear and eventually discussed? yes, completely. Am I missing something? probably. Am I wrong or misinformed? maybe. Then please clarify and enlighten me. Isn't having 3 companies - investors owning a third of the assets in the middle of a community-justified project ("together, we can put on the table a much more important amount of money, slit in three part, each associate owning one third") worth mentioning?
What happens to the game lore, data, source code, background, and how the game is developped and constructed, that's the big difference, and one of the strengths of the org project. I have posted about this. I am not against opening the code at all. I still don't know if not having a steering comitee is a good thing or a bad thing. Once thing is the software project itself, the other is the game service. But...what if some of other possible buyers *also* had in mind to open the code?
Apparently, the community-only effort was not enough to be considered a competitive, viable alternative. the other two investors have not, to my knowledge, officially spoken, and I don't know if they had been potential buyers without the "org" project. It can be a cooperative effort with common goals, it can be a "best of both worlds", or not.
If I am not mistaken, a "Societé par Actions Simplifiées" has been created -- with all the requirements, "statuts", legal bindings, etc., with, afaik, initial capital coming in part from the community and from two investors, with undisclosed amounts. The only promise players get for their support is the release of assets in the form of GPL code, and community driven development of both the software and the context. The GPL part means (very loosely speaking) that the code is there for you to modify and distribute. The initial "Ryzom.org" vision needs to be constrained to "as associates owning a third of the votes, we will be in the company, and immediately informed of its decisions, to which we would take an active part. and immediately informed of the company decisions, to which we would participate as shareholders. The opening of the code, especially, and the self-governance of the community, will be respected in the non-profit organization." Now, once informed with the legalese explained to Grandpa and Grandma, then, pick your side.
Finally, you cannot blame players of wondering what will happen with CSRs? so the GM with ban powah will be who? will they spend 8h a day solving technical and playing issues? will they answer the tickets as current GMs do? Isn't Jolt behind the praised CSR service in Ryzom?
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