IllFonic's Nexuiz

[Mathieu Olivier]

Everyone that committed to SVN darkplaces assigned their copyright to, I think, LH, as a condition for their commit access. So, no, no legal problem there.

Nope, it has never been a condition. And I certainly haven't signed anything to give back my copyright on the part of DP I contributed to.
I don't mind doing it if it allows LordHavoc to get the nice paid job he deserves, but I do prefer that someone asks me first before using the code I have written for a free game engine in a commercial product :P

[divVerent]

The "but we are using Nexuiz 1.0" story is just a convenient way to evade possible legal issues.

Does not change anything about moral aspects. But why would a COMPANY care anyway.

[d3drocks]

Hello all,

My name is Kedhrin Gonzalez, Lead Designer and Co-Founder of IllFonic, LLC. I know a lot of you in this community have a lot of questions as to what is going on with the recent announcement.

Before we get started, I'd like to forward you guys the official press release -> http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/107/1073381p1.html

Here is some press recently put up from Shogun Gamer -> http://www.shogungamer.com/news/preview ... ect-nexuiz

You can view higher resolution screen-shots we released last night on gamespot -> http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/nexu ... ow;thumb;3

So after we put the site up at Midnight MST (-8:00), I got on the #nexuiz IRC chat room to see what some of the concerns you guys in the community had. I'll try my best to address as many questions as I can.......

Hi,
I dont log in here often, but in this situation, I had to express how I feel.
what you people are doing is immoral, wrong, and discusting!
I will be boycotting your product, and will be directing the 200+ people on my PSN to do the same, and direct them to the free, REAL COMMUNITY version of nexuiz.
you have gyped the community, and the developers.
I dont care if you direct me to talk to alien trap. it was you, and your lowlife company, that cant develop their own original game/game engine, that decided to make that moronic deal.
I hope you guys loose everything in the process.

[divVerent]

Sorry, d3drocks, but Illfonic did nothing wrong there. They suggested a deal to Vermeulen, Vermeulen accepted it and provided data.

The ONLY issue is that Vermeulen sold something he was not (morally, not legally) entitled to sell: the community of Nexuiz. You are free to blame this on Vermeulen.

This is a general problem that can affect MOST open source projects, as most open source projects don't register their name as a trademark, or protect their community portals in an appropriate way - the problem being that such protection costs money.

The only thing about Illfonic here that I despise is their "this is the best for you" marketing talk. That is just utter nonsense. Most of us are adults, and perfectly capable on deciding on our own what is "best for us". We do not WANT others to decide that in our place. However, this is in no way Illfonic specific - most marketing departments talk like that.

[halogene]

So far we haven't received (if we have please do link and prove me wrong) any explanation as to why Illfonic decided to use exactly the same name. So my simple question is - why?

I think this question is rather obvious to answer, since with the name "Nexuiz" comes the whole reputation the community has built up.

The real question that is open here and was never answered, is a slightly different one. If I am not mistaken, the name was licensed (read it somewhere, not sure how credible the information is), not transferred. If it was transferred, then good night, cu all n have fun. But licensing means you are pretty free to agree on any allowed usage and any disallowed usage. You could even license a name to be used solely in public bathrooms. So the real question that is open here is:

Why was the name "Nexuiz" licensed to IllFonic in a way that allows IllFonic to use the name without any suffix or subtitle for a commercial console game?

The answer "it will give Alientrap and Nexuiz more exposure" is no valid explanation for me, since any other name containing the name "Nexuiz" would have had the same effect.

So I ask: why?


Edit: Btw, does anyone know why my RSS Reader doesn't notify me about news in this thread?

[Aleator]

Edit: Btw, does anyone know why my RSS Reader doesn't notify me about news in this thread?

I receive news of threads on email, and even there they don't come for all the threads I've marked. It may a problem with the forum.

[paperclips]

SC0RP's Summary...http://soundcloud.com/sc0rp/and-so-the-battle-continues

I really like the level of madness you have going there, on several levels. :D

EDIT: OH the so "mysterious" phpBB "accidental" "bug" appears. AND why certainly yes, my f'ing phpBB option is on default. :evil:

[tundramagi]

The way I see it, and I might not be seeing this correctly, is that this is nothing except for a good thing:

1) The main devs might make some money off of this.
2) Development of gpl-nexuiz continues as normal
3) Developers of gpl-nexuiz become more free to implement what they wish because LordHavoc and the professional game developers will be instead focusing on console-nexuiz and thusly leave the gpl-devs to do whatever they want which is a nice breath of fresh air and a removal of alot of pressure that was threatening to fissure the nexuiz developers community (and was). Devs get to do whatever they want.
4) The nexuiz "community" (not devs) is TOTALLY PISSED OFF AND ANNOYED. YES awsome I love this part because the "community" always disliked me for my atrotious views on womyns rights... so them being angry and feeling "dicked over" by IllFonic... I don't know ... makes me feel good.... Like if SHOE and others hate what's happening... that's totally cool. YES BE ANGRY... YESSS EVEN THOUGH IT HAS NO MATERIAL EFFECT ON DEVELOPER'S NEXUIZ ... YESSS YOUR ANGER FEEEELLLSSS GOOOOODDDDDDD.

Win-Win for everyone, other than some pissed off individuals like SHOE. I'm glad some of those non-dev peeps are pissed off. It makes me feel good because they always sent some hate my way and always banned me from their nexuiz servers because they didn't like what I had to say. I hope IllFonic, somehow, does something to piss them off even more (without affecting the devs or the nexuiz-gpl game itself etc)

[Lamoot]

I think this question is rather obvious to answer, since with the name "Nexuiz" comes the whole reputation the community has built up.

yes , but it was also a question aimed at Illfonic. I know they are busy with GDC, but important questions like this one need to be answered if they are actually serious about building respectful, honest and happy relationship with the Nexuiz community.

[Shoe]

The way I see it, and I might not be seeing this correctly, is that this is nothing except for a good thing:

1) The main devs might make some money off of this.
2) Development of gpl-nexuiz continues as normal
3) Developers of gpl-nexuiz become more free to implement what they wish because LordHavoc and the professional game developers will be instead focusing on console-nexuiz and thusly leave the gpl-devs to do whatever they want which is a nice breath of fresh air and a removal of alot of pressure that was threatening to fissure the nexuiz developers community (and was). Devs get to do whatever they want.
4) The nexuiz "community" (not devs) is TOTALLY PISSED OFF AND ANNOYED. YES awsome I love this part because the "community" always disliked me for my atrotious views on womyns rights... so them being angry and feeling "dicked over" by IllFonic... I don't know ... makes me feel good.... Like if SHOE and others hate what's happening... that's totally cool. YES BE ANGRY... YESSS EVEN THOUGH IT HAS NO MATERIAL EFFECT ON DEVELOPER'S NEXUIZ ... YESSS YOUR ANGER FEEEELLLSSS GOOOOODDDDDDD.

Win-Win for everyone, other than some pissed off individuals like SHOE. I'm glad some of those non-dev peeps are pissed off. It makes me feel good because they always sent some hate my way and always banned me from their nexuiz servers because they didn't like what I had to say. I hope IllFonic, somehow, does something to piss them off even more (without affecting the devs or the nexuiz-gpl game itself etc)

Hate to break it to you, kiddo, but I haven't reacted negatively to this at all. I've posted like, twice, maybe, regarding this whole thing, and both posts were positive. I understand the viewpoints of both sides and overall don't feel too affected, though granted I'm barely a part of the community as it is. I appreciate the shout-out, though. I'll buy an extra copy of IllFonic's release in your honor just for that.