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sotc/2000/0518

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+<H2>"Standards are great ... uh, we don't have to follow them do we?"</H2>
+	<P>I must say I am a bit peeved.  Some of the mod projects out there
+	are doing a number of things to the engine source, which they intend
+	to be completely incompatible with anything anyone else is doing
+	with the engines.  So far as I understand, these projects are
+	planning to <STRONG>SELL</STRONG> their mods, which is their
+	justification.
+
+	<P>If you're one of these people and you're reading this, let me be
+	quite frank with you:
+	<OL>
+		<LI><STRONG>NOBODY</STRONG> is going to buy a Quake1 engine
+		today.  If you can produce a solid game for the engine, one
+		which does not use Id Software's original game data or
+		trademarks in any way (which some of you are not bothering
+		to do), then maybe you might possibly have a chance.  But
+		making your own engine which completely violates standards
+		just so it's different and other people have to use yours is
+		frankly stupid of you.
+		<BR>&nbsp;
+
+		<LI>Without exception, every single project doing this is
+		targetting win32 (ONLY!) with Linux a mere afterthough, if
+		even that.  This is no big deal if your engine follows
+		established standards.  Since the standards group is open to
+		anyone working on an engine to contribute ideas and working
+		code, you have no excuse to not even try to be involved with
+		them.  There are a lot of people out there using a lot of
+		other operating systems.  We won't be playing your game if
+		it doesn't run on our OS.  And we'll be telling people who
+		run win32 exactly why we can't and they shouldn't either.
+		<BR>&nbsp;
+
+		<LI>Some of you have even been talking about finding ways to
+		keep from releasing your source code in order to keep other
+		engines from being able to play your mod.  If you release an
+		engine which has no source code and turn down requests for
+		that source, you are violating Id Software's license on
+		Quake - the GNU General Public License - and they
+		<STRONG>WILL</STRONG> sue you to defend their Copyright.
+		<BR>&nbsp;
+
+		<LI>When John Carmack released the Quake source code, he
+		asked primarily for one thing:  Keep compatibility and share
+		your work (on the engine at least) for the benefit of all.
+		Far too many of you have said you are looking for ways to
+		"get around" those limits so you can more easilym have
+		somerhing you can make a profit on.  If you have to try and
+		circumvent Id's license or John's requests so you can turn
+		around and sell it, then you don't deserve a profit.  Talk
+		about biting the hand that feeds you.  Those of you doing
+		this just suck, period.
+		<BR>&nbsp;
+	</OL>
+
+	<P>I realize the above does not apply to a lot of engines out there,
+	and if it doesn't that's good!  The above comments are not directed
+	at you anyway.  I also am perfectly aware that the mods doing some
+	of the above things are not doing all of them.  If you're doing any
+	of them though, it's a bad thing and you really should stop and
+	think about what you're doing real hard.
+
+	<P>Am I against selling stuff based on the Quake source?  Not at
+	all, I think it's cool if someone produces a game worth selling.
+	Half Life, after all, is based on the Quake1 engine and look at it
+	today.  It has a few features that are <STRONG>BETTER THAN</STRONG>
+	features found in Quake3, and people are still buying it today.
+
+	<P>But what I do have a problem with is trying to keep secrets in
+	the engine.  As I said, a lot of you are targetting Win32 (why not,
+	it's a big market after all..)  That is FINE as long as you're not
+	trying to keep other engines from being able to play your mod under
+	Linux or a Mac or who knows what else.  There's nothing you can add
+	to the engine that someone else couldn't add to another engine.
+	Trying to keep it all a secret and ignoring the standards groups is
+	just a good way to make things incompatible.  The problem is some of
+	you believe that will lead you to more profits.  You're wrong.  Dead
+	wrong.
+
+	<P>Most players do not want to have 5-6 Quake engines laying around
+	on their drives, even if they do play 5-6 Quake games.  Speaking
+	from my own engine's perspective, this is one of the biggest reasons
+	why QuakeForge uses "base" now by default for its game directory
+	rather than "id1".  All you will have to do is pass on the command
+	line a simple <TT>+set fs_gamebase id1</TT> and you'll be able to
+	play the original game.  Simple right?
+
+	<P>Well no, the problem is that it's not so simple and I know it.
+	That's why you want your own engine.  But I can write a win32 batch
+	file to do that in QuakeForge real fast.  I could put Nehahra's
+	files in "nehahra" right next to id1 and pretty easily write a
+	script or batch file that would start up that mod for me, no problem
+	at all.  You're not giving us that opportunity.  And you want us to
+	pay for the privelege of helping you do exactly what John Carmack
+	asked engine developers not to do?
+
+	<P>If this message has managed to convince some of you that what
+	you're doing is a bad idea, please contact me and I'll try to help
+	get you in contact with the QSG people.  Suggest your ideas and
+	engine enhancements to the QSG list and we can talk about how best
+	to make it work.  Not just for our engines, but for your engine as
+	well.  A few really good ideas have become even better as a result
+	of the group hashing over them and finding the best way to make it
+	happen.  The standards group isn't about limits, it's about
+	enhancing the engines in ways that don't step on other people's
+	toes and giving us all a chance to support the same things.
+