icecoldduke, on 24 July 2017 - 06:40 AM, said:
No one is jealous of M210's work. If you sense any form of hostility from me, its only because his work is closed source. Mod development is the only way to keep these old games alive, if no one is making mods for a game, the game slowly fades away into oblivion. To set the record straight, I'm glad M210 got to the finish line before anyone else. I'm not happy that is work is closed source. I'm personally holding out hope that there is another port in progress, that will be open source, that will match M210's level of quality, that will bring more modders to the game.
I am waiting on answers to the rest of my questions though
.
Well, I think everyone has seen the screenshots Kaiser posted from BloodEX so there is definitely another reverse-engineered port out there even if it's unfinished:
But the thing is the last time Kaiser said anything about this project he was on the opinion that even if he were to release it he'd do it secretly, maybe just by posting a sneaky little torrent somewhere because he wants to avoid legal issues. In my mind that's understandable but honestly as someone who knows a thing or two about how stuff like this is handled on the practical side (disclaimer: I don't deal with software yet, I have to educate myself on that subject a lot more) I see no chance of that happening because the companies involved are just not interested in the IP. It's evident at this point that WB is not selling the Blood IP because a company like that loves to protect its assets by holding on to them but they won't spend a dime on protecting it apart from that. Atari is in even worse shoes: they can publish the first game but seems like that's the furthest they can go with it so again they won't spend a cent on protecting it.
I can give you a great example on why this matters: remember Armikrog, the "spiritual successor" to Neverhood? Armikrog shares so many similarities with Neverhood that it could be considered illegal when it comes to copyright law: the game simply uses all the distinctive characteristics of Neverhood to the point where EA, the company that has the rights to Neverhood could take that to court and they would win. Why could Armikrog happen then? Because EA does not care, they don't want to do anything with the Neverhood IP apart from holding on to it because that's the only perspective where it's important for them to some extent: company value. You can be certain that there was communication between the devs of Armikrog and EA where EA just said "we don't care, you can do it as long as it's not called Neverhood."
I think that's why BloodGDX is important: if people who are afraid of legal problems see now that it's out and that absolutely nothing is happening when it comes to the legal stuff then that could act as a catalyst. We could see more ports surface because there is an example that shows that there's nothing to be afraid of.
And I get why you're a bit hostile towards the project not being open source, free software is part of the culture when it comes to developers like you: you prefer open source, you usually try to show good will by publishing your work under the GNU GPL etc. but somewhere you just have to understand that if someone takes advantage of the grey area that could benefit guys like you in the long run. Honestly I have no problem with the project being closed source as of now because I think that shows the good will here: we don't know why M210's is keeping the source to himself but it kinda presents a statement to the IP holders that "hey, I'm not putting it out there, it's not my decision." That could matter.
Also when I meant that you're jealous I did not mean it in a harmful or agressive manner but more like a sense of healthy competition (still getting those downvotes though but I don't see a problem with that, it usually happens when I'm provocative in order to make a point
). What I find weird is the technical discussion because clearly there is a language barrier here (and potentially an unwillingness) so I doubt it will be fruitful but well, at least you're trying.
Anyway I'm not a programmer, I'm just a gamer but even I see that open source would be better because in my mind EDuke32 should be "retired" in a sense and upgraded into something like the Doom source ports: one software that could play Duke 3D, Blood and Shadow Warrior at least, basically "EBuild32" and guess that's not happening without everyone being open source and working together. That would revitalize the modding scene.
Sorry for the wall of text btw.