Frash wrote: > First all GSPs leech the entire developing community. I had a chat > with an insider in the developing world and it turns out he gets > practically no donations for a widely used plugin he made.
(Firstly, I'd like to point out that I am a software developer myself, and have been in the commerical arena for several years.) While you are not naming names, I'd like to suggest that many plugins or modifications that people develop for games tend to do it for either fun or educational reasons, or that they wanted a particular functionality for a particular purpose and decide to release it freely. As far as I'm aware, there are no plugins that are under any kind of commercial or business licensing scheme - some plugins do not even have a licence. Some plugins also have no commercial realisation insofar that their plugin may be used by a gaming provider without the author(s) knowing. The modification community generally - for all games, not just Source ones - provides things for free that can be used for any purpose as seen fit. If this isn't correct, developers really should put their commercial hats on, perhaps seek legal advice, and make their intentions known. If this developer that you spoke to is looking for required donations from corporate entities, he really should make this clear, in a language that business people understand (and not developer language, it took me a few years to figure out the difference). Investigate a specific commercial model, a sales tactic and go from there - relying on someone to click a Paypal button is not going to work, no matter how many times you display it on a web page. > GSPs are using knowledge shared by enthusiastic users on the lists > and forums. If they wouldn't be there, most GSPs wouldn't be knowing > what they know now. Then we have to put up with all kinds business > related questions. (Taxes, what boxes need to be bought). While this is true to a degree, typically, GSPs have an understanding of core networking, experience when it comes to running servers and providing a customer service that troubleshoots clients problems. These are the things what clients pay for, not for what can be found on public forums. > Now if that isn't enough we listen to all kinds of crying how VALVe > sucks and how Steam messed up their business and customers are > running away. Steam is a very attractive business model, if GSPs sit down and think about it (which most have by now, I'd have thought). Back when it was launched, requiring a Steam logon for downloading server software was conceptionally an operational nightmare, but thankfully Valve removed this requirement. Myself and a mate have written some custom stuff for our servers, but none of this has been made available publically, largely because we want to keep it to ourselves. There are several other server operators out there that also have server-side mods that they developed themselves. If they choose to release these publically that is entirely their own decision, but distributing software is not as easy as sticking a Zip file on a web site... My two pence. -- Bart King +44 7812 195654 - http://www.bart666.com _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
