Are there any open source MMOs which people contribute to?

Amag0k1

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I have been thinking more and more about what worked back in the day in MMOs and what may not work now. And i cannot help but wonder what an open source MMO would look like, where players would vote in elements to work on and develop it.

I think it would need to be small enough that it could fit on cheap hardware as a server, and perhaps people can cluster it, donating compute time.

Does such a think already exist?

EDIT and context.

The point of my recommendation, is if we remove the need for financial intensive by making it truly opensource, and as such making artistic and user interaction shine, what would it look like, if it would even be something to work towards.
 
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Open source gaming needs more love in general, but a MMO specifically would be quite interesting. Especially considering how proprietary MMOs often get sabotaged by their companies.

A hypotetical popular open source one would get a lot of forks for sure.
 
MMOs are far too complex and expensive to run, realistically its unlikely for a FOSS one to exist, best you might be able to find, is MUDs.
 
MMOs are far too complex and expensive to run, realistically its unlikely for a FOSS one to exist, best you might be able to find, is MUDs.
Depends on scale, i knew some one who ran Zenith RO (if any one remembers the original back in 2004, which was a private server for Ragnarok as it was not available in the west), and he did this on a Windows xp laptop, with a few cluster devices to manage traffic flow.

Look at Maple story as another example of this. We could even do a SMT first person view with sliding screens like the original Fantasy star online dungeons.

The MMO does not need to look shinny like today's graphically intestine stuff, just has to follow the basics, and apply it well.

Compute power could be donated by folks if needed to, so i guess the only worry is attack vectors by bad actors, who might use this MMO network for lack of a better word, to exploit people.

May be run the server on an isolated VM instance, and then connect to it from a client running on another device?
 
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It's an interesting idea for sure. I think the closest thing I've seen to something like this would be those games that just give a lot of creative tools to the players. Well of Souls, Neverwinter Nights, and Furcadia come to mind immediately for me. However, those are much smaller scale, and you're not really touching the engine under the hood- just using it to make custom worlds, characters, etc etc..
 
I can't believe the timing of this. I was going to post here about how an open source mmorpg doesn't sound like something that would likely ever happen but here it is.
 
I can't believe the timing of this. I was going to post here about how an open source mmorpg doesn't sound like something that would likely ever happen but here it is.
Awesome, it might not sound like something that will work work right now, but it is something at least which can be build up from through discussion and potential forked if this is really opensource. The more people who work the idea, the more it can be refined and as such the higher chance of it being something special.
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Awesome, it might not sound like something that will work work right now, but it is something at least which can be build up from through discussion and potential forked if this is really opensource. The more people who work the idea, the more it can be refined and as such the higher chance of it being something special.
Yeah, not open source! just using the name like others companies. TRUE opensource, is code available for all to scrutinize and make changes to. There terms of service is a clear indicatetor that no one can do that.

https://bitcraftonline.com/eula

The draw for them being "opensource" is that they are using opensource software in their project. But that does not make it opensource.

"BitCraft wouldn’t exist without open source software. From the operating systems we run on, to the source control we use, to the infrastructure that runs our servers, to the libraries that power the tools we build, open source code has been a core part of our development journey from day one."

This is not an opensource MMORPH, it is being sold to people as one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
 
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Booom! Thank you for your post!

i will check these out. Again, the more it is looked at by all the more something special can be made.
 
Argentum RULES.

There's also one based on Lunar, but seems abandoned.
Thank you for this recommendation.

If it is opensource, it should be forlk able, on git or where ever the repo is kept. This means it can be built upon. The trouble i am having is that some of these projects are using the name "Open source" and the could cannot be viewed or changed by all.

I will check this one out to, and see if this is the case also.
 
If it is opensource, it should be forlk able, on git or where ever the repo is kept. This means it can be built upon. The trouble i am having is that some of these projects are using the name "Open source" and the could cannot be viewed or changed by all.

I will check this one out to, and see if this is the case also.
Yeah... that seems to be the case here as well.

Project was open for people to contribute to, but I don't think it was ever viewable in full.
 
Yeah... that seems to be the case here as well.

Project was open for people to contribute to, but I don't think it was ever viewable in full.
That may happen when this is some kind of business start up foundation they where hoping would take off. With "opensource" being a way of hedging their investment, and limiting start up risk.
 
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space mmo sims:

 
also
https://veloren.net/
A lot of these look good! The GNU license is also another posative.
 
Yeah, not open source! just using the name like others companies. TRUE opensource, is code available for all to scrutinize and make changes to. There terms of service is a clear indicatetor that no one can do that.

https://bitcraftonline.com/eula

The draw for them being "opensource" is that they are using opensource software in their project. But that does not make it opensource.

"BitCraft wouldn’t exist without open source software. From the operating systems we run on, to the source control we use, to the infrastructure that runs our servers, to the libraries that power the tools we build, open source code has been a core part of our development journey from day one."

This is not an opensource MMORPH, it is being sold to people as one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
Yeah... that seems to be the case here as well.

Project was open for people to contribute to, but I don't think it was ever viewable in full.

Sometimes I think Stallman is kind of annoying for being so insistent on using the terminology Libre over Open Source, but cases like these that makes me want to agree with him
 
Sometimes I think Stallman is kind of annoying for being so insistent on using the terminology Libre over Open Source, but cases like these that makes me want to agree with him
Not very caffeinated yet, can you make this clearer for a dumb dumb like me so i can follow?

Who is Stallman?
 
Not very caffeinated yet, can you make this clearer for a dumb dumb like me so i can follow?

Who is Stallman?
Founded the Free Software movement and the GNU project, created the GPL license and contributed to a few tools such as the gcc compiler. He's very popular on the world of computer enthusiasts, but also accumulated his fair share of controversies over the years.

Here's his take on the Open Source term. But to put it simply, he defends that you should use the terms "Free Software" or "Libre" instead of "Open Source" if you want to explicitly advocate for freedom. The reason people usually say "Open Source" anyway it's because it's just easier to associate. The downside to this term is that it's a little malleable, as you can see.
 
Founded the Free Software movement and the GNU project, created the GPL license and contributed to a few tools such as the gcc compiler. He's very popular on the world of computer enthusiasts, but also accumulated his fair share of controversies over the years.

Here's his take on the Open Source term. But to put it simply, he defends that you should use the terms "Free Software" or "Libre" instead of "Open Source" if you want to explicitly advocate for freedom. The reason people usually say "Open Source" anyway it's because it's just easier to associate. The downside to this term is that it's a little malleable, as you can see.
Ah roger that! ^^;;

I do not now why i thought you where referencing the posts that you put a sad face on. My caffination is building! ::eggmanlaugh

But yeah, Open Source, while not being liked by Chris, has clear connotation in terms of what it should be, and we have tech industries who dilute / change the meaning it for folks who may have heard the term, but have little interest in understanding it. They use it Kind of like a buzz word.

For example:

"Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code"

"The open source model is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration".

"A main principle of open source software development is peer production, with products such as source code, blueprints, and documentation freely available to the public. The open source movement in software began as a response to the limitations of proprietary code. The model is used for projects such as in open source appropriate technology"

I see why Chris wants it called "Free Software" as there would be no confusion.
 
Yeah, not open source! just using the name like others companies. TRUE opensource, is code available for all to scrutinize and make changes to. There terms of service is a clear indicatetor that no one can do that.
I did not look into it at all to be honest, I just posted it right away when I saw that and remembered this thread.

From the blogpost:
This is uncharted territory and we are essentially running an experiment. For this reason we’re not licensing or open sourcing the game’s assets - the art, music, and IP will still be protected for the time being. But all of the code that makes the game run will be made public. We have not chosen the exact license under which we will be open sourcing the game’s code, but it will be one of the OSI’s approved open source licenses.
To me, this seems like a fairly standard way of doing open source games in general though with proprietary assets and the actual code being open. Maybe not full blown LIBRE but still, open. They are talking about the license not being final and them picking one of the OSI approved licenses further down the line.

Also I have to clarify that I have never even heard of this game before and it might as well just be a heaping pile of junk as far as I know.
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Sometimes I think Stallman is kind of annoying for being so insistent on using the terminology Libre over Open Source, but cases like these that makes me want to agree with him
I'm not sure if I agree with his views completely either but I think modern open/libre software would not be where it is now without him. I have also donated to GNU because of that.
 
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I did not look into it at all to be honest, I just posted it right away when I saw that and remembered this thread.

From the blogpost:

To me, this seems like a fairly standard way of doing open source games in general though with proprietary assets and the actual code being open. Maybe not full blown LIBRE but still, open. They are talking about the license not being final and them picking one of the OSI approved licenses further down the line.

Also I have to clarify that I have never even heard of this game before and it might as well just be a heaping pile of junk as far as I know.
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I'm not sure if I agree with his views completely either but I think modern open/libre software would not be where it is now without him. I have also donated to GNU because of that.
Thank you for the contribution, i am happy for all comers. As we need more voices and eyes on stuff like this.

Regarding the creative stuff vs the code.
It is hard to strike a balance, but this is why we can work on dual licensing such as GNU for code and then the assets having a different license. The problem is that some of these did not do that at all, and had no code that could be scrutinized, which then makes a problem with the idea of "community drivern" .

For me opensource would be fully community driven under a license such as GNU where no company can use any material in the project for profit in any way.

If money was to go in to it, it would be towards the devs time on the project, no more, not for the service. Might be a pipe dream for me if i must be honest, but the more a problem is worked, the more a plan can come together.

And i ssssssssssurly love that!

iu
 

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