[SUGGESTION] Distribution through Steam

Well if it helps I could donate the $100 or get my business to donate it and write it off.

Well if it helps I could donate the $100 or get my business to donate it and write it off.

That'd be awesome.

BTW, precedent was set: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi...=125965803

We still need info on the specifics of licensing. I'm not familiar enough with Warsow to dig that up, does anyone know anything?

EDIT: And of course, we also need devs to get the process started, and this is not a priority currently it would seem.

(I keep repeating myself in this thread...)

Warsow has 2 types of license: GPL3 for engine and Warsow License for media (smth like Creative commons).

Btw, the game has got 5k of upvotes in 3 days, it is about 40% of the road to top100.

Sure, I know that already. But that says nothing about whether or not it complies with Valve's terms. We need more information on that. (The fact that it's up for voting is not enough.)

(I keep repeating myself in this thread...)

Perhaps edit the original post to add a moderators note stating the position?

I'd suggest a developer should send an inquiry email to copyright@valvesoftware.com about legal implications connected with registering a GPL'ed game with steam. A text for such an email could be as follows:

Dear Valve Team,

we at Xonotic (www.xonotic.org) would be interested to add our open source game to the list of games distributed via steam. However, we are uncertain about the legal implications connected with such distribution. Xonotic is licensed in its entirety under the GPLv2, and, due to the number of contributors, there is no reasonable way to release it under another license. This is why we would like to know whether the game being licensed under GPLv2 would be in compliance with the legal requirements for distributing it via steam. A short statement or explanation of the legal situation would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance and best regards,

<name>

What do you think? The email address above is for reporting copyright infringements. If anyone at Valve knows about GPLv2 compatibility with distribution via steam without having to do extensive research, it's those people that deal with infringement claims.

Halogene, sure, why not. But our developers have yet to show any interest in this. First things first.

EDIT: As I mentioned on page 3, don't forget that this happened.

Since the beginning of this thread it's all about the devs not wanting for the game to be widely noticable. I guess when it gets to 1.0 then it'll be posted to all major content distribution services, right? ;-)

Since the beginning of this thread it's all about the devs not wanting for the game to be widely noticable. I guess when it gets to 1.0 then it'll be posted to all major content distribution services, right? ;-)

If that's a question to the devs, this is not the right place to ask it

That was a rhetorical question ;-)

To my knowledge, they've always wanted for the game to undergo some serious improvements before anyone catches wind of it. I personally think it would be best to wait for the following changes to happen:

Weapon and ammo system gets switched out
Animation gets fixed
Vehicles get refined
More maps, namely make some Tribes-inspired vehicle CTF maps with possibly recharging jetpacks thrown into the mix

Not needed, but would be smart to have this done before putting it on Steam of all places:

Either strip out the singleplayer "campaign" or fix the bots so that they don't suck
Fix the offset mapping (turn it on and pull out a nex and you'll see what I'm talking about)
Various tweaks I've mentioned in another thread (assuming they haven't already been made)

They're several games which ain't done that still are on Steam Greenlight, for example: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/fi...d=92933311

The thing is, as MrBougo has clearly pointed out, this is up to the developers to decide.

But since xonotic is open source, everyone can be a developer. If steam is compatible with GPL, then noone can hinder anyone preparing it for and integrating it into steam.. Just a side note.

But since xonotic is open source, everyone can be a developer. If steam is compatible with GPL, then noone can hinder anyone preparing it for and integrating it into steam.. Just a side note.

They need to reproduce our trademark and branding though. Don't they need authorization for that?

Also, you can imagine that the Xonotic devs would not appreciate this sort of move, because illfonic and stuff.

EDIT2:

But since xonotic is open source, everyone can be a developer. If steam is compatible with GPL, then noone can hinder anyone preparing it for and integrating it into steam.. Just a side note.

Even though what you say is true, I don't really think it should work that way. Everyone can't really be a developer, the core team still have to approve any contributions and changes to the game. PR is a contribution too, which may also have a negative effect in some peoples opinions. Therefor it's up to the core team to decide.

EDIT: This was meant to comment on lda17h's post, but you was too quick MrBougo. Adding quote now..

But since xonotic is open source, everyone can be a developer. If steam is compatible with GPL, then noone can hinder anyone preparing it for and integrating it into steam.. Just a side note.

They need to reproduce our trademark and branding though. Don't they need authorization for that?

Also, you can imagine that the Xonotic devs would not appreciate this sort of move, because illfonic and stuff.

Well, I'm just talking about actions that honour the license. Which is GPL v2 or later IIRC. Of course people might get pissed off. And we don't want to piss of div or the other core members since we all benefit from their awesome work. But purely from a technical and legal point of view it would be possible. It's open source. Everyone can fork, develop into another direction, distribute over different channels, as long as the license terms are honoured.

I'm not sure that steam/valve would be willing to honour the GPL license (i.e. it's probably not compatible with their terms) or that they would be willing to host a GPL licensed game. But this is a separate issue from the point I was making..

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EDIT2:

But since xonotic is open source, everyone can be a developer. If steam is compatible with GPL, then noone can hinder anyone preparing it for and integrating it into steam.. Just a side note.

Even though what you say is true, I don't really think it should work that way. Everyone can't really be a developer, the core team still have to approve any contributions and changes to the game. PR is a contribution too, which may also have a negative effect in some peoples opinions. Therefor it's up to the core team to decide.

EDIT: This was meant to comment on lda17h's post, but you was too quick MrBougo. Adding quote now..

I agree that I don't think that this would be the optimal way.

Well, I'm just talking about actions that honour the license. Which is GPL v2 or later IIRC. Of course people might get pissed off. And we don't want to piss of div or the other core members since we all benefit from their awesome work. But purely from a technical and legal point of view it would be possible. It's open source. Everyone can fork, develop into another direction, distribute over different channels, as long as the license terms are honoured.

I'm not sure that steam/valve would be willing to honour the GPL license (i.e. it's probably not compatible with their terms) or that they would be willing to host a GPL licensed game. But this is a separate issue from the point I was making..

Of course, I see your point, but I don't see how it matters at all?

Let's imagine that someone forks Xonotic, calling it something else but keeps everything exactly the same inside. No one in their right mind at Valve would allow for such a project to be distributed on their platform if they are aware of it being an exact copy, and even if they did I'm pretty sure the project would fail to get the votes.

If someone were to submit Xonotic itself, under the name Xonotic, without permission from the core team, I'm pretty sure someone from the team would get mad, contact Valve, and shut the submission down. If Valve requires a person of contact for the project, they won't pick any random person from the playerbase. We are an opensource project but that doesn't mean everyone is a developer to the same level. We have a group of people managing the website, the repositories, the commit permissions, the releases and the PR. Those are the people Valve would want to contact.

EDIT: Just so I get this right... All you're saying is that someone could spend quite some time making a fork of our game, changing enough to be considered different and get a decent playerbase, and then submit the project to greenlight under a different name. How is that relevant to the inclusion of Xonotic in greenlight?

I was just pointing out that there was a factual error in one statement. Namely that it's up to the developers to decide what happens wrt. to possible steam inclusion. That was factually wrong. I didn't want to stir up a long discussion..

Alright then, it's up to Xonotic's core team to decide what happens to Xonotic wrt greenlight.