Guild of Writers

Alright I admit it I started a shocking and controversial poll over on the MOUL forums about Fans modding Fan Ages. I was really really pleased by the folks whom while shocked by the idea were willing to admit there are some possibilities as long as a few rules are present.

Poll Question "Can it be accepted that inspired fans could add their work to the Age that inspired them. "

Possible Rules
#1 Contact the person that made the Age to get approval for a mod.
#2 Modification Specifications - Each Age as it is submitted to the shards is tagged somewhere from no modding to free modding.

What I hope is that people seeing this post here will go there and in a general way expand upon those possible rules. The Large end of modding is to covered in unknowns to be any fun talking about at this point, but the small end has enough known possibilities that it could be fun discussing how under what criteria Explorers could leave their mark on a Age.

Hope to see a few of you over there.

P.S. if anyone makes a good comment here I will CC it there in the OP.

In all fairness I'd say it shouldn't be a problem, as long as it is done with respect for the age design. If an age has visitors, it is likely that they could brinsd stuff and leave stuff, that could be portrayed by adding small things.
Als, I'd say that if a shard features a quest though the ages or something, it'd be nice to add a few little somethings to the ages, much like would happen in eal life.

Ofcourse, it'd be polite to ask the writer(s) of the age for permission if they are still active and around - or at least inform them of what is going to happen beforehand.

If I don't release my Blender or 3DS source files it should be a clear indication that I don't want my age modified by others.

I feel rather strongly about this. It was the very reason I denounced GoW membership when the project takeover clause was adopted (I am now officially a GoMa member).

I agree that as long as rule #1 is followed, it will not be a problem. Ametist has already modded my Ordovician age, and it is much better than what I originally did. Modding allows us to develop ages faster, and learn how to write better ages.

D'Lanor wrote:If I don't release my Blender or 3DS source files it should be a clear indication that I don't want my age modified by others.

I feel rather strongly about this. It was the very reason I denounced GoW membership when the project takeover clause was adopted (I am now officially a GoMa member).

My thoughts are to make a method of encryption available for ages. I originally thought about this to prevent the import of ages in order to reduce the number of people who play the game through the file system instead of through the game interface. This would also work to inhibit unauthorized modification of people's work. The choice of whether to encrypt or not would be up to the age creator(s). The pass-phrases for each encrypted age would be transmitted on game startup.

I love my packet sniffer! *eats pass-phrases*

Er... Cyan tried encryption. Doesn't seem to have worked all that well.
Encryption doesn't work when people have access to the key.

Of course, you realize that, as a community of hackers, it would be our duty to crack your encryption and publish the results.



Edit: Lon beat me to it.

You want to encrypt Age Files?

I'll give Lontahv points for saying in the poll thread prp files are very easy to decompile, I know it, You know it, and everyone in the entire history of Age creation knows it. But Lontahv said it.

Why would you want to encrypt Ages if after Five years nobody has ever done a behind the back alteration so many claim to be afraid of? MY poll asked if Age creators could accept people adding to their work, and a lot of people seem to be for it in one way or another. (24 pro vs. 20 neg) Most gamers don't consider a level they release as their own personal property because simple put they can't enforce it. Uru is a strange and special place in that it has countless people willing to respect the wishes of individuals.

Every single thing the GoW is and does is about to change out of all recognition as it's work finally becomes official entering The Cavern. I can respect the people that hesitate at what is most defiantly "The" cliff in their careers as Age Creators, but don't expect me not to shout encouragement to them.

I have personally no beef with modification of my age but also respect D'Lanors stand on this I would agree that if I hold my source files then I am working alone. I would however like some sort of escrow situation where I could leave my source code so that should I have to take the final upgrade and move on from this corporeal existence then my work would not need some jackboot hack to be ported to some further upgrade of operating system.

By the same count I would like a degree of control in a collaborative project. At the moment I have an embedded story of significant size and I am working towards FCAL licence for this work GoMA is helping towards this end recently I have been asked to change part of the introduction. While I respect the opinions and experience of the reviewer I am torn between leaving the forum or bending to the criticism.

Or just reject the modification?

J'Kla wrote:recently I have been asked to change part of the introduction. While I respect the opinions and experience of the reviewer I am torn between leaving the forum or bending to the criticism.