Degica Creative indie Common License suggestion

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

1) How will you select the players?


2) Will the maker of the game be willing to wait for until the "players" finish reviewing before he could get the license?


3) How will the "players" know if there are resources that the creator aren't allowed to use? Coz that is a determining factor if the license could be given or not


IMHO, it's really outside of Degica/EB's scope. Though of course, it will be nice if they can do something, but I really won't expect it.

 

[Bloodmorphed]

1) That one is a little tricky, but you would have to trust those people regardless.

2) They would have to be. Wait to get a license or release it without one, which would you choose? I would wait.

3) Research.... Granted the "players" would have to be willing to do these kinds of things.

It is not impossible to do this, just have to find the willing people. But I do agree that it probably wouldn't happen, and not much people would want to do this for free.

 

[amerk]

3) Research.... Granted the "players" would have to be willing to do these kinds of things.

That's not the player's job. And even if it were, who do you think will take responsibility if it proves that the developer was in fact using stolen assets and the play tester didn't catch it? Not on the play tester, but on the developer and the company that opted to distribute the game.

But let's assume for a moment that you believe this should be on the play tester. It's hard enough finding one willing to bug test a game all the way through. Compensation in the form of a free copy of the game may be enough, assuming the play tester is interested enough to even get a free copy. But the moment you expect your play tester to start doing the research that the developer and distributor should have done, you can bet that the play tester will expect to be paid for their work.

Not to mention, if you or the developer came to me to play test your game and expected me to also research your material while I'm playing just to ensure it's kosher and not stolen, I'm going to assume you have no clue what you're doing and probably in the wrong line of business.

 

[Bloodmorphed]

That's not the player's job. And even if it were, who do you think will take responsibility if it proves that the developer was in fact using stolen assets and the play tester didn't catch it? Not on the play tester, but on the developer and the company that opted to distribute the game.

But let's assume for a moment that you believe this should be on the play tester. It's hard enough finding one willing to bug test a game all the way through. Compensation in the form of a free copy of the game may be enough, assuming the play tester is interested enough to even get a free copy. But the moment you expect your play tester to start doing the research that the developer and distributor should have done, you can bet that the play tester will expect to be paid for their work.

Not to mention, if you or the developer came to me to play test your game and expected me to also research your material while I'm playing just to ensure it's kosher and not stolen, I'm going to assume you have no clue what you're doing and probably in the wrong line of business.

You must have missed my previous post.

The whole of the play testers for getting the license was to ensure it being legal, a good game. So yes, it would be put on them, which would go through the company itself. I also did say you would have to trust these said play testers to do their job correctly. However People will not go out of their way to do these things if they are not paid so all this is moot anyways. I'm just saying it is possible, if they are willing to pay.

 

[cabfe]

It's almost impossible to be 100% sure that a resource is indeed freely available for commercial usage, as sometimes they are untold rips redistributed without credits.
I've seen this thread where it's explained that a specific ship was actually a rip.

Some weeks ago, I've played the commercial RPG Maker game "Deadly Sin 2" (great game, by the way) and it extensively features those ships where they play an important role.

I'm sure the developper didn't know that these ships were rips, as all other resources (that I recognized) were either RTP or Mack's work, which are free to use.

 

[Bloodmorphed]

You can same the same about any AAA game as well though. We "the players" have absolutely no idea if these things are actually "legal" to use, until someone points it out. Most AAA companies (if not all) use their own resources, though. Nothing is ever 100%. EVER. That is one of the biggest problems in a lot of areas, people want a 100% when in reality there isn't. Except in math, of course.

 

[Sharm]

I think you're missing the point though. Through putting out this licensing, Degica would be saying "this developer is no longer legally responsible, we are" and that would be a responsibility both to the developer and to the players. When something goes wrong, which you've pointed out will happen, what Degica would get from offering this license would not compensate them for the money and hassle they would have to go through to rectify the situation. It's bad business for them to offer it.

 

[amerk]

You must have missed my previous post.

The whole of the play testers for getting the license was to ensure it being legal, a good game. So yes, it would be put on them, which would go through the company itself. I also did say you would have to trust these said play testers to do their job correctly. However People will not go out of their way to do these things if they are not paid so all this is moot anyways. I'm just saying it is possible, if they are willing to pay.

And you're missing my point. How do you enforce something like that? And why would it be a play tester's job to help you get a license when they're not even selling the game? Unless they were listed as partial owners and received a percentage of all sales, no play tester would ever agree to this. 

And when it comes to a question of legal use and winds up in court, who do you think they'll go after? The play tester who's primary job is to ensure the game runs smoothly, or the one selling the game?

The only way I can see something like this falling on the play tester's shoulders would be if they were dumb enough to sign a contract that put the blame on them should something go wrong. And even then, they'd probably only wind up with partial blame, as the courts would still come after the seller as well.

As a developer and seller, it's your job to ensure you are using the correct materials and that you are following all terms. If you fail to do this, regardless if you were aware or not, it's still your problem to deal with. If you are not 100% certain of what you are using, then you need to consider using a different set of resources. Any thing else is just looking for excuses to shoulder the blame, and if that's the case you probably shouldn't be making commercial games to begin with.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Let's go about this the way normal companies would look at it, whether it has positive impact on their profit or not, whether it has an ROI or not. To be honest, I don't see any ROI or profit increase in doing this, so paying testers for it is not really a good choice from the company's point of view. It won't even really add new users.


AFAIK, even the other , more powerful, commercial engines don't do this. Because the company really has nothing to do with how you use the engine. They will only do something if someone uses the engine in a way that breaches the engine's own license, but whether or not the game that you made breaches somebody else's license is out of the company's responsibilities.

 

[Bloodmorphed]

You could charge to apply for this said license.

Anyways, my main point was that it wasn't IMPOSSIBLE, just not very likely. 

 

[Matombo]

just wondering can't you just use your own license? like you don't need a company to take advantage of creative commons.

Isn't there nothing similar for small commercial projects.

Also which 2 incidents of stolen games are you talking about? (Just want to make research about that toppic to learn from it)

edit: read the first post again and found out you mentioned the original creators there, so that's enouth to find out more ^^

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

You could always have your own license. I think what the OP wants is to basically have a company back-up.

 

[Tsukihime]

So let's say I managed to get Degica to license my game.


What does that mean for any updates that I want to make to the game?

 

[??????]

Degica would have to approve it, prior to you applying the update.