CM Then and Now

[Mad Russian]

Re: source code - most companies are concerned about loss of intellectual property. The open source community is a good example of what can be done for "free"; the question is whether Battlefront would ever release the code to the community for example under the GNU public licence or similar. It is in their interest that they have a vibrant community of players of their games so I think the right approach is to consider how could Battlefront benefit if they released their code for free...

After saying that, I guess that the real issue is what do the CM playing public want? Chess as a game has not changed much for centuries. There will always be wishlists for improvements the real key is what will generate the playing interest. It may be game engine improvements but I think it is the energy and enthusiasm of a core set of people organising things [tournaments, ladders, competitions, novelties...] that will generate ongoing interest.

Why would we need the code? There are dozens of ladders out there now that didn't require the code to put together. They don't utilize the code to maintain the ladders.

If we want to promote this thread from the, "CM Then and Now" that we have going to make it a, "CM Then, Now and Tomorrow" thread, I guess I can see us discussing what happens to the code. If anything.

Not sure I get the reasoning why BFC would give the code away.

Not sure I get the reasoning why BFC would kill the CMx1 realm either. The engine I can understand. Everything gets upgraded but CMx2 doesn't target the same gamers that CMx1 does.

The scope and game play are completely different. It would appear to me that a continuation of the CMx1 engine updated of course, would move along a parallel path with what BFC would target as a core group of games.

The new CMx2 RT games at the very low level and the CMx1+ games for the level that CMx1 supported in the first place. I'm absolutely sure that the code needs cleaned up. With only one programmer BFC isn't seemingly in a position to promote more than one major project at a time. Which they have chosen to go to the CMx2 format instead of a CMx1+ format.

I believe there is without doubt room for both. These decisions are not easy ones for a small game company to make I'm sure. To leave the bread and butter behind to go where they have never gone before.

Still, there may be a possible solution for both CMx1+ and CMx2 to go down the road simultaneously. BFC has the code to be able to resurrect CMx1 at any time. If you think about it, cleaning up a code is in some ways easier than writing new code. In some ways it's not. At least you have a starting point and know what the end result will look like. You don't have that when you start from scratch.

You also have an established customer base. Which CMx2 may have thought it had but is showing not to be supported very actively by the CMx1 core group.

No telling where all of this will go.

Good Hunting.

MR