[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Open Source multiplayer games

[Andreas Neus <andreas.neus@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Vasco,

thanks a lot for the information!

I'll keep you updated if we include the open source section (I think we
will...).


Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards

Andreas Neus
________________________________
IBM Business Consulting Services
Strategy & Change

Beim Strohhause 17
20097 Hamburg
Germany

+49-170-634 6478
andreas.neus@xxxxxxxxxx



                                                                       
             Vasco Alexandre                                           
             Da Silva Costa                                            
             <vasc@xxxxxxxxxxx                                          To
             .pt>                      Andreas Neus/Germany/IBM@IBMDE  
                                                                        cc
             22.04.2005 23:19          freeciv-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx         
                                                                   Subject
                                       Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Open Source   
                                       multiplayer games               
                                                                       
                                                                       
                                                                       
                                                                       
                                                                       
                                                                       




On Fri, 22 Apr 2005, Andreas Neus wrote:

> Dear FreeCiv developers,
>
> I'm with the Media & Entertainment practice with IBM Business Consulting
> Services in Germany and we're doing some research on gaming trends for a
> book chapter to be published this fall.
>
> This is not yet decided, but we are trying to get in a small part on Open
> Source games (with a preference on mulitplayer-capable projects). FreeCiv
> is is one of the games we've found, as wel as Wesnoth and Planeshift.
Could
> you tell me a few things like the number of probable users (maybe from
> downloads), what number of the contributors you would call "active",
etc...
> (or of course point me to a page where I can find thate...)

I would guess that there are around two dozen active contributors to
Freeciv, with about half a dozen active programmers with CVS write
access, plus translators, etc.

As for number of users, counting downloads is a bit coarse. Many Linux
distributions pre-package Freeciv, like Fedora, Debian, etc. People
playing single-player games are nearly impossible to count because of
this.

We have 429 registered forum users. The forum is mostly frequented by
online game players. The forum was opened to the public on 17 May 2004.

If you are interested in getting better information on contributors, you
could try to datamine it out of the ChangeLog. We do not harvest this
information.

> Also, if you know of other successful Open Source game development
projects
> (should support multiplayer, but be more appealing than Nethack...) that
we
> should be aware of, please let us know. The more we can demonstrate that
> this is not only a fringe phenomenon, but could impact the games
industry,
> the more likely we will have this section in the paper - and of course it
> could mean some publicity for you as well.

BZFlag, Flightgear, Globulation 2, netPanzer, WorldForge, S.C.O.U.R.G.E.,
Cube, Gate 88.

Check all those out, and more, at:
http://www.happypenguin.org

---
Vasco Alexandre da Silva Costa @ Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa