Re: OT: America's Army
On June 22, 2003 01:23 pm, Bijan Soleymani wrote:
> Leo Spalteholz <leo@spalteholz.ca> writes:
> > On June 22, 2003 10:25 am, Bijan Soleymani wrote:
> > > Paul Johnson <baloo@ursine.ca> writes:
> > > > For all you Linux gamers out there, The United States Army
> > > > announced Version 1.7.0 of America's Army, introducing Linux
> > > > support for the first time.
> > > >
> > > > You can download it here:
> > > > ftp://ftp.stenstad.net/mirrors/icculus.org/armyops-lnx-170.sh
> > > >.bin
> > > > http://ftp.eongames.com/icculus.org/armyops/armyops-lnx-170.s
> > > >h.bi n
> > > > http://www.3ddownloads.com/linuxgames/americas_army/armyops-l
> > > >nx-1 70.sh.bin
> > > > http://guinness.devrandom.net/~primus/armyops-lnx-170.sh.bin
> > > > http://treke.net/downloads/armyops-lnx-170.sh.bin
> > > > http://www.sh.nu/download/armyops-lnx-170.sh.bin
> > > >
> > > > Official website: http://www.americasarmy.com/
> > > >
> > > > True to the DoD's recent affinity for Linux, and having tried
> > > > the game already on my roommate's Windows box, I can safely
> > > > say the Linux version is *much* more stable and less choppy
> > > > running than the Windows version. Truely a win from an
> > > > unexpected source for the Linux gamer.
> > >
> > > Is this Free Software? It doesn't seem to be. It's nice that
> > > the US army is willing to release violent propaganda for
> > > "Linux" systems, but if it's not Free Software then I don't see
> > > how this is any better than running quake3 or unreal
> > > tournament.
> >
> > Oh for christs sake, come down from your ivory tower already.
> > Its better than running quake3 or UT because unless you're
> > stealing those games, you have to pay for them.
>
> No I've seen gratis (free to download) versions of quake3 out
> there. They might have been demos but they let you play online. And
> I don't mind paying for software if I am free to copy, modify, etc.
> it :)
Hmm.. They must have been demos. AFAIK quake 3 is still sold in
stores.
> > Is that not enough for you? Stop your bitching and complaining
> > and appreciate this for what it is, a free, high quality game
> > with good linux support. I think its amazing that this even got
> > done.
> >
> > Damn these free software holier than thou zealots really drive me
> > through the roof. Sorry to everyone else for the rant.
>
> I'm sorry that I offended you by pointing out that this is not
> technically Free Software. Debian aims to be a Free operating
> system. Now I might run a piece of proprietary software if I really
> have no choice (I even use Windows), but I always consider the
> alternatives.
>
> I think that the engine to quake2 is available as Free Software
> (GPL'd I think) and it can load custom maps and such, which are
> also free. That's much more amazing. A commercial company GPL'd a
> major game. It's not that surprising that the US army releases a
> binary only copy of their game for linux.
Theres an important difference though, quake 2 uses an outdated engine
that has very little to no market value anymore. I'm not saying its
not great to have it released into the public domain but there is a
huge difference between releasing an old game and a new one.
I'm guessing one of the reasons the military doesn't release the
source is that it will spawn games based on it that do not fall in
line with the original design. America's Army is built around
realism and penalties for things like shooting teammates etc. So I
doubt they would want to see a version with those penalties removed
or where you're suddenly playing on the terrorist's team.
~leo
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