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The point is no keying would have to be done. The Nova engine in its current state (1.0.6) is completely adequate. All they'd have to do is facilitate registration.
You can interpret this as just having Ambrosia handle registration of un-altered plugins. Why would they take the time to facilitate registration for such an easily piratable format? And if you interpret this as including copy-security (so only this copy of the engine could play the game, and the plug-in was hard-coded into the engine via data files), yes, Ambrosia would need to modify the engine code in some way so that any moron who knew even a minimal amount about computer programming could not crack the code. And it takes staff, money, and computers to set up any kind of registration system.
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Put an ESRB rating on it, and a parental advisory dialogue box at startup.
I'm not sure how the ESRB system works, but Ambrosia would probably have to spend money getting certification from the organization. And besides, most people have content besides ratings/advisories boxes that they want to show during start-up.
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EVN (the application) is 4.7 megabytes. EVN (the data files) is 171 megabytes. Who cares?
Everyone who has dial-up will care, I assure you. 5 megabytes is approximately another 2 hours 30 minutes added onto onto their download time. And before you tell anyone out there with dial-up to get high speed Internet, be aware that there are quite a few people out there who keep their dial-up because they can't afford broadband or can't get access to it, not because they're masochists who enjoy tying up their phone lines and watching Internet pages load like molasses.
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The initial investment is all Martin's, since the engine requires no or negligible modifications, and he'd just be distributing it as freeware otherwise.
Engine requiring changes: Building in copy-protection? Copy protection, even just modifying the protection built into the game, would require Ambrosia employee time. And Ambrosia would have to physically modify the application so that there would be copy security.
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Hence why ASW should distribute it.
Read:
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And what about marketability? Is it worth Ambrosia's time to officially 'sanctify' plug-ins that may or may not earn them money (or even recoup their initial investment)?
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...it takes staff, money, and computers to set up any kind of registration system.
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...would require Ambrosia employee time
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...binding contracts are a problem, piracy would be a major problem...
And you think Ambrosia really has time to review EVERY TC proposal that comes in? (Remember that if the engine was bound to the plug-in via copy-support, and if Ambrosia handled registration, than people would assosiate the two.) Even if they did, you'd still run into problems:
- If they review TC proposals, make a contract, and then the person making the TC drops out, what then?
- If they review finished TCs, what if someone makes a TC and spends time on it, only to be rejected by the Ambrosia review staff in favor of another plug-in? What would fair criteria be? Would Ambrosia release and sanction something controversial?
- Would they/the ESRB be expected to check every desc and picture for objectionable content? If they took the word of the author(s), what if Evil Author or Forgetful Author either forgets or intentionally does not mention objectionable content? How would Ambrosia's reputation as a software company be hurt if in one of these (otherwise-rated E) TCs, a 10-year-old child stumbled upon porn or graphic descriptions of sex? and the others.
- What if it turns out that the TC author plaguarized or stole content or graphics- does Ambrosia really have the resources to check any of these claims out to a reasonable extent? Who would be responsible for any legal action- Ambrosia, the author, or the team?
- What if it turns out that the TC author used pirated software (3-D, web design, etc) in order to write parts of the plug-in, put up a web page, or make graphics? I believe that software piracy carries hefty fines, and that Ambrosia would surely be displeased if some lawyer called saying 'we believe that the author of this expansion pack used pirated copies of our software'.
- Who would be responsible for bug updates? If the author disappeared, would Ambrosia be responsible for doing so? If neither the author nor Ambrosia did so, would Ambrosia be worried about people being annoyed with badly written scenario/code?
etc. etc.
and one final note:
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I had very similar thoughts...shudders from the memory of buying his UE Dreadnought
Anyhow...what were we talking about again?
Damn, mind flooded with horrid memories and now I can't remember what you were discussing...
Nobody forced you to play the plug-in, and even if you downloaded it, you always had the option of deleting it. If you don't like it, make a dedicated topic about your gripes, or contact the author privately. As it is, I don't see anything in your post pertaining to the discussion at hand, so please don't do this again.
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(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/ue_rd")Fatal Alliance- an upcoming quasi-TC for EVN.(/url)
Secret Project: Nearing Completion. (No links available)
Visit the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=20&SUBMIT;=Go")Chronicles(/url) today! Be sure to read the short story ' (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics &number;=20&forum;=*EV/EVO+chronicles&DaysPrune;=100&article;=000262&startpoint;=")Fiery Descent(/url)'!
(url="http://"http://forums.tildesoft.com")Oblivion:(/url) An upcoming TC for EV:N
