[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu Community Gaming Server

[Kris Douglas]

On 08/11/2007, Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> wrote:
>
> I've recently been chatting with someone who is enthusiastic about an
> Ubuntu Community Gaming Server, and wanted to run it past you lot to get
> opinions/ideas.
>
> The idea is that a physical server would be provided which would run
> servers for a number of popular games. The game servers would be run in
> rotation on a schedule, and not all the time. The reasons for this are
> social and technical.
>
> If all games run all the time there is less incentive for people to meet
> up at a particular time/day to play. This has been shown with the
> LUGRadio guys having their game server up on two nights a week. Having a
> game server up only on specific days means people are more likely to set
> time aside to play, and also more likely to set aside time to play with
> the same people. Rotating the day however gives people the opportunity
> to play with different people (whoever is available on that day).
>
> One of the problems with having a particular game up on a specific night
> is that people often have other things they need to do in "the big blue
> room", "meatspace" or "real life", and these occur often on a particular
> day.
>
> So one way around this is to rotate the games so that they don't always
> come up on the same day each week. For example in the first week the
> game Enemy Territory might come up on a Monday, but on the second week
> it would be on a Thursday.
>
> This (I believe) would mean that people would potentially try new games
> "I'm only available on Wednesday night, so will play whatever is
> available that day", but also allows for the "meatspace" problem
> outlined above "I'd like to play game 'foo' but I can't do Wednesdays".
>
> On the subject of games, there is an argument that the server should run
> only Free (as in speech) games, and this I can understand. However it
> would probably be the case that the gaming server would run a
> combination of Free and non-Free games.
>
> It also makes sense that people should be able to play games that are in
> the repository - as well as those that are installable from external 3rd
> party download sites. Experience tells us that gamers are not averse to
> installing software from 3rd party vendors (whether free of cost or not)
> and so it probably doesn't make sense for us to prescribe that people
> should _only_ be able to play games that are in the repository. However
> we need to cater for both groups (in my opinion).
>
> The following games have been considered for inclusion as they have free
> server software (an important criteria for the gaming server is to not
> have to pay out for each game):-
>
> Tremulous, Warsow, Nexuiz, Open Arena, Alien Arena, Enemy Territory.
>
> In addition there are some more conventional (non first-person shooter)
> and less resource intensive games that could be included such as:-
>
> Bzflag, Atlantik, Armagetron.
>
> Yes, there are already servers for all these games available online.
> However this would be an Ubuntu community effort. A way to bring gamers
> into the Ubuntu community, and to bring Ubuntu community members to
> gaming.
>
> Of course there's also the "You can put a bullet through popeys head on
> Wednesday" which might attract a few people too. :)
>
> Thoughts, ideas?
>
> Cheers,
> Al.
>
> --
> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
>
>
>
The best input i can give you here is... OH MY GOD, Mr Pope, you are a very,
very good thinker. This idea will work well with the community, there could
be games for windows/linux users, and then some of the other ones like
sauerbraten and the like.. Fantastic idea.

-- 
Kris Douglas
      Softdel Limited Hosting Services

      Web: www.softdel.net
      Mail: kris at softdel.net
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