[ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu Community Gaming Server

[Rob Beard]

Alan Pope 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.
> 

Sounds like a great idea.  I've not really played any games online since 
the days of Doom & Duke Nukem 3D although I'd certainly like to have a 
bash at some of the new ones.

Rob