Spring RTS Engine

It sems to be a consensus at this point among regular posters and contributors to the site that a content package for Spring is properly named a "game", as Spring is an "engine".

Therefore, it would make sense to change "Mod" to "Game" here on the Spring site - I'm specifically talking about the forums, especially the "Mods" forum.

Any input on this?

After a quick PM discussion, it turns out that at least one project must remain a mod for legal reasons, and there is the possibility that a couple more need to call themselves mods as well.

I still support renaming "Mod" to "Game"... but don't want to get anyone shut down for silly legal reasons. How can we do this?

By calling it "Games and mods", as done per now.

EDIT: What are the legal reasons anyway? Spring is GPL and TA mods/games can be shut down anytime, doesn't matter what we call them...

That was quick

I'm guessing gundam, maybe it has some mod acceptance policy or something, or star wars even.

I thought those applied as fan art anyway?

I think it was the Games Workshop IP that needed to be called "Total Conversion"... And I think "Mods" was just for the ones using TA content.

The one that was pointed out as having to be a mod was Epic Legions by Guessmyname.

I was wondering about Imperial Winter too.

I believe Bandai considers Gundam RTS to be fan-art regardless of its naming, smoth described it as a "game package" here.

Arguably the *A projects are on good legal ground, as Atari denied owning the TA IP.

The legal reasons are mostly having to do with IP owners who are fine with mods being made containing their IP but would not look so kindly upon games being made.

Hmm ok.

In any case people can also make mods of Spring games, so 'Games and mods' makes sense, I think, even without legal reasons.

I'm happy with game but "mods" is good because people who have dealt with Quake/Team Fortress/CounterStrike/Halflife know what the term means in context. 'Games and Mods' FTW

Who owns the TA IP atm or has nobody laid claim to it?

Atari

Last I heard a Korean Company Optioned it... so either THEY have the rights (might not own the IP) or Atari owns them and the public relations department doesn't know about it... it's Odd because Atari INVENTED suing for video game technology infringement... and then went on to sell unlicensed versions of Tetris and other Nintendo games... so whatever.

Phantagram IIRC si the korean company unless Im muddling the name up with another company, however I believe Atari licenced out the rights to develop TA-2 to that company, I am unaware of any attempt to sell the rights to the franchise outright.

Felix the Cat wrote: Arguably the *A projects are on good legal ground, as Atari denied owning the TA IP.

Wooo, that's good news! Does that mean we can tell people to download *A mods (Errr, games, excuse me) who have never owned TA without worrying about legal problems?

Hobo Joe wrote:

Felix the Cat wrote: Arguably the *A projects are on good legal ground, as Atari denied owning the TA IP.

Wooo, that's good news! Does that mean we can tell people to download *A mods (Errr, games, excuse me) who have never owned TA without worrying about legal problems?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: possibly but it's not a good idea. If Atari were to issue a C&D I doubt any game/mod/content maker would fight it in court considering how expensive that would be.

"Discuss your problems with the latest release here. Problems with mods such as AA go in the mods forum."

Might as well change this as well. We shouldn't be implicitly promoting any mod, even one that is dead and not really played nowadays.

Edit: And since we're calling it "games and mods". It should also be called "games and mods" here.

Not Star Wars - I plan on calling it a 'game' not a 'mod' when we do our big publicity dowhacky when release time comes around.

I suggested this idea a while ago (http://spring.jobjol.nl/show_file.php?id=947). Essentially call it a game everywhere outside of Spring (Star Wars guys got it, among other good things), keep a mod inside as it's the familiar naming.

You could call them games as standard but refer to Epic Legions as a total conversion of XTA rather than a game. Either way, the spirit of the Games Workshop stuff is:

1) Don't use GW IP alongside any other IP.
2) Don't sell it/make money off it.

As long as those are satisfied I seriously doubt GW are going to be upset, ultimately the whole point of this stance is that they like people promoting their IP, just don't like people ruining it. As far as C&Ds go, they're just as likely to change the wording of that statement tomorrow to say that you can't use space marine colour schemes that are in any GW artwork.

In other words, just because it complies with their statement to the letter is no guarantee you won't get a C&D, and the best bet (aside from asking them specifically of course) is just to work to the spirit of the agreement. Whether or not the software refers to it as a 'game' or a 'mod' is reaching into technicality territory, and if you aren't going to go to court over it then why are you bothered about a technicality?

Note: If you want a precedent to top it off, the mod selection menu in Dawn of War is labelled "Game Management".