Post Wed Jun 06, 2007 4:45 pm

Request For Comments

In both gaming platform and game design there is a design theory and practice called MVC. It stands for Model, View and Controller.

Let's say a computer programmer adopts popular user criteria and starts building the core framework to a game ( like a Bladerunner theme ), but, also uses existing pieces of previous games. If he or she has a digital representation of an object moving around as a static Model you can View this externally in a game as playing pieces and, at the same time, internally as binary game code by Controlling the View selections and criteria. Working game instances in such a dual mode are dynamic. Each measurable game occurrence or programmed game instance has an input/output valve to reverse engineer a play piece derived from or traced to a game source element.

Commonly accepted opensource rules dictate that opensource game constructs should be available for inspection and review at any time; being any event or any place. Granted, there are proprietary front ends to allow support of intellectual property but such interlocks do not affect the operations, networking or internal design of the game itself.

The problem with established game design today is that the aforementioned critical playing constructs and pieces which nearly everyone in the global opensource gaming arena agrees on rely on an aging Central office Model for design, bookkeeping and oversight. When I say bookkeeping I mean keeping track of virtual inventories and correlating monies paid out ( we're assuming it's a for-profit game ). When I say oversight I mean reconciliation of finance, plus assessing and applying game patches to the gaming environment to assure breaches in the game construct are kept very low or eliminated.

The operation of SecondLife relies on Sun microsystems' servers. The SL $$ input/output denoting monetary exchange, Lindens, relies on centralized bookkeeping and, unfortunately, single-source bookkeeping and oversight. The virtual owners of Secondlife ( not the players ) control the total area of encumbrance.

My questions to this bladerunner virtual community are:

A) What areas of innovation can be researched and explored to create a peer-2-peer, decentralized bladerunner game whose gameplay acts as an overlay or top layer to a common game interface used across the United States and abroad? [An existing game interface using neutral servers is the Quake and Counterstrike Mod game services which are (were?) free for public use. They run on linux and win32, irrespective of physical location and have Q.o.S. features for bandwidth and level of difficulty.]

B) Who benefits from opensource game design?

[Modified at: 2:59 p.m., Pacific]

C) How can residual benefits take place within a mutual system of exchange that take the shape of an evolutionary game construct based on dynamic, user-created ratings and subsequently establishing relational lines of trust between virtual and physical game components, the latter being *you* or the players?

[Original]
C) How can residual benefits be created within a mutual system of exchange that takes the shape of a game construct based on user-created ratings and subsequently establishing trust between virtual and physical game components, the latter being *you* or the players?