Which illustrates Jason’s point perfectly
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Lol theres a lot of posts that seem to be a misunderstanding caused by language barriers bringing extra confusion to the mix.
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I don’t specifically wish you to do that. I’m saying that, if you want to “get out from underneath my shadow” and make your own, “official” game, that would be what you would need to do.
Just switching the title, on the current mobile game (calling it “Eve’s Wilderness”) would be misleading, because it’s currently OHOL. It is an unofficial OHOL, but still OHOL.
This is a matter of degree, and there might be debate about how much it would need to change to become a different game, but any reasonable person would currently think it was pretty much the same game.
I understand wanting to have a sense of pride in your work, and wanting to claim something as your own, and wanting to go down in history known for something, etc.
Once your version of the game diverged from mine enough, it really would become your own. At that point, I would no longer have concerns about the “unofficial adaptation” stuff, because no one would be confused anymore, and my legacy wouldn’t be affected.
I don’t really see my legacy as necessarily “the guy who made that engine” or even “the guy who came up with the idea of an MMO with birth in it”—One Hour One Life is my legacy… the whole thing… the game, the characters, the ideas, the sounds, the music… the whole thing together. So, a different thing made with portions of OHOL would be a different thing. I wouldn’t feel like you were misleading people by claiming full authorship, because the engine used would be a footnote.
Likewise, when I say “100% Hand Made by Jason Rohrer,” that isn’t misleading, even though I did use some bits of code by others. I didn’t write my own SHA1 hash, or my own ZIP code. I didn’t write the gcc compiler, or the SDL library.
I try to give complete credit here:
http://onehouronelife.com/credits.php
But “hiding” those things on the website isn’t misleading. They are credited in proportion to their impact on the final work.
Anyway, this is not an immediate solution, but a long term one. Still, it may ease your pain over implementing the immediate solution that I’m requesting, if you at least have a plan in mind for the future.
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But I don’t have a specific preference over these options:
-
A clearly marked unofficial adaptation of the game that stays mostly true to the original game, with modifications made along the way (what is currently happening, except for the “clearly marked” part). A true “adaptation.”
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A totally different and awesome/creative game based in part on the OHOL code base and maybe some of the content, loosely inspired by OHOL, but clearly a different game in everyone’s mind. A true “remix.”
(2 would probably be worse for me commercially, with less rising tide effect, but my concern is not a commercial one.)
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cudos to you for the music – i love it! it fits so perfectly in to the world you created and is a part of what gives the game its charm. i was thinking about that a few times: who made the music? who did jason hire for that part? nice to know it was done by you 
Yes, I went over to UC Davis campus with a mic and a Zoom recorder, and “borrowed” a piano in one of their practice rooms to record the music. The first piano they let me use was very old and very “squeaky” because the wood was loose. I went back down and asked if there was a newer piano that I could use… I had to practically beg them, because the newer pianos were meant for grad students only… but they finally let me.
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So this is exactly the type of information that I can work with. It’s been so frustrating to throw one suggestion after another and not getting any response that makes me understand what you’re thinking.
What we have been trying to do is to keep both of these in the same package, and move really slowly and carefully with #2. We have also tried to do #3: provide mods and special events. We have moved faster with #3.
Now the truth is that I don’t quite understand your motivations, but I think I still have a better understanding of you than you do of me. I have had to understand more in order to work on this project.
The 100% that’s important to you about your work is not important to me about mine. I have worked with other people all my life. I made games with my father when I was a kid. Claiming full authorship likewise is not a big thing for myself. I have made stuff from scratch before, but I have also built a lot on top of other people’s work, as a software engineer.
I think that is why I don’t quite understand your rage with us. I have never had any intention of claiming your work as ours, and I have felt that it’s not something you mistakenly do, so I have not been thinking very hard on how to avoid doing it. You and I have not spoken enough for me to understand your feelings about that very well. For me, if I am not actively saying it, then I am also not implying it (not in general, I know how to imply things, but regarding this thing).
So, I’m still not at a point where I think your requirements fit the situation or are good for the situation, and I still thin “not approved” is the definition of misleading here. But I know one more thing now than I did before. Thanks for that. If you have more to say that can provide additional insight, I’d love to hear it.
I promise you I won’t “lure” you into settling for anything else at this time, but feel free to ask me things as well. It might provide you with more insight and understanding of my motivations, which don’t (I am pretty sure) run counter to yours. Would you consider a phone call, if I agree that any suggestions from my side will be banned from that call?
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Okay, take-down requests have be sent to the Apple, Google, and TapTap.
I’m willing to cancel these requests immediately as soon as I see you taking the clarification steps that I asked you to take.
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That has become glaringly clear and, frankly, disappointing.
Dual Decade has translated a game, in its entirety, to port it over to mobile. I’m not the only individual who bought this game thinking I was buying Jason’s game. The Dual Decade logo mystified me but not enough to look into it. It was some time before I realized that I wasn’t playing an official port of the game.
You’re wrong, @Christoffer. When I suggested the example of War and Peace, you took that and twisted it into, wellll if we made a movie instead. Adapting a book into a movie still requires significant permissions and credits. You didn’t make a movie from a book. You made a game from a game. You translated it.
I’m going, right now, to buy Jason’s game to play on Jason’s server. Maybe I’ll have to start schlepping my laptop with me when I travel (which I do frequently - travel - not laptop schlepping). And, lest you twist this into an example of how “damaging” Jason’s wording is/will be for you let me be clear: my decision has everything to do with how you’ve handled this affair all the way through to what I’ve quoted here. I just don’t feel comfortable playing your game anymore.
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You’re just willing to let it happen, pretend it’s not, and act as if it’s not your job to amend it. Give credit where credit is due and take responsibility for misleading your audience, intentionally or out of ignorance.
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All of this is just sad. Plain sad.
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Pls dont be mean i love ur game but this makes no sense
Ok, so I have clarified what I meant. I understand it could be construed into something else, and that seems dangerous now:
“The 100% that’s important to you about your work is not important to me about mine…”
It’s breaking my heart every single response that I read. It’s like watching my parents fighting over and over and over again. For more that I focus on, I cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. But who I am to be taking a side of this debate? I only wish from the bottom on my heart to have one thing and one thing only.
I wish to have one hour, one life.
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Maybe if you played the game once in a while you would have understood Jason’s perspective from the beginning. The eve who starts the camp is at the top of the food chain as well as the family tree and calls the shots. Unless you want to start over as an eve yourself and build your own camp then you only have one option here.
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I do play the game. I have given one year of my life to this game, without vacations, holidays or much sleep. So have others.
This is breaking my heart.
Jason and we do have an agreement, which he is now breaking. This is the literal truth. Yes, Jason has spent four years and is the original creator. He is also the one who told me that it was available for us to work with and bring to mobile, with absolutely no restrictions or requirements, he had placed it in the public domain. No requirements then nor in the future, was the promise. This was an empty promise, it now seems, and it may cost us dearly that we believed it. I don’t think anyone will trust Jason’s opinion on public domain again.
Jason’s story about that video is shaky at best. There are elements that are true and the rest is his interpretation. There has been no fraud, which he is claiming. There was no claim of full authorship. We have always given full credit to Jason, except in this one instance, when it was handled by a third party. Thus, he is not speaking truth about us now, and I trust that he has also not done so in the takedown requests he has issued. How else could they be approved?
I have apologised for the hurt Jason felt over being left out in that one-minute video, and more importantly, acted to immediately rectify it. I accept the blame for that, but I also maintain that it does not invalidate our agreement. It also doesn’t change the concept of the public domain. Jason has no moral or legal right to blackmail us into submitting to his requirements.
We will see where this ends. I want to maintain some hope of reconciliation, but right now I can only feel emptiness.
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Moved the further discussion to a new thread.
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