A Bold Proposal

[LivingInThePast 364]

 In "Open Letter?" it was revealed that MC was looking for a buyer. It seems to me that given the poor sales of CXL, anyone buying the source code would be facing a large liability. It's possible it will shrivel up all together.

And then it came across me...why don't WE buy it?

It would be a complete game rather than the planning-process open source games, and Simtropolis members would be able to easily port Cities XL (would likely be renamed) and create new add-ons for it, making it the city simulator we've always wanted.

We would have to buy it, and it probably costs a substantial amount of money, so we might set up a foundation and collect donations from people. But then, would be worth it even then? The grid problem isn't exactly resolved, we'd have to build new networks (like power), and we'd have to fix many, many bugs and things that just irritate us. At that point, so much would be taken out or altered that we'd be better off starting from scratch.

On the other hand, a rename and conversion to open source would allow us to completely tear it down to basic roots and rebuild it our way.

What do you think?

[mentarman 14]

I like the game quite a bit and would really like to see it go forward and be improved. That said, I don't think there's any way this would work. Of the many barriers, I think time might be the most difficult. Could you get everything in place fast enough to do it before someone else buys CXL or MC collapses. That's if you could ever get a substantial number of people to agree to funding the millions of dollars it would take to buy MC.

I like your pluck but honestly I think this would just be a waste of time.

[Evillions 552]

Just no, too much money required for something like this. If we did have that kind of money, then I would agree with you.

[IntoxiNation 0]

Well one of the issues I brought up in another thread is 3rd party licensing issues. One item is SpeedTree, which is used in CXL for the trees. They will not allow that to be included in an open source program (prices for commercial licensing starts at $10,000), so it would have to be removed and then if we want trees in our city we have to add our own code in for them. That's only one example. There is most likely a few other 3rd party items being used in there that will also cause the same problems.

[Mayor49 0]

Originally posted by: Evillions

Just no, too much money required for something like this. If we did have that kind of money, then I would agree with you.quote>

Agreed.

[dedgren 830]

Oh, I give up...

I was going to post something like, "why would folks fork over lots of money to buy the rights to CXL when..." but it just seems like bailing the tide. This is the real world- take a deep breath and look around. Dreams don't come true here just because it would be nice if they would.

Think about it. If (and that's a completely speculative if) you could get the French court managing MC's affairs to allow the company to spin off CXL for half a million (US) dollars (a completely speculative amount), aside from the very real licensing issues already noted you would need 1,000 people to put up $500 for something that they would then have to be willing to have no ownership right in (as the intention would be to open the game engine up to the community as the equivalent of open source). Is that going to happen? No. So what about 10,000 people putting up $50? The amount is more doable, but think about it- only 100,000 folks bought the game in the first place. Do you really think ten percent of that number would step forward and throw another fifty bucks at it with nothing particularly concrete to gain? It's just not going to happen, friends.  And don't even get me started on getting 100,000 people to kick in five bucks- hah!

I think the constant stream of "what if" threads are really not good for this community. They confuse good people who are naive or otherwise don't know any better. They raise completely false hopes and expectations. They are a waste of space on this website. Monte Cristo knows where we are and that some of us are hoping CXL development will continue- so does any legitimate potential entity that might acquire the rights to the game. It's time to just step back and let this get sorted out by those who truly have interests at stake. Maybe it will work out- maybe it won't, but there hasn't been a single helpful "what if" thread started here since all this started coming down.

Sorry to be a wet blanket.

David

[mentarman 14]

Yeah, this is a rare instance in the CXL forum where I agree with Dedgren.

[LivingInThePast 364]

Originally posted by: dedgren

Oh, I give up...

I was going to post something like, "why would folks fork over lots of money to buy the rights to CXL when..." but it just seems like bailing the tide. This is the real world- take a deep breath and look around. Dreams don't come true here just because it would be nice if they would.

Think about it. If (and that's a completely speculative if) you could get the French court managing MC's affairs to allow the company to spin off CXL for half a million (US) dollars (a completely speculative amount), aside from the very real licensing issues already noted you would need 1,000 people to put up $500 for something that they would then have to be willing to have no ownership right in (as the intention would be to open the game engine up to the community as the equivalent of open source). Is that going to happen? No. So what about 10,000 people putting up $50? The amount is more doable, but think about it- only 100,000 folks bought the game in the first place. Do you really think ten percent of that number would step forward and throw another fifty bucks at it with nothing particularly concrete to gain? It's just not going to happen, friends.  And don't even get me started on getting 100,000 people to kick in five bucks- hah!

I think the constant stream of "what if" threads are really not good for this community. They confuse good people who are naive or otherwise don't know any better. They raise completely false hopes and expectations. They are a waste of space on this website. Monte Cristo knows where we are and that some of us are hoping CXL development will continue- so does any legitimate potential entity that might acquire the rights to the game. It's time to just step back and let this get sorted out by those who truly have interests at stake. Maybe it will work out- maybe it won't, but there hasn't been a single helpful "what if" thread started here since all this started coming down.

Sorry to be a wet blanket.

Davidquote>

That's right...Cities XL uses a lots of third-party tools too expensive to license, and people who were burned once by CXL aren't willing to throw it anymore money. Better to just make an open-source project.

Guess it's time to revert back to my original opinion of that CXL and MC will sink to the watery depths... 

[DazzaDazza 29]

well, i 100% agree with dedgren

[Ephemeron 17]

To sum up the situation with Cities XL right now:

Just let it burn, or rather should I say, let the charred fragments smoulder a little more.

[DazzaDazza 29]

HAHAHA that's gratem, did you do that?