Talk:Freeciv

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Strategy games, an effort by several users to improve Wikipedia articles on strategy games. For more information, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.	SG Portal
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the assessment scale.
Strategy games To-do: edit  Create: Close Combat: The Russian Front • Close Combat: Battle of the Bulge • Close Combat: Invasion Normandy • List of units and buildings in StarCraft Expand: HeroQuest (board game) • Boku (game) • Qubic • Death Stacks • Entropy (board game) • Fitchneal • Five Field Kono Copyedit: Crossings (game) • Gonnect • Quoridor • Company of Heroes • Dark Reign • Myth (computer game) Cleanup: Abalone (board game) • Age of Mythology • Battle Realms • Outlive • Stronghold (2001 game) • Fleet Command • Combat Mission (computer game series) Cite Sources: Colonization (computer game) • MacHack (chess) Update: List of strategy video games More...

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Video games. For more information, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.	CVG Portal
Stub	This article has been rated as stub-Class on the assessment scale.
CVG To-do: edit  Gaming Collaboration of the week: Kirby Super Star Expand: New CVG Articles, Normality, Pac-Man World 2, Operation Flashpoint: Elite, Call of Juarez, Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar, Ford Street Racing, Betrayal at Krondor CVG Peer Review: List of F-Zero titles, Kya: Dark Lineage, Wii Remote, Dynasty Warriors 4, The Sims 2, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Kirby's Dream Land, Electronic sports, Fire Emblem, Dante (Devil May Cry), The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Final Fantasy XII, Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit), Classes in World of Warcraft Cleanup: Age of Mythology, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Betrayal at Krondor, List of Nintendo trademarks Merge: Deletions / Essential articles / Magazines Assess and Prioritise articles (Log)

	Free software Portal This article is part of WikiProject Free Software, an effort to create, expand, organize, and improve free software-related articles.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the assessment scale.
???	This article has not yet received an importance rating on the assessment scale.

[edit] Learning freeciv

I find learning freeciv somewhat difficult for a beginner. Should a section be there on how to start, and proceed with the game? --Phoe6 20:52, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

No. This isn't a manual - that should be done by interested parties at either Wikibooks, the Internet in general, or the Freeciv project. --Gwern (contribs) 21:14 17 November 2006 (GMT)

I agree. A manual and several beginners' guides are available at www.freeciv.org. Rp 17:49, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Freeciv vs. Civ: copyright issues?

If anyone knows the answer, I think it would be very valuable (and encyclopedic) if this page explained the copyright issues involved in Freeciv.

Currently this page simply says:

Freeciv is a multiplayer, turn-based strategy game for personal computers inspired by the commercial Sid Meier's Civilization series. Released under the GNU General Public License....

I think this sentence makes two claims that may be false, and certainly need some sort of justification to avoid being POV:

1. "Inspired by"??? No, Freeciv is Civ. In fact, I would argue that Freeciv is closer to Civ 1 than Civ 2 is to Civ 1, and nobody says that Civ 2 is merely "inspired by" Civ 1.

I understand that some of you may be Freeciv players with a vested interest in Sid Meier not suing for money from Freeciv. But if such a lawsuit happened, any court in the world would rule that Freeciv was not merely "inspired by" Civ, but copied almost all of its details, usually quite literally.

2. "Released under the GNU GPL..." By what right? If Sid Meier owned the original copyright, then he would have had to relinquish these rights in order for Freeciv to be under copyleft.

What I am writing here is partially speculation (and that's why I haven't edited the main page). Can someone who knows the true story please clarify?

And one final nitpick. The opening sentence says that Freeciv is "for personal computers". As someone who spent three years in grad school playing Freeciv on the Unix machines in our math department, let me assure you that Freeciv is far more widely used than just on the PC market. This probably needs to be revised as well. — Lawrence King ^(talk) 07:58, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

The first question is very complex and has been discussed for over a decade with no definite answer so far (search the mailing lists or the web forums for old discussions). As for the second question: The source code and artwork that are released under the GPL are all original, created by the Freeciv developers. It is completely unrelated to Meier's work. --Himasaram 09:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

In general I think games are not covered by US copyright, except for the verbatim copying of text or pictures: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html Thue | talk 09:41, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Interesting. The government website you linked to says that a particlar part of a game "may be subject to copyright if it contains a sufficient amount of literary or pictorial expression." I'm now very curious what "sufficient amount" means. Freeciv copied all the names of things from Sid Meier's Civilization.

Those names are all real-life historical concepts. Hardly copyrightable. --Himasaram 00:34, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Of course, Meier's Civilization copied a number of basic concepts and names from the Avalon Hill Civilization board game, but the strategy details are all different. Freeciv has identical strategic details to Civ. I have seen players who are experts in Civ join a Freeciv game, having never played it before, and implement their usual Civ strategies with perfect results. — Lawrence King ^(talk) 21:48, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Meier's and Avalon Hill's Civilizations are two radically different games. What got Meier into trouble was IIRC only the use of the trademark Civilization. --Himasaram 00:34, 11 February 2007 (UTC)