Since Planeshift is considered a tech demo...

[ylikone]

What will it be after it\'s not a tech demo anymore?  Will it suddenly be without anymore glitches?  Will it be completed?  Will it stop being expanded?

I\'ve been playing the game for a short while now and it seems fairly functional to me, so why keep calling it a demo?  Why not just \"complete game that is forever going to be in development and debugging stages\", as that what all games really are in the end right?  

I know the game has a message of \"planeshift will always be free\", but will it?  I mean, what happens if someone who controls the planeshift server decides to make it a commercial game all of a sudden?  Does the PS community and developers have the power to stop that from ever happening?

[Karyuu]

The server is donated. If Fragnetics for some bizarre reason decides to charge the team for it, they will look elsewhere (and there are other offers lined up). The PlaneShift goal is to create a free open-source MMORPG, so this won\'t change unless PlaneShift itself changes dramatically, Talad gets replaced with someone else, and all sorts of unlikely madness and havoc will break loose. Basically, it\'s not happening ;)

PlaneShift is version 0.3. It\'s not even 1.0 yet, and thus cannot be called a complete game. That\'s how development goes - with any program, application, game, etc., until you hit basic stability, you\'re in beta stage or below. There will never be an end to bugs, but there will be an end to bugs of the severity we commonly experience now. What will it be after it\'s no longer a tech demo? A stable, free, open-source MMORPG ;)

And it will always be expanded.

[ylikone]

Originally posted by Karyuu
..clipped...
unlikely madness and havoc will break loose. Basically, it\'s not happening

..clipped...

always be expanded.

Ok, then it sound like there is much confidence in this game remaining free and growing.  Good to know.

[DaveG]

• Pre-alpha Tech-demo
• Pre-alpha
• Alpha
• Beta
• Release Candidate
• Release

I\'d say we really should drop the \"tech-demo\" part at this point.  ;)  We definitely have enough features to be more or less playable, but just barely.  (will be better when crafting finally gets on Laanx)  So, I\'d call us a \"pre-alpha\", which sort of implies \"pre-working\" still.  :P  Come Steel Blue, I\'d say that\'d be our \"alpha\".  We won\'t hit RC for a loooong while, and the magical version 1.0 \"release\" would be a bit after that.  Though, as Karyuu said, it will always be expanded; expect version 100.0.  :D

[Pestilence]

hmm I don\'t know I don\'t really like the \"pre-alpha\"phrase.

For me as soon it\'s is playable but doesn\'t have all features yet it\'s in alpha stages.

Pre-alpha for me really is a program that has some functions but it all needs to be put together still and noone exept the develepors are really able to do much with it.

Beta in my eyes should be the game with all features but it still needs finetuning and bugbusting

[DaveG]

Well, the point is it\'s all kinda arbitrary.

[Wired_Crawler]

Originally posted by DaveG
... expect version 100.0.  

He he, or rather version 0.100.0, like in case of M.A.M.E., I was little surprised when they released 0.100 after 0.99

[stfrn]

Originally posted by Pestilence
Beta in my eyes should be the game with all features but it still needs finetuning and bugbusting

Well, considering how many features we have planned..... Even SB has a long list of features that will take a long time, and that is only version 0.4

When we can make a release that both the client and server do not crash for atleast a week, that will be a good sign.

[Palin.Majere]

For me as soon it\'s is playable but doesn\'t have all features yet it\'s in alpha stages.

Actually, in the original meaning, alpha stage referred to a product more or less complete that went into a low-load production cycle internally to the software house. So if some features are missing, it\'s not alpha.

Beta is when the software, debugged more by the internal use, is released to a few trusted customers who originally were more than happy to risk some bugs in exchange for the opportunity of testing and using new functionality.

The list of steps posted by DaveG is quite accurate but it doesn\'t make much of it\'s original sense with opensource or community-driver development.

On the other hand, with all the gaming company releasing unpatched demos as beta games, it\'s now wonder people get confused. I will not write about Microsoft and windows-related software in this post.

[backeroo]

Well, whatever you call it, i like it!