Private Engine Forums Now Open to Public
by Deborah M. Fike · 06/12/2009 (11:37 am) · 80 comments
For many years, we've kept a closed lid on forums. Our engine-specific forums have been split in two: those that are accessible by everyone and those that can only be accessed by product owners. Starting today, most active private forums have been made public. Now you can access every single forum thread of all non-beta engines, including:
All of the above private forums have been merged with the public one, creating a one-stop shop for all your engine-specific questions.
You may notice that engines still in beta, like Torque 3D and iTGE, aren't on this list. That's because we want to incentive users to buy pre-orders when our builds still have some kinks that need to be ironed out. This process has worked absolute wonders on the development of Torque 3D, and we've been able to forge ahead on bug fixing almost twice as fast as before. In exchange for taking an early bet on us, pre-order users get exclusive information and a chance to impact our dev roadmap. However, once these products have a debugged release candidate, their forums will become completely public.
So why did we decide to go public? We originally wanted a place where people could share source if they owned an engine, but we didn't want that to be available to Internet pirates, and thus, private forums were born. However, this system hurts those developers who are legitimately evaluating the engine, driving away potential customers. So after some internal musing, we've decided to blow open the doors and fight Internet piracy in other ways.
We do ask all of our users to help us identify people who might be using hot copies of Torque on the site. We changed the forums so you can more easily identify an engine owner. Anyone with a Torque symbol or G Logo next to their name is okay to trust. Anyone who doesn't have either a Torque symbol or G logo is only a member of the site and does not own an engine. I've provided a handy pic for your reference:
If these users ask you for source code specific information, please be wary, as they may have stolen Torque from the black depths of the Internet. Feel free to report any suspected abuse to moderators@garagegames.com.
Have fun in the forums!
All of the above private forums have been merged with the public one, creating a one-stop shop for all your engine-specific questions.
You may notice that engines still in beta, like Torque 3D and iTGE, aren't on this list. That's because we want to incentive users to buy pre-orders when our builds still have some kinks that need to be ironed out. This process has worked absolute wonders on the development of Torque 3D, and we've been able to forge ahead on bug fixing almost twice as fast as before. In exchange for taking an early bet on us, pre-order users get exclusive information and a chance to impact our dev roadmap. However, once these products have a debugged release candidate, their forums will become completely public.
So why did we decide to go public? We originally wanted a place where people could share source if they owned an engine, but we didn't want that to be available to Internet pirates, and thus, private forums were born. However, this system hurts those developers who are legitimately evaluating the engine, driving away potential customers. So after some internal musing, we've decided to blow open the doors and fight Internet piracy in other ways.
We do ask all of our users to help us identify people who might be using hot copies of Torque on the site. We changed the forums so you can more easily identify an engine owner. Anyone with a Torque symbol or G Logo next to their name is okay to trust. Anyone who doesn't have either a Torque symbol or G logo is only a member of the site and does not own an engine. I've provided a handy pic for your reference:
If these users ask you for source code specific information, please be wary, as they may have stolen Torque from the black depths of the Internet. Feel free to report any suspected abuse to moderators@garagegames.com.
Have fun in the forums!
About the author
I write games for a living. <3 my job.
#2
06/12/2009 (11:52 am)
You are still losing it John. ;) 
#3
:D
06/12/2009 (11:59 am)
So now we can't talk about none owners behind their backs ... is nothing sacred ... [/jk] ;P:D
#4
06/12/2009 (12:06 pm)
AWESOME FACE!!!! 
#7
Another idea may to put an activation system in place like the Torison and Pro show tool use, without activation thru your server, the product is whacked anyways and thus, useless for a pirate to use. I'm glad you guys are on top of your game. I hope your system works and gets more sales for you but doing so, I hope it don't end up hurting us all in the long run.
Thanks for posting about it.
Will Zettler
Digital Lightstorm
dlstorminc@yahoo.com
will_zettler@dlsstudio.com
dlsstudio.com
06/12/2009 (12:27 pm)
Glad you explained about the pirates issue, I was one who thinks opening the doors like this is a bad move due to hot copies floating around. Now anyone will be able to use the engine we paid for. I hope you have a good anti-pirate effort going cause it worries me but my eyes will be on the look out. Glad we got a new system to tell who is who cause I have received several e-mails asking me for the source, they the guy was from another country and could not download due to laws there. Uh huh, I'm sure we all heard something like that at one time or another.Another idea may to put an activation system in place like the Torison and Pro show tool use, without activation thru your server, the product is whacked anyways and thus, useless for a pirate to use. I'm glad you guys are on top of your game. I hope your system works and gets more sales for you but doing so, I hope it don't end up hurting us all in the long run.
Thanks for posting about it.
Will Zettler
Digital Lightstorm
dlstorminc@yahoo.com
will_zettler@dlsstudio.com
dlsstudio.com
#8
06/12/2009 (12:29 pm)
That happy face looks like it is happy because it just buried someone in a hole some where. Scarrryyy....
#9
If it makes you feel any better, we have been doing little experiments on the sly behind the community, opening up bits and pieces here and there that were closed before, and we didn't see an uptick in piracy during those times. On the contrary, we instead saw more interested users, which equals more Torque developers, which equals a better community overall. So we're staking that this will be better for all paying customers in the long run.
06/12/2009 (12:35 pm)
@Will: Rest assured that your concerns are also our concerns. This was not a move that we made lightly over a couple of beers in a bar. We had some pretty intense internal debate about the the pros and cons, with a full spectrum of possible outcomes. We even have the ability to roll back to a public/private split if we see increased pirate activity over the next few months, and we will if we have to, but we are fairly confident that the probability of that happening is low.If it makes you feel any better, we have been doing little experiments on the sly behind the community, opening up bits and pieces here and there that were closed before, and we didn't see an uptick in piracy during those times. On the contrary, we instead saw more interested users, which equals more Torque developers, which equals a better community overall. So we're staking that this will be better for all paying customers in the long run.
#10
Great improvement, GG folks. The company is becoming more open all the time :)
Next you'll start inviting random community members for waffles, right?
06/12/2009 (12:39 pm)
Oh, the anti-pirate system is quite simple: You try to release a commercial game with a stolen engine, you burn.Great improvement, GG folks. The company is becoming more open all the time :)
Next you'll start inviting random community members for waffles, right?
#11
06/12/2009 (12:42 pm)
Why is there no product key associated with Torque? 
#12
06/12/2009 (12:45 pm)
It is kind of difficult to DRM source code (since they can just delete the code to the DRM). Thus far in Torque's illustrious history we haven't had non-open source to stick the DRM in. 
#13
I guess I'm not crazy. I was looking everywhere today to find a private forum to post links to the Realm Wars source.
Guess I'll have to check out everyone who asks me for it. I really don't mind, since now I can finally access all the resources and forum threads.
BIG THANKS GG! We (the little guys) really appreciate it!
Tony
06/12/2009 (12:55 pm)
Oooh, I like waffles :)I guess I'm not crazy. I was looking everywhere today to find a private forum to post links to the Realm Wars source.
Guess I'll have to check out everyone who asks me for it. I really don't mind, since now I can finally access all the resources and forum threads.
BIG THANKS GG! We (the little guys) really appreciate it!
Tony
#15
This should make browsing the site easier. (when I can actually see the forums again)
06/12/2009 (1:35 pm)
Quote:This was not a move that we made lightly over a couple of beers in a barSure...have the hiccups subsided yet? :-D (just kidding btw)
This should make browsing the site easier. (when I can actually see the forums again)
#16
EDIT: and no. TGE doesn't show up on the "View all unread" page at all now, even though there have been "recent" posts there.
06/12/2009 (2:26 pm)
Does this mean that what used to be the TGE(Private) forums will actually show up on the "View all unread" page now?EDIT: and no. TGE doesn't show up on the "View all unread" page at all now, even though there have been "recent" posts there.
#17
06/12/2009 (2:27 pm)
I never trusted Bob Dave. 
#18
06/12/2009 (2:28 pm)
Studio Licenses for T3D need to show in all of our accounts where we have them assign so that there is no false accusations going forward.
#19
06/12/2009 (2:45 pm)
Maybe you guys can have small "badges" icon which will identify what engine you have purchase. So people will know off hand without having to click on the name. Yes I may have the Torque logo on my name, but that doesn't mean i have the iTGE etc.
#20
06/12/2009 (2:46 pm)
This is an awesome move. It can really bring in more customers who would like to purchase a Torque product, but don't know much about how it's used by different devs. Now you can take a look through the forums and see what types of things devs are doing. Will work wonders for gamedev.com and trying to show more reasons to purchase a Torque product. 
Associate John Kanalakis
EnvyGames
This is great news and will save me a lot of time, Thank you!
John K.
www.envygames.com