EHM The Blue Line

Hopefully this is alright

I can't be the only one who wonders on progress of Dabo's work.

Was just wondering if we can have a small blog type topic for Dabo to post in maybe just to give us an update on what he has started or even what he has finished so far (if anything).

Also a Q&A topic would be nice. I have a few questions, and don't want to start a topic in the nice clean DHM forum.

(feel free to delete/edit for forum cleanup)

One topic for all updates would be a good idea. In order to keep it clean I will probably start a new topic where only I post. The downside is that comments would have to go elsewhere. Would be nice with subforums in subforums

About the Q&A, so your questions don't fit in any of the other topics?

Why don't we have 2 threads? One thread would be for dabo to post stats updates and nobody else is allowed to post there. The other would be a comments thread for the status updates. Does that makes sense?

Yeah

I'll talk to Archi about it. There might have to be something done with right to make it so that you can have a thread that only you can write to.

Bill asked me about this in the Mods Forum. I may as well quote my response here. Let me know which one you prefer Dabo:

archibalduk wrote:When I setup the Dabo Forum I made him a mod of just that forum. He has two choices really:

1) He can make a sticky/announcement which is locked. As he's a mod then he'll be able to post in that thread despite it being locked - of course nobody else (other than us mods) would be able to do so.

2) He could use his personal TBL Blog. Again, only he would be able to post in it. An added bonus is that users can comment on each blog post. This would mean not having to have two threads for Dabo's progress. Instead users can post comments on individual blog posts and it will say X number of comments have been posted on this blog post - and then you click on it to view.

I could easily add a feature to the top of the DHM Forum which lists (and links to) Dabo's latest blog posts.

Didn't know about the blog thing, I think it is worth a try.

EDIT: I created a DHM blog now, guess archibalduk decided Dabo Hockey Manager (DHM) is the working title. Hopefully we can come up with something better when it's time for the first official release.

I'm really looking forward to reading your blog dabo! As far as I'm concerned any info you want to share during the development of your game will be a must read.

dabo wrote:Didn't know about the blog thing, I think it is worth a try.

I'll try to sort out the DHM Forum tomorrow so it will notify us all whenever you post a new blog item.

dabo wrote: guess archibalduk decided Dabo Hockey Manager (DHM) is the working title.

Haha well I didn't know what else to call the forum! Let me know if you want the forum name changed to something else

archibalduk wrote:Haha well I didn't know what else to call the forum! Let me know if you want the forum name changed to something else

No it is ok, I have no other suggestions atm anyway.

soo for time being I will just use this for a small question section

I was wondering what the plan is on lisences? I noticed that the player profile page has Dion Phaneuf, but I am guessing we won't be doing anything w/ NHL or any other major leagues?

drewst18 wrote:I was wondering what the plan is on lisences? I noticed that the player profile page has Dion Phaneuf, but I am guessing we won't be doing anything w/ NHL or any other major leagues?

I could imagine the game itself won't include any real life leagues due to a license issues, but "unofficial updates" by community...


Let's wait what Dabo says..

To be honest I am not sure, the freeware version of EHM did have real names etc right? Otherwise the safest way is to use fake players in the official releases, that's what I am gonna use when I test the game anyway since I got bored to death while adding two players to the database manually.

Animal wrote:

drewst18 wrote:I was wondering what the plan is on lisences? I noticed that the player profile page has Dion Phaneuf, but I am guessing we won't be doing anything w/ NHL or any other major leagues?

I could imagine the game itself won't include any real life leagues due to a license issues, but "unofficial updates" by community...


Let's wait what Dabo says..

I think so long as it's freeware and isn't sold for any kind of profit (though donations obviously are still fine) then you don't need to acquire the official licences for any of the leagues. Correct me if I'm wrong.

dabo wrote:To be honest I am not sure, the freeware version of EHM did have real names etc right? Otherwise the safest way is to use fake players in the official releases, that's what I am gonna use when I test the game anyway since I got bored to death while adding two players to the database manually.

If you do use fake names I'm sure there are a few people here who would be more than happy to do the grunt work of unfaking them.

Quick question to Dabo...

How are you tracking all these suggestions - especially as become more like requirements?

And do you need any help with that?

ArtVandelay wrote:Quick question to Dabo...

How are you tracking all these suggestions - especially as become more like requirements?

And do you need any help with that?

I have a feeling his tracking system looks a bit like This.

Canuckk wrote:

Animal wrote:

drewst18 wrote:I was wondering what the plan is on lisences? I noticed that the player profile page has Dion Phaneuf, but I am guessing we won't be doing anything w/ NHL or any other major leagues?

I could imagine the game itself won't include any real life leagues due to a license issues, but "unofficial updates" by community...


Let's wait what Dabo says..

I think so long as it's freeware and isn't sold for any kind of profit (though donations obviously are still fine) then you don't need to acquire the official licences for any of the leagues. Correct me if I'm wrong.

As far as my limited intellectual property law knowledge goes (darn I wish I'd studied the IP law module at university - would have come in so handy!) then I don't think it makes a difference whether it is freeware or not. Technically I believe it is in violation of copyright - just like the EHM 07 unfaking roster updates, team logos, facepacks, etc - or any such addons for any other sports game.

I think Dabo should just go with using the real names. There is no difference between him using the real names or by someone else having to release an unfaking update. We would be making life a lot harder for ourselves if Dabo is going to have to spend time generating fake names and others spending time having to unfake them - let's make life easier for ourselves and just use the real data.

So long as Dabo isn't selling the game for money then we should be ok.

archibalduk wrote:

dabo wrote:Didn't know about the blog thing, I think it is worth a try.

I'll try to sort out the DHM Forum tomorrow so it will notify us all whenever you post a new blog item.

I have added a latest updates section to the top of the DHM Forum. Whenever Dabo posts a new blog article, it will appear in the latest updates section.

archibalduk wrote:I have added a latest updates section to the top of the DHM Forum. Whenever Dabo posts a new blog article, it will appear in the latest updates section.

Good job, will try to post something soon then

archibalduk wrote:

Canuckk wrote:

Animal wrote: I could imagine the game itself won't include any real life leagues due to a license issues, but "unofficial updates" by community...


Let's wait what Dabo says..

I think so long as it's freeware and isn't sold for any kind of profit (though donations obviously are still fine) then you don't need to acquire the official licences for any of the leagues. Correct me if I'm wrong.

As far as my limited intellectual property law knowledge goes (darn I wish I'd studied the IP law module at university - would have come in so handy!) then I don't think it makes a difference whether it is freeware or not. Technically I believe it is in violation of copyright - just like the EHM 07 unfaking roster updates, team logos, facepacks, etc - or any such addons for any other sports game.

I think Dabo should just go with using the real names. There is no difference between him using the real names or by someone else having to release an unfaking update. We would be making life a lot harder for ourselves if Dabo is going to have to spend time generating fake names and others spending time having to unfake them - let's make life easier for ourselves and just use the real data.

So long as Dabo isn't selling the game for money then we should be ok.

This is correct. The "its ok if I don't make money off it" is a common misconception. However, I agree. Unless someone sends a "cease and desist" letter I would go ahead and just do the real stuff.

found an old blog, not quite sure if this is still the same game as was being created 2/3 years ago...
http://hockeymanager.blogspot.com/

if it is though, it seems that dabo has decided to use real leagues; which could pose a problem w/ liscenses.

this could be VERY old for some people

That's not this game, I started working on this game this year.

If there are any potential legal problems with real names even though I make no money I will use fake names. I will write code to generate players, teams and leagues anyway.

I suggest you to make a sort of 0/1 for real names with a "secret" password to be included into smth like an extracfg file like in EHM

dabo wrote:That's not this game, I started working on this game this year.

If there are any potential legal problems with real names even though I make no money I will use fake names. I will write code to generate players, teams and leagues anyway.

That's fair enough. Also, remember that it's not just players' names but it's also the names of teams, leagues and arenas. It's also even the abbreviations of teams and leagues - so you cannot use "NHL" in your game as that is a trademark. It also includes using logos or any photos/pictures (unless the person taking the photos has given you permission to use their photos). However, only the actual NHL, teams, etc can give permission to use logos.

Using a secret code, etc to unlock the names, etc is also infringement of copyright because you would have the real names stored in your database.

So if you don't want to infringe copyrights, absolutely everything has to be fake.

It would be sufficient to use players' real surnames but use fake first names. You could still use real dates of birth, etc too.

If you're going to fake everything then please please make it easy for us to "unfake". There are plenty of us here willing to take the chance and release addons using real data!

To be honest, the NHL would likely never sue you. They would more likely send you an email asking you to remove the offending data/logos/etc from your game. I remember a site which was offering free illegal streams of live NHL games - the NHL wrote them a very polite letter saying they appreciated their enthusiasm for the sport but that as it's illegal asked that they remove the streams - very reasonable.