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Jason Rohrer [1] is the author of Passage [2]. His latest game, "One Hour One Life" [3], is a massively multiplayer online game where your character has only o

Jason Rohrer [1] is the author of Passage [2]. His latest game, "One Hour One Life" [3], is a massively multiplayer online game where your character has only one hour of life. You start off as a baby and are dependent on others for shelter and heat before you're able to be autonomous. Eventually you die of old age but your impact on the world/server persists. I recommend anyone interested to purchase the game [4] or at least look at video stream of gameplay [5]. When I purchased the game, the source code came with it and as far as I could tell was dedicated to the public domain. This was client code so I'm not sure if the server code is released anywhere (maybe this was what was taken down at GitHub). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Rohrer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Rohrer [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passage_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passage_(video_game) [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Hour_One_Life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Hour_One_Life [4] http://onehouronelife.com/ http://onehouronelife.com/ [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu7kXKuShks&list=PLcA1QDRup-hZXT8_lcVXaXcRyR-nJgfih https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu7kXKuShks&list=PLcA1QDRup-...

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
aasasd 7y ago
He's also idiosyncratic in the approach to the rest of his life. When he practiced ‘simple living,’ in his front yard he had (or still has?) a small wild garden with uncut grass, where he of course walked barefoot and his children played naked (iirc). He was taken to the court by neighbors on the issue of grass, and appeared there with a tome of paper citing local laws and research that says cut grass exudes harmful substances. Whereupon he was left to do as he pleases. The article on Rohrer, which included this anecdote, theorized that his court appearance proved his gardening choices to be a matter of principle and not just negligence, thus changing the perception of him by the neighbors. Meanwhile, his ‘Passage’ is in MOMA's initial videogame collection, and he's had a solo exhibition at The Davis Museum.
- enriquto 7y ago
  It would seem that he has some idiosyncratic neighbors, then. But they are not alone, a certain amount of people are strangely obsessed by the grass of their neighbors. My kids loved the dandelions of my grass and I let them grow, but then I received regular bullying by the old lady next to our place, who had a "perfect" french style garden, and looked at us as if we were some kind of savages. I actually found this bevavior rather funny.
  - atoav 7y ago
    In such situations I tend to go onto the meta level and ask them that they realize what they are doing at that moment: looking perfect is more important to them than acting like a perfect neighbour. So something like: “I always thought of you as a good neighbour, because of your beautiful garden, but is complaining about your neighbours garden something a good neighbour would do?” Usually they never bother you again then.
    - dTal 7y ago
      That particular phrasing comes across a mite hypocritical - if you admit that having a well-kept garden makes one a good neighbor, then you are admitting that your unkempt garden makes you a bad neighbor.
      - enriquto 7y ago
        > if you admit that having a well-kept garden makes one a good neighbor, then you are admitting that your unkempt garden makes you a bad neighbor. No, you aren't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming_the_consequent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming_the_consequent
        dTal 7y ago
        This isn't formal logic - it's basic reciprocal socialization. Humans believe in holding everyone to similar standards as a basic principle ("fairness"). You are simultaneously reaffirming your neighbor's standards for themselves, and rejecting them for yourself. This will be seen as hypocritical, and in the real world, if you try to defend this behavior by citing the Wikipedia article on "Affirming the consequent", you will rapidly find yourself on your neighbor's mental "pedantic asshole" list.
babuskov 7y ago
> as far as I could tell was dedicated to the public domain I recommend everyone to read this regarding that matter: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/ay0w64/one_hour_one_life_one_mess/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/ay0w64/one_hour_on... I don't think Jason really understood what public domain means when he released the game into public domain. Once people started using his work as PD work, he started to complain, file DMCA requests, etc.
- abetusk 7y ago
  Very interesting, thanks! Just to be clear, it looks like Jason Rohrer is still very much committed to putting his work in the public domain and, as far as I can tell, has been consistent in his commitment to keeping the work he's dedicated to the public domain in the public domain. What looks to be happening is more of a trademark issue. I think Jason Rohrer might be backpeddling on that. It looks like he clearly indicated to people making a port that the "One Hour One Life" name was also in the public domain and could be used but that they shouldn't, essentially making an ethical argument. When the iOS port that was similarly named ("One Hour One Life for iOS") and became more popular than his released game, that's when he started to push back. [1] It looks like a big point of contention for Jason Rohrer is brand confusion as many people don't realize the iOS port of "One Hour One Life" has nothing to do with Jason Rohrer. I sympathize with him but I wish he had taken a bigger stance on his trademark. Free/libre/open source organizations have understood this and use trademark to brand themselves and make sure others don't dilute that brand without permission. This is how the Open Source Hardware Association essentially does their certification and why you can't use "Free Software Foundation" in your open source project's name without permission. [1] https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5479 https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5479
  - aasasd 7y ago
    From his twitter, he apparently has recently filed a trademark application for OHOL.
    - abetusk 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

aasasd 7y ago

He's also idiosyncratic in the approach to the rest of his life. When he practiced ‘simple living,’ in his front yard he had (or still has?) a small wild garden with uncut grass, where he of course walked barefoot and his children played naked (iirc). He was taken to the court by neighbors on the issue of grass, and appeared there with a tome of paper citing local laws and research that says cut grass exudes harmful substances. Whereupon he was left to do as he pleases. The article on Rohrer, which included this anecdote, theorized that his court appearance proved his gardening choices to be a matter of principle and not just negligence, thus changing the perception of him by the neighbors. Meanwhile, his ‘Passage’ is in MOMA's initial videogame collection, and he's had a solo exhibition at The Davis Museum.

enriquto 7y ago
It would seem that he has some idiosyncratic neighbors, then. But they are not alone, a certain amount of people are strangely obsessed by the grass of their neighbors. My kids loved the dandelions of my grass and I let them grow, but then I received regular bullying by the old lady next to our place, who had a "perfect" french style garden, and looked at us as if we were some kind of savages. I actually found this bevavior rather funny.
- atoav 7y ago
  In such situations I tend to go onto the meta level and ask them that they realize what they are doing at that moment: looking perfect is more important to them than acting like a perfect neighbour. So something like: “I always thought of you as a good neighbour, because of your beautiful garden, but is complaining about your neighbours garden something a good neighbour would do?” Usually they never bother you again then.
  - dTal 7y ago
    That particular phrasing comes across a mite hypocritical - if you admit that having a well-kept garden makes one a good neighbor, then you are admitting that your unkempt garden makes you a bad neighbor.
    - enriquto 7y ago
      > if you admit that having a well-kept garden makes one a good neighbor, then you are admitting that your unkempt garden makes you a bad neighbor. No, you aren't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming_the_consequent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming_the_consequent
      - dTal 7y ago
        This isn't formal logic - it's basic reciprocal socialization. Humans believe in holding everyone to similar standards as a basic principle ("fairness"). You are simultaneously reaffirming your neighbor's standards for themselves, and rejecting them for yourself. This will be seen as hypocritical, and in the real world, if you try to defend this behavior by citing the Wikipedia article on "Affirming the consequent", you will rapidly find yourself on your neighbor's mental "pedantic asshole" list.

babuskov 7y ago

> as far as I could tell was dedicated to the public domain I recommend everyone to read this regarding that matter: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/ay0w64/one_hour_one_life_one_mess/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/ay0w64/one_hour_on... I don't think Jason really understood what public domain means when he released the game into public domain. Once people started using his work as PD work, he started to complain, file DMCA requests, etc.

abetusk 7y ago
Very interesting, thanks! Just to be clear, it looks like Jason Rohrer is still very much committed to putting his work in the public domain and, as far as I can tell, has been consistent in his commitment to keeping the work he's dedicated to the public domain in the public domain. What looks to be happening is more of a trademark issue. I think Jason Rohrer might be backpeddling on that. It looks like he clearly indicated to people making a port that the "One Hour One Life" name was also in the public domain and could be used but that they shouldn't, essentially making an ethical argument. When the iOS port that was similarly named ("One Hour One Life for iOS") and became more popular than his released game, that's when he started to push back. [1] It looks like a big point of contention for Jason Rohrer is brand confusion as many people don't realize the iOS port of "One Hour One Life" has nothing to do with Jason Rohrer. I sympathize with him but I wish he had taken a bigger stance on his trademark. Free/libre/open source organizations have understood this and use trademark to brand themselves and make sure others don't dilute that brand without permission. This is how the Open Source Hardware Association essentially does their certification and why you can't use "Free Software Foundation" in your open source project's name without permission. [1] https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5479 https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5479
- aasasd 7y ago
  From his twitter, he apparently has recently filed a trademark application for OHOL.
  - abetusk 7y ago