Hello kids!
OK so this game is now over 20 years old. There are other titles of different types still operating this long too, but I only really know about LFS and it's community. Ok so the game is old. LOL well so are the devs. Recently I had a very close friend pass away, he was about the same age as me and I'm about in the same age group as the devs. So I was surfing the web and came here after I had this thought. What happens with everything once the devs passes away? Will the rights be sold or somehow passed on before they do? Can you sell the rights at this point? Everyone I know that plays video games, none of them play racing sims, much less plays anything on a PC. I'm guessing community members will prop up the servers and the hot lapping for a while until interest finally wanes.
I dunno. Lots of talk here at home about wills and retirement and whatnot lately. But once I leave my job, that's it. My job becomes someone else's problem. Having to work with LFS seems to be a little different as far as that goes.

Sorry, didn't mean to come off so depressing.

I'm only 53 and doing my best to stay alive.

I eat well, don't drink much, go for short runs, walk most days, even ride my bike a bit occasionally.

Trying to avoid accidental death too. Even bought a new ladder as the old one was a bit wobbly.

Accidents do happen and there may be unexpected illnesses but personally my focus is to avoid death wherever possible.

I know it doesn't really answer your question but it's the way I think.

Dont die men

Quote from Scawen :

I'm only 53 and doing my best to stay alive. :nod...

is there any plans on what to do with LFS, once you can't continue developing the game? it's a weird topic sure, but noone can keep working forever

No, my plan is to do as many things as possible that we'd like to do with it. I don't have a plan for when I can't work on it. Usually I like working on it but long periods of time every year dealing with hackers, crackers and attackers does start to make me wonder how long I want to go on.

But I actually need to keep earning money to live on and would rather do this than something else. So for now I'll keep on going as there's some cool stuff to release and work on after our coming release too. I don't really want to look too far ahead.

Everybody has to slow down eventually.

Possible retirement projects:
LFW - Live for Watercolours?
LFABoG - ..a bit of Gardening?
LFTtPGNGB - trying to play grandson's new Gameboy.

Plenty to be pottering along with.

It would certainly be nice to see LFS take a big leap forwards first, though. If anything can get me back behind the wheel, that will.

Quote from Scawen :

I'm only 53 and doing my best to stay alive.

I eat well, don't drink much, go for short runs, walk most days, even ride my bike a bit occasionally.

Trying to avoid accidental death too. Even bought a new ladder as the old one was a bit wobbly.

Accidents do happen and there may be unexpected illnesses but personally my focus is to avoid death wherever possible.

I know it doesn't really answer your question but it's the way I think.

LOL Ladders are expensive.
I turn 60 on the 23rd. I really didn't feel all that old in my early 50s.
I didn't start to feel "old" til around 58. But yeah, after 50 or so, it might be best to
think a little bit than a couple a days ahead. We do tend to have more people that depend on us. At 50, I had parent's kids and grandkids. Oh and grandkids. I don't know where you're at with that, but they are why you don't sell your children.
I was lucky to get some while I still had somewhat decent knees. But Yeah, I was just wondering if any sort of I dunno - of an end game or so was planned at sometime. I don't know what it's like to retire in the UK, much less how a self employed person goes about it.

Hm... if I knew what my future would had been back then, I would not be thinking about my present in current situation.

Judging by trends in the video game industry, LFS may still be around when those simulators that are yet to come have already gone. That said, let's continue to strive in the fundamental task of not dying.

Quote from Scawen :

I'm only 53 and doing my best to stay alive.

I eat well, don't drink much, go for short runs, walk most days, even ride my bike a bit occasionally.

Trying to avoid accidental death too. Even bought a new ladder as the old one was a bit wobbly.

Accidents do happen and there may be unexpected illnesses but personally my focus is to avoid death wherever possible.

I know it doesn't really answer your question but it's the way I think.

Haven't you quit smoking too? Or am I just mistaken? If I'm not mistaken, it's nice that you've already forgotten to mention it.

13 years ago, yes.

Comming from science, I see these situations often.

Old professors and great experimentalists before they go to retirement usualy pass on their experimentall setups to their younger collegues. Or if there was no one to pass it to, it just goes to a junkyard as a scrap metal. We're talking about a few milions of tax payer euros worth of equipement, somewhat outdated systems and electronics and someone's life work he put 30-40 years into. I was lucky enough to work with such great pieces of art basicaly and it's a priviledge, I'm very grateful.

Sometimes, young people take it and put it asside to collect dust. You know, these are not magic 1 button machines that you turn on add not touch anymore. They require very specialy skilled people, who are not afraid to dig in deep, operate it, maintain, upgrade and improve it over years to come.

Back to LFS, as a software engeneering project it's quite elaborate and huge. Even if we could just get the source code, it doesn't mean we as a community could do anything with it. There should be at some point younger people slowly let into the picture, to learn about functions, methods, routines, classes, building blocks of LFS. Otherwise, once devs can't maintain it anymore the progress will most likely stop. One thing come to my mind is some kind of dev video log tutorials, but I guess it's still too early for that.

Oh, is this gently drifting into the realm of philosophical discussion? I think LFS is a very unique and personal project, and truly one of a kind. A journey that will come to an end someday, but that day is not today.

Couldn't agree more with the post above, except for the video log tutorials suggestion. I mean, I've seen enough people worried about their legacy at the time of their retirement to know that the more effort you put into preserving it the faster it fades away. Life goes on, no matter what.

However, you can always make an impression. And the better and deeper that impression, the more of you, or your work, will somehow endure into the future.

I can take over the development once Scawen had enough.

We have sometimes talked in our community that if we could get money somewhere 1 000 000 euros we would gifted that money to scawen if he promise to hire more people to help him make sooner the game what he want it to be in his wild dreams. Too bad we are poor. I hope that he accept the free help what the community could offer to help him to achive sooner the dreams.

I think we've been through this conversation many times... the developers have stated many times that they simply don't want to hire any more people "to speeed up development", it's not about money, it's just that they want to work on their own, at their own pace.

Quote from rane_nbg :

Comming from science, I see these situations often...

Someone could definetely make sense of the source code and understand it enough to continue developing. It's 2025, people have built Minecraft from scratch, their own graphics engines etc. etc. Nothing is impossible, just dedication is needed

Quote from R-to :

We have sometimes talked in our community that if we could get money somewhere 1 000 000 euros we would gifted that money to scawen if he promise to hire more people to help him make sooner the game what he want it to be in his wild dreams.

yeah, even if that was the case, it would be harder to make the game/simulator that he wants. More people = faster release, but at the same time, it would mean more arguments and what else, as every person has their own opinion, point of view, etc.

I'm proud of Scawen, Victor, Eric and Geraldine considering how far they've come with LFS. From nothing to something, last few years have been the greatest update wise. I understand that there are fallbacks, errors and other nuances that appear when you're developing a multiplayer game. By nuances I mean multiple crack sagas and 'hackers' that 'steal' account credentials.

As I've read, Scawen has taken over website side of things as well as one of the developers rather spend time, energy and whatelse on full-time job and that's totally okay and reasonable. What's astonishing is the fact that Scawen can handle it surprisingly well, all of the havoc that's been going on for ages and this incredible man is still working hard on updating and making LFS better, keeping orders & website up and running, dealing with people etc.

Can't also forget the other developers, Eric & Victor, who are more behind the scenes. Eric being artist, updating and making tracks better. Victor being webmaster and making everything LFS website wise or wide work.

Definitely worth mentioning is Geraldine, who's in charge of dealing with support matters. If it wasn't for her, LFS development would probably be delayed even further.

LFS is purely this what it is right now, because of those three people. If there were any more people, the end result could've gone both ways but I'm certainly happy with LFS how it is now.

Quote from Viperakecske :

I can take over the development once Scawen had enough.

finally LFS will have realistic jiggle physics when you take over

Quote from gu3st :

finally LFS will have realistic jiggle physics when you take over

explain it further

Quote from Viperakecske :

explain it further

i think he's projecting

Quote from k_badam :

i think he's projecting

lol hes a projector

I believe LFS has enormous potential in the future It just needs to keep releasing new features like it's doing.

It may not seem like it, but mod support has given LiveForSpeed a whole new lease of life, and it will continue to do so when new graphics updates, tracks, etc. are released.

I believe LFS has everything it needs to return to its former self and even surpass what it already was. It just needs to keep releasing more new features, and more groundbreaking ones (mod support was one of the groundbreaking innovations, because from here on, leagues can create some really interesting things).

Quote from gu3st :

finally LFS will have realistic jiggle physics when you take over

When will we have smells?