Bug#933221: openarena: suggestion to make openarena -players-mature optional

[Simon McVittie]

Control: tags -1 + upstream wontfix

On Sat, 27 Jul 2019 at 13:01:48 -0400, Tom Goulet wrote:
> I was hoping to get openarena installed, but without the -mature package.

This was possible in OpenArena 0.8.1, but it can't actually work since
0.8.5 because of the way the 0.8.5 and 0.8.8 patches were structured. The
patches contain updates to some of the player models found in the -mature
package, which mean the directory containing those models exists, which is
how the game engine decides which player models should be made available
- but because some of them rely on files from the -mature package, the
player model will be invisible (!) which needless to say makes the game
rather unfair.

It isn't straightforward to fix this as a Debian-specific patch either,
because that would make Debian clients incompatible with upstream
servers (the Quake III Arena engine checks for matching data files during
connection to a server), which is undesirable for a multiplayer-focused
game. So I'm afraid this probably has to be "won't fix".

Even in 0.8.1, removing the -mature package never worked very well,
because in practice multiplayer servers have it, so connecting from
a client that doesn't have it will trigger the check for mismatched
data files and cause connection to fail.

I've tried to explain this in the package description without making it
too long:

    In OpenArena 0.8.1 these player models were optional, but the
    structure of the 0.8.5 patch means they cannot be removed from 0.8.5
    or later versions.

If you have suggestions for better wording I'd be happy to consider them.

> Myself, and some people with whom I'd like to share Linux, have reasons to not
> allow nudity, partial or not, for personal or religious reasons.  Also there
> are children that use Debian and descended distributions, and I'd like them to
> use free software, too.

With or without these "mature"[1] player models, OpenArena is rather violent
(it's a Free Software clone of Quake III Arena), so I wouldn't recommend
it for children in any case.

    smcv

[1] or immature, depending on your point of view - the package name
    reflects upstream's naming for pak2-players-mature.pk3 rather than
    being a value-judgement by its Debian maintainers