Game data may always be functional data.
Seeing you may not be able to use a game without it's data,
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/superfluous-returnz#comment-172834
seeing a user called andyprough typed
I don't see the problem - just don't download the non-functional data and play the game without any graphics, dialogue, music, sounds, sprites, etc. It will be awesome.
I think as a joke,
should all game data be considered functional data and need to be licensed under a free software license? Or will those games need to replace all the data to freely licensed data like mineclone2 may be doing.
https://git.minetest.land/MineClone2/MineClone2/pulls/1973
Though that than may need a clean room design.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design
So games with non-free data may be more hard to edit or play unless the non-floss data is licensed under a "free as in freedom" license or replaced with a clean room design.
Unless a clean room design does not work with copyrighted things and only game machanics.
I found that link at
https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?p=431893#p431893
after asking a question about any ZSTD patent grant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zstd#License
and how best to comply with GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL).
https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?t=30112
Also I think that a user call throgh at
https://forums.hyperbola.info/viewtopic.php?pid=7366#p7366
may be correct in typing something like
Especially games need this data
Although I do not know about the grammar. I also think I have made mistakes in typing before in posts, or saving those posts at web.archive.org
I see at least 3 people may think games may be hard to play, or not possible to play without game data.
I do not know of any games that can be played on a computer without game data, unless it is something like chess in a terminal.
Also without any pointer icon and other things I will have to learn more terminal commands, with a data of a free typeface or something, so I can see what I'm typing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursor_(user_interface)#Pointer
So maybe most or all data is functional data.
Most game data are image and sound files. Those are clearly not functional data.
I sometimes play Capture the flag in minetest and I see other player characters because of the image on the model and hear the sound of digging nodes to help me know if players are digging near me.
Data that isn't functional, that doesn't do a practical job, is more of an adornment to the system's software than a part of it. Thus, we don't insist on the free license criteria for non-functional data. It can be included in a free system distribution as long as its license gives you permission to copy and redistribute, both for commercial and non-commercial purposes. For example, some game engines released under the GNU GPL have accompanying game information—a fictional world map, game graphics, and so on—released under such a verbatim-distribution license. This kind of data can be part of a free system distribution, even though its license does not qualify as free, because it is non-functional.
https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.en.html
The images and sound on the minetest game do the "practical job", I think, of letting me see other player characters and hear them. The game map lets me play.
Also there is a game letting me turn nodes into 3d prints. Though I did not test this yet.
https://content.minetest.net/packages/Warr1024/fdmcube/
It is under the the MIT license, I think.
So map data can be used for the practical job of making 3d prints, seeing that without it the fdmcube game can not do anything, I think.
What are examples of "Data that isn't functional, that doesn't do a practical job" or is non-functional data?
>"seeing a user called andyprough typed..."
Good to see that this is all my fault as usual.