I posted a topic like this last night, but it got deleted. I doubt it was the moderators(do you delete threads, or just put them in the dead thread zone?), because the forums were down just after I posted it.
(luckily I copy and past my threads for safety)
NOTE :o pen source AND free software are always being refered to, not just one of them. I know there's a difference.
This will be one long rant. It started out small, but grew really large. I may be longwinded and bad at writing something, so forgive me if need be.
Ok imagine all that stuff about free software and open source. Great, cool etc.
One thing that NO ONE, not even Stallman mentions is COMPUTER GAMES! These are the negelected black sheep of the free software world, no one says how they should be, no one ponders their status. Everyone seems to think that there is more important things to a system then games(wrong).
Ironically, computer games might be the ONLY software that woulden't work out as free... Or would it?
A computer game is not some important productivity application. No one will suffer or be locked in to unfair corporate control if the source code is not available. Great amounts of effort are made to create an engine, an engine which isn't as reuseable as other types of code, an engine which may only be used a few times.
Would there still be incentive to make games and try to make money off them like they currently do with GPL stuff? It seems like games REALLY rely on their proprietary aspect to survive.
Ok but there is some serious dents to this argument. If games were free software, they would still cost cash, but could legally be "pirated"(which counts as copying not pirating). In the current market there is incentive to buy a game rather then pirate it. Warez sites are horrendous, P2P serivces are unreliable, and there is copy protection that makes burning more of a hassle for the less technically inclined. Don't forget about the size of the downloaded game, even with DSL(DSL is heavily dependant on finding a FAST download). With free software, these games would be available on lots of no-bullshit, easy to find download links. "Pirating" open source games sounds bad until you consider that there is a massive amount of pirating anyways.
The other aspect is price fixing. Computer games make excessive profits, have un-needed costs(ADVERTISING OF ALL SORTS! Stupid fucknuts, quit advertising and make a better game, or use the money saved from advertising to drop the price), and must make up for piracy in these costs. Alot of piracy comes from the price itself! Even after all these factors are taken care of, the price is still fixed! Sure it may go down, but only moderately.
Ok how can open source games possibly work? I went into this thread with a "nay" ideal, and after thinking some, left with a "HELL YA!" ideal. Imagine:
Open source games would have much lower costs, they may even sell really good too. Everyone knows that they can buy a copied version, but buying a copied version would prevent the game companies from making more games. With open source games, the corps can fuck off, the programmers are the kings now! They only have some menial labor corprate-ish staff to run the less cool functions of the company. People may suddenly be inspired to buy ONLY from the game companies(not 3rd party people selling $5 burnt CD's), because they would know the evil old style corps of the gaming past are dead. You see they would have a moral obligation.
People who bought pirated versions woulden't be freeloaders. They would be those who are too poor to afford the regular prices(well not everyone, some would be freeloaders), and are getting to be part of the community anyways. Kinda like giving to the poor. In the current corporate game development system this ideal would not work, people are robbed of morals because they hate the companies and are disatisfied at them. Open source brings new morals and a new sense of community and honor.
This would also turn into an excellent anti evil corporation system(evil corps, as in corps that happen to be bad corps, not corps in general). Start making too much excess profits that you hoard for yourself or waste on fruitless mass advertising, your company dies(because you didn't put that money back into games). Only the morally pure companies survive.
Ok but it gets even better. There is no restrictions on the source, companies team up directly or in-directly. Game engines start doing shit that is absolutely amazing, and these engines get more and more optimized. With the optimization that comes from all the companies no longer using new hardware to pick up the slack, developers could make games that run good on older hardware, or need newer hardware to run and use amazing technology. Everyone is moving in one direction, greater and greater games.
Linux companies sell service, game companies sell you a game to put on top of their engine(and a box+manual, and some tech support!), an engine which is far more modable then something like Half-life.
This leads me to one of the greatest parts of all. People could make mods for their favorite games in a way that has never been done before. They can either rip the damn thing apart so the game can work the way they want it, or just use the high level game scripting tools that the developers provide with it. Also, these mods could be totally free projects with no burnt CD available. Or, people might start mod teams who rely on people buying their very low priced mods(much lower then the cost of the actual low cost main game) to continue being able to do this in their spare time.
The only problem is a lack of standards. So maybe people would try to create mods that are based on one company's engine for proper compatibility and much better support(as people flock to one engine, more and more tutorials and coders become available). This may negate the advantage of modifying the source code to make your game better. However, chances are the engines would be pushed to such a high level of excellence(due to open source), that mod makers would end up never having to use the raw source code(the scripting language does everything)!
Heard about h4x0r strike 2 for Full-life? Dammit I don't have Full Life, well I want to try this out. I'll just download Full-life for free and perhaps buy it if I like h4x0r strike 2. With current games, whether people bother making a mod depends on how many people own the main game. With open source games, developers are free to choose whichever engine works the best for their needs.
With so many advantages, how could open source games get any cooler? To stay in buisness as a full time company, the actual game developers(not just small time stuff, the big trend forging leaders), would need to staffed by alot of members that are vastly superior to the average talented spare time designer(perhaps superior to the average current gaming industry worker). Companies would be reduced to elite organizations of the best minds in the gaming world, making even better games and engines for all!
What does everyone think of my gaming utopia concept? To me it sounds like free software can lead games into a new age. Perhaps Linux could start this very soon, but it may not work properly until Microsoft is dead for a few years. People will still be used to their past morals of rampant pirating(after Microsoft is dead), not understanding the moral light of the new open source OS's that are everywhere.
Chances are everyone will move to Mac and Linux, so will the game companies. In theory, if the community was behind them, open source developers would destory closed source developers. This could be accomplished either by converting them or destroying them. The GPL would be a deadly bug, converting companies outright(by using GPL code and complying with the rules), or giving them a major disadvantage in competing with open source companies(because they decide to avoid using GPL code). Sure they could steal GPL code and break the GPL, but they would get raped by the FSF.
Another advantage for open source game companies, people would be more inclined to buy open source games. They can do more with it, they cost less, and they are helping to bring about a future Utopia.
[ October 24, 2002: Message edited by: lazygamer ]