4 ms·

It seems like it was a more authentic place before the money caught up with it. Isn't that the way it always goes? I wish there were some way of permanently l

It seems like it was a more authentic place before the money caught up with it. Isn't that the way it always goes? I wish there were some way of permanently locking Wall Street out of the picture so we could actually have some nice things.

CM30 7y ago
Unfortunately, it seems the only way to have a field where Wall Street/commercial entities aren't involved is to have one where it's illegal to make money off said field. For instance, game mods/fan works tend to be a lot like web development or content creation from the early days of the internet, since it's literally illegal to run a business that creates and sells them. One of the reasons I follow the progress of said scenes a lot, because they're some of the few communities I know of where wealth isn't really an advantage.
- chasontherobot 7y ago
  So, a few really cool things but 95% weird porn?
  - waterhouse 7y ago
    I'm mostly familiar with EV Nova and KOTOR mods, which are posted to websites that probably filter for obscenity. EV Nova doesn't really have pictures of people; but KOTOR definitely has plenty of appearance-focused mods (including one described as "More sexy underwear for females"), and on some other games I have heard of mods that fall into the "weird porn" category.
  - simion314 7y ago
    I think your number is too big, home many nude mods can be for a game? If you mean some revealing armor/clothing then that is not porn not even "adult". There will always be a large number of lower effort mods, it is easy to retexture or cut parts of existing armors then building new ones from scratch. The main issue I see with some modding communities is the big egos of some people that leads to terms of use like "don't share this, this mod should not be shared on as different website" , it will make it kind of illegal then when the specified website will no longer exists to archive and move the mods or to create mod packs.
  - CM30 7y ago
    Nah, more like the other way around. But obviously it depends on what games you're interested in seeing mods and fan projects of. The vast majority of the Mario/Zelda/Sonic/Metroid/Mega Man fan game and game mod/hack scene is basically entirely new games built on the original series' engine. Some of the stuff you see there is crazy, arguably on par with many of the more well funded open source software found online. Like that project which adds online multiplayer to Super Mario 64, the mods which add MP3 music to SNES games, a Metroid mod which remade Metroid Fusion in Super Metroid with all the original content and an even smarter version of the SA-X hunting you down. Or perhaps Wiimmfi, which basically replaced all of Nintendo's online services for the DS and Wii, then significantly expanded on them with extra features and modes. It's kind of insane how technically advanced much of this stuff can be, given it's all made by hobbyists in their free time with no hope of ever getting paid.
komali2 7y ago
That's the non-profit, free software world. It exists, gnu.org compiles a lot of free software if you're interested, or there's other organizations that compile stuff like free blueprints for farm equipment, free music, sprites, etc. It's out there, but a lot of people generally consider the free/libre stuff "lower quality," which is often a fair accusation.
- marssaxman 7y ago
  Oh, yes! - I use free software almost exclusively. It may not always be as polished as the commercial competition, but it feels better to be part of a sharing community. I feel especially fortunate that my current job allows me to make a good living developing free software.
- a1369209993 7y ago
  > That's the non-profit, free software world. And then Red Hat[0] happened, and it all went to hell, like everything else Wall Street touches. 0: et many al, but they're the most visible culprits due to things like wayland and systemd.
skybrian 7y ago
Best case is you get something like Craigslist, but more likely they would have gone out of business by now (shut down for piracy) and we wouldn't have any nice things.
ijidak 7y ago
Don't make money. :) That will keep wall street permanently at bay.
- manderley 7y ago
  Pretty sure not making money is what attracts the most investment money these days.
menzoic 7y ago
Reddit
dredmorbius 7y ago
Sci-Hub!
spinach 7y ago
Seems a bit ironic to say that on a site of a company that helps fund a lot of tech start-ups. Start-ups whose end goal seems to be getting ridiculously rich and doing an IPO.
- charliesome 7y ago
  This feels a bit like the "if you don't like capitalism why do you use an iPhone?" argument. The reality is that Hacker News is a generally high quality technical forum and that's the reason a lot of people are here.
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    >This feels a bit like the "if you don't like capitalism why do you use an iPhone?" argument. // That's a pretty good question though?

CM30 7y ago

Unfortunately, it seems the only way to have a field where Wall Street/commercial entities aren't involved is to have one where it's illegal to make money off said field. For instance, game mods/fan works tend to be a lot like web development or content creation from the early days of the internet, since it's literally illegal to run a business that creates and sells them. One of the reasons I follow the progress of said scenes a lot, because they're some of the few communities I know of where wealth isn't really an advantage.

chasontherobot 7y ago
So, a few really cool things but 95% weird porn?
- waterhouse 7y ago
  I'm mostly familiar with EV Nova and KOTOR mods, which are posted to websites that probably filter for obscenity. EV Nova doesn't really have pictures of people; but KOTOR definitely has plenty of appearance-focused mods (including one described as "More sexy underwear for females"), and on some other games I have heard of mods that fall into the "weird porn" category.
- simion314 7y ago
  I think your number is too big, home many nude mods can be for a game? If you mean some revealing armor/clothing then that is not porn not even "adult". There will always be a large number of lower effort mods, it is easy to retexture or cut parts of existing armors then building new ones from scratch. The main issue I see with some modding communities is the big egos of some people that leads to terms of use like "don't share this, this mod should not be shared on as different website" , it will make it kind of illegal then when the specified website will no longer exists to archive and move the mods or to create mod packs.
- CM30 7y ago
  Nah, more like the other way around. But obviously it depends on what games you're interested in seeing mods and fan projects of. The vast majority of the Mario/Zelda/Sonic/Metroid/Mega Man fan game and game mod/hack scene is basically entirely new games built on the original series' engine. Some of the stuff you see there is crazy, arguably on par with many of the more well funded open source software found online. Like that project which adds online multiplayer to Super Mario 64, the mods which add MP3 music to SNES games, a Metroid mod which remade Metroid Fusion in Super Metroid with all the original content and an even smarter version of the SA-X hunting you down. Or perhaps Wiimmfi, which basically replaced all of Nintendo's online services for the DS and Wii, then significantly expanded on them with extra features and modes. It's kind of insane how technically advanced much of this stuff can be, given it's all made by hobbyists in their free time with no hope of ever getting paid.

komali2 7y ago

That's the non-profit, free software world. It exists, gnu.org compiles a lot of free software if you're interested, or there's other organizations that compile stuff like free blueprints for farm equipment, free music, sprites, etc. It's out there, but a lot of people generally consider the free/libre stuff "lower quality," which is often a fair accusation.

marssaxman 7y ago
Oh, yes! - I use free software almost exclusively. It may not always be as polished as the commercial competition, but it feels better to be part of a sharing community. I feel especially fortunate that my current job allows me to make a good living developing free software.
a1369209993 7y ago
> That's the non-profit, free software world. And then Red Hat[0] happened, and it all went to hell, like everything else Wall Street touches. 0: et many al, but they're the most visible culprits due to things like wayland and systemd.

skybrian 7y ago

Best case is you get something like Craigslist, but more likely they would have gone out of business by now (shut down for piracy) and we wouldn't have any nice things.

ijidak 7y ago

Don't make money. :) That will keep wall street permanently at bay.

manderley 7y ago
Pretty sure not making money is what attracts the most investment money these days.

menzoic 7y ago

dredmorbius 7y ago

Sci-Hub!

spinach 7y ago

Seems a bit ironic to say that on a site of a company that helps fund a lot of tech start-ups. Start-ups whose end goal seems to be getting ridiculously rich and doing an IPO.

charliesome 7y ago
This feels a bit like the "if you don't like capitalism why do you use an iPhone?" argument. The reality is that Hacker News is a generally high quality technical forum and that's the reason a lot of people are here.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  >This feels a bit like the "if you don't like capitalism why do you use an iPhone?" argument. // That's a pretty good question though?