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The discussion here is amazing! Takes me right back to the early days of Linux and discovering Free Software. How will developers eat?? Who would write softw
by krupan 5mo ago
The discussion here is amazing! Takes me right back to the early days of Linux and discovering Free Software. How will developers eat?? Who would write software for free?? These people clearly didn't think this through!! Amazing to hear it all again, lol!
Let's think about it. Free software just applies to the source code. Artwork, logos, even trademarked names are not Free. Support, services, and documentation can also be non Free. This is the Red Hat business model and they make a ton of money.
Right now several very popular games are free or almost free to install and play. The game studios make money off of in game purchases. There's no reason that couldn't continue.
Games could be Free but connecting to the server for multiplayer would of course cost money.
What about anti cheating? I think motivated software engineers working together around the world could come up with solutions to this. Or (and?), good social engineers could come up with incentives/punishments that heavily encourage fair play. I worry about this one the least. Here's one idea that my son just made me aware of this morning. Some game he was playing allowed him FPV of his teammates after he was eliminated from the round. He saw his teammate could see through walls. This angered my son and he called the teammate out. The cheating was defeated.
- captn3m0 5mo agoThe discussion is so bad because the article is. There’s so many nuances around assets, trademarks, copyright, monetisation, cheatware(?), multi-player etc but the article ignores all of it and goes for the straight freedom angle. How do you even have in-game purchases when you can’t control client code? Do we even have a single example of FOSS and mainstream game that made money and was multiplayer? Terrible slop and I am flagging it.
- usef- 5mo agoHave there been commercially successful free software games? If the code was Free Software, how would you sell in-game purchases? Note that if it were just 3d models for your character, others could sell them too, likely cheaper without the overheads of developing the base game. Note that the article is advocating for multiplayer code to be open too. I love free software, but I don't see how it was works in practice with games unless you're talking about open sourcing years later. Games seem different in usage and development than operating systems.
- Telaneo 5mo ago> Have there been commercially successful free software games? Going by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_game... , yes, although probably not to any helpful extent (and some of those are FOSS now, but weren't when released). 2048 had in-game ads that you could buy your way out of. You couldn't just install the ad-free version, because iOS is locked down. You could on Android, but not everyone is tech-savvy enough to actually do that.
- usef- 5mo agoOh yes, I know open source games existed, but did any raise enough to pay wages of a team? ps. I personally played Threes first, which 2048 copied without the style and made free. I admit I was slightly disappointed for the original devs that the copy became significantly more well known. It wouldn't be my first example of the benefits of open source.
- Telaneo 5mo agoFull team, no. Probably not even just the one guy who made 2048, unless maybe you count minimum wage. It's hard to know what he earned of ads and such, but I can't imagine it being anything massive.
- krupan 5mo agoHave there been commercially successful free software games? I'm not aware of anyone that has even tried to do that. That doesn't mean it's impossible.
- phendrenad2 5mo ago> Who would write software for free?? We make software a public good and fund it at the government level.
- krupan 5mo agoLinux and all the other free software argues that that is not needed