Linked by Adam Geitgey on Tue 31st Aug 2004 20:12 UTC
Despite the impressive list of achievements of open source software, it can be argued that there have not been any world-class games created under the open source banner. Sure, several old games like Doom and Quake have been gifted to the open source community, but there are no comparable original creations in this area. One should not expect this situation to change anytime soon, because the open source development model does not make sense for game development.
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Maybe there aren't any good FOSS games because it takes too much effort and not enough rewards? The thing with FOSS tools is that once they are somewhat working, you can use them right away. If they're missing features, you can add them later, or maybe others can add them. With a game, you have to have all the content done before it's enjoyable. I think the content is what keeps us from seeing great games, although to be honest I haven't looked around for any open source games. Back in the good ol' days of BBSing, I wrote a few door games. For me, the fun in making them was the design and coding. When it came time to make the content, I just was not that interested. I got it done, but it was painful. I'm not sure how easy it is to convince artists and writers to come up with original content for free. Perhaps it's the hacker element that drives people to write game engines, and that is missing when it comes to the content?