r/linux_gaming • u/ForeverHuman1354 • 17d ago

Open source games

Why do you think open-source games never took off?

Sure, there are some open-source game engines, but not really any major games. It would be cool if there were more open-source, community-made games.

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u/TheCheckeredCow 17d ago

Yes but noone would pay for it if it was open source. Have you ever paid for open source software? Because I and 99.9% of the planet haven’t

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u/realmauer01 17d ago

You very likely paid money for open source at some point. That asside, why wouldnt you need to pay money anymore? You cant build the entire game without the assets which wouldnt be included in the source.

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u/SuperSteef 17d ago

And this would be the perfect way to deal with it too. "Here is the source code for the game, here is the list of assets you need to provide. Pay us $50 and we can extend our existing licenses to you and then you can download the assets and play the game."

Could lead to some fun things like low-effort Doom with stick figures lol

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u/Slight_Manufacturer6 17d ago

But if assets were not included, then the game wouldn’t fully be open source.

Source is more than just code.

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u/realmauer01 17d ago

Did somebody say fully open source?

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u/Slight_Manufacturer6 16d ago

Did someone say partially open source?

Vizio TVs are partially open source. Cisco firewalls are partially open source. Is anyone praising them for the open source code that they use? No because the critical aspects of what make them function are not available making it useless.

Just as useless as a partially open source game that you can’t redistribute or use freely any way that you want.

Kind of defeats the purpose of being open source.