Tshepang Lekhonkhobe wrote: > Hello, > > Does anyone know why FLOSS programmers haven't built superb 3D games, say ones > comparable to titles like 'Halo' or 'Burn-Out'? > Money. > I'm not sure how tough it is to create high-profile games like these two, but > I believe that it can't be as tough as something like OpenOffice.org or > (especially) WINE. Is this true, and if it is why aren't they doing it then? > Wrong. For every "hit it big" title there are at least 100 titles that go nowhere. Given odds like that, and the fact that there is an entire industry devoted to churning out games, it is no wonder there are only a few well known Free Software games. > Is it an expensive process to create these kinds of high-quality games, and > could someone provide a relevant link? > The problem is not programming talent. There is plenty of that in Free Software. The problem is lack of artistic talent, graphic designers, sound engineers, voice actors. Architecting a game is a completely different animal than architecting an office suite or a web browser. Once you see more "open source" artists willing to work on such projects, there will be a dramatic improvement. The other thing relates directly back to architecting. That is, geeks are notriously bad when it comes to polished game design. A geek may crank out something like nethack, but it takes a team of highly skilled people lead by a visionary to turn out things like Civilization, Pharaoh and Neverwinter Nights. Even moreso with "action" oriented games. -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sanchez http://familiasanchez.net/~sanchezr
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