Creaphis
I will deliberately take a contrary position just for the sake of writing incredibly long arguments
Posts: 1058
Registered: 10-05 |
I see that my argument has been cleverly defused by ignoring it and insulting me. Well, I could have written it more argumentatively and less confrontationally, but I honestly didn't have the time. I apologize. I'll try again, more moderately.
Just like Skulltag's current dev team, I understand the benefits of open source development, but I've considered the significant problems that approach could have. It seems to me that nobody in the release-the-source faction has adequately considered anything but the better- and best-case scenarios. Perhaps I deserve to be called pessimistic (I prefer realistic) but I believe that there is a certain danger in relying on the benevolence and rationality of others. I'm sure we can agree that there is a unfortunate percentage of every group which does not possess these traits in sufficient quantity. So, taking this attitude, several arguments develop. (Two arguments, to be specific - I thought of a new one since the last post.)
First, one thing assumed by all in favour of releasing the source is that this will aid Skulltag's development. Something that must be realized is that this is not guaranteed. Will third-party-programmers add features and fix bugs? I'm positive that some will. But, anyone with the dedication and desire to be a major contributor to Skulltag should be able to join the dev team without difficulty - because anyone who would really want to help in a major way would likely already be a well-respected member of the Skulltag community, and could earn the dev team's trust. So, no significant increase in development speed can be guaranteed. Also, if the source code is made free to use in other projects, it's possible that some programmers would take the code to create their own spinoff ports instead of helping the Skulltag devs. I realize that this is positive from a port developer's standpoint, but it hurts the players in a way that isn't immediately obvious. If part of Skulltag's community is drawn away by a spinoff port that isn't compatible with Skulltag servers, then this will split the player base. This isn't a massive new FPS where you can be guaranteed any kind of game you want, and splitting the players in this way will make it harder to find the game you want - even if you have both ports installed. Big matches and less typical gamemodes will be less common, because some people will only use one of the ports, so it's likely that there will be more redundant servers between both ports and less variety and smaller server populations overall.
Secondly, cheating! I understand that open-source development will likely patch security holes about as quickly as their found. This sort of development would be very high priority for third-party Skulltag users, and those capable of coding will likely try to do so. But, whether cheating with hacked clients is actually viable or not is not the issue here. The issue is whether or not Skulltag's players think that cheating is possible. AlexMax has argued that, even if cheats are possible, all that is necessary is that players approach each other in games with a trusting attitude. This is true. This is all that is necessary - but this would require the Skulltag community to be universally rational, and unfortunately, it isn't. If players have the impression that cheating is possible, they may be skeptical of the honesty of someone capable of trouncing them. Instead of being impressed by someone's higher skill, players may denounce this person as a cheater - and worse yet, may instigate a 15 minute ban or some other fun-destroying nuisance. Ultimately, so that players could regain some trust for those they play with, many or most would join screened clans and play in private servers which they would then never leave, extenuating whatever divisions already exist, and leaving those not worthy of clan entrance to squabble amongst themselves. This could all occur, even if no cheat is ever made.
Of course, an argument that can be directed back at me is "Creaphis! You seem to be trying to protect Skulltag players from themselves. You worry about a split player base and smaller games when a good game can always be arranged in IRC. You want to prevent irrational players from being paranoid about cheating, while intelligent people playing for casual fun could always have a good time without worrying about it. Why do you care so much about those not blessed with resourcefulness and mental fortitude?"
Honestly, I'm not sure.
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06-13-08 20:39 
