JonahRowley
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2005
- Messages
- 28
It's clear that the sales of Civ3 will drop dramatically now that Civ4 has been released. After the first expansion for Civ4, will there be any Civ3 sales at all? What happens to Civ3 development, modders and players? Firaxis can have the best of both worlds; Civ4 and Civ3 sales. How can they do this? Release the Civ3 source code.
I'm not talking about releasing Civ3 as freeware. I'm also not talking about abandoning the Civ3 intellectual property to public domain. To everyone who makes money from Civ3, keeping Civ3 alive is in your best interest. To everyone who plays Civ3, keeping it alive is in your best interest. Releasing the source code is good for everyone. People would still need to buy the game to play it; the data, the Civilization trademark and the reputation of Firaxis games would remain the same.
What actual benefits would the players get from the Civ3 source code? Ports would be the first obvious result. Civ3 on Linux (without wine) would be played, opening a whole new market for Civ3 sales. Small enhancements would keep the game alive; the UI needs improvement, this could be done.
What benefits would Firaxis get from this? Civ3 sales, as discussed above, for no major development work. Hardcore Civ players will work on the code, people will continue to play it. True, some might not buy Civ4 because of this, but the majority of these people will probably be people unable to play Civ4 either because they don't use Windows, or would need to upgrade their computer.
OK, so let's cover some issues. What about piracy? Someone could easily recompile the Civ3 code with the CD check removed. Doing this would take only slightly more effort than reverse engineering the Civ3 binary and removing the CD check there (sometimes altering as little as a single byte). The license would be up the Firaxis. They could go either way; either licensing the source code (for free or cheap) to interested developers all the way to the other end of the spectrum and releasing under modified BSD or GPL license. The license could include a clause to prevent people from distributing modified source or binary without a CD check, from using the Civilization trademark or claiming any affiliation with Firaxis.
This has worked with other games before. The Doom and Quake games come to mind (from iD software). Multiple Doom and Quake ports exist now, including some pretty cool Quake and Quake 2 engine modifications. Doom is now playable on virtually every platform, including phones. The Homeworld (from Sierra) source was release, and a Linux port was promptly underway.
When to release the source code is also an issue worth discussing. iD released the Quake 3 source code not long ago, after Doom 3 was release, and not far before Quake 4. In a series of games where you rely on fans of the series to buy new versions, releasing source of an older game in the series too soon may affect sales of the new version too much. Releasing the source too late might have too little effect, and be little more than a novelty.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? A lot of work goes into these games, and the fans of them know this. It seems a shame to have a "we're done with this, let's toss it" attitude toward the source code and the game itself. At the very least, Civ2 can still be saved. How about a PDA port? I know plenty of people who'd love to see that.
I'm not talking about releasing Civ3 as freeware. I'm also not talking about abandoning the Civ3 intellectual property to public domain. To everyone who makes money from Civ3, keeping Civ3 alive is in your best interest. To everyone who plays Civ3, keeping it alive is in your best interest. Releasing the source code is good for everyone. People would still need to buy the game to play it; the data, the Civilization trademark and the reputation of Firaxis games would remain the same.
What actual benefits would the players get from the Civ3 source code? Ports would be the first obvious result. Civ3 on Linux (without wine) would be played, opening a whole new market for Civ3 sales. Small enhancements would keep the game alive; the UI needs improvement, this could be done.
What benefits would Firaxis get from this? Civ3 sales, as discussed above, for no major development work. Hardcore Civ players will work on the code, people will continue to play it. True, some might not buy Civ4 because of this, but the majority of these people will probably be people unable to play Civ4 either because they don't use Windows, or would need to upgrade their computer.
OK, so let's cover some issues. What about piracy? Someone could easily recompile the Civ3 code with the CD check removed. Doing this would take only slightly more effort than reverse engineering the Civ3 binary and removing the CD check there (sometimes altering as little as a single byte). The license would be up the Firaxis. They could go either way; either licensing the source code (for free or cheap) to interested developers all the way to the other end of the spectrum and releasing under modified BSD or GPL license. The license could include a clause to prevent people from distributing modified source or binary without a CD check, from using the Civilization trademark or claiming any affiliation with Firaxis.
This has worked with other games before. The Doom and Quake games come to mind (from iD software). Multiple Doom and Quake ports exist now, including some pretty cool Quake and Quake 2 engine modifications. Doom is now playable on virtually every platform, including phones. The Homeworld (from Sierra) source was release, and a Linux port was promptly underway.
When to release the source code is also an issue worth discussing. iD released the Quake 3 source code not long ago, after Doom 3 was release, and not far before Quake 4. In a series of games where you rely on fans of the series to buy new versions, releasing source of an older game in the series too soon may affect sales of the new version too much. Releasing the source too late might have too little effect, and be little more than a novelty.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? A lot of work goes into these games, and the fans of them know this. It seems a shame to have a "we're done with this, let's toss it" attitude toward the source code and the game itself. At the very least, Civ2 can still be saved. How about a PDA port? I know plenty of people who'd love to see that.