New Horizon on 7/2/2006 at 05:42
Quote Posted by Gingerbread Man
'Cause, like, if
you sank millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours into some kind of program that you released into a highly competitive field, you'd just kinda give the source code to everyone.
If it's years later and no longer a valuable assett, why not? It would be similar to 'secrets' about the Model T Ford being held back because of the time and money invested in it...if the industry has moved on, then there is no need to hold onto the property, except for the purpose of being anal. If id can do it, why can't others. Oh yes, ooooh....intellectual property, knowledge, secrets. Pfffff, it's all a bunch of spin and paranoia. If they've done their job and made a good product with the property, then they should ideally have earned their investment back. If they didn't...tough luck, try again. That's what the average Joe has to do.
Goldmoon Dawn on 7/2/2006 at 06:34
Quote Posted by Gingerbread Man
'Cause, like, if
you sank millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours into some kind of program that you released into a highly competitive field
An understandable plight, but the hope is that they made a decent profit in the process.
sparhawk on 7/2/2006 at 09:10
Quote Posted by Gingerbread Man
'Cause, like, if
you sank millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours into some kind of program that you released into a highly competitive field, you'd just kinda give the source code to everyone.
Why not? It's not as if this money will ever be recuppareted. The halflife of sourecode is pretty fast. Code that is released in a finished game is already outdated by the time you publish it. This way you can say that the money was not TOTALY wasted and you might even get some refunds from tax claiming it as advertisment (which it is). They did this with Wolfenstein: Enemy territory, and did it harm them? Nope. Did they earn more money from it? Maybe not on ET itself, but at least they got a nice ring to their name, which also counts for soemthing int he gamingworld.
OrbWeaver on 7/2/2006 at 09:55
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Never mind that. The fact is that that gfx tech is nearing it's peak.
That may be true for a "screenshots in a web forum" perspective, but from the modder's perspective there are loads of things missing from games like Doom 3 that should be available in future - soft shadows, daisy-chaining shaders, proper alpha blending with full light interaction, better physics, etc.
These things probably won't improve the look of screenshots, but it will open a lot of possibilities for designers and artists.
sparhawk on 7/2/2006 at 10:21
Personally I think the peak is reached when we have photorealistic ingame screens with full raytracing, color bleeding and physics interaction. We may already have reached a high goal, but it will still take time until this will be possible.
New Horizon on 7/2/2006 at 16:16
I just got back from the book store. While I was there, I read an interview with John Carmack in the new North American issue of PC Gamer. He said that the Doom 3 source code will likely be going open source a year after the release of their next game. I wonder what game he's referring to. Hmmm. There is a slight chance it could even be released before the Dark Mod toolset is finished. That would be pretty snazzy.
Gestalt on 7/2/2006 at 16:35
I'm guessing Id's next project will be based on new IP. Their last project was a Doom game, they've contracted out two Quakes, and Splash Damage (I think) is working on a new Wolfenstein. Attempting to create a new franchise would seem to be the best course of action, unless they think there's a market for a new Commander Keen game or something.
T-Smith on 7/2/2006 at 21:51
I'd love another Keen game.
Carmack stated even before DOOM 3 finished though that their next game would be an original IP.
OrbWeaver on 7/2/2006 at 21:53
What is this "IP" you keep referring to?
Gingerbread Man on 7/2/2006 at 21:56
Intellectual Property
