Would you rather your favorite game be open sourced, or a spiritual successor be reelased?

[MetalCraze]

With how shitty all those hipstarters are I'd rather have open source so really dedicated fans can improve the game instead of retards releasing an inferior clone to quickly cash in on the name.
Fucking "spiritual successors" take sequelitis to the next worst level.

 

[Cassidy]

I'd rather for new games to be released worthy of becoming new favorites.

But that is almost totallly impossible.

 

[mondblut]

I like my games made by professionals, so I would lean towards the spiritual successor.

This.

 

[80Maxwell08]

I'm going to go with open source because a spiritual successor could be done by someone who had nothing to do with the original and who could haev a very good chance of fucking it up.

 

[Nutmeg]

I wrote a little summary of the arguments presented by the people in this thread so far.

The arguments against open source are:
+ Open source projects often stall due to developer squabbles.
+ Wanting an open source project feels like you want to freeload, so it is more honest to want a spiritual sequel to pay for.
+ Change logs can be very entertaining, and distract from playing the game, as you're always waiting for that next bug to be fixed.
+ User content for open source games is usually below the offerings found in professional games.
+ Open source programs contain many errors.

The complementary arguments for a spiritual successor are:
+ Spiritual successors have "professional" quality.

Conversely the arguments against a spiritual successor are:
+ Made by amateurs, who had little or no experience with the spiritual predecessor.
+ Spiritual successors, so far, have a very bad track record.

And finally, the arguments for open source are:
+ It's easier to get the game to run.
+ Long standing issues and bugs are fixed.
+ The game becomes more extensible, and user content follows.
+ The interface is improved.
+ Open source preserves the game.

It's interesting to see that most of the discussion has been on the merits of open source, and not much has been said on the merits of spiritual successors. There are also some conflicting points; most obviously some people think open source means more bugs, other people think it means less bugs.

Here's food for thought: Do you guys think that that "open source vs spiritual successor" boils down to "I want better vs I want more"?

 

[tuluse]

+ Spiritual successors, so far, have a very bad track record.

Well there is one game, that was a spiritual successor, made before the term was popular. I hear some codexers like it.

Spoiler

 

[shihonage]

Duke Nukem 3D was both open-sourced and had a sequel.

A decade later, there still is not a single open source port that can play through the campaign in co-op while allowing you to save and load without desyncs or other "surprises". But they all had 3D walls since week 2.

And there's Duke Nukem Forever, of course.

Conclusion: if the sequel is done by the original team using an iteration of the original engine, YES. Everything else - NO.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

It's interesting to see that most of the discussion has been on the merits of open source, and not much has been said on the merits of spiritual successors.

Well, regarding the latter there's not many "merits" you can speak of. It's just a new game that is inspired by another one, not a project that further develops an existing game. The cons and pros of a spiritual successor are those of any new game (with the added possible con of "lore rape", if you care enough about that to notice)

 

[BaconAndEggs]

I vote open source. Source Ports allow games like Doom and Freespace to thrive for 10+ years with regular doses of new content and purdier grafix. I'd rather have that than a non-open sourced spiritual successor.

 

[deuxhero]

Make the game open source. Just so it can have its bugs fixed faster. Just imagine what could be done if Arcanum was "open sourced"?

Most fixes would be for Temple of Elemental Evil (which shares an engine)?

Speaking of which: Anyone know who to ask about releasing that engine code? The fact that Troika used it for a game by a separate publisher suggests they owned it, but I have no idea who was at Troika and wouild both know AND has open contact info.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Just imagine what could be done if Arcanum was "open sourced"?

Open Arcanum Popamole Edition V4.44.44.44.4444.44444444
Changes from V4.44.44.44.4444.44444443:
-New sex scenes between dwarfs and half-orcs.
-You can now press X during the dialogue to choose the best option available.
-Blur filter so everything is not so pixelised.
-Nude Mod v0.4.3 implemented.

 

[Cosmic Misogynerd]

Open Arcanum Popamole Edition V4.44.44.44.4444.44444444
Changes from V4.44.44.44.4444.44444443:
-New sex scenes between dwarfs and half-orcs.
-You can now press X during the dialogue to choose the best option available.
-Blur filter so everything is not so pixelised.
-Nude Mod v0.4.3 implemented.

 

[Nutmeg]

Open Arcanum Popamole Edition V4.44.44.44.4444.44444444
Changes from V4.44.44.44.4444.44444443:
-New sex scenes between dwarfs and half-orcs.
-You can now press X during the dialogue to choose the best option available.
-Blur filter so everything is not so pixelised.
-Nude Mod v0.4.3 implemented.

Am I correct in thinking that there's some confusion between mods and open source? When I think of open source I think of the things in this list:

http://osgameclones.com/

I think the sorts of symptoms you outlined of an open source Arcanum are more indicative of a "vibrant modding scene" for Arcanum.

 

[mondblut]

I'm going to go with open source because a spiritual successor could be done by someone who had nothing to do with the original and who could haev a very good chance of fucking it up.

Whereas a random fanboy with very little proven ability and even less resources must have a lot to do with the original and a little chance of fucking it up? Riiiight.

Until they produce something better than battle for shitnot and a bunch of identical games about killing alphabet, I'll keep laughing whenever I hear about "open source games".

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Open Arcanum Popamole Edition V4.44.44.44.4444.44444444
Changes from V4.44.44.44.4444.44444443:
-New sex scenes between dwarfs and half-orcs.
-You can now press X during the dialogue to choose the best option available.
-Blur filter so everything is not so pixelised.
-Nude Mod v0.4.3 implemented.

Am I correct in thinking that there's some confusion between mods and open source? When I think of open source I think of the things in this list:

http://osgameclones.com/

I think the sorts of symptoms you outlined of an open source Arcanum are more indicative of a "vibrant modding scene" for Arcanum.

Open Source pushes modding quite far, allowing anyone who can into coding and dealing with mess of a code to drastically change the game.

 

[dnf]

I like my games made by professionals, so I would lean towards the spiritual successor.

This.

But what if the professionals are Bethesda, Bioware or Eidos? In today state of gaming, open sauce is a way better prospect. 2 words: Freespace Open.

 

[dnf]

When people ask for open source, what they really want is for other people (not him) to keep making / changing stuff for their games (for free, btw), so just be honest and ask for a proper spiritual sequel...

What's wrong in wanting free mods/bugfixes/graphix improvment? At least i woudn't need to pirate a brand new game...

My favorite game is Deus Ex. I don't think anything can replicate the magic of it, but open source unreal engine 1? Awesome.

If i could choose between Original Deus Ex mods or DX:HR, i would certainly choose the original DX with mods...

Make the game open source. Just so it can have its bugs fixed faster. Just imagine what could be done if Arcanum was "open sourced"?

The game would become good ?

 

[mondblut]

But what if the professionals are Bethesda, Bioware or Eidos?

Then games suck. Still no reason to waste time with forever pre-alphas by amateur dabblers. It's like suggesting to go for student home videos because all Hollywood professionals are doing Avaturds and Gaylights. Or to do field recordings of drunk hobos singing along because Justin Bieber sucks.

I want my games to be done by people who believe they are good enough at coding and game design to expect to be paid for their effort.

 

[nomask7]

It's about time we got a spiritual successor to Daggerfall. WHERE ARE THE DUNGEON CRAWLERS WITH HUGE REAL TIME DUNGEONS NOW THAT WE HAVE GRAPHIX?!!?!? Levitation, secret locations, swimming, huge but well designed dungeons where you can get lost. I guess it's just too difficult to pull off, requiring genuine talent when all you have to do to sell millions is produce some baby games and market them for teenagers, job done, laugh the way to the bank.

 

[MetalCraze]

Here's food for thought: Do you guys think that that "open source vs spiritual successor" boils down to "I want better vs I want more"?

No it boils down to "I want better" vs. "I've never played the original but hype told me it's good yet I don't want to play a game with shit graphics/interface/gameplay like that, so give me Fallout New Vegas!"

You don't even have to go far to find an example of what I mean.

That and spiritual successor is always synonymous with a quick cash grab. Why come up with something new when you can slap cult classic name on your dumbed down shit?

Like Dishonored, a spiritual successor to Thief (which has nothing in common with said Thief)... whereas The Dark Mod being remade with Doom3's open source version will be a lot more Thief than Thiaf.

Or Planetary Annihilation. $90 bucks a piece. Bitches, bet you wish it had evil publisher now, eh?

 

[FeelTheRads]

Or Planetary Annihilation. $90 bucks a piece. Bitches, bet you wish it had evil publisher now, eh?

Regular edition is $40. Bet you wish you learned how to read, huh?

 

[MetalCraze]

Don't see any regular editions in my steam. Just $90 PREORDER

90 BUCKS fucking PREORDER

Our pricing for this stage of early access was determined by our Kickstarter.

Man those evil publishers I'm so glad Kickstarter saves gaming by letting poor devs offer badly made shit for inflated prices!

 

[FeelTheRads]

https://store.uberent.com/Store/PreOrder?titleId=4

Page goes to the $90 edition, but there are a couple of others.

 

[TripJack]

open source absolutely

if you voted 'spiritual successor' you failed to ask yourself a very obvious question: how many 'spiritual successors' have actually been good?