Doom 3 BFG Approved For GPL/Open-Source

[frign]

History will teach us in the future

Valve isn't "acknowleding" that Linux is a viable gaming platform quite so much as "really really hoping" that it is. Valve is simply trying every last possible thing it can do to avoid the eventual irrelevancy of Steam in a post-Window-8 PC marketplace. Sure, it'll be years and years most likely before Steam ceases to be the primary distribution platform for PC games, but the day is now known to be coming for sure. Heck, given that most gamers will be skipping Windows 8 and waiting for the next "desktop edition" Microsoft OS, Steam probably has another 5+ years of domination on the PC front, but Gabe's cashflow starts to look pretty gloomy after that.

Also remember that Valve is already losing some ground as the bigger, higher-volume, higher-sales companies (Activision-Blizzard and EA) are avoiding Steam more and more and moving towards their own distribution channels (which are also threatened by the Windows Store, of course), in addition to the cannibalization of the "real games" market by cheap iOS games in the current recession. They're already feeling the pressure of competing app stores, and Windows 8 isn't even out in most consumers' hands yet.

Steam fading away is not at all a bad thing, either. For all the doom and gloom of the walled ecosystems of Apple/Microsoft and their respective stores, Steam is a far worse walled garden with worse deals for developers and less choice for consumers. Steam Greenlight was created as a half-ass attempt to support smaller developers who can and do thrive on Apple's ecosystem, and even then it doesn't support anywhere near the same level of openness and freedom that Apple (and soon Microsoft) will provide. Valve doesn't just give you a nice cut-and-dried checklist and straight up fee to be on Steam. You must be personally approved by the Steam gatekeepers (_after_ paying a fee just to try!). You can't even get access to the Steamworks API to do your integration work until after approval. You have no idea what fees you'll be paying, since they can and often are renegotiated on a case-by-case basis. It's a hell of a lot better than the consoles (whose current practices and the recent rise of the small to mid game and indies have more or less destroyed the console market in the last 12 months), but Steam is still a worse deal for just about everyone than the Apple/Microsoft app stores. The only selling points of Steam are that is has the community API (Microsoft and Apple both have their, but Games for Windows Live is a piece of crap and Game Center is lacking in features) and that Steam gives the multiplatform support for every purchase (which is a very nice and appreciated gesture by folks like us, but 99% of consumers currently only one PC-class platform and don't give a shit about the others).

Steam is great because it provided a common platform and distribution channel for PC games, ushering in the digital download and service age for games when the consoles were (and they still are) totally fucking up in that space. The app stores, however, provide 90% of what Steam does, provide it at a cheaper price point and with an easier entry path to developers, and offer better integration and a mostly better user experience for consumers. Steam on Linux is a last-ditch attempt to stay relevant; the best thing that could come out of it would be a possible SteamBox kind of console (which itself may still not work out; all depends on how Sony and Microsoft react and if their console divisions get their heads out of their asses and build console platforms/ecosystems designed around the post-2010 gaming market).

If Linux wants to succeed as a gaming platform, or a desktop OS, or even a tablet OS, it needs to stop relying on big mega companies with ulterior motives to actually do it for them. Google is not making Linux a success on phones or tablets; it's making its largely proprietary OS-with-a-Linux-kernel a success. Valve is not trying to save Linux, it's trying to save Steam. Ubuntu isn't pushing Linux as a desktop success, it's pushing Linux as The Astronaut's personal toybox. If Linux is going to succeed, the people working on it need to actually make a damn user experience that competes with modern proprietary offerings rather than Win98/XP, it needs to make a software ecosystem that is user-oriented rather than (or better yet, "as well as") developer-oriented, and it needs to market a unified developer platform rather than a toolbox to build a bazillion customized ever-so-slightly-incompatible platforms. Steam isn't going to turn Linux into a mainstream gaming OS, just like Ubuntu bug #1 is absolutely no closer to being closed today than it was when Warty Warthog was released, and just like Google has done nothing to make Linux and FOSS (rather than Android and Google) a household name.

I completely agree with you and I think they way you expressed it is admirable. My perspective on GNU/Linux is rather irrelevant when it comes to gaming, because I really don't care about this business very much.
Still, I am interested in expressing my opinion here:

GNU/Linux was, in my opinion, never intended to be a "mainstream" OS and I wonder, why everyone is struggling that much to forcefully aim at this goal. As a result, GNU/Linux in many cases has fallen for corporate ideals (as you perfectly stated) and is actually being prevented from a "healthy" development.
Of course, we do have a solid user-base and developer-community, support from scientific institutions and the corporate sector, but clearly, the product of these huge efforts leave a lot to be desired, as these are divided among themselves.
The goal of creating a viable, independent GNU/Linux distribution has not yet been reached. But is it really necessary to aim at that? To really answer this question, you have to ask yourself, how "mainstream" is defined in our society. Due to the social effects of a mostly capitalistically oriented society, corporations are mostly the ones defining new values. Projects like GNU/Linux, with its ideals and democracy, might be successful on the paper, but in reality, it is not.
With the corporate sector defining new trends and society mostly aligning to them, the homogenous crowd of non-tech-savvy people defining a computer by how well they can manage their social relationships and tasks or the biggest part of youth just caring about computer games produced by big corporations is not really interested into the ideals Linux stands for. To cite Immanuel Kant in the context of his definition of enlightenment, we get to the point: "Enlightenment is the escape of human kind from his self-incurred immaturity". If the masses align to "wrong" ideals induced by the corporate sector, it is too easy to say it was their own fault doing so. The big mistake we are currently making is trying to actually adapt to the current trends and losing focus on what GNU/Linux is really about. I don't want to doom every company for influencing the development of Free Software, but in the struggle of profit, growth and existence, they do what they are obliged to do ignoring the ideals we all stand and should fight for.

What gives me confidence is the fact that our ideals and contributions to Free Software will endure, contrary to most companies which are of current relevance in the ephemeral market. History will teach us in the future as it commonly did in the past.

[disgrace]

the truth is dat idsoftware is no more than a mere shadow of itself since doom 3. and about j.carmack... lol the might has fallen a long time ago.

ciaoo

[elanthis]

Oh, I totally agree with you... But, for Linux specifically, Valve is the only one that even acknowledges Linux as a viable platform to use for gaming.

Valve isn't "acknowleding" that Linux is a viable gaming platform quite so much as "really really hoping" that it is. Valve is simply trying every last possible thing it can do to avoid the eventual irrelevancy of Steam in a post-Window-8 PC marketplace. Sure, it'll be years and years most likely before Steam ceases to be the primary distribution platform for PC games, but the day is now known to be coming for sure. Heck, given that most gamers will be skipping Windows 8 and waiting for the next "desktop edition" Microsoft OS, Steam probably has another 5+ years of domination on the PC front, but Gabe's cashflow starts to look pretty gloomy after that.

Also remember that Valve is already losing some ground as the bigger, higher-volume, higher-sales companies (Activision-Blizzard and EA) are avoiding Steam more and more and moving towards their own distribution channels (which are also threatened by the Windows Store, of course), in addition to the cannibalization of the "real games" market by cheap iOS games in the current recession. They're already feeling the pressure of competing app stores, and Windows 8 isn't even out in most consumers' hands yet.

Steam fading away is not at all a bad thing, either. For all the doom and gloom of the walled ecosystems of Apple/Microsoft and their respective stores, Steam is a far worse walled garden with worse deals for developers and less choice for consumers. Steam Greenlight was created as a half-ass attempt to support smaller developers who can and do thrive on Apple's ecosystem, and even then it doesn't support anywhere near the same level of openness and freedom that Apple (and soon Microsoft) will provide. Valve doesn't just give you a nice cut-and-dried checklist and straight up fee to be on Steam. You must be personally approved by the Steam gatekeepers (_after_ paying a fee just to try!). You can't even get access to the Steamworks API to do your integration work until after approval. You have no idea what fees you'll be paying, since they can and often are renegotiated on a case-by-case basis. It's a hell of a lot better than the consoles (whose current practices and the recent rise of the small to mid game and indies have more or less destroyed the console market in the last 12 months), but Steam is still a worse deal for just about everyone than the Apple/Microsoft app stores. The only selling points of Steam are that is has the community API (Microsoft and Apple both have their, but Games for Windows Live is a piece of crap and Game Center is lacking in features) and that Steam gives the multiplatform support for every purchase (which is a very nice and appreciated gesture by folks like us, but 99% of consumers currently only one PC-class platform and don't give a shit about the others).

Steam is great because it provided a common platform and distribution channel for PC games, ushering in the digital download and service age for games when the consoles were (and they still are) totally fucking up in that space. The app stores, however, provide 90% of what Steam does, provide it at a cheaper price point and with an easier entry path to developers, and offer better integration and a mostly better user experience for consumers. Steam on Linux is a last-ditch attempt to stay relevant; the best thing that could come out of it would be a possible SteamBox kind of console (which itself may still not work out; all depends on how Sony and Microsoft react and if their console divisions get their heads out of their asses and build console platforms/ecosystems designed around the post-2010 gaming market).

If Linux wants to succeed as a gaming platform, or a desktop OS, or even a tablet OS, it needs to stop relying on big mega companies with ulterior motives to actually do it for them. Google is not making Linux a success on phones or tablets; it's making its largely proprietary OS-with-a-Linux-kernel a success. Valve is not trying to save Linux, it's trying to save Steam. Ubuntu isn't pushing Linux as a desktop success, it's pushing Linux as The Astronaut's personal toybox. If Linux is going to succeed, the people working on it need to actually make a damn user experience that competes with modern proprietary offerings rather than Win98/XP, it needs to make a software ecosystem that is user-oriented rather than (or better yet, "as well as") developer-oriented, and it needs to market a unified developer platform rather than a toolbox to build a bazillion customized ever-so-slightly-incompatible platforms. Steam isn't going to turn Linux into a mainstream gaming OS, just like Ubuntu bug #1 is absolutely no closer to being closed today than it was when Warty Warthog was released, and just like Google has done nothing to make Linux and FOSS (rather than Android and Google) a household name.

[LinuxRocks]

Yes, true and I am also looking forward to what Valve can do for Linux.

I also think id will change their tune re- Linux as a viable platform once it's shown to them how much it has grown since they last released a game on the platform!

Hey, speaking of Valve, has anyone been invited to the private beta? I put in my name and e-mail, but never heard back.

Just curious.

[Kamikaze]

Oh, I totally agree with you... But, for Linux specifically, Valve is the only one that even acknowledges Linux as a viable platform to use for gaming. John came out and bluntly stated that Linux was NOT an option for gaming. So, from an open source standpoint, you are correct.

However, Open source is not only Linux!

Yes, true and I am also looking forward to what Valve can do for Linux.

I also think id will change their tune re- Linux as a viable platform once it's shown to them how much it has grown since they last released a game on the platform!

[LinuxRocks]

So far id software have done a lot more to support the open source community then Valve ever have. I don't recall Valve ever releasing any of their engines under the GPL.

Oh, I totally agree with you... But, for Linux specifically, Valve is the only one that even acknowledges Linux as a viable platform to use for gaming. John came out and bluntly stated that Linux was NOT an option for gaming. So, from an open source standpoint, you are correct.

However, Open source is not only Linux!

[Kamikaze]

With companies like Valve and others starting to warm up to Linux, who cares that ID is not porting stuff... ID games were great when they were young, but lately, they have been.... well, quite lacking - Rage anyone?

John Carmak can go play his own games with himself! Windows is diminishing with the demise of the PC market anyway, so, quite frankly, who gives a crap!

So far id software have done a lot more to support the open source community then Valve ever have. I don't recall Valve ever releasing any of their engines under the GPL.

[Kamikaze]

Hope it contains some backports from id Tech 5.

I watched a little bit of the last Quakecon Carmack keynote on youtube, and I believe he said that they backported the id Tech 5 netcode into the Doom 3 BFG edition. Don't have a link handy to back that up off hand, but googling for it shows some results at least.

[LinuxRocks]

With companies like Valve and others starting to warm up to Linux, who cares that ID is not porting stuff... ID games were great when they were young, but lately, they have been.... well, quite lacking - Rage anyone?

John Carmak can go play his own games with himself! Windows is diminishing with the demise of the PC market anyway, so, quite frankly, who gives a crap!

[uid313]

Backports

Hope it contains some backports from id Tech 5.