Artistic Freedom for Development

Cassiel

  • Posts: 44
Artistic Freedom for Development
« on October 1st, 2011, 01:37 AM »
So I was reading this article here:

http://www.destructoid.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-pining-for-episode-three-211344.phtml

And I was making a lot of comparisons to free software development and Valve's release (or lack thereof) of Half Life 2: Episode 3[1]. There is one specific part that rung in my head:
Quote
Valve does not owe us anything more than what they choose to deliver. Artists and creative folks alike do what they feel is right and continue to work from there. They didn’t sign a contract with their fan-base that agreed to a sequel for every concept produced.
And it's a shame that most people don't understand this. People who work on free software are not obligated to give anything back. They don't develop out of necessity, they develop because it's what they want to do. It's very unfortunate that people try to wedge[2] themselves in between the "artist" and their creative process.

Another good point made in this article was that if the author had a choice he'd rather take no game at all than one that was pushed out just to be pushed out. He's completely right. If a product is rushed out then not only are the people hurt by the bad product, but the product's image is hurt by a shoddy release. It's why people never get that upset when release dates for video games are pushed back. It's hard to complain that you'd rather get a crappy game than wait a few months for it to be more solid.

Anyways, I just wanted to give that article to you guys so you can have a good read. I thought you might be interested.
 1. Yes, I know they are really similar but they exist in two entirely different environments
 2. That was not suppose to be a shot at you guys, I just can't help myself when a good pun opportunity arises.