Open Source Model

Open-source is the only feasible way to develop Empowerment because of the freedom it grants and represents.

The freedom it grants makes it freely distributable and openly collaborative for developers. The freedom it represents makes it appealing to developers and players alike because it serves as a guarantee that contributions to the open-source project will not be wasted by corporate greed. It guarantees that if there is a disagreement in design philosophies between developers, the project can branch instead of self-destructing, creating diversity instead of decay.

Open-Source: The Technology Freedom Movement

Open-source is a legal framework for the public development of software technology.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond

Open-Source can best be understood by reading Eric Raymond’s essay, the Cathedral and the Bazaar. It is a great example of an open book that is both free and profitable. It was published freely on the Net and gained a wide readership popularizing the bold new ideas of open-source software development. It was also published in a conventionally distributed and priced printed book form, with sales largely fed by its online popularity amongst people who had not paid anything for it in the first place. Being free was the key to its being profitable, not a hindrance. http://catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/

Online Developer Collaboration

EMP will incorporate developers from around the world collaborating on a common project. It is unlike commercial games that are developed by small, tightly knit teams on short schedules under commercial pressures.

SourceForge Development System

Team management and help wanted listings

File package listings

CVS: Concurrent Versions System is a tool used by many software developers to manage changes within their source code tree. CVS provides the means to store not only the current version of a piece of source code, but a record of all changes (and who made those changes) that have occurred to that source code. Use of CVS is particularly common on projects with multiple developers, since CVS ensures changes made by one developer are not accidentally removed when another developer posts their changes to the source tree. Though CVS repositories are most commonly accessed using a special piece of software called a CVS client, we also provide a web-based interface to view CVS repositories. Browsing the CVS tree gives you a great view into the current status of this project’s code. You may also view the complete histories of any file in the repository.

nightly build management, forum management, mailing-list management, technical support tracking, bug report tracking, feature request tracking,plugin tracking, patch tracking

Foundries: SourceForge.net has created areas for top-tier Open Source developers to congregate, get information, contribute code and collaborate on a particular technical topic. These areas are called Foundries. A Foundry is a targeted software development Community built around a specific technology focus. It’s where developers share expertise and news, get and give advice, and generally help each other develop better software, faster. Some key features of Foundries: Contain news and original content that pertain to the technology focus of the Foundry, Newsletters, Searchable mailing list archive to see past discussions and research information, Software library, Foundry Guides who are leaders in their respective fields and chart the course of the Foundry and the information within it.

It Has, Can And Will Be Done: The Linux Precedent

To say an upstart project cannot take on the industry titans is to ignore the 500lb penguin staring you in the face. Linux, with its cute penguin mascot Tux, sets a significant precedent for David vs Goliath success.

Its unpaid developer community managed to outdo the world’s largest technology company. Whereas Microsoft has to employ a hierarchy of thousands of full-time developers and management to achieve its immense profit margins and market share, Linux is a project shared by freely associating developers who create technology they want to use. Microsoft already considers it the most serious competition for the lucrative server business, and Linux gets closer and closer to desktop acceptance with each free new version. What Linux did was inspire a watershed of smaller open-source projects that contribute to its diversity and strength as a whole. Thousands of developers have created totally free technologies rivaling the commercial software industry in scope and quality.

Good ends achieved by good means

The game development process is as important as the technology and game design itself. All progress and future development depends on a successful and effective process. It forms the superstructure much like a written constitution forms the basis for governmental operations. For more information on the open-source nature of Empowerment and the process it entails, see Empowerment: The Master Plan.

Open Source Gaming

Competing with the gaming industry

The challenge of open-source game development is that the majority of the leading games are developed using closed source. There have been some notable successes where amateur game developers achieved immense popularity and bridged into commercial success, such as Counterstrike. Counterstrike started as a mod for half-life and became the most popular online first-person shooter game. It succeeded on the strength of its excellent gameplay and is still enjoyed today despite the dated technology of its six year-old game engine.

It is a common mantra amongst open source advocates that open source software isn't competing with commercial software because it is free and can continue to be developed without profiting on market share. In actuality, all software competes for mind share, regardless of the underlying business model. The need for quality and popularity competetive with commercial offerings is even more important for an activist project which seeks not merely to make a lot of money but to have a widespread positive effect.

Open-Source Games Remain Marginal

One area where open-source has yet to initiate significant changes is game development. Empowerment is the project that will change that, and in the process, repeat the success of Linux.

Commercialism Skews Games

Profit motives skew corporate developments and prevent them from enlisting the full community.

Prior Open Source Game Developments

There has been very little open-source game development. FreeCiv is an example of a clone that improves only on the technology of the original game design.