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Well, I love the coders. The REAL coders, not the lamers that take an emulation and just change the GUI and release the emu as a "optimized xxxxxxx" or "unofficial xxxxx", as we saw on snes emulator. But the coders rox, really rox.
And, some people have to stop the hype. It annoys me see a news like "quake 2 comming soon!" or "snestyl coming soon". Just release the fscking emulator / game and stop the hype! And, of course, congratulations to all the coders, even the snestyl guys. :-D
Luv'U all! You make my PSP usefull. :-D
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snes was a bad example to use. there actually IS a big difference between the two
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Ultimately the work belongs to the coder. Sure, they are using tools and other work that others may have given for free - but that was the choice made by those other people.
If you want to give something for free, and require that everything produced with it is free too, then you can always use something like the GPL to insist on that - so I don't think that's an issue, directly.
Fortunately, there's an unwritten code of ethics, and general community spirit, that means that the majority of people do give their stuff away for free. Generally that's because they just did it for fun in the first place, and letting other people use it is a nice bonus.
But what's important is that no-one has a right to demand that it should be free. That's just as stifling to the scene as if the norm was for people to charge for their work. No coder wants to be developing stuff for greedy, grabbing people who just assume it's their right to be worked for, for no reward. A gift is massively devalued, and loses the magic of both giving and receiving, if it is expected as a matter of course.
This is why I personally believe in the donations model. You give a gift to the community freely, with no expectation of reward. And if it's appreciated, then a gift may be given back, also completely freely. Everyone feels good about that (gift-giving is much nicer than fee-paying), and everyone wins.
Remember that some exchange of donations of one sort or another generally really helps to push forward the scene. All of the donations for the EBOOT Loader have gone into buying more hardware (PSPs, memory cards, whatever) so that I can work more efficiently on the project. Without those donations, there's no way I could have justified personal outlay of over $1000 on hardware to support the creation of free homebrew for the community - I just can't afford that.
Bottom line: Be thankful that so many people are generous enough to give you their time and hardwork for free. But don't demand that of them, because they may just stop doing it.
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Bottom line: Be thankful that so many people are generous enough to give you their time and hardwork for free. But don't demand that of them, because they may just stop doing it.
Amen!!
