Open Sourcing the Sonic Community
Posted by voice | Filed under Rant
Recently an interesting topic of discussion popped up on Sonic Stuff Research Group (SSRG)’s message board over the sharing of information in the form of displaying the M68K ASM source code for Jumpdash in Sonic 1. Somehow doing so ruffled some feathers amongst some veteran Sonic hackers who began to say doing so is ruining creativity and innovation, apparently the idea of making available M68K ASM for learning purposes frightens them to no end, and in the topic they showed their belief in controlled learning, note that once again Tweaker seems to be the hot-headed one in this topic.
I’m not exactly sure how sharing code ruins gaming in general, I mean how many retail games license and re-use the same game engines over and over again; Bioshock and Sonic 06, both use the Havok Physics engine, but I guess if you’re paying money to use someone else’s code then its ok. id Software, the makers behind Doom and Quake, has released the source code for Quake and Quake II but I haven’t really seen any flat out attempts to copy Quake pixel for pixel.
You have absolutely no idea what it’s like, clearly, to create something of your own skill, ability, and creative mind just to see cheap imitations prevalent about and accepted as “good enough” by the general populous, leaving the true creative works overshadowed and left in the dust. – Tweaker
That was directed at Qjimbo, but for a moment lets just pretend Tweaker was saying that to all of us. I personally do a lot of PHP developing, my site, outside of this blog, the radio center, and the forums, were either completely coded by me or heavily modified by me because of the open source nature of the software. I have released my code to people in the past and I dont see any cheap RSN knock-offs, and even if people did use my code I really wouldn’t care because I’m proud of the code I’ve been able to write. However…
Something interesting I’ve noticed is that the only people–or at least an overwhelming majority of them–who are trying to make the argument for the copy/paste bullshit are the people who have never made a Sonic ROM hack. You may say this doesn’t matter, but I disagree–there seems to be a drastic difference in perspective from people who actually understand what it’s like to be in the active, creationist side of the hacking scene in comparison to the one that just plays and observes the works people come out with. It’s as if people don’t comprehend the effort, ability, and skill involved in the practice, and blindly preach that everyone should have everything as if it doesn’t matter. Would you really like it if every professional video game that came out these days all had the same exact features built from the same exact code snippets? I hardly think that would be fun or appealing. – Tweaker
First off, as I said before, Sonic 06 and Bioshock are using the same Physics engine, both games make use of the engines in their game play, IE: Bioshock’s Telekinesis Plasmid and Sonic 06’s use of Silver’s Telekinesis abilities to solve puzzles, create/clear paths, or fight enemies. While the code may have been modified just a smidge its the same damn set of features Tweaker is complaining about, but somehow 2K Games and Sonic Team are allowed to get away with it. Secondly, while I don’t endorse copy and pasting code Tweaker’s argument is in no way a vaild excuse to say that code should not be shared publicly with others. I understand that theres a lot of time and effort put into some of these hacks as well as a lot of creative talent, but again how is this a valid reason to keep others from sharing? “I think because I make music no one else should be allowed to discuss or share their musical pieces or techniques because of the time and energy I put into creating my musical piece.” thats exactly what Tweaker’s argument is sounding like.
I don’t think every project done with a Sonic game needs to be open source, what I disagree with is this idiotic notion that just sharing a bit of code ruins hacking for everyone else in general. I see this as an attempt to keep the playing field uneven and to keep certain projects higher above others. It’s no secrete the project Tweaker is involved in, Megamix, is a highly popular hack both inside and outside of the Sonic Community, and I sort of begin to see why Tweaker is so up in arms over people learning ASM or hacking in general, what if someone makes a hack that is better than Megamix? And as forum member Emily Sapphire put it…
Another thing, isn’t it basically copy/paste bullshit to be using Sonic source code at all? Seeing as Sonic Team made it, I guess no one cares about Sonic Team though. The way I see it, the whole “community” is based around copy/paste bullshit since it’s all about using someone else’s code for your ROM hack. – Emily Sapphire
Sharing is helping spread knowledge, don’t try to stop it just so you can keep it all to yourself.
