Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

monogame.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 266 posts

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#111

Post by sneak »

mindcrash wrote: post #101

Not without reason: Stardew Valley, which has been sold to millions of gamers, has been created using the free MonoGame engine. So ConcernedApe is giving back to the open source software which made his commercial success possible, like commercial parties should.

Gifts do not confer obligation. Copying deprives the original party of nothing. Absolutely nothing about free software requires or even implies any responsibility to “give back”. This idea that anyone making money with free software somehow owes the original authors anything (or “should” donate a portion of their profits) is ridiculous.

If the authors wanted money for their software, they would have sold it instead of giving it away for free as a gift.

By releasing software under free software licenses you are explicitly stating that you do not expect or anticipate payment for it. The licenses (that they freely chose) are clear. Free software, in addition to being free as in speech, is also always free as in beer.

My friend bought me lunch. I used that energy at my job. Do I owe them part of my paycheck?

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#112

Post by sneak »

mjg2 wrote: post #102
madeofpalk wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of this is self-serving, even from the Stardew Valley dev. It’s win-win.

I disagree. I think ConcernedApe is actually genuine with his charity and we should see this as a standard for corporations to follow.

Charitable donations that are self-serving aren’t non-genuine. The money still spends the same.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#113

Post by kwanbix »

sneak wrote: post #111
mindcrash wrote: post #101

Not without reason: Stardew Valley, which has been sold to millions of gamers, has been created using the free MonoGame engine. So ConcernedApe is giving back to the open source software which made his commercial success possible, like commercial parties should.

Gifts do not confer obligation. Copying deprives the original party of nothing. Absolutely nothing about free software requires or even implies any responsibility to “give back”. This idea that anyone making money with free software somehow owes the original authors anything (or “should” donate a portion of their profits) is ridiculous. If the authors wanted money for their software, they would have sold it instead o…

It is the moral thing to do.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#114

Post by Wowfunhappy »

Majromax wrote: post #103
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lottery definitely has worse odds, I just don't think that's saying much. If you want to create indie games—and you can make it work without quitting your day job—go for it! But I don't think it would be smart for EA or Ubisoft to, like, stop making big-budget games and make indie games instead. If you can make a breakout hit, you can make a huge profit—but you have to make a breakout hit, and that comes down to…

> A lot of them will fail, but if a few are extremely successful, they could make up for the failures. It kind of felt like the studios were doing this for a while (Grow Home, Little Nightmares) but my sense is that it has kind of stopped? I think the problem comes from marketing budgets. For any given game a marketing budget can push some amount of sales, but applying a marketing budget to each game makes it much ha…

That's interesting, I think you're probably right.

> Combined, large developers don't have any natural advantage at making small to mid-scale games, and their structures impose fixed costs that are hard to avoid. It would almost be better for large developers to get indie-scale games by funding partners who act outside of the corporate structure, but anybody can do that.

The advantage would be funding. I love indie games but I do get tired of 2D pixel art. With just a bit more money—still an order of magnitude less than Call of Duty, mind you—the possibilities really expand.

I started playing Psychonauts 2 this week, and I think it's such an incredible game—and a great example of what can happen when an "indie" developer manages to secure a real budget. (I don't know if Double Fine is indie, but their games contain the sort of outside-the-box thinking I associate with indies.)

Perhaps some sort of YCombinator-esque model could actually work here.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#115

Post by emseetech »

sneak wrote: post #111
mindcrash wrote: post #101

Not without reason: Stardew Valley, which has been sold to millions of gamers, has been created using the free MonoGame engine. So ConcernedApe is giving back to the open source software which made his commercial success possible, like commercial parties should.

Gifts do not confer obligation. Copying deprives the original party of nothing. Absolutely nothing about free software requires or even implies any responsibility to “give back”. This idea that anyone making money with free software somehow owes the original authors anything (or “should” donate a portion of their profits) is ridiculous. If the authors wanted money for their software, they would have sold it instead o…

Copyleft removes legal obligation but we're free to confer a social obligation.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#116

Post by wilde »

sneak wrote: post #111
mindcrash wrote: post #101

Not without reason: Stardew Valley, which has been sold to millions of gamers, has been created using the free MonoGame engine. So ConcernedApe is giving back to the open source software which made his commercial success possible, like commercial parties should.

Gifts do not confer obligation. Copying deprives the original party of nothing. Absolutely nothing about free software requires or even implies any responsibility to “give back”. This idea that anyone making money with free software somehow owes the original authors anything (or “should” donate a portion of their profits) is ridiculous. If the authors wanted money for their software, they would have sold it instead o…

If your friend keeps taking you out to lunch and you never return the favor, he’s probably going to stop.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#117

Post by poly2it »

sneak wrote: post #111
mindcrash wrote: post #101

Not without reason: Stardew Valley, which has been sold to millions of gamers, has been created using the free MonoGame engine. So ConcernedApe is giving back to the open source software which made his commercial success possible, like commercial parties should.

Gifts do not confer obligation. Copying deprives the original party of nothing. Absolutely nothing about free software requires or even implies any responsibility to “give back”. This idea that anyone making money with free software somehow owes the original authors anything (or “should” donate a portion of their profits) is ridiculous. If the authors wanted money for their software, they would have sold it instead o…

This ignores the practical economics of open source. I'm not sure what you suggest by jumping around definitions like this.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#118

Post by sanex »

sneak wrote: post #111
mindcrash wrote: post #101

Not without reason: Stardew Valley, which has been sold to millions of gamers, has been created using the free MonoGame engine. So ConcernedApe is giving back to the open source software which made his commercial success possible, like commercial parties should.

Gifts do not confer obligation. Copying deprives the original party of nothing. Absolutely nothing about free software requires or even implies any responsibility to “give back”. This idea that anyone making money with free software somehow owes the original authors anything (or “should” donate a portion of their profits) is ridiculous. If the authors wanted money for their software, they would have sold it instead o…

You have a social obligation to buy your friend lunch sometime.

Re: Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

#120

Post by bevr1337 »

sneak wrote: post #111
mindcrash wrote: post #101

Not without reason: Stardew Valley, which has been sold to millions of gamers, has been created using the free MonoGame engine. So ConcernedApe is giving back to the open source software which made his commercial success possible, like commercial parties should.

Gifts do not confer obligation. Copying deprives the original party of nothing. Absolutely nothing about free software requires or even implies any responsibility to “give back”. This idea that anyone making money with free software somehow owes the original authors anything (or “should” donate a portion of their profits) is ridiculous. If the authors wanted money for their software, they would have sold it instead o…

> Gifts do not confer obligation.

Remind me, which Ferengi Rule of Acquisition is this?

There's not much argument to be had. You've created a logical justification for a myopic, misanthropic world view.

> My friend bought me lunch. I used that energy at my job. Do I owe them part of my paycheck?

Many find reciprocation important in a relationship.

Post reply on HN