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Why Open Source?

In Brief

1) Open Source is different from Free.

Free is often associated with price, which is not the main trait of the projects parts of FGA. They allow you to play for free, without any cost, but this is not what makes them different.

Open Source is about having an open development cycle, accepting new contributions from the community, sharing results and experiences, structuring projects in a way that inspires collaboration.

Open Source is the aspect that makes the projects part of FGA different!

2) Volunteer organizations are different from independent or commercial companies.

All start a project for the passion they have on it, for their vision on the result, to create something new and enjoyable.

Indie or commercial companies have a specific business intent, budget, timeline, deadline and expected profit results. The project is somehow boxed into the business plan.

Volunteer projects are started without any investment upfront and without employees. The advantages are that the project is no more boxed into a timeframe, and can expand freely based on new ideas, new research, new innovation!

All projects in FGA are volunteer projects.



Details

1) Open Source is different from Free.

Free is about price, which is not the main trait of the projects parts of FGA. They allow you to play for free, but this is not what makes them different.

Open Source is about having an open development cycle, accepting new contributions from the community, sharing results and experiences, structuring projects in a way that inspires collaboration.

There are three fundamental principles we like about open source:

Other important aspects are:

Reliability: There is no software without bugs. Making software Open Source is not going to change this. However, opening sources to the public helps to reduce some of the bugs by allowing everyone to look at your source, inspect it and make suggestions for improvement.

Auditability: With Open Source software you don t have to trust us to see that we do things right. You don t have to trust us that we don t send personal information over the network or do other things that you wouldn t want. You don t have to trust us because you can go and check for yourselves (or ask a friend to do that).

Previews and beta versions: with access to source code, projects are allowing you to test their new features ahead of time, by releasing beta packages with bleeding edge features not yet part of official releases.

Software updates: With a stable community of developers the software is updated much more often than commercial packages.

Flexibility and Freedom: You have the freedom and flexibility to take the source and make modifications for it for your personal preferences. You don t like that particular user interface? Just change it. You would prefer to have a different camera view for your avatar in the world? Just change it. You have the source, you have the power. You only have to use it.

Open Source is the aspect that makes the projects part of FGA different!

Note: Projects are required to have an OSI approved license for their code. Art and other assets can have any license (see requirements under FGA for more details).

2) Volunteer organizations are different from independent or commercial companies.

All start a project for the passion they have on it, for their vision on the result, to create something new and enjoyable.

In addition commercial companies have a specific business intent, budget, timeline, deadline and expected profit results. The project is somehow boxed into the business plan. The advantages are more clear and timely results and more manpower, because the projects are funded from the start. Independent (Indie) companies are a subset of this, with the different they are usually funded by an individual or a small company.

Volunteer projects are usually started by one person with a vision, without any investment upfront and without employees. These projects are relying on the contributions from other people to be completed, by creating a community of voluteers. They have a flexible timeline, flexible scope and there are little or no commercial interests involved. The advantages is that the project is no more boxed into a timeframe, and can expand freely based on new ideas, new research, and new innovation!

All projects in FGA are volunteer projects.