Open-Source Publishing

The ultimate peer-review in the entertainment industry focuses on quality, capability, and playability of a game as reviewed by trade magazines and the sales generated by the market.

In models and simulations for other constituencies, the peer-review is much more about the methods, assumptions, data, algorithms, and other techniques used to create the program. Without access to the source code, that isn't as possible. With access to the source code other developers, scientists, academics, etc. can work to improve and extend the model.

Game developers must recognize this and work to provide public or open-source distribution of products constructed for non-entertainment purposes. This includes well-commented code, as liberal a license agreement as possible, and support documents that help other programmers and researchers get up to speed with the source code.

In cases where derivative commercial interests may exist, public source or private permission-based availability of source with a restrictive license is quite suitable. While open-source advocates will frown upon source availability that isn't pure open-source, that shouldn't discourage developers from releasing some grade of publicly available source code.

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