Games and platform sharing

Watched Tarkes last epoch review and I had the same thoughts comparing any game to another; some just do it right, feel better, aren't wonky and run smoother.

So why don't game companies have the same approach as app devs or software coders? You got the different tools for different jobs and we all use the same set of standards while contributing and improving everything over time.

Wouldn't it be better if major successful game(engine)s would just open up their platforms for everyone, open source style, allow free modding and creating new games and content much faster than forcing people to build the entire thing up over again from nothing?

There could be simple royalty fees to cover the original creators work...

Let's say Blizzard was to open up WoW for modding, and the Fallout 2 fan community would create a awesome all new mod around it, since with all the free new tools it would be really easy to just rework the existing structure than whipping up a all new clunky game.

Now this game becomes so popular it pulls in millions of players and let's say it's free on steam/bnet but has a $5 monthly sub fee, so this team who made the wow FO2 mod are now generating $10 mill every month, from which Blizz would get whatever the royalty rate might be, still pretending 50% sounds fair.

Blizz gets a additional $5 mill every month for literally doing nothing, just licensing their engine and stuff, and the mod community are now running a nice business too.

How would anyone disagree with this picture? It's a fucking win win for everyone. Blizz gets paid... the otherwise-probably-unemployed neckbeard modders have a business now... the FO2 fans get a game they like which other studios couldn't deliver... fucking tripple win.

But no. Can't have nice things.
Gotta have strict copyright laws, gotta pay up front $90000 mill for licenses basically doing nothing but taking a gigantic risk, if your project fails you are fucked. And all the other public image/relation corporate bullshit on top, shareholders who stiffle the creative drive of artists and cripple every upcoming authentic project "because fear of cultural backlash and THIS IS A BUSINESS" etc...

Why does everything have to be so wrong?
Why can't anything be done right sometimes?

Who do we blame here now, capitalism?

Open-source game development is complicated by unique anti-cheat issues. Decision-making is definitely complicated by the necessary assumption of altered user clients. An open source game will need to rely a lot more on server-side processing than client-side processing.

Jeff Nadrich

game engines are already free

so if you're one of those "unemployed neckbeard modders" you're free to start your business already.