i've known quite a few people who got into this business, and the margins are RAZOR THIN. just the RMA's on your busted hardware can make or break you. what more, having to pay lots and lots of licensing fees?
the bottom line is, the market has gotten used to very low per-hour pricing, and this pricing is partially due to the use of illegal software. so, assuming the government gets tough on piracy (and is not just undergoing a spastic fit of compliance) then at some point either
1) per-hour usage prices will have to adjust accordingly
2) internet shops will become mostly about internet (which works fine on linux) and office stuff, and less about games
as for the MMORPG's --- don't delude yourselves. the philippines is a SMALL, CROWDED market. those korean developers aren't going to bend over backwards porting to linux for a small market where they aren't getting much revenue compared to their other markets.
what's MORE interesting is an OSS MMORPG. now THAT, combined with Linux, could be a killer app for the net cafes. heck, it would even stimulate the local software industry. BUT -- making a good game is like making a major motion picture. we're talking tens of millions of dollars here. and games, notably, are one area where the OSS model has fallen down flat.
On 9/20/05, Zak B. Elep <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Orlando Andico <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Yeah, all this talk of WINE and what-not is useless because the games
> themselves must be licensed anyway even if you're running WINE or
> Crossover.
True, but there was an implicit assumption (at least, that's what I see)
about getting MMOs (which I believe are free as in free beer) on
GNU/Linux. Hence, this is not entirely useless, since the talk isn't
just about the technology only, or the licensing only, but that and
perhaps more.
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