Going Rogue (Digital Antiquarian)

After an initial foray into the ways that open-source software has failedto live up to its early hype,this DigitalAntiquarian article covers the history of rogue-like games in greatdetail.

This brings us back around to a statement I made at the outset:that roguelikes are the exception that proves the rule ofopen-source game development - and just possibly of open-sourcesoftware development in general. The cast of thousands whocontribute to them do so in order to make exactly the games thatthey want to play, which in the abstract is the best of allpossible reasons to make a game. The experience they end up withis, unsurprisingly, much like high-wire programming at its mostadvanced, presenting players with an immense, multi-faceted systemto be explored and mastered.