Let me list some links that directly or indirectly relate to the question. These are by no means facts of course, but it would be nice to jump start the discussion this way:
- A video on YouTube called "Is Godot a Cult?"
- A story of ex-moderator of Godot's Discord that mentions "Inner Godot Cult"
- A story of ex-developer of Godot which tells that he "left Godot cult", to the point of calling for cancellation of the engine
- Jokes about Godot addiction called "Godotitis"
- An opinion from someone who uses Unity, talking about tribalism and suggesting that Godot is "extremely defensive" as an example
- To a question "What do you think of Godot Engine?", someone answers that "Overly zealous fans is not a good thing. I want a tool, not a cult"
- A meme suggesting that Godot is a cult that is going to be huge
- Other people asking whether Godot is a cult
Since most cults are based on a single charismatic leader (in Godot context, lets assume this is Juan), here are some links that describe the vision of Godot's lead developer:
- Juan says that engine has no development philosophy
- Juan discourages users from comparing Godot to any other technology, and that people "should not cross this line"
- Juan wrote an article suggesting that "As an Open Source project, Godot is more than a game engine"
- Juan suggests that Godot's development is based on "trust", and not "true meritocracy" as previously suggested in the article above
- Juan wrote an article about Godot 2.1 RC1 release, with a picture suggesting Donald Trump. You can find a book called "The Cult of Trump".
From what I can tell, saying that an open-source project is a cult is a strong word. Godot is certainly not Moonies, right? But nowadays, when people spend more time online rather than in real-life (especially software developers), do you think it may be possible that cults like Moonies could exist in the digital era of IT?
Do we get brainwashed or something? Am I insane noticing this? What do you think? I'm looking forward to your reply!