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Back in January, I had set out to play and purchase only games whose source code has been made publicly available. Prior to this, I found a measure of peace in buying exclusively DRM-free games so this new endeavor was not such a leap further. Here are some of things I learned.
1. Free and open source does not always mean amateur production value.
A fair number of the long running free/libre game projects have received much needed face lifts which brings them largely within parity of commercial game stylization. The "home-made" feel can still be found on some courses in Super Tux Kart for example, but the recent updates easily have an air of professionalism.
Additionally, there are commercially produced games which have either gone free/libre or have always been. They, of course, had art direction behind their development
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2. Free and open source can also mean amateur production value.
3. In some cases, you need to be open to getting your hands dirty.
Not every game I played was prepackaged by my distribution. Especially with commercial games, one may need to be open to building the game before running it.
4. Free-libre gaming facilitates an honest approach to the "sample first, pay later" model.
It was refreshing to be able to try a game out before handing over any change. The older gamers among us might recall the days when game demos where once distributed. A fair number beyond that admit to dishonestly acquiring games in order to try them first before committing to a purchase. While this is partly the result of the industry failing at providing demos (replaced now by herding gamers into the microtransaction model), it is also created by artificial scarcity which simply cannot be applied to free and open games.
5. Having the source to your games means you can play them almost anywhere.
Just as the malfeatures of proprietary operating systems have driven me toward free operating systems, the assault on freedom and autonomy at the hardware level has also driven me away from x86. And being able to bring my games with me, unhindered, to a freer platform enabled me to remorselessly give the proverbial finger to interests intent on designing hardware which treats it's users as enemies. Games shown here have been built and run on a POWER9 based gaming computer. All of which would have been impossible to accomplish while at the mercy of proprietary game authors.
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I don't want to leave anyone with a false impression that adhering to only free-libre games is all roses and sunshine. It takes a level of discipline that may not be palatable to everyone but if you care about your freedom, privacy and security as much as you care about your gaming, I’d consider any rough edges to be a small sacrifice. For me, as long as I can bring my absolute favorites, Barony and Minetest, along with me I can live happily.
Last edited by GustyGhost on 24 December 2019 at 12:56 am UTC
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I think I mentioned my most enjoyed titles in the post. Maybe it's just because I've never played roguelikes before, but Barony has proven to hold my attention for longer than a voxel indie title ever should. I think that fresh game ideas tend to filter through the path (to money) of least resistance and so they end up on the most dominant platforms and storefronts first. Many free and open games are clones of existing ideas which have already matured.
At first, I thought racing games would be out of the question. But this ultimately led to me discovering TORQs, Trigger Rally and Stunt Rally. I have yet to try out Super Tux Kart's new multiplayer but this is because I recently played through it and just want to wait a bit before replaying it.
This year, I migrated from a Ryzen 2400GE-based system so a goal was to match those specs as closely as possible: quad core, 16GB memory, a GPU of the same family and general compute power. The framerates I get in games would not be anything impressive to most gamers but it plenty for my standards within 40-60.
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What is your stance about open source re-implementation engine?
Last edited by Cyril on 23 December 2019 at 3:02 am UTC
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one question ....did you check this game?? https://sourceforge.net/projects/dangerdeep/
Trigger rally back in the days started like a demo of a few minutes of gameplay, then the developer got hired by Sega. I read that it has grown into a full blown game. Must try it.
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You can get at least Morrowind on GOG! But yeah it's not Free/Libre.
why not write with a pseudonym (alias)? some writers do that also some reporters in some countries where the press doesn't have much freedom.
(BTW I totally understand your point my surname it's also of a bank owner here where I live and some ppl think I'm a millonaire but I don't have anything to do with that guy it's a very distant relative, I don't like using my surname in social media).
Last edited by Koopacabras on 23 December 2019 at 5:45 am UTC