Yeah, sorry I know it's a gaming site, I try and leave politics mostly out of it (I'm a politics graduate so can't help it sometimes). The reason I went more into it in this one is because that's probably the most interesting thing about Norway and the one people talk about the most and what struck me most about the country (equal paternity/maternity leave, very high salaries, very high literacy, excellent healthcare, excellent transport, very high transparency, etc.). But then those are just the things which I notice more, given my background. Go compare some basic metrics with the rest of Europe and the world and Norway comes out winning in so many things, you can't deny the facts - and those facts are interesting.

With the next one, it will most likely be less political in the overview and like I said, this was just a case where politics/society is very interesting. The Argentina one was more about the history of immigration and its influences on culture because that's interesting. It's not intended to be a gripping ideological argument, just an interesting overview of a country based on my limited knowledge of it. It may be simpler to just write a list of 5 interesting facts or something next time because that's less controversial.

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5 Linux Games Out Of 7

Finally! They've been terrible with multi-platform support lately.

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Quoting: GuestHey, it’s not written anywhere but it looks like it’s a real time strategy game, at last! Not turn-based! Yay! Seems interesting.

I would say it's a blend of RTS and city-sim, but closer to being a sim really (at least the old ones, haven't played this one).

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Woop! :) Hope there's a bit of a discount on the 19th

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Also, please port Bioshock Infinite, I will make you a cake if you do (learn how to bake first too).

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Well, since I don't have twitter, I can answer on here.

My initial reasons for using Linux were mostly political since I am very politically minded. I didn’t like the idea of one company (Microsoft) having a monopoly over something as important as computer operating systems and on top of that, do a terrible, terrible job of it. Most people at this point may switch to Apple, but honestly if I had to choose between the two, I would choose Microsoft over a company which uses fashion and planned obsolescence to exploit human vanity and stupidity creating a buy and throw away culture where today's shiny new product (made in a Chinese gulag) is tomorrow's landfill. So Linux seemed like the logical choice, and it also intrigued me a lot.

Probably after the first two months of using Linux (circa 2008), I stopped dual booting Windows completely and have never used it since. I love gaming, but at this point also started to enjoy tinkering with Linux and had fun getting games to work through wine, encountering issues, resolving them. Also trying out open source games and stuff like SCUMMVM.

I guess after a while, I got bored of that and just wanted stuff to work, but luckily Humble Bundle and Steam came along so I could play lots of games natively without having to wrestle with Wine and often fail.

The reality is, I would never go back to Windows. I have tried using Windows 8 and just get angry and how rubbish it is, and don't get me started on OSX. I even installed Linux on the office computer I used a few years ago because I didn't want to use Windows even in a work environment. I guess it is kind of a fanboyish commitment to something (even though I don't like to admit it), but only to a limited degree since the reality is that it is better and we should all be using Linux (or at least open OSs) - I'm not saying Linux would solve world hunger, but the world would be a better place even if only state sectors used it. Beyond that, although I do believe in Intellectual Property (more so for games than films and music), I think that it would benefit everyone more if the tools used to create that IP were free and open.

What it comes down to is that I love Linux and I love gaming. I buy WAY more games now that there are native Linux games than I used to on Windows or consoles, simply because at the moment I still can't get over the fact that all this stuff is on Linux - it's like getting a game, but also getting to support something you believe in and give a thank you to companies who respect that. Now that Steam is on Linux, I will never buy a console again, and I guess even if the games went away, I would still use Linux and continue to find workarounds like before.

Thanks for XCOM!!

EDIT: I understated the reasons why I think it's a better OS (centralised package manager, speed, stability, choice, etc.) but plenty of others have done that, so I'll just second what they said.

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There is no good reason to use Windows anymore. Sure, Linux doesn't have all the titles yet, but still too many to get through anyway (I have lots in my library which are still unplayed). It's gotten to the point where it's less inconvenient to have those few "must have" titles on Wine than it is to dual boot. So really don't get why people use it at all (unless they use some very specific pieces of software for work or something).

Also, not hugely interested in Borderlands, but if Aspyr is doing the port then I think I will try it. Just wish someone would announce Bioshock Infinite now...

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Quoting: briansprojectsAnything that starts with /r/ is a reference to Reddit. In this case it is a reference to the Linux_gaming subreddit.

Http://reddit.com/r/Linux_gaming [External Link]

Oh, ok! Man, I feel old.

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I don't get where they've poked fun at Linux gamers. I'm guessing it's something to do with

branches/domesticated_internal/description: › Hello /r/linux_gaming

but don't understand. Can someone explain?

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Will you get it?

No doubt. Never played the original Alpha Centauri but have played Civs 3-5 so will be nice for a change. I like the whole idea of your civilization (or space colonizers or whatever) taking different paths and becoming drastically different depending on the choices you make, which makes for a bit of a change from Civ where the course of things is fairly predictable (especially in the late game). From what I have seen, you can have one game of this followed by another and they can almost play like completely different games.

Speaking of the late game, that's always been a problem for Civ (somewhat better in 5 than in 4, but still) so I hope that's something that they improve on here. It's either far too easy or descends into a mutually assured destruction deadlock (depending on victory types, etc). There was the case of that Civ 2 gamesave which had been going on for 10 years and the guy challenged people to try and beat the game - http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/uxpil/ive_been_playing_the_same_game_of_civilization_ii/ [External Link]

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