A theory about "old" Part III : Games

As you can see, I've kept apart Games from Software. This has not to do with games not being software, because they are. This has to do with my own position about games, which is quite different from the one about software.

I simply LOVE games, I think I'll never stop playing. Perhaps I'll change the type of games I play over time, but I'll never stop playing. That being said, there's something seriously wrong about this activity. Marketing, a powerful force behind all kinds of software, becomes overwhelming when it comes to games. This generates hordes of people wanting to play the latest game that just came out, clearly influenced by the never ending bombing of information we are constantly under. I don't share that position.

My computer is a little bit old, although is still a powerful machine. It was built with one idea in mind: stability. This doesn't mean it doesn't have any power, only that power was not the idea behind it's design. This PC can run between 65 and 70% of PC games (that is, If I install a Windows on it). As 65 is over 50%, I still can play more than half of the games out there, and I don't have the time to play even 10%. Thus, the main limitation is in my free time and not in my PC.

Between 70% and 95%, there are games I can run, but only with low textures and detail, no shadows, lower fps, etc. So I don't think it's a good idea to play them now that I can't fully enjoy them. In the future, when it comes the time to build myself a new computer, I'll be able to run that same games with full details, so there's no rush to play them.

A lot would say, 'you didn't play Doom 3' or Crysis, Oblivion, etc. I really don't care. I still have jewels like Half Life and Half Life II, Portal, Morrowind to play, and I still haven't found the time to do it. If I play a watered down version of Oblivion instead of a full detailed version of Morrowind, I'll be making a big mistake, falling to temptation to have less fun that I could.

So, instead of getting angry about not being able to play the latest games, I prefer to investigate carefully and play forgotten jewels that I find in the oddest corner of a game shop or in the webpage of a game manufacturer which understands the value of good games. For example, I see X3:Reunion in my near future.

Always remember, we play to have fun, not because we are told to play.

In case you were wondering about the idea mentioned in the first post, here it is.

There's a game studio made by only two people, that released an excellent game for Windows, called World of Goo. I recently saw that the piracy on this game is over 95%, and it's only a 20 dollars game.

This game is being pirated because it's really good, but with the same mindlessness that they pirate big chain's 40 or 60 dollar games. And that's something that's completely unfair, because this isn't some impersonal game chain, here they are going against a pair of extremely imaginative programmers that released an addictive, intelligent and anything but monotonous game,

The game also features a generous whole chapter demo, so you can't complain that you can't test it before buying it.

Now, the fun begins. Some of you will ask, what does this have to do with Linux anyway? Easy to answer. Lately this programmers are working in a Linux native port, and that gives us an amazing opportunity.

Imagine for a moment what would happen if Linux users bought more original copies than Windows users. I can answer what could happen. Those innovative programmers will make next game for Linux, and not Windows.

Even more, when the Linux version of World of Goo is released and we buy a lot of copies, this will bring a press release of enormous importance "There are more Original copies of a Linux version of a game sold than for Windows". This sends three important messages: There are games for Linux, there's money to be made programming for Linux and, more important of all, there's no need for anticopy systems under Linux to make people buy the games.

This is why I make this political declaration: I'm now saving the 20 dollars to buy the game once it's released for Linux. I strongly suggest you all do the same.

Now, following my own license, I say that this idea originally appeared on
Demasiado Personal, and as long as that credit is given this can be freely copied.