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I'd buy ebooks. For this DRM-fucked wanabe crapola, forget it. Better to spend my money on Humble Bundle! Though I lean more toward Big Data Books than Lord of the Rings RPGs. (Humble Bundle has had a few O'Reilly sets & Bruce Schneier Security books, including Applied Cryptography, over the years!)

I'd buy ebooks. For this DRM-fucked wanabe crapola, forget it. Better to spend my money on Humble Bundle! Though I lean more toward Big Data Books than Lord of the Rings RPGs. (Humble Bundle has had a few O'Reilly sets & Bruce Schneier Security books, including Applied Cryptography, over the years!)

If you go the digital route, periodically check out Comixology (for sales) and Humble Bundle Books.

Also note that many of the second-tier publishers (Valiant, IDW, Image) provide DRM-free PDF/CBZ downloads for backups; others -- notably Marvel and DC -- do not.

what about all of the legit companies that accept Bitcoin?

That is a shrinking list precisely because of the rapid fluctuation of the currency, the ballooning transaction cost and the length of time it takes to process the transactions.

In fact what you will find is that most of these companies are not accepting bitcoin at all, they are transacting in US dollars you are simply using a service like coinbase to sell bitcoin for US dollars that are then transferred to the company. This also comes with a number of caveats and additional restrictions due to the problems with using bitcoin as a currency.

Or the fact that as economies falter and the native currencies turn to dust and banks fail/are seized, people turn to Bitcoin...

Again, when you put this into practise you find the exorbitant fees and long transaction times to be prohibitive. Yes the case study points out that the number of bitcoin users has increased in Venezuela because the inflation is so bad that finding anywhere to park your investment, even if it is as highly volatile as bitcoin, is a relative win.

As the supply of bitcoins becomes exhausted the problem of transactions becomes much worse, the incentive for mining goes away and transaction fees need to skyrocket just to have incentive for the network to continue operating. You are suggesting its practical use is as a currency however you seem unaware of limitations of the architecture of bitcoin.

It kind of does make sense. This is just one of the reasons things like HumbleBundle and GoG and Steam are popular. Not every title is available on every platform but a lot of titles are available on windows + osx + linux for one purchase.

Humblebundle in particular supports windows + mac + linux + android; and there are a number of titles that cross the divide, for example:
https://www.humblebundle.com/s...

You'll notice what is missing though... iOS.

The trouble here with Apple doing it is that the apple store itself is single platform, and on ios at least its also the only store you are allowed to use. The upshot is that anything you buy on the apple store will still only ever work on your apple devices. And anything you buy on another store will not be allowed on iOS.

Let me know when Apple allows GoG and Steam and HumbleBundle etc onto iOS. Until then: Fuck iOS and the apple app stores.

There are really good modern old-school games made by indie developers/studios. The Humble Bundle is a good way to start. Here is a somewhat outdated list of bundles. Many of those games can be bought on Steam too.

Posting anon to preserve my mod of your comment.

I have never been a hardcore gamer, unless you count riding my bike to the arcade back in the early 80s. For some reason I never got into big box games. I think it's why I took to Humble Bundle. I have purchased over 100 games through them, mostly in bundles. I run linux and they are good (not great) about supporting my OS of choice. My kids find some that they really like too, so they can play them on their tablet or windows pc. DRM free is great - no worries about sharing one account (Steam) or jumping through a bunch of hoops, or *gasp* breaking the law just to play a game casually. There are fun extras, and you don't have to really invest a lot into them if you don't want to. I don't really follow gaming, but everything I do see seems to be so focused on realistic graphics. I suppose that's cool... but I play games to have fun. That doesn't always mean realistic graphics.

If you have been living under a rock, go check them out at Humble Bundle and sign up to get alerts of new bundles. Check out the Humble Store. You can get some good games, support charity and indie game developers.

Humble Bundle has their own store?

https://www.humblebundle.com/a...

Not that it helps you, but yeah, it is pretty cool that it exists. Since it saves you having to sideload any of the humble mobile titles you may have, you just install and update them etc via the app.

I think you are mostly wrong about batteries though. I don't think its cheap knockoffs that were the main issue; although it IS a real issue, and one the manufacturers like to scapegoat.

But I think they took away replaceable batteries because:

  - it lets you go thinner
  - built in obscelesence
  - cheaper
  - batteries last longer than they used to, so the need to replace them has dropped off; so the market for replacements is smaller
  - batteries charge faster than they used to, so the need for infrastructure for swapping batteries, and using external chargers etc, as part of regular usage has died out.

There are lots of forces at work against replaceable batteries.

That said, I don't disagree with your vent about software. A lot of the stuff in the so-called "curated" stores should be relegated to the 'bottom shelf' in the back of the store... where you have to walk past a sign that says beware of the leopard before it shows it to you.

On simply having it "in the store" gives it far more visibility and exposure than it would ever get in a real market.

You get 16 of the ones from O'reilly for $15 together on https://www.humblebundle.com/b..., the first 5 for just $1 together.

There's a O'Reilly Humble Book Bundle too (for another 11 days)! Worth taking a look at! Nice to have on your tablet/phone...

I don't know where to find all of them and if they are fairly priced I may buy them.

Anyway what I really wanted to point out is the current book bundle over at https://www.humblebundle.com/b...
It beats 50% off.

UNIX presented by O'reilly:

For free:
* Ten Steps to Linux Survival Excerpt

$1:
* Unix in a Nutshell, 4th edition.
* sed & awk, 2nd edition.
* lex and yacc, 2nd edition.
* Learning the Bash shell, 3rd edition.
* Linux pocket guide, 3rd edition.

Pay $8 and you'll also get:
* Bash cookbook.
* Classic shell Scripting.
* Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd edition.
* UNIX power tools.
* Learning the vi and vim editors, 7th edition.
* Bash pocket reference, 2nd edition.
* Learning UNIX for OS X, 2nd edition.

Pay $15 and you'll also get:
* Essential system administration, 3rd edition.
* TCP/IP network administration, 3rd edition.
* DNS and BIND, 5th edition.
* Network Troubleshooting Tools.

All in all 16 books for $15.

Anybody got a slashdot account who could help me out? Slashdot now requires an account to submit stories. I lost my password, haven't used it for over a decade. Creating a throw-away yahoo email just to post a story is more effort than I really want to put in...

The current HumbleBundle book offer is for O'Reilly books. Yes, THAT O'Reilly, with the cute animals on the covers. There's some good ones in there. Definitely news for nerds!

Okay, sorry for the interruption, back to our regularly scheduled story about how Microsoft Windows is now going to require higher-end graphics while killing out battery life all in the name of, oh cripes what the hell are they trying to accomplish again? I kind of lost the thread after all the telemetry (*cough* spying) and selling our private life to third parties...

https://www.humblebundle.com/l...

Last Pass is part of the "LifeHackers" Humble Bundle. Cost just under $8 for it (and others).

Guess that's okay because it's charity right?

But the $1 for Directory Opus is a great deal.

Uhhhh a couple times a month? I have something like 60+ indie games and I have ONLY bought about 1 in 5 indie HBs, hell the one they have RIGHT NOW is a indie Gamemaker Pro bundle as you can see here so I'd say its a hell of a lot.

Add in the periodic Steam sales (75+% off) for cheap games, not to mention Humble Bundle for more frequent REALLY cheap games.

No $200/year fees. Pay what you want when you want, play what you've bought forever.

Either Sony's games are really freaking good, to the point where they can charge World-of-Warcraft level pricing, or.... What was it P. T. Barnum used to say about one being born every minute?

Well, look at this months Humble Bundle

For $6 I can get the following 6 games:
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Octodad, Super Time Force Ultra, Leathal League, The Beginners Guide, and Galak-Z

Awesome, I've been wanting to check out Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (especially for co-op!), and I can get the usually $10 game for $6 along with a few other games I haven't heard of to try out someday.

Oh, but I already own Octodad. The steam activation code for it is worthless to me since I already have that game in my library.

Perhaps you don't own Octodad yet, and it seems a bit silly to pay full price for.
Perhaps I put up just that one game code for sale, at say $0.50 or even $1.
At that price you might just decide it is worth buying. I'd assume someone out there would, even if that one isn't your thing.

That is why such sites exist. In fact I could put up the codes for all of the other 5 games I had no original interest in. If I could get just $1 for each, that brings my expense for the one game I wanted down from $6 to $1. $1 for a $10 game is still a great deal for me.

Changes in Steam key redemption

A little over a year ago, we launched OAuth Steam key redemption, creating one-click Steam key redemption for games purchased through Humble Bundle. However, Steam is removing support for OAuth, so we’ll be returning to the system we used before, which requires you to manually redeem your Steam keys.

http://blog.humblebundle.com/p...

https://supporters.eff.org/don...

I'd forget if I waited until later.

I always pick them as my charity when I when I buy a Humble Bundle.

https://www.humblebundle.com/. That's the way to go. Pay $1 or $5 or whatever for a whole bunch of games... And a good chuck of your money goes to charity. (I like donating to the EFF when you can choose.)

I wouldn't touch the current weekly HB. It's Uplay. Google past slashdot stories about Uplay. Frigging toxic.

But most HumbleBundles are Steam, or DRM-free straight downloads. I've got a few hundred games right now on my Steam account. (And Steam lets me share them with my kids. They loved Goat Simulator for some reason...)

Definitely the way to go! Games for under $1 apiece. Often very nice games, like Kerbal Space, Reassembly, etc.

Except there was the Humble Origin Bundle : http://blog.humblebundle.com/p... (there was even a second Origin bundle)
And the Humble THQ Bundle : http://blog.humblebundle.com/p...

Except there was the Humble Origin Bundle : http://blog.humblebundle.com/p... (there was even a second Origin bundle)
And the Humble THQ Bundle : http://blog.humblebundle.com/p...

I found my BoA card to be suspended for making multiple purchases, one right after another, from Humble Bundle.

That was displeasing but very understandable. What isn't understandable is why that's happened about six times now. (To clarify: this has happened when doing the same thing with the SAME merchant, at later dates.) Haven't they figured out that this occasional series of transactions, less than $10 a piece, should be considered "normal behavior" for this particular card carrier?

Humble Bundle has ported over a hundred games to Linux, so they deserve a lot of credit for actually making Linux games, rather than just creating a store to sell them.

http://blog.humblebundle.com/p...

I'm curious to see the data set that you're pulling from. Generally it's a small percentage of Linux users who actually pay for software, most prefer to use Open Source/free software.

It's at the bottom of this page. Average Windows user pays $8.34, average Mac user pays $8.66, average Linux user pays $9.15. Of course, the totals are roughly in line with the OS penetration.

Some of us Linux users are quite happy with open-source variants which are roughly equivalent to their closed-source alternatives. There are those of us for whom compromise is not an option - especially where we make money from using the software - and we're willing to pay in these cases.

I'm curious to see the data set that you're pulling from.

Citations: Geek.com (2011); Softpedia (2012); Humble Bundle (October 2014)

Generally it's a small percentage of Linux users who actually pay for software, most prefer to use Open Source/free software.

The business case for developing free software for productivity has not historically extended to video games.

The data set is pretty much every Humble Bundle that contains games for Windows and Linux (which is most game bundles).

Let's have a look at one currently running bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/w...
Average purchase: $2.82
Average Windows: $2.71
Average Mac: $3.25
Average Linux:$3.89

So Linux users are willing to pay 40% more than Windows users on a pay what you want scheme.

Now I have to figure out how to justify a $60 game.

Why on earth would you want to pay $60 for a game!?!?!, Games coming out now are no better than games which came out 3 years ago and you don't need super hardware to play 3-year old games.

Gog, Humble Bundle, Steam, Amazon etc sales and simple price drops, plenty of top games for 5 to 10 US/EU.

GOG.com - summer sale on right now! DRM Free

The Humble Store: Great games. Fantastic prices. Support charity.

Set an alert, pay when the price is right:
Amazon price alerts. | camelcamelcamel.com

SteamAlerts.com -- Email notifications when games go on sale

And if you need any more incentive, you can donate to the EFF and get a pack of great games at the same time. The Humble Bundle

I hate to break the news to ya Sparky but yes you can and ALL of which will do 1080P across the board, which NEITHER console can do! Note that this is just showing the DIY route, I could also wallpaper this page with quad core PCs from places like Tiger in the $250-$300 range already built and ready to go, just slap an HD260X for $100 and YOU WILL CURBSTOMP both the XBone and PS4 when it comes to graphics AND frame per second.

And games cost the same? Okay now I KNOW you are nothing but a fanboy or you've been living under a rock as you've apparently never heard of these little things known as Steam sales not to mention that anybody not sticking their head in the sand while waving their little console flag was fast as their little arms will go KNOWS that PC prices drop MUCH faster than on the consoles, whose prices are practically glacial. Care for an example? Theif 4 is currently $20 on consoles, not bad eh? Well yeah if you don't want the entire series which I paid $6 less for WITH all the DLC. Oh and there is this little thing you may have heard of called Humble Bundles? If you were to buy all the games currently on the bundle? Well first of all you are gonna need TWO consoles as not all the games are on XBone and PS4 and of course the OEMs give you a big fat greasy finger when it comes to backwards compatibility, which just FYI but thanks to DOSBox we PC gamers can play games going back to the early 80s, can even buy them preset for DOSBox so no muss, but just to buy the games currently on the list? Over $120, cost to PC gamers? $20 if you wanna be nice and throw them a couple bucks over minimum.

So wave your little flag all you want, won't make black into white, and it won't make the BS you are trying sooo hard to convince yourself is real into reality. Reality is you can grab a quad core PC made within the past 5 years for $300, slap a $100 GPU in, and be kicking with some serious gaming with better FPS and higher res than the netbook based consoles can deliver. Don't mind a little DIY? Then you can spend $80 less than a PS4 and still get an impressive gameplay experience with again higher framerate. Don't mind spending a little more? Then grab yourself a fire breathing monster and pair it with a 250x or 260x and enjoy a PC that will run maybe $20 more than XBone with Kinect that will DEVASTATE both the PS4 and XBone on gaming! Those last 2? Yeah they both hit turbo speeds over 4GHz so it will be quite the long while before you see a game not be able to run on either system.

I should know as I play all the latest and greatest on a Phenom II X6, a chip that is now 6 years old, along with any game I want from the early 80s on up, every console from the Atari 2600- PS2,and I get to enjoy multiple vendors, insanely cheap prices and sales, free MP, streaming from any site in any format without needing a subscription, and oh yeah, literally thousands of 100% FTP games in every genre. Wanna play on a TV? Then DO IT as all the PCs come with HDMI now and you can choose from Steam or Kodi or Mediaportal for your 10 foot UI. Wanna play with a controller? Then DO IT as you can trivially hook up your choice of wireless controllers with nearly every game coming with X360 wireless support but if that don't float your boat and you don't mind wires? You can run anything from a 2600 or NES through PS3 and everything in between. Nothing like playing a classic fighter on

Many of the games that are ported to Linux can be found DRM free onb other sites, like Desura, GOG and the Humble Bundle store. Most games are on Steam since that's the best way to get sales on PC.

"cross platform...is the new platform" == marketing bullshit

I have been playing https://www.humblebundle.com/ Humble Bundle PC and Android...are all those games available on iOS too, can you install them? At least you can still run them on OS X for now.

Seriously 10 or as fruit lovers say X

people have tried choose-your-own-price experiments before, and it turns out that almost no-one pays anything.

You have better tell that to Humble Indie Bundle, where the average (mean, I guess) payment is nearly 4 dollars at the moment. While I don't know what the median is, the top 10 contributors is only responsible for less than 1% of that, so "nearly no-one" paying anything doesn't seem to fit the pattern.

2: Buy a device that can allow one to click some "accept" buttons and allow themselves to shoot themselves in the foot. Yes, malware can be an issue with this since full control of the device can be obtained by the user.

We had this same war in the early 1990s when TV set top boxes were poised to bring us an Internet analog, but open computers won out. Do we want to lose this victory and go back to only allowing corporate board members having the ability to dictate what we can and cannot do with -our- devices... the ones that we paid for?

I prefer option #2, and some type of speed bump, so the user can leave the walled garden, but they are alerted to the fact so they know damn well know they cannot just walk into Mordor. Right now, the Nexus line does a good job of this, because one has to do several deliberate actions to get root or developer access... something that can't just be done by accident.

Except you're ignoring the Dancing Pigs (or rabbits, or porn, or whatever) problem.

Because #2 is easily accomplished by jailbreaking on iOS as well, and even back when it was an involved procedure of over 100 steps, you could easily get Joe Average to do it if you could motivate them. (Pirated apps, "sexy cheerleaders see pic!" apps, etc). In fact, the first iOS worm came about because a ton of people were jailbreaking and part of the process involved installing OpenSSH. And they were leaving the password at default.

These people jailbreaking weren't motivated by "openness" to get them to jailbreak, they wanted to do something - perhaps some cool app or something, so they blindly followed all the steps, including downloading and installing an SSH client on Windows, so they could have the cool app.

It turns out that Android permission lists, steps to allow non-market binaries, etc., are no match. I mean, you can trust Amazon.com to not screw you over, or Humble Bundle. I mean, there's nothing wrong with leaving that unchecked, after all, Amazon and Humble Bundle need it, so it's safe, right?

And there you go - roadblocks are levelled. Joe User, in an attempt to get Amazon's free app of the day, or spending $5 on an Android game bundle, will now disable the very protection that keeps him safe. All his friends need to do is show him some cool app and send it to him and he'll blindly install it. (I'm actually surprised this hasn't really happened yet - remember all those Windows worms that inspected your contact list and sent themselves to everyone on them? It only takes a little brainpower to see how malware could easily do the same over SMS or something).

You lost me.

I already have the games. They are DRM free. I already have a way to keep track of my library. It's at https://www.humblebundle.com/h.... All it takes is a single password. Why would I want another one, merely for the privilege of having another one?

Most of the games I have (at least, those I'm actually playing) have no multiplayer mode that I'm aware of.

The "single connection" limitation is not much of an issue for me (I do, actually, honor the conditions I bought the games under, which is that they are only for my use), but why would having the DRM to enforce it be an advantage for me?

Shachar

and now this proposition to ship DRM!

No one is talking about shipping DRM as part of Debian (or even in non-free). Valve isn't talking about shipping its games inside Debian. Their games are proprietary, cost money, and contain DRM, and at least the last two make them technically incompatible with the Debian distribution system.

What Valve is offering is for Debian developers to get, free of charge, a Steam subscription to play (almost) all of Valve games. Assuming you are not a Debian developer, you will not see any actual difference in Debian.

Personally, I'm a bit ambivalent on whether to take them up on that offer. All of my proprietary games have come from The Humble Bundle and are DRM free. I do not even have Steam installed, and am not eager to install it. I am, however, curious to see what games are available. Add to that the original commenter's comment, humorous though it was meant to be: I'm not taking a good enough care of my FOSS projects as it is.

Either way, however, this is something for Debian developers to use, not something that affects Debian itself.

Shachar

How can anyone set prices in bitcoins?

Like this: https://www.bitcoinshop.us/

Yes, the price is different every time I visit.

And, although I admit I have not bought anything from that site, I can tell you that I *have* used bitcoins to buy Humble Bundles, which are another thing you can buy directly for bitcoins (optionally). There's just less overhead (complexity, time, effort, security, fees) in my perception of a bitcoin transaction over, for example, a paypal or credit card transaction... at least if you have a mobile device containing bitcoins that can scan QR codes easily.

I get your point that it's not really wise to spend bitcoins because 1) it's not wise to keep the majority of your wealth in bitcoins due to volatility and 2) it's not wise to spend bitcoins if you have other currencies because bitcoins are most likely to increase in value if you hold on to them. But for micro-transactions where I don't feel like I'm giving up a significant portion of my bitcoin investment, I do like making use of my bitcoins for convenience. It's also possible that if and when enough people are using bitcoins, their value will become less volatile. It might be an interesting path to get there, but barring some catastrophe, I don't see them going away completely, and I don't imagine that they can stick around for decades more without more people getting involved.

Doesn't an Android HDMI TV dongle or CD-sized media player like the Minix Neo already have access to literally thousands of games simply by having Google Play installed? You get practically the whole range of games available for a dedicated console minus the graphics quality, which shouldn't be an issue for most people who aren't die-hard console gamers.

Interesting opinion.

I haven't played games for a while and as such haven't really been updated in the graphics apartment but I've watched some indie games and I've watched comparisons for the same game in different direct X versions.

I kinda get what you're saying, from a game play perspective.

But then again this is Civ V:
http://cdn3.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/16870/ss_3eb44fdd0980ea7bc76821224f5d133a149a136d.1920x1080.jpg?t=1378340287
(I wonder if that link will work, if not click here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/16870/)

That's far from new and the screenshot isn't even the full 1920x1080 but at least have quite some detail. If I where to play Civilization even if it's the same game the more details would likely be preferable and offer a little more to the game. I kinda feel the same for all other games which has some in newer versions but where you can get the older ones to. With a limited amount of time do you really want to play them when you've got fresher stuff around?

Anyway, back to the indie titles:
(2 days left for Humble Indie Bundle 9: https://www.humblebundle.com/)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyWJhOh7w00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m109lvkEPFk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfRWwLcckNs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6_VGRKPRAI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB9N4XTfE1w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1UnoyKqeMs

So, maybe they was poor examples, some of them aren't super heavy in the graphics department. But most of them actually require somewhat I'd consider pretty decent (which may be five years old and a geforce 8800 or something such but still..)

All that detail TO ME make the environment (well, it's very dark environments in many of those titles) more interesting and draw me into the game than something from the NES era.
(Yeah, how relevant.)

I kinda don't want to play this game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh4Q9UnHqw8
But if I did wanted to play such a game I'd totally opt for the more beautiful one.

I find FEZ disturbingly ugly for no obvious reason:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfDYTuf6M_w

Alastair John Jack (http://alastairjohnjack.com/) have made at least two interesting games:
Arvoesine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0z-CtSggu0
Totally classic game play, looks and music, but FREE! Super hardcore game :)
Angvik: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKGytUEQZIE
Very beautiful classic game play there to.

I don't really know what my point is. Somewhere it was that it's good to be able to play new stuff, new stuff can still have classic game play, new stuff can look better, better hardware can play older titles (but in this case there was also a software layer which will mess with that.)

Anyway, bunch of Android games will likely not be made for a controller, some will likely

A push to linux on steam is going to drive abandonment of windows.

The biggest untold story in PC gaming on Slashdot this summer? The $10.5 million Humble Origin Bundle --- Electronic Arts and Windows only. The Humble Bundle is a fairly reliable measure of the pathetic state of Linux PC gaming: The Humble Weekly Sale Retro Shooters: Statistics

$30 for the game?

$10 only gets you a star name?

Seeing how they can still sell the game after, I think he could do better on (digital-only) pledges.

I have been priced off kickstarter (at least for games) which used to be more reasonable about my support, where I could afford to have little expectation, and the possibility of getting a lot for my money. Now I have stopped looking at all.

My money will go to Humble Bundle 9 https://www.humblebundle.com/ which currently includes FTL, Fez and Trine 2 and others(the weekly bundle is Duke Nuken 3D and Shadow Warrior with DLC which is better than the original games). In contrast Humble Bundle has hit $2million already with another 11 days to go.

Then go here to launder your money:

https://www.humblebundle.com/

And give 100% to the EFF. You get the XKCD book too.

On most Android devices, you can enable the "Unknown sources" option in the settings menu and install packages directly from .apk files, bypassing the Play Store completely. It does require the developer to make an .apk file available directly, of course. For instance, the Humble Bundle app is installed this way: https://www.humblebundle.com/app

I've recently replaced my aging netbook with an Android tablet and I love it. I'm still in the process of finding the best apps for my needs, it's a completely different app ecosystem than the one I'm used to on desktop Linux. The lack of a physical keyboard hasn't been the setback that I thought it could be and it generally does everything I used the netbook for, but better. Mail, web, video, music, games (Carmageddon!), Skype, IM, you name it. And I get upwards of 10 hours battery life on the power saving mode, which is more than powerful enough for anything but graphics-intensive games. The only small setback I've found is that a lot of apps are rather smartphone-centric, which means they either use only a small portion of the 10" display or stretch in ugly ways. From what I hear, it's getting better, though.

Personally I think its great and is just one more example of how now that the consoles are all going to online only DRM boxes that PC gaming is the way to go. Thanks to good old fashioned competition there is MUCH better prices, the indie devs get more of a percentage than the consoles, you have a huge choice in places to shop, the hardware has never been cheaper (hell I've built machines that game great for less than $350) and you of course control it, I'd say its just a better experience all around.

Oh and speaking of Humble they now have weekly sales with big name devs, this week is the entire Serious Sam series so anybody who doesn't have those should check it out.

The ratio of pirate copies vs bought copies may be obscured by platform.

Looking at past Humble Bundle stats (games _without_ DRM management) it shows that even though piracy is still as abundant, the same amount of people are still willing to pay. Even more interesting, though Windows buyers ouranked 75% of others, Linux users payed the most on average. ... and that site link in TFA just went down.

https://www.humblebundle.com/ Most Humble Bundle stuff works on Linux too, and comes with a steam key to boot.

Windows gaming has been treated like the ugly stepchild for years, and really the latest SimCity saga is just another example of how badly treated gamers are. I personally had been driven away from windows games for years. I have only been brought back by indie games from the Humble Bundle that don't treat me like cattle, but there are now 5 humble bundles (it has its own store) of cross platform...the current one http://www.humblebundle.com/ is Android only!? [and not just for twitchers] Suddenly I'm several gaming tablets / consoles under $200 [some under $90] with more on the way. I already own two. My Linux gaming suddenly has more choices than I can cope with,as suddenly cross platform is the platform as choice!? [not an expensive afterthought] with Android often being thought of first. This device signals the end of windows gaming...they would have been better getting proper firmware support for their mice under Linux, as many of us are fans of hardware, and its a growing market.

Gaming is for PCs. Not for handheld bullshit, not for fucking 7-year old consoles. It's for PCs. Anything else is games for girls and amateurs.

I'm not getting into a *platform* gaming debate, but what you are describing is a PC gamer. I game on PC's too, but on the move I've always has a portable device, and no Angry Birds is not a good example.

I'm currently playing though these. http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/44641397764/humble-bundle-with-android-5-has-landed they are the latest Humble Bundle games, they are available on your PC too :), although personally I have nothing against more casual games...if you only have a moment. Although having a look at https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/topselling_paid_game its a nice selection of gaming (Angry Birds only gets 23rd on the list).

If there are few Xperia Play and Archos GamePad units in circulation, it isn't profitable to develop a game with Xperia Play and Archos GamePad as the primary targets and treat the majority of phones, which would require on-screen buttons, as an afterthought.

Except developer *aren't* developing with one platform in mind [its simply poor business]...and I'm not talking indie games, I am talking electronic arts. Humble Bundle are up to their 5th Android [and windows/Mac/Linux] gaming bundle...

...here is the games http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/44641397764/humble-bundle-with-android-5-has-landed with the exception of solar 2 are any of those games more suitable played on a screen.

> I have to admit not ever reading xkcd, having more important things on my Kindle.

It publishes 3 strips a week, plus a what-if from time to time. It's not a book, or anything else which would compete with whatever's on your kindle for your attention, unless you're a very, very slow reader.

Or unless you bought the Humble eBook Bundle back in October.

Sometimes I buy them even if I don't want to play them (seriously). I think I bought a Humble Bundle last year that I still haven't even looked at yet. Hell, I'm not even a gamer. But I'll spend money on non-DRM software just to encourage more of it.

New Humble Bundle Is Windows Only, DRM Games

I think that was an important "test". They caught a lot of flack over it. I personally didn't buy #6, but I did buy all the others except #6. A quick search hasn't resulted in a link to #6 so I can't check the sales breakdown at the source. The current Humble Indie Bundle 7 is cross platform and DRM free. I'd be interested if anyone would post the numbers from HIB #6, for science!

Here are the sales as listed for the "recent" bundles I purchased:
#4
Total payments: $2,373,878.85
Purchases #: 435,251
Average purchase: $5.45
Average Windows: $4.87
Average Mac: $7.61
Average Linux: $10.41

#V -- Which, surprisingly, did not include VVVVVV...
Total payments: $5,108,725.09
Purchases #: 599,004
Average purchase: $8.53
Average Windows: $7.98
Average Mac: $9.99
Average Linux: $12.48

#6
Reported as $2,048,330.42 @ joystiq

#7
Total payments: $2,651,762.57
Purchases #: 395,953
Average purchase: $6.70
Average Windows: $6.23
Average Mac: $7.95
Average Linux: $10.47

It's hard comparing sales because the games vary in quality and appeal from bundle to bundle -- #V (5) Had a strong showing with Pyschonauts, Braid, and Bastion, and others.

I think "DRM free" is the strongest selling point for me, but cross platform is a strong second -- even though actual Linux "support" seems flakey w/ most HiB games I still buy under Linux because A) I want them to know I'm (trying) to use Linux to play their games, and B) I won't enter my financial details into software I haven't audited and compiled myself (yes, I'm two of the "many eyes"). I have decent boxen for each OS, but prefer Linux. I even have multiple copies of the games on various platforms, yet I still buy the bundles if they don't have DRM. As a developer I've noted that the trivial amount of additional time it takes to support Linux natively when I start a project/game with a cross platform dev environment is well worth the additional revenue Linux users are willing to pay...

For me, that would feel parasitic. I gave to the EFF anyhow, and directly instead of through the HIB. I don't want DRM on my computer, and wouldn't install these games even if they would work on my system (Linux only).

Maybe the best way to help the folks at HumbleBundle to find their way again is a nice email, instead of just sticking it to them.

mailto::contact@humblebundle.com
To whom it may concern:

Thank you so much for the wonderful bundles that you have released over the years! I've been introduced to some great developers and found some nifty toys that I would not likely have found on my own. I think that you've done GREAT THINGS for the indie game developers out there and to the EFF, a charity I can really get behind! You've helped bring relevance and momentum to a section of the industry that has really deserved it, and emboldened new developers to pursue projects and create awesome things never seen before.

In the past I've purchased several versions of the humble bundle and promoted it to others. I haven't played many of the games past the first few minutes, but I've really felt like the HIB was an awesome new development in the promotion of games the major industry generally lacks.

With the release of the latest THQ bundle, I feel like the brand that you've built has been compromised in a significant way, and it seems that you've sold out to a part of the industry that is failing due to the choices it has made. Those common industry choices are WHY I do not buy games from THQ and similar:
THQ games are NOT developed to work on Linux or even Mac.
THQ games include DRM which is a disgusting offense to the customer.

Additionally, this bundle is undesirable and departs from my expectations of the Humble Bundle brand due to the fact that THQ is not an indie developer, and significantly, is only available through Steam instead of a direct download.

I believe that the Humble Bundle brand can be saved if you don't publish bundles of this type in the future. However, if you choose to follow the major games industry down this road, you will be going that way without those many of us who believe that the games industry can be turned around. THQ and it's ilk choose to reward their paying customers with mistrust and DRM. They choose to falsely belief that the Windows platform is the only viable one. They choose irrelevance and failure, and they deserve to get it. There may be good people working at this company, but they need to have ethical standards in whom they choose to work with. When companies like THQ fail, their employees are thereby freed to pursue work in industries where they can make a positive mark on the world.

As soon as you return to what we used to believe were your core principles, we will support you again. Please never release a bundle of this type again.

Thanks for the memories, and I wish you good luck in finding your way back to the good path.