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The Humble Indie Bundle
supersloshy writes "Last year, 2D Boy, the developers of the popular independent game World of Goo, had a pay-what-you-want birthday sale with curious results. For the next seven days, Wolfire Games is attempting the same kind of sale, but with some new twists. Wolfire Games' Humble Indie Bundle contains five independent games (World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, and Penumbra) with no DRM and they are all cross-platform. In addition to directly supporting the developers of these five games, part of the money also goes to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Child's Play Charity. No matter how much you spend, you also get to choose who your money goes to (charity only, developers only, evenly, or custom)."
Aha!
If I pay a lot for it, that will make it fast and good
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
I went in for $40. I've got World of Goo already, but I thought it would be nice to have Linux versions of these games. I figure that if even the indy devs don't get financial support for publishing Linux versions of software, the market will stay slow and dry forever.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Not true. Ayn Rand-types won't necessarily pay zero for this. You're assuming they give no thoughts to future desires and only think of immediate costs and instant gratification, and that just isn't true.
The developers get advertising, which they would otherwise have to pay for -- hence a measurable, monetary cost and a selfish desire on their par. Their similar stunt with World of Goo led me to purchase other games they developed because WoG showed me they were delivering quality, entertaining games. I no longer purchase games for any system without trying them out first. I've been burned too many times with over-hyped commercial games that turn out to be shit and a waste of money.
Because *I* want these developers to continue what they are doing -- a selfish desire on my part -- I will pay cash towards that end. Consider it an opportunity to invest in future products by these developers. Speculation in the market, or an investment in future return if you will.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
World of Goo: .deb .run .tar.gz .bin .sh
Aquaria:
Gish
Lugaru HD:
Penumbra
Now that's just silly :D
Which they shouldn't.
I'm sorry, what? There is no "should" or "shouldn't", there's merely what is. And clearly these people are eating just fine. So anything or anyone that says they shouldn't is plainly wrong. What you fail to grasp is that people are willing to pay something more than they necessarily have to for the knowledge that they are contributing and therefore encouraging future work - both from those particular individuals and others who can see from that example that talent and hard work can be enough to make a living.
In other words, there are plenty of consumers who need only the carrot (the prospect that their payment will be rewarded by production of future works) to pay fairly. Unfortunately most established industries are managed by people who like you who continue to deny what's actually happening with the belief that their philosophy will prove true in the end, and therefore always fall back to the stick method of threatening, DRM-encumbering, and generally treating their (potential) customers like criminals.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
It's a Metroid-like game set underwater with you playing as a sort of a mermaid. The world is fairly large - maybe a bit too large, even. Good mix of puzzle solving and action. The control style takes some getting used to, but that helps to add to the sense that you're not playing the same old platforming game. Some of the boss fights will make you want to throw a controller. The art design is seriously beautiful - it's 2D sprites for everything, but the overall direction of the graphics is really lovely, as well as the excellent music. I recommend it (though I haven't finished it yet - it really is a bit long.)
Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
The Dwarf Fortress guy made $16k last month. And his game is donation-only. And the donations aren't required.
Fellowship 9/11
Any sufficiently advanced selfishness is indistinguishable from altruism?
You can pay through paypal without an account there, they just process the order. All you do is select the paypal option then click the radio button that says "pay by credit card".
If only they get that kind of money month after month...
2010
April Donations: $16,104.49
March Donations: $4,387.99
February Donations: $1,452.57
January Donations: $2,291.50
2009
December Donations: $4,762.98
November Donations: $5,122.29
October Donations: $1,759.27
September Donations: $2,138.21
August Donations: $2,510.86
July Donations: $2,202.37
June Donations: $2,723.83
May Donations: $2,221.92
April Donations: $2,549.15
March Donations: $2,997.46
February Donations: $1,428.62
January Donations: $2,099.48
2008
December Donations: $5,279.49
November Donations: $1,305.10
October Donations: $1,868.30
September Donations: $1,695.48
source
Except that the totals currently show otherwise...
- Total raised $55,481
- Average contribution $7.74
- Number of contributions 7169
Maybe. Does the free release of my work gain me notoriety that helps me to make future sales? We're not all short term minimalist thinkers.
And besides, both food and housing are guaranteed to all US citizens.*
* Some restrictions may apply, see county jail for details.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Altruism is always a disguised form of selfishness. Even anonymous donors donate because it makes them feel good.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Mac OS X *is* BSD, and it is the best designed, most secure, most reliable, most usable BSD ever made. Why would you use anything else?
I use shell expansion of the * character -- so *BSD expands to NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, etc. It doesn't expand to Mac OS X.
Except that the totals currently show otherwise...
- Total raised $55,481
- Average contribution $7.74
- Number of contributions 7169
I only donate in geeky amounts. Here are some recommendations
$1.87 (on a motherfucking cop) - rap geek
$11.11 - binary geek
$10.66 - european history geek
$14.92 - american history geek
$13.37 - computer geek
$31.41 - math geek
We don't use DRM. When you buy these games, they are yours. Feel free to play them without an internet connection, back them up, and install them on all of your Macs and PCs freely.
Now, from the EULA:
1.1 License Grant. 2D BOY hereby grants to you a non-exclusive license to use a single copy of the object code version of the Game for your personal, non-commercial home entertainment use on one personal computer or other compatible electronic device. You may sell or transfer your copy of the Game to another person along with, and subject to, your rights under this EULA, only if you do not retain any copies.
Emphasis is mine. It looks like Marketing might want to talk to Legal here...
I just don't get... eh, ugh... never mind. This post wasn't worth the research I put into it.
But not for long.
I abstain from buying because I don't think I can pay enough for so many games in good conscience. The games are decent, and the 20 USD I can afford now wouldn't do the games justice.
The whole "experiment" is useless without this option, in my opinion. They're going to see a bunch of people paying 1 cent going to EFF and conclude "what a bunch of cheapskates", when there is a good amount of people who either could buy later (after the offer limit), or refuse to buy that many games hands-down, because they actually *value* those games at 70-80 USD and think it's too much money to spend.
These kind of people won't show up in the statistics.
True. Even after taxes, it is likely comparable to the salary he would have earned if he had stayed on at the math department.
And he earned it working on his life goal, crafting video games. Whereas, I spend each and every day having my soul sucked out in a monotonous grind of code reviews and ever shifting and contradicting requirements.
I am here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?
'No,' says the man in Washington, 'it belongs to the poor.'
'No,' says the man in the Vatican, 'it belongs to God.'
'No,' says the man in Moscow, 'it belongs to everyone.'
I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose...
Rapture.
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