Open Source Gaming (And Everything Else)

The first program I ever used was Microsoft Word, quickly followed by Internet Explorer.

These pieces of software are owned by big companies and are closed source, aka proprietary. Their code is closely guarded, made by a skilled and managed team of programmers, and once the software is declared ‘done’ little work will be added to it.

Open source however, is made by programmers for the public, available to be modified by anyone, and spearheaded by two orgs, the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative.

The Free Software philosophy concerns four User Freedoms:

• The freedom to run a program, for any purpose;
• The freedom to study how a program works and adapt it to a person’s needs. Access to the source code is a precondition for this;
• The freedom to redistribute copies so that you can help your neighbour; and
• The freedom to improve a program and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Meanwhile, the OSI philosophy is a bit more focused on practicality:

The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.

If you want to learn more about Free/Open Source Software, you can check out FOSS A General Introduction.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with proprietary software, but I prefer to use open source alternatives whenever possible. Video games included.

This is because, while the number of open source software are smaller then proprietary software, the open source software that exists tend to be just as good, if not better than proprietary software while providing greater user freedom. You can easily modify them to suit your needs.

Unfortunately, open source software tend to not be very user-friendly and development of them is voluntary.

As far as I can tell, the biggest advantages proprietary software has over open source are easier-to-use User Interfaces, more consistent customer support, and better marketing. If I’m wrong feel free to correct me.

The open source gaming scene is rather small and the games aren’t as polished, but I still find them satisfying.

Keep in mind I’m very much a casual gamer and primarily a mobile guy.

Try out Pixel Dungeon and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup if you like roguelikes. (Be warned, DCSS falls into the ‘bad UI’ category)

Oolite if you’re into Space Flight simulation.

Flare if you’re into RPGs.

Minetest if you want a sandbox.

UFO: Alien Invasion if you’re an XCOM fan.

And SuperTuxKart if you like Mario Kart.

Open source MMOs also exists, but they’re not that great so I can’t recommend them.

So if you ever need to download a particular piece of software for something, try to see if there’s an open source project that can do the same thing.