Jamyskis

I’ve just released Open Invaders to the wild, now that the game is a little more mature and playable. Some of the initial comments have been a little strange, including one guy who insisted that he refused to play any game that used the Allegro library simply because he associated it with a “shitty” game.

I’m hoping that this will not be a repeat of the fiasco I had with Naughts and Crosses. While I accept that this was never a top quality game, or even one really worth playing, the lack of feedback and the intentions of many users just to get a free game and expect top quality for nothing without giving any constructive feedback whatsoever is really quite disheartening. That’s not to say that everyone was like that - indeed, a fair number of the users on the Linux Game Tome, while offering 1 or 2 stars (understandable), did have some interesting comments and suggestions, and my thanks go out to them.

In fact, the only reason I continued development of Naughts and Crosses, although it was a dead-end project, was to honour the time that these people took to give some proper feedback on the game. The Linux community is first and foremost about sharing and about being a community, but all too often it’s railroaded by people who are just out to get stuff that they have no intention of paying a penny for.

Anyone who uses Linux can contribute, you don’t have to be programming whizz, a gifted artist or musician. You can test programs, offer feedback and bug reports, you can tell others about the programs you use, and so on, and so forth. But as I say, many people just use Linux and other FLOSS (Free and Libre Open Source Software) simply because it costs nothing.

So if you’re reading this and actively use FLOSS (you may be using it and never knew it - Firefox anyone?), then take the time out to show the authors that you really appreciate the time they’ve freely given to bring you that software. Offer bug reports, patches, feedback, suggestions for improvement, whatever. But don’t take advantage of FLOSS to the detriment of others. Someday it might not be there anymore.