Buying games, playing games, doing good– all at the same time? Is it true that gamers can be the Ones to Save the World?
Well, if the Humble Indie Bundle ignites a whole flood of gamer-initiated philanthropy, then maybe so… But for now, there are certainly some impressive statistics gleaned from the Humble Indie Bundle promotion.
And, to add even more fun to the mix, some of the games in the HIN are being open sourced, to some extent, which improves the community outreach even more.
The promotional offer is sooooo over, but even more fun for coders and gamers may be coming...
However, all is not roses and champagne: not all of the products being offered under open source licensing have been made available yet, and the source code versions are not the FCS versions. Rather, they are being provided for mostly demonstration or instructional purposes, so various aspects are missing. Although developers are not obligated to provide operational code, it certainly would be disingenuous to declare that a shipped product is being open sourced when, in fact, the source code belongs to a demo or lobotomized unreleased proof. Some of the arguments presented involve how having access to the source code would encourage others to develop add-ons to the software in question; however, providing the community hackers with an API or configuration editor would accomplish the same goals. At least, in this case, the developers have openly disclosed the nature of the code being open sourced, so interested parties should not be under any illusions.
