*"Capitalism is the astonishing belief that the most evil among men will for the nastiest motives work for the benefit of all."*
Capitalism is the worst economic system we've yet seen in the history,^[source](logic.md) literally based on pure greed, abandoning all morals and putting profit above everything else including preservation of life itself, capitalism fuels the worst in people and forces them to compete and suffer for basic resources. Capitalism goes against progress (see e.g. [antivirus paradox](antivirus_paradox.md)), good technology, freedom, it supports immense waste of resources, wars, abuse of people, destruction of environment, decline of morals, invention of [bullshit](bullshit.md) (bullshit jobs, bullshit laws, ...), [torture](marketing.md) of people and animals and much more. Nevertheless, it's been truthfully stated that "it is now easier to imagine the end of all life than any substantial change in capitalism."
Capitalism is the worst economic system we've yet seen in the history,^[source](logic.md) literally based on pure greed and artificially sustained conflict between people (so called [competition](competition.md)), abandoning all morals and putting money and profit (so called [capital](capital.md)) above everything else including preservation of life itself, capitalism fuels the worst in people and forces them to compete and suffer for basic resources. Capitalism goes against progress (see e.g. [antivirus paradox](antivirus_paradox.md)), [good technology](lrs.md), freedom, it supports immense waste of resources, wars, abuse of people, destruction of environment, decline of morals, invention of [bullshit](bullshit.md) (bullshit jobs, bullshit laws, ...), [torture](marketing.md) of people and animals and much more. Nevertheless, it's been truthfully stated that "it is now easier to imagine the end of all life than any substantial change in capitalism."
Capitalism produces the [worst imaginable technology](capitalist_software.md) and rewards people for [being cruel to each other](entrepreneur.md). It points the direction of society towards a [collapse](collapse.md) and may very likely be the [great filter](great_filter.md) of civilizations; in capitalism people de-facto own nothing and become wholly dependent on corporations which exploit this fact to abuse them as much as possible. This is achieved by [slowly boiling the frog](slowly_boiling_the_frog.md). No one owns anything, products become services (your car won't drive without Internet connection and permission from its manufacturer), all independency and decentralization is lost in favor of a highly fragile and interdependent economy and infrastructure of services. Then only a slight break in the chain is enough to bring the whole civilization down.
The principal problem of capitalism lies in its **primary and only goal of self-benefit**, i.e. maximization of capital, combined with the fact that the environment of [free market](free_market.md) is a system with **Darwinian evolution** which through natural selection extremely effectively and quickly optimizes the organisms (corporations) for achieving the given goal, i.e. making maximum profit, on the detriment of all other values such as wellbeing of people, sustainability or morality. In other words capitalism has never promised a good society, it literally only states that everyone should try to benefit oneself as much as possible, i.e. defines the [fitness function](fitness_function.md) purely as the ability to seize as many resources as possible, and then selects and rewards those who best implement this function, i.e. those we would call sociopaths or "dicks", and to those is given the power over society. In other words we simply get what we set to achieve: find entities that are best at making profit for any cost. The inevitable decline of society can not possibly be prevented by laws, any effort of trying to stop evolution by inventing artificial rules on the go is a battle against nature itself and is extremely naive, the immense power of the evolutionary system that's constantly at work to find ways to bypass or cancel laws in the way of profit and abuse of others will prevails just as life will always find its way to survive and thrive even in the worst conditions on Earth. Trying to stop corporations with laws is like trying to stop a train by throwing sticks in its path. The problem is not that "people are dicks", it is that we choose to put in place a system that rewards the dicks, a system that fuels the worst in people and smothers the best in them.
**The underlying issue of capitalism is [competition](competition.md)** -- competition is the root of all evil in any social system, however capitalism is the glorification of competition, amplification of this evil to maximum. It is implemented by setting and supporting a very stupid idea that **everyone's primary and only goal is to be self-benefit**, i.e. maximization of capital. This is combined with the fact that the environment of [free market](free_market.md) is a system with **Darwinian evolution** which through natural selection extremely effectively and quickly optimizes the organisms (corporations) for achieving this given goal, i.e. generating maximum profit, on the detriment of all other values such as wellbeing of people, sustainability or morality. In other words capitalism has never promised a good society, it literally only states that everyone should try to benefit oneself as much as possible, i.e. defines the [fitness function](fitness_function.md) purely as the ability to seize as many resources as possible, and then selects and rewards those who best implement this function, i.e. those we would call sociopaths or "dicks", and to those is given the power in society. In other words we simply get what we set to achieve: find entities that are best at making profit at any cost. The inevitable decline of society can not possibly be prevented by laws, any effort of trying to stop evolution by inventing artificial rules on the go is a battle against nature itself and is extremely naive, the immense power of the evolutionary system that's constantly at work to find ways to bypass or cancel laws in the way of profit and abuse of others will prevails just as life will always find its way to survive and thrive even in the worst conditions on Earth. Trying to stop corporations with laws is like trying to stop a train by throwing sticks in its path. The problem is not that "people are dicks", it is that we choose to put in place a system that rewards the dicks, a system that fuels the worst in people and smothers the best in them.
Even though it should be said that Capitalism is not really a traditional socioeconomic system, it is the failure to establish one, it is the continuation of the jungle -- this is what people mean when they say that capitalism [simply works](just_werks.md) or that it's *natural* -- it's the least effort option, one that simply lets people behave like animals. It is natural in the same way in which wars, murders, bullying and deadly diseases are natural. It is the most primitive system imaginable, it is uncontrolled, leads to suffering and self-destruction.
From a certain point of view capitalism is not really a traditional socioeconomic system, it is **the failure to establish one** -- capitalism is the failure to prevent the establishment of capitalism, and it is also the punishment for this failure. It is the continuation of the jungle to the age when technology for mass production, mass surveillance etc. has sufficiently evolved -- capitalism will arise with technological progress unless we prevent it, just as cancer will grow unless we treat it in very early stages. This is what people mean when they say that capitalism [simply works](just_werks.md) or that it's *natural* -- it's the least effort option, one that simply lets people behave like animals, except that these animals are now given tools such as weapons of mass destruction, tools for implementing slavery etc. It is natural in the same way in which wars, murders, bullying and deadly diseases are natural. It is the most primitive system imaginable, it is uncontrolled, leads to suffering and self-destruction.
Free (as in freedom) culture is a movement aiming for the relaxation of [intellectual property](intellectual_property.md) restrictions, mainly that of [copyright](copyright.md), to allow free usage, reusing and sharing of [artworks](art.md) and other kind of [information](information.md). Free culture argues that our society has gone too far in forcefully restricting the natural freedom of information by very strict laws (e.g. by authors holding copyright even 100 years after their death) and that we're hurting art, creativity, education and progress by continuing to strengthen restrictions on using, modifying ([remixing](remix.md)) and sharing things like [books](book.md), [music](music.md) and scientific papers. The word "free" in free culture refers to freedom, not just price -- free cultural works have to be more than just available gratis, they must also give its users some specific legal rights. Nevertheless free culture itself isn't against commercialization of art, it just argues for rather doing so by other means than selling legal rights to it.
Free (as in freedom) culture is a movement aiming for the relaxation of [intellectual property](intellectual_property.md) restrictions, mainly that of [copyright](copyright.md), to allow free usage, reusing and sharing of [artworks](art.md) and other kind of [information](information.md). Free culture argues that our society has gone too far in forcefully restricting the natural freedom of information by very strict laws (e.g. by authors holding copyright even 100 years after their death) and that we're hurting art, creativity, education and progress by continuing to strengthen restrictions on using, modifying ([remixing](remix.md)) and sharing things like [books](book.md), [music](music.md) and scientific papers. The word "free" in free culture refers to freedom, not just price -- free cultural works have to be more than just available gratis, they must also give its users some specific legal rights. Nevertheless free culture itself isn't against commercialization of art, it just argues for rather doing so by other means than selling legal rights to it. The opposite of free culture is [permission culture](permission_culture.md) (culture requiring permission for reuse of intellectual works).
The promoters of free culture want to relax intellectual property laws ([copyright](copyright.md), [patents](patent.md), [trademarks](tm.md) etc.) but also promote an ethic of sharing and remixing being good (as opposed to the demonizing anti-"[piracy](piracy.md)" propaganda of today), they sometimes mark their works with words **"some rights reserved"** or even "no rights reserved", as opposed to the traditional "all rights reserved".
In computer context game (also gayme, video game or vidya) is [software](software.md) whose main purpose is to be played and entertain the user. Of course, we can additionally talk about real life games such as [marble racing](marble_race.md). *Game* is also a mathematical term in [game theory](game_theory.md). Sadly most computer games are [proprietary](proprietary.md) and toxic.
In computer context game (also gayme, video game or vidya) is [software](software.md) whose main purpose is to be played and entertain the user. Of course, we can additionally talk about real life games such as [marble racing](marble_race.md). *Game* is also a mathematical term in [game theory](game_theory.md). Sadly most computer games are [proprietary](proprietary.md) and [toxic](toxic.md).
Among [suckless](kiss.md) software proponents there is a disagreement about whether games are legit software or just a [meme](meme.md) and harmful kind of entertainment. The proponents of the latter argue something along the lines that technology is only for getting work done, that games are for losers, that they hurt [productivity](productivity_cult.md), are an unhealthy addiction, wasted time and effort etc. Those who like games see them as a legitimate form of relaxation, a form of art and a way of advancing technology along the way. The truth is that developing games leads to improvement of other kinds of software, e.g. for rendering, physics simulation or virtual reality.
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ A small number of games nowadays come with a [free](free_software.md) engine, wh
Yet a smaller number of games are completely free (in the sense of [Debian](debian.md)'s free software definition), including both the engine and game assets. These games are called **free games** or **libre games** and many of them are clones of famous proprietary games. Examples of these include [SuperTuxKart](stk.md), [Minetest](minetest.md), [Xonotic](xonotic.md), [FLARE](flare.md) or [Anarch](anarch.md). There exists a wiki for libre games at https://libregamewiki.org and a developer forum at https://forum.freegamedev.net/. Libre games can also be found in Debian software repositories.
{ NOTE: Do not blindly trust libregamewiki, non-free games ocassionaly do appear there by accident or even intention. I've actually found that most of the big games like SuperTuxKart have some licensing issues (they removed one proprietary mascot from STK after my report), so if you're a purist, focus on the simpler games. Anyway, LGW is a good place to start looking for libre games. ~drummyfish }
{ NOTE: Do not blindly trust libregamewiki, non-free games ocassionaly do appear there by accident, negligence or even by intention. I've actually found that most of the big games like SuperTuxKart have some licensing issues (they removed one proprietary mascot from STK after my report). Ryzom has been removed after I brought up the fact that the whole server content is proprietary and secret. So if you're a purist, focus on the simpler games and confirm their freeness yourself. Anyway, LGW is a good place to start looking for libre games. ~drummyfish }
Some games are pretty based as they don't even require [GUI](gui.md) and are only played in the text shell (either using TUI or purely textual I/O) -- these are called TTY games or command line games. This kind of games may be particularly interesting for [minimalists](minimalism.md), hobbyists and developers with low (zero) budget, little spare time and/or no artistic skills. Roguelike games are especially popular here; there sometimes even exist GUI frontends which is pretty neat -- this demonstrates how the [Unix philosophy](unix_philosophy.md) can be applied to games.
@ -30,14 +30,74 @@ Games can be [suckless](suckless.md) and just as any other software should try t
If you want to make a simple LRS game, there is an official LRS [C](c.md) library for it: [SAF](saf.md).
Compared to mainstream games, a LRS game shouldn't be a consumerist product, it should be a tool to help people entertain themselves and relieve their stress. From the user perspective, the game should be focused on the fun and relaxation aspect rather than on pleasing look, i.e. it will likely utilize simple graphics and audio. Another aspect of an LRS game is that the technological part is just as important as how the game behaves on the outside (unlike mainstream games that have ugly, badly designed internals and mostly focus on impressing the consumer).
Compared to mainstream games, a LRS game shouldn't be a consumerist product, it should be a tool to help people entertain themselves and relieve their stress. From the user perspective, the game should be focused on the fun and relaxation aspect rather than on pleasing look, i.e. it will likely utilize simple graphics and audio. Another aspect of an LRS game is that the technological part is just as important as how the game behaves on the outside (unlike mainstream games that have ugly, badly designed internals and mostly focus on rapid development and impressing the consumer with visuals).
The paradigm of LRS gamedev differs from the mainstream gamedev just as the Unix philosophy differs from the Window philosophy. While a mainstream game is a monolithic piece of software, designed to allow at most some simple user modifications, a LRS game is designed with [forking](fork.md) and code reuse in mind.
The paradigm of LRS gamedev differs from the mainstream gamedev just as the [Unix philosophy](unix_philosophy.md) differs from the [Window philosophy](windows_philosophy.md). While a mainstream game is a monolithic piece of software, designed to allow at best some simple, limited user modifications, a LRS game is designed with [forking](fork.md), [hacking](hacking.md), abuse and code reuse in mind.
Let's take an example. A LRS game of a real-time 3D [RPG](rpg.md) genre may for example consist of several independent modules: the RPG library, the game code, the content and the [frontend](frontend.md). Yes, a mainstream game will consist of similar modules, however those modules will probably only exist for the organization of work and better testing, they won't be intended for real reuse or wild hacking. With the LRS RPG game it is implicitly assumed that someone else may take the 3D game and make it into a purely non-real-time [command line](cli.md) game just by replacing the frontend, in which case the rest of the code shouldn't be burdened by anything 3D-rendering related. The paradigm here should be similar to that existing in the world of computer [chess](chess.md) where there exist separate engines, graphical frontends, communication protocols, formats, software for running engine tournaments, analyzing games etc. [Roguelikes](roguelike.md) and the world of [quake](quake.md) engines show some of this modularity, though not in such a degree we would like to see -- LRS game modules may be completely separate projects and different processes communicating via text interfaces through [pipes](pipe.md), just as basic Unix tools do. We have to think about someone possibly taking our singleplayer RPG and make it into an MMORPG. Someone may even take the game and use it as a research tool for [machine learning](machine_learning.md), and the game should be designed so as to make this as easy as possible -- the user interface should be very simple to be replaced by an [API](api.md) for computers. The game should allow easy creation of [tool assisted speedruns](tas.md), to record demos, to allow [scripting](script.md), modifying ingame variables, even creating [cheats](cheat.md) etc. And, importantly, **the game content is a module as well**, i.e. the whole RPG world, its lore and storyline is something that can be modified, forked, remixed, and the game creator should bear this in mind.
Let's take an example. A LRS game of a real-time 3D [RPG](rpg.md) genre may for example consist of several independent modules: the RPG library, the game code, the content and the [frontend](frontend.md). Yes, a mainstream game will consist of similar modules, however those modules will probably only exist for the internal organization of work and better testing, they won't be intended for real reuse or wild hacking. With the LRS RPG game it is implicitly assumed that someone else may take the 3D game and make it into a purely non-real-time [command line](cli.md) game just by replacing the frontend, in which case the rest of the code shouldn't be burdened by anything 3D-rendering related. The paradigm here should be similar to that existing in the world of computer [chess](chess.md) where there exist separate engines, graphical frontends, communication protocols, formats, software for running engine tournaments, analyzing games etc. [Roguelikes](roguelike.md) and the world of [quake](quake.md) engines show some of this modularity, though not in such a degree we would like to see -- LRS game modules may be completely separate projects and different processes communicating via text interfaces through [pipes](pipe.md), just as basic Unix tools do. We have to think about someone possibly taking our singleplayer RPG and make it into an MMORPG. Someone may even take the game and use it as a research tool for [machine learning](machine_learning.md) or as a VFX tool for making movies, and the game should be designed so as to make this as easy as possible -- the user interface should be very simple to be replaced by an [API](api.md) for computers. The game should allow easy creation of [tool assisted speedruns](tas.md), to record demos, to allow [scripting](script.md), modifying ingame variables, even creating [cheats](cheat.md) etc. And, importantly, **the game content is a module as well**, i.e. the whole RPG world, its lore and storyline is something that can be modified, forked, remixed, and the game creator should bear this in mind.
Of course, LRS games must NOT contain such shit as "[anti-cheating](anti_cheat.md) technology". For our stance on cheating, see the article [about it](cheat.md).
## Types Of Games
Besides dividing games as any other software ([free](free_software.md) vs [proprietary](proprietary.md), [suckless](suckless.md) vs [bloat](bloat.md), ...) we can further divide them by the following:
- by genre:
- [minigames](minigame.md)
- [shooters](shooter.md)
- [role playing](rpg.md)
- [tower defenses](tower_defense.md)
- [racing](racing.md)
- [platformers](platformer.md)
- [strategy](strategy.md)
- [adventures](adventure.md)
- [sport](sport.md)
- ...
- by game design:
- [easy to learn, hard to master](easy_to_learn_hard_to_master.md)
- [hard to learn, easy to master](hard_to_learn_easy_to_master.md)
- [easy to learn, easy to master](easy_to_learn_easy_to_master.md)
- [hard to learn, hard to master](hard_to_learn_hard_to_master.md)
- [computer](computer.md) ([console](console.md) vs [PC](pc.md))
- by budget/scale/financing:
- amateur
- [indie](indie.md)
- [AAA](aaa.md)
- by [business model](business_model.md):
- [freeware](freeware.md)
- [shareware](shareware.md)
- [free to play](free_to_play.md)
- [subscription](subscription.md)
- buy once
- [pay to win](pay_to_win.md)
- [pay what you want](pay_what_you_want.md)/donation
- [adware](adware.md)
- [spyware](spyware.md)
- ...
- ...
## Legal Matters
Thankfully gameplay mechanisms cannot (yet) be [copyrighted](copyright.md) (however some can sadly be [patented](patent.md)) so we can mostly happily [clone](clone.md) proprietary games and so free them. However this must be done carefully as there is a possibility of stepping on other mines, for example violating a [*trade dress*](trade_dress.md) (looking too similar visually) or a [trade mark](trade_mark.md) (for example you cannot use the word *tetris* as it's owned by some shitty company) and also said patents (for example the concept of minigames on loading screens used to be patented in the past).
@ -46,7 +106,7 @@ Trademarks have been known to cause problems in the realm of libre games, for ex
## Some Nice Gaymes
[Anarch](anarch.md) is an example of a game trying to strictly follow the [less retarded](lrs.md) principles. [SAF](saf.md) is a less retarded game library/fantasy console which comes with some less retarded games such as [microTD](utd.md).
[Anarch](anarch.md) and [microTD](utd.md) are examples of games trying to strictly follow the [less retarded](lrs.md) principles. [SAF](saf.md) is a less retarded game library/fantasy console which comes with some less retarded games such as [microTD](utd.md).
{ I recommend checking out [Xonotic](xonotic.md), it's completely libre and one of the best games I've ever played. ~drummyfish }
@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ The "official" LRS programs and libraries have so far been solely developed by [
- **[SAF](saf.md)**: Tiny library for small portable games.
- **[small3dlib](small3dlib.md)**: Simple software rasterizer for 3D rendering.
- **[smallchesslib](smallchesslib.md)**: Simple [chess](chess.md) library and engine ([AI](ai.md)).
- **[microtd](utd.md)**: Simple [tower defense](tower_defense.md) game written with [SAF](saf.md).
Apart from this software a lot of other software developed by other people and groups can be considered LRS, at least to a high degree (there is usually some minor inferiority e.g. in licensing). Especially [suckless](suckless.md) software mostly fits the LRS criteria. The following programs and libraries can be considered LRS at least to some degree:
Miloslav Ciz
2 years ago