Snott

Category: Games

Mostly free open source games

  • Heroes of Newerth now FREE to play

    Heroes of Newerth now FREE to play

    Yes, S2Games have officially announced that their flagship game, Heroes Of Newerth, no longer will have an account purchase structure, now you can download the game for FREE, create an account and start playing right away!

    Those of us who purchased the game before will have a premium access to heroes and will get the entire hero pool for free. If you just created the account then you will have limited access to some heroes and would have to buy access to some of them, they have to win money you know…you can download the game from the hon official website.

    Here are the types of accounts offered now

    • Basic: The standard, free account new players will receive upon sign up.
    • Verified: Basic accounts that have been upgraded by either purchasing Goblin Coins or surpassing a certain threshold of play time. This allows them to take part in Verified Only games.
    • Legacy: Paid user accounts that existed before the free-to-play model. These accounts receive a lifetime of free access to all HoN heroes and are able to play in Verified Only games, why is that? because some people hate playing against beginners and prefer to get better, more seasoned opponents, so this will separate them

    You can get more info on this new structure by going here.

    You can watch a preview of the game, download and installation instructions for Linux and Windows by going to my previous hon post.

  • Are Linux users cheap?

    Are Linux users cheap?

    I have had TONS of conversation with Windows/Mac users saying that most of the people who use Linux as their primary OS are either cheap or total geeks. I always come back at them by stating Linux is a lot more flexible in terms of customization and freedom in general because you do what you want with the system, but they still wont change their minds.

    Well, today I found something that clearly states the opposite, Linux users can be geeks, but they are definitely not cheap 😀 and I will show it to you.

    The humblebundle is a pack of independent games released under the following conditions:

    – You pay what you WANT for the pack (yes, what you WANT, $0,01 or a $1000 or a $1 000 000)

    – You support charity, there are 2 foundations to which you can donate

    –  DRM (Digital Rights Management) Free, this means you can Install them on any number of computers without limitations.

    – You can redeem them on Steam, OnLive, and Desura! (if you want, they provide standalone clients)

    -Cross Platform , Windows, Mac and Linux Supported

    Here is a video promoting the bundle, it is very funny and the best marketing I have seen in a while:

     

     

    So, what does this have to do with what I was talking about, well,  the humblebundle website has some live statistics of donations, and a break down by OS and average donation amount, lets check it out (Warning: Eye Opener ahead):

     

    Total payments: $422,253.03

     

    Number of purchases: 82,293

     

    Average purchase: $5.13
    – Average Windows: $4.16
    – Average Mac: $6.09
    – Average Linux: $11.76

     

    Total Payments by Platform

     

    Mac, Windows, and Linux total revenue breakdown

     

    I think the numbers and graphic speaks for itself, nevertheless, I will explain my point of view on this one.

     

    Like you can see on the graphic, while the world of Linux has a smaller user base compared to Mac (MacOS has around 75 million users, Linux around 29 million), Linux users still have purchased more than Mac users (that’s single purchases, not total amount of money donated).
    Also, Linux average donation DOUBLES the Mac and Windows donations.

     

    My main point to expose here, it’s not that windows/mac users are cheap or whatever, my main point is that this clearly demonstrates the Linux users willingness to help others and support game development, and thank all the efforts people do in order to support the Linux platform.
    The pack is for a Limited Time only (13 days left from the time I wrote this) so hurry and get it, and support indie developers and charity in one step!
    Sources about number of users per os:
    http://www.macworld.com/article/141028/2009/06/triple.html
    http://counter.li.org/