Desura Linux Game Client Goes Open Source

An anonymous reader writes "The Desura game distribution client for Windows and Linux and developed by ModDB is now open source software. The open source version of the client is called Desurium and is hosted on GitHub."

Re:Wat

[IronSight]

I think for me, gaming in the retro-ages were a bit more exciting since well, the social aspect is much different than it is today. For instance, I have fonder memories of playing games at the arcade or on the home console, in person with the other players. As in, we weren't playing with anonymous people we didn't know. We also had a certain code of conduct of how you acted when playing with friends or even people you didn't know at the arcade. You would show good sportsmanship (most of the time), something that you don't see online much of anymore. It was actually a healthy thing back in the days of the atari, nes, snes, n64 because you *were* being social. You were hanging out with your friends in front of the tv/arcade machine. Now it's practically anti-social. You lock yourself away in front of the tv or computer alone, you don't give a crap about the person you are playing with, and you hear nothing but people just being flat out rude. I think this is why things like the Wii sold so well. It encouraged family and friends to come together and play together. Bringing back that old social aspect. Parents playing with kids, kids playing with their friends, etc. A reason why people were all loving games like Guitar Hero/Rock Band was getting 4 friends in the same house playing together. Same with how successful the Halo lan parties used to be. A room full of people all playing at once brought much excitement. Like the Successful Daytona USA series having 2-8 arcade machines all linked together for some exciting competition with a room full of energy. Something that is missing today really with online gaming. The energy, the spark, the togetherness. Another thing that made the games exciting was back then, hardware was evolving FAST. Something that is pretty stagnant now. I mean, from the Nes/Master System to the Snes/Genesis/NeoGeo to the Playstation/N64/3DO/Saturn/CDX then to the PS2/Dreamcast/Xbox we saw HUGE advances in hardware and game quality, but the last few years have been pretty boring. PC wise it has been fun (6 core cpu's, 32gigs of ram in a system, 2-3 video cards in SLI, terrabytes of hard drive space, multiple monitor setups with huge resolution), but the games aren't coming out that utilize the full potential of such a system. So well, we just wait, bored, for the consoles to catch up so we can get some more ports, while they want to carry on with the same old hardware for another decade to save money on R&D. Every once in a while we get a gem like Skyrim or Rage to keep us busy for a week, then we sit bored again just playing some crappy mmo for a while.

Re:Wat

[wanzeo]

The major change I have seen is that games have gone from focusing on physical technique or strategy to focusing on the story. I place games like half life, mass effect, and homeworld on the same level as my favorite books or movies when it comes to an ability to move me emotionally.

While I remember older arcade games from my childhood fondly, they lacked the narrative depth of more modern games, and were basically a challenging distraction. I sometimes wonder if the video game will become the 21st century's most distinctive art form.

Re:Open source doesn't imply abandonment.

[emilper]

just installed Desura:

  + had my Humble Bundle games in my account
  + Fallout 1 is in their list
  + very easy to install the games

  - Fallout 1 is more expensive than on GOG ...
  - trouble with two monitors: the few games I tried see them as only one in full screen
  - yeah, 1€ = 1$ ... come on, guys, really ?