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XCOM (originally called X-COM ) is a science fiction video game franchise featuring an elite international organization tasked with countering alien invasions of Earth. The series began with the strategy video game X-COM: UFO Defense created by Julian Gollop 's Mythos Games and MicroProse in 1994. The original lineup by MicroProse included six published and at least two canceled games, as well as two novels. The X-COM series, in particular its original entry, achieved a sizable cult following and has influenced many other video games; including the creation of a number of clones , spiritual successors , and unofficial remakes .

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86-620: A reboot series was published by 2K Games , beginning with the strategy video game XCOM: Enemy Unknown , developed by Firaxis Games and released in 2012 to critical and commercial success. It was followed by the prequel The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and the sequels XCOM 2 and XCOM: Chimera Squad .   X-COM series (1994–2001)   XCOM reboot series (2012–present) The X-COM core series consisted of four main games published by MicroProse : UFO: Enemy Unknown (also known as X-COM: UFO Defense , PC and Amiga in 1994, Sony PlayStation in 1995), X-COM: Terror from

172-529: A Creative Commons license. The resulting cultural product is then available to download free (generally accessible) to anyone with an Internet connection. Older, analog technologies such as the telephone or television have limitations on the kind of interaction users can have. Through various technologies such as peer-to-peer networks and blogs , cultural producers can take advantage of vast social networks to distribute their products. As opposed to traditional media distribution, redistributing digital media on

258-720: A derivative work —such as a copy of a software program modified to fix a bug or add a feature, or a remix of a song—but are unable or unwilling to pay the copyright holder for the right to do so. Being organized as effectively a " consumers' cooperative ", open source eliminates some of the access costs of consumers and creators of derivative works by reducing the restrictions of copyright. Basic economic theory predicts that lower costs would lead to higher consumption and also more frequent creation of derivative works. Organizations such as Creative Commons host websites where individuals can file for alternative "licenses", or levels of restriction, for their works. These self-made protections free

344-482: A computer program in which the source code is available to the general public for use for any (including commercial) purpose, or modification from its original design. Open-source code is meant to be a collaborative effort, where programmers improve upon the source code and share the changes within the community. Code is released under the terms of a software license . Depending on the license terms, others may then download, modify, and publish their version (fork) back to

430-411: A former senior artist and head of game design at MicroProse UK, disclosed: "We'd also discussed other avenues for future games including time travel, retaking the solar system (with interplanetary distances playing a significant role in recruitment and resources), and resistance movement concept where you had to fight back after the world was taken and humanity was totally under the alien yoke." OpenXcom

516-520: A meeting held at Palo Alto, California , in reaction to Netscape 's announcement in January 1998 of a source code release for Navigator . Linus Torvalds gave his support the following day, and Phil Hughes backed the term in Linux Journal . Richard Stallman , the founder of the free software foundation (FSF) in 1985, quickly decided against endorsing the term. The FSF's goal was to promote

602-465: A more commercially minded position. In addition, the ambiguity of the term "free software" was seen as discouraging business adoption. However, the ambiguity of the word "free" exists primarily in English as it can refer to cost. The group included Christine Peterson , Todd Anderson, Larry Augustin , Jon Hall , Sam Ockman , Michael Tiemann and Eric S. Raymond . Peterson suggested "open source" at

688-452: A more nuanced position than corporations have traditionally sought. Instead of seeing intellectual property law as an expression of instrumental rules intended to uphold either natural rights or desirable outcomes, an argument for OSC takes into account diverse goods (as in "the Good life" ) and ends. Sites such as ccMixter offer up free web space for anyone willing to license their work under

774-528: A new setting and viewpoint while keeping some main concepts from the original game series. The setting received a complete overhaul, now based in the early 1960s, with the original XCOM organization being a secret U.S. federal agency. Originally planned for 2011, the game was repeatedly redesigned by different studios before being finally released in 2013 as The Bureau: XCOM Declassified for Windows, OS X , PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 . In 2012, Firaxis Games (led by MicroProse co-founder Sid Meier ) announced

860-483: A product (or service) of economic value, which they make available to contributors and noncontributors alike." This definition captures multiple instances, all joined by similar principles. For example, all of the elements – goods of economic value, open access to contribute and consume, interaction and exchange, purposeful yet loosely coordinated work – are present in an open-source software project, in Misplaced Pages, or in

946-462: A product's design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint. Before the phrase open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of other terms. Open source gained hold in part due to the rise of the Internet. The open-source software movement arose to clarify copyright , licensing , domain , and consumer issues. An open-source license

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1032-457: A product, movie or CD. By removing the cultural middlemen, messageboards help speed the flow of information and exchange of ideas. OpenDocument is an open document file format for saving and exchanging editable office documents such as text documents (including memos, reports, and books), spreadsheets , charts, and presentations. Organizations and individuals that store their data in an open format such as OpenDocument avoid being locked into

1118-420: A product. Copyright creates a monopoly so that the price charged to consumers can be significantly higher than the marginal cost of production. This allows the author to recoup the cost of making the original work. Copyright thus creates access costs for consumers who value the work more than the marginal cost but less than the initial production cost. Access costs also pose problems for authors who wish to create

1204-411: A proprietary license and charge for copies, or an open license. Some goods which require large amounts of professional research and development, such as the pharmaceutical industry (which depends largely on patents, not copyright for intellectual property protection) are almost exclusively proprietary, although increasingly sophisticated technologies are being developed on open-source principles. There

1290-524: A real time conversation online) and image uploading. Some messageboards use phpBB , which is a free open-source package. Where blogs are more about individual expression and tend to revolve around their authors, messageboards are about creating a conversation amongst its users where information can be shared freely and quickly. Messageboards are a way to remove intermediaries from everyday life—for instance, instead of relying on commercials and other forms of advertising, one can ask other users for frank reviews of

1376-402: A reboot, such as merging parallel worlds and timelines together, or destroying a fictional universe and recreating it from the beginning. With reboots, filmmakers revamp and reinvigorate a film series to attract new fans and stimulate revenue. A reboot can renew interest in a series that has grown stale. Reboots act as a safe project for a studio, since a reboot with an established fanbase

1462-484: A requirement to preserve the name of the authors and a copyright statement within the code, or a requirement to redistribute the licensed software only under the same license (as in a copyleft license). One popular set of open-source software licenses are those approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) based on their Open Source Definition (OSD). Social and political views have been affected by

1548-643: A second novel was published with the title XCOM 2: Escalation by Rick Barba . MicroProse's manual/documentation writer John Possidente also wrote three short stories, "Decommissioning", "Manley's Deposition", and "Moray in the Wreck", taking place between the events of the first two games in the series. More recently, X-COM co-designer Dave Ellis and artist Jon McCoy released a free online tribute digital comic titled Deep Rising , with music created by X-COM composer John Broomhall . A board game entitled XCOM: The Board Game , designed by Eric M. Lang and based on

1634-472: A single software vendor, leaving them free to switch software if their current vendor goes out of business, raises their prices, changes their software, or changes their licensing terms to something less favorable. Open-source movie production is either an open call system in which a changing crew and cast collaborate in movie production, a system in which the result is made available for re-use by others or in which exclusively open-source products are used in

1720-671: A software format, is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the hardware and source code without paying royalties or fees. Open-source hardware evolves through community cooperation. These communities are composed of individual hardware/software developers, hobbyists, as well as very large companies. Examples of open-source hardware initiatives are: Some publishers of open-access journals have argued that data from food science and gastronomy studies should be freely available to aid reproducibility . A number of people have published creative commons licensed recipe books. An open-source robot

1806-490: A spiritual successor to X-COM , was released in December 2019. Two X-COM novels have been published based on the first game in the series: Diane Duane 's X-COM: UFO Defense - A Novel (1995, ISBN   0-7615-0235-1 ) and Vladimir Vasilyev 's Enemy Unknown (1997). The reboot series' novel is titled XCOM 2: Resurrection by Greg Keyes and was published in 2015, bridging the plots of XCOM and its sequel. In 2017,

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1892-416: A technology that makes webpages easily updatable with no understanding of design, code, or file transfer required. While corporations, political campaigns and other formal institutions have begun using these tools to distribute information, many blogs are used by individuals for personal expression, political organizing, and socializing. Some, such as LiveJournal or WordPress , use open-source software that

1978-405: A user forum or community. They can also be present in a commercial website that is based on user-generated content . In all of these instances of open collaboration, anyone can contribute and anyone can freely partake in the fruits of sharing, which are produced by interacting participants who are loosely coordinated. An annual conference dedicated to the research and practice of open collaboration

2064-408: A vague and "confusing" " buzzword ", and a neologism for remake, a concept which has been losing popularity since the 2010s. William Proctor proposes that there is a distinction between reboots, remakes and retcons . The term is thought to originate from the computing term reboot , meaning to restart a computer system. There is a change in meaning: the computing term refers to restarting

2150-413: A vote, and the winner was announced at a press conference the same evening. Some economists agree that open-source is an information good or "knowledge good" with original work involving a significant amount of time, money, and effort. The cost of reproducing the work is low enough that additional users may be added at zero or near zero cost – this is referred to as the marginal cost of

2236-401: Is peer production , with products such as source code, blueprints , and documentation freely available to the public. The open-source movement in software began as a response to the limitations of proprietary code. The model is used for projects such as in open-source appropriate technology , and open-source drug discovery. The open-source model for software development inspired the use of

2322-467: Is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration . A main principle of open source software development is peer production , with products such as source code, blueprints , and documentation freely available to

2408-409: Is a robot whose blueprints, schematics, or source code are released under an open-source model Free and open-source software (FOSS) or free/libre and open-source software (FLOSS) is openly shared source code that is licensed without any restrictions on usage, modification, or distribution. Confusion persists about this definition because the "free", also known as "libre", refers to the freedom of

2494-418: Is a 2002 low-budget PC turn-based tactics game developed by Gollop's next company Codo Technologies and very similar to the turn-based Battlescape combat system of the first X-COM . In 2005, Codo Technologies and publisher Namco also released Rebelstar: Tactical Command , a Game Boy Advance turn-based tactical role-playing game that too was reminiscent of the early Battlescape system. Phoenix Point

2580-517: Is a strategy and turn-based tactics video game for Windows, and OS X that has the open world, strategic layers of the X-COM style games of the 1990s like Enemy Unknown and Apocalypse together with the presentation and tactical mechanics of the more recent Firaxis reboot games. The game was developed by Gollop with Snapshot Games , an independent game studio in Bulgaria. Phoenix Point , described as

2666-414: Is a type of license for computer software and other products that allows the source code , blueprint or design to be used, modified or shared (with or without modification) under defined terms and conditions. This allows end users and commercial companies to review and modify the source code, blueprint or design for their own customization, curiosity or troubleshooting needs. Open-source licensed software

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2752-416: Is an open source re-implementation of the first game in the series intended to fix all the bugs and enable modding. OpenApoc is a similar open source project for X-COM: Apocalypse . In 2010, 2K Marin announced they were working on re-imagining of X-COM , relabeled as XCOM . It was described as a tactical and strategic first-person shooter that would combine elements from the original X-COM alongside

2838-404: Is evidence that open-source development creates enormous value. For example, in the context of open-source hardware design, digital designs are shared for free and anyone with access to digital manufacturing technologies (e.g. RepRap 3D printers) can replicate the product for the cost of materials. The original sharer may receive feedback and potentially improvements on the original design from

2924-406: Is less risky (in terms of expected profit) than an entirely original work, while at the same time allowing the studio to explore new demographics. A television series can return to production after cancellation or a long hiatus . Whereas a reboot disregards the previous continuity of a work, the term has also been used as a "catch all" phrase to categorize sequel series or general remakes due to

3010-401: Is mostly available free of charge, though this does not necessarily have to be the case. Licenses which only permit non-commercial redistribution or modification of the source code for personal use only are generally not considered as open-source licenses. However, open-source licenses may have some restrictions, particularly regarding the expression of respect to the origin of software, such as

3096-443: Is open to the public and can be modified by users to fit their own tastes. Whether the code is open or not, this format represents a nimble tool for people to borrow and re-present culture; whereas traditional websites made the illegal reproduction of culture difficult to regulate, the mutability of blogs makes "open sourcing" even more uncontrollable since it allows a larger portion of the population to replicate material more quickly in

3182-723: Is software which source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees. LibreOffice and the GNU Image Manipulation Program are examples of open source software. As they do with proprietary software, users must accept the terms of a license when they use open source software—but the legal terms of open source licenses differ dramatically from those of proprietary licenses. Open-source code can evolve through community cooperation. These communities are composed of individual programmers as well as large companies. Some of

3268-600: Is the International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (OpenSym, formerly WikiSym). As per its website, the group defines open collaboration as "collaboration that is egalitarian (everyone can join, no principled or artificial barriers to participation exist), meritocratic (decisions and status are merit-based rather than imposed) and self-organizing (processes adapt to people rather than people adapt to pre-defined processes)." Open source promotes universal access via an open-source or free license to

3354-653: The Apocalypse project, so there was a lot of bluff involved." Following the acquisition and subsequent merger of MicroProse with Hasbro , the X-COM intellectual property (IP) was also transferred to Hasbro Interactive on August 19, 1998. Due to financial difficulties, Hasbro Interactive was sold to Infogrames Entertainment SA on January 29, 2001. As part of this transfer, the X-COM IP was legally transferred to Infogrames on December 21, 2001 (shortly thereafter, Infogrames

3440-668: The X-COM brand. There were talks of X-COM toys, comics, and even a cartoon show. A budget range, turn-based tactical play-by-mail multiplayer game Em@il Games: X-COM was released in 1999. In 2001, Hasbro published X-COM: Enforcer , a poorly received third-person shooter loosely based on the events of Enemy Unknown , marking a low point in the series. The X-COM games were also released as part of four compilation releases: X-COM (Collector's Edition) (1998), X-COM Collection (1999) and X-COM: Complete Pack (2008), as well as in 2K Huge Games Pack in 2009. At least two more major titles have been planned for this series. One of them

3526-567: The X-COM franchise and re-released Terror from the Deep on Steam . In September 2008, UFO: Enemy Unknown , Apocalypse , Interceptor and Enforcer were also re-released as downloadable titles. 2K Games' XCOM , which had been in development since 2003 (prior to the IP acquisition), was finally completed and released in 2012. Because of the series' popularity, various other developers have created spiritual successor games similar in theme and tone of

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3612-518: The X-COM games (sometimes called " X-COM clones"; Julian Gollop also himself called turn-based tactical game genre in general as "sons of Rebelstar " in a reference to one of his earlier games). The level to which they borrow from the original series varies. The franchise was also referenced in the Civilization series of strategy video games that had partially inspired X-COM in first place. The original game received an unofficial sequel in

3698-564: The peer production community. Many open-source projects have a high economic value. According to the Battery Open Source Software Index (BOSS), the ten economically most important open-source projects are: The rank given is based on the activity regarding projects in online discussions, on GitHub, on search activity in search engines and on the influence on the labour market. Alternative arrangements have also been shown to result in good creation outside of

3784-549: The source code is available to the general public for use or modification from its original design. Code is released under the terms of a software license . Depending on the license terms, others may then download, modify, and publish their version (fork) back to the community. Many large formal institutions have sprung up to support the development of the open-source movement, including the Apache Software Foundation , which supports community projects such as

3870-480: The "Open Source Summit", the event was attended by the leaders of many of the most important free and open-source projects, including Linus Torvalds, Larry Wall , Brian Behlendorf , Eric Allman , Guido van Rossum , Michael Tiemann , Paul Vixie , Jamie Zawinski , and Eric Raymond. At that meeting, alternatives to the term "free software" were discussed. Tiemann argued for "sourceware" as a new term, while Raymond argued for "open source." The assembled developers took

3956-648: The 1997 expansion set Civ II: Fantastic Worlds for MicroProse's Civilization II , in a scenario set on the Phobos moon of Mars. Firaxis' Civilization V features a unit type named XCOM Squad. Fan-remake projects for UFO: Enemy Unknown have included X-com - Last Hope (a mod of Half-Life 2 released in 2006), UFO: The Two Sides (development halted in 2011 due to copyright issues), UFO: Cydonia's Fall (canceled in 2012), X-COM: Origin (canceled in 2013), and The Rebel Squad (an also defunct project by Sam Liu ). Reboot (fiction) In serial fiction ,

4042-421: The 2012 reboot, was released on January 28, 2015, by Fantasy Flight Games . The trademark for the X-COM name was filed on May 25, 1995, by MicroProse Software. According to Julian Gollop, "They wanted us to do a deal where we would sign over any rights that we might have in return for some cash plus a high royalty on X-COM: Apocalypse . They more or less insisted on it, otherwise they were threatening to cancel

4128-602: The Chosen , followed in 2017. The next game in the series, XCOM: Chimera Squad , was released in April 2020, for Windows. Unlike the global scale of previous games, Chimera Squad focused on a specific city, giving the player control of a diverse squad of humans and aliens. The game introduced several changes to game mechanics, such as replacing randomly generated and customizable squad members with preset and unique soldiers, and utilizing "interleaved turns" (mixing turn order between

4214-455: The Deep (PC in 1995, PlayStation in 1996), X-COM: Apocalypse (PC in 1997) and X-COM: Interceptor (PC in 1998). The premise of the franchise is that an alien invasion beginning in 1999 prompts the creation of a clandestine paramilitary organization codenamed X-COM (an abbreviation of " E x traterrestrial Com bat") by a coalition of funding nations. The player is charged with leading this force and tasked to secretly engage and research

4300-508: The Deep , was quickly created by MicroProse's internal team; based on the same game engine and used largely identical gameplay mechanics. Apocalypse took several new directions with the series, introducing an optional real-time combat system and shifting the aesthetics to a retro-futuristic style. A spin-off game, Interceptor , constitutes a hybrid of a strategy game and a space combat flight simulator . After Interceptor , Hasbro Interactive purchased MicroProse, acquiring its studios and

4386-526: The Internet can be virtually costless. Technologies such as BitTorrent and Gnutella take advantage of various characteristics of the Internet protocol ( TCP/IP ) in an attempt to totally decentralize file distribution. Open-source ethics is split into two strands: Irish philosopher Richard Kearney has used the term "open-source Hinduism " to refer to the way historical figures such as Mohandas Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda worked upon this ancient tradition. Open-source journalism formerly referred to

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4472-506: The Year" awards. X-COM creator Julian Gollop hailed it as "a phoenix rising from the ashes of the X-COM disaster," saying that "it’s amazing that after 20 years, a brand that had gone so badly in the wrong direction has finally been put right." It was also ported to Android , iOS , OS X, Linux , and PlayStation Vita . In 2013, Firaxis released a downloadable content for the base game XCOM: Enemy Unknown titled XCOM: Enemy Within . It

4558-493: The alien threat. The sequels, against new alien invasions, are set underwater ( Terror from the Deep , set in 2040), in a futuristic megacity ( Apocalypse , set in 2084), and in space ( Interceptor , set in 2067 and making it a prequel to Apocalypse ). UFO: Enemy Unknown , featuring a turn-based ground combat system, remains the most popular and successful game in the series, having been often featured on various lists of best video games of all time. The first sequel, Terror from

4644-463: The beginning and the slate is wiped clean, and no one blinks. One of the reasons they do that is after 10 years of telling the same story, it gets stale and times change. So we did the cinematic equivalent of a reboot, and by doing that, setting it at the beginning, you're instantly distancing yourself from anything that's come before. Reboots cut out non-essential elements associated with a pre-established franchise and start it anew, distilling it down to

4730-409: The community. The rise of open-source culture in the 20th century resulted from a growing tension between creative practices that involve require access to content that is often copyrighted , and restrictive intellectual property laws and policies governing access to copyrighted content. The two main ways in which intellectual property laws became more restrictive in the 20th century were extensions to

4816-444: The core elements that made the source material popular. For audiences, reboots allow easier entry for newcomers unfamiliar with earlier titles in a series. In comic books, a long-running title may have its continuity erased to start over from the beginning, enabling writers to redefine characters and open up new story opportunities, allowing the title to bring in new readers. Comic books sometimes use an in-universe explanation for

4902-548: The development and use of free software, which they defined as software that grants users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the code. This concept is similar to open source but places a greater emphasis on the ethical and political aspects of software freedom. Netscape released its source code under the Netscape Public License and later under the Mozilla Public License . Raymond

4988-494: The development of a Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown , a "re-imagination" of UFO: Enemy Unknown with real-time strategic view, turn-based combat and destructible tactical environments more in vein of the original X-COM game and set in a more contemporary setting than the XCOM game by 2K Marin. XCOM: Enemy Unknown was released later that same year to critical acclaim, winning multiple "Game of

5074-545: The exchange of money among all the manufacturers. By the time the US entered World War II , 92 Ford patents and 515 patents from other companies were being shared among these manufacturers, without any exchange of money (or lawsuits). Early instances of the free sharing of source code include IBM 's source releases of its operating systems and other programs in the 1950s and 1960s, and the SHARE user group that formed to facilitate

5160-430: The exchange of software. Beginning in the 1960s, ARPANET researchers used an open " Request for Comments " (RFC) process to encourage feedback in early telecommunication network protocols. This led to the birth of the early Internet in 1969. The sharing of source code on the Internet began when the Internet was relatively primitive, with software distributed via UUCP , Usenet , IRC , and Gopher . BSD , for example,

5246-409: The game and to take advantage of technology and features not available at the time of earlier entries. A soft reboot is a reboot that shares some continuity with the original series, but that changes the style, tone, or intent. It usually serves to allow writers more creative freedom while mostly maintaining the same setting the audience has grown accustomed to. Open source Open source

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5332-446: The general society of the costs of policing copyright infringement. Others argue that since consumers do not pay for their copies, creators are unable to recoup the initial cost of production and thus have little economic incentive to create in the first place. By this argument, consumers would lose out because some of the goods they would otherwise purchase would not be available. In practice, content producers can choose whether to adopt

5418-443: The growth of the concept of open source. Advocates in one field often support the expansion of open source in other fields. But Eric Raymond and other founders of the open-source movement have sometimes publicly argued against speculation about applications outside software, saying that strong arguments for software openness should not be weakened by overreaching into areas where the story may be less compelling. The broader impact of

5504-429: The individual programmers who start an open-source project may end up establishing companies offering products or services incorporating open-source programs. Examples of open-source software products are: The Google Summer of Code , often abbreviated to GSoC, is an international annual program in which Google awards stipends to contributors who successfully complete a free and open-source software coding project during

5590-708: The industry and force car manufacturers to adhere to their demands, or risk a lawsuit. In 1911, independent automaker Henry Ford won a challenge to the Selden patent . The result was that the Selden patent became virtually worthless and a new association (which would eventually become the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association ) was formed. The new association instituted a cross-licensing agreement among all US automotive manufacturers: although each company would develop technology and file patents, these patents were shared openly and without

5676-436: The open-source framework Apache Hadoop and the open-source HTTP server Apache HTTP . The sharing of technical information predates the Internet and the personal computer considerably. For instance, in the early years of automobile development a group of capital monopolists owned the rights to a 2-cycle gasoline-engine patent originally filed by George B. Selden . By controlling this patent, they were able to monopolize

5762-468: The open-source movement, and the extent of its role in the development of new information sharing procedures, remain to be seen. The open-source movement has inspired increased transparency and liberty in biotechnology research, for example CAMBIA Even the research methodologies themselves can benefit from the application of open-source principles. It has also given rise to the rapidly-expanding open-source hardware movement. Open-source software

5848-496: The opposing teams during combat) instead of a team-by-team turn system. The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge was a game for the PC and PlayStation 2 by Julian Gollop's Mythos Games (creators of UFO: Enemy Unknown and X-COM: Apocalypse ), claimed to having been "essentially a remake of the first X-Com with 3D graphics." The Dreamland Chronicles was canceled in 2001 and Mythos Games soon ceased to exist. Laser Squad Nemesis

5934-404: The phrase open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of other terms, such as free software , shareware , and public domain software . Open source gained hold with the rise of the Internet. The open-source software movement arose to clarify copyright , licensing , domain , and consumer issues. Generally, open source refers to a computer program in which

6020-723: The product, not the price, expense, cost, or charge. For example, "being free to speak" is not the same as "free beer". Conversely, Richard Stallman argues the "obvious meaning" of term "open source" is that the source code is public/accessible for inspection, without necessarily any other rights granted, although the proponents of the term say the conditions in the Open Source Definition must be fulfilled. "Free and open" should not be confused with public ownership ( state ownership ), deprivatization ( nationalization ), anti-privatization ( anti-corporate activism ), or transparent behavior . Generally, open source refers to

6106-465: The proprietary license model. Examples include: The open-source model is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration , meaning "any system of innovation or production that relies on goal-oriented yet loosely coordinated participants who interact to create a product (or service) of economic value, which they make available to contributors and noncontributors alike." A main principle of open-source software development

6192-482: The protective actions of copyright owners create what some call a " chilling effect " among cultural practitioners. The idea of an "open-source" culture runs parallel to " Free Culture ", but is substantively different. Free culture is a term derived from the free software movement , and in contrast to that vision of culture, proponents of open-source culture (OSC) maintain that some intellectual property law needs to exist to protect cultural producers. Yet they propose

6278-510: The public sphere. Messageboards are another platform for open-source culture. Messageboards (also known as discussion boards or forums), are places online where people with similar interests can congregate and post messages for the community to read and respond to. Messageboards sometimes have moderators who enforce community standards of etiquette such as banning spammers . Other common board features are private messages (where users can send messages to one another) as well as chat (a way to have

6364-409: The public. The open source movement in software began as a response to the limitations of proprietary code . The model is used for projects such as in open source appropriate technology , and open source drug discovery. Open source promotes universal access via an open-source or free license to a product's design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint. Before

6450-423: The rise of such productions in the late 2010s. A related concept is retooling, which is used to substantially change the premise of a series while keeping some of the core characters. Retools are usually part of an effort to forestall cancellation of a still running production. Reboots and remakes are common in the video game industry. Remakes in video games are used to refresh the storyline and elements of

6536-406: The same program unaltered, while the term discussed here refers to revising a narrative from the beginning. The first known use of reboot applied to an entertainment franchise was in a 1994 Usenet posting. Say you've had 187 issues of ' The Incredible Hulk ' and you decide you're going to introduce a new Issue 1. You pretend like those first 187 issues never happened, and you start the story from

6622-683: The standard journalistic techniques of news gathering and fact checking, reflecting open-source intelligence , a similar term used in military intelligence circles. Now, open-source journalism commonly refers to forms of innovative publishing of online journalism , rather than the sourcing of news stories by a professional journalist. In the 25 December 2006 issue of TIME magazine this is referred to as user created content and listed alongside more traditional open-source projects such as OpenSolaris and Linux . Weblogs , or blogs, are another significant platform for open-source culture. Blogs consist of periodic, reverse chronologically ordered posts, using

6708-754: The summer. GSoC is a large scale project with 202 participating organizations in 2021. There are similar smaller scale projects such as the Talawa Project run by the Palisadoes Foundation (a non profit based in California, originally to promote the use of information technology in Jamaica, but now also supporting underprivileged communities in the US) Open-source hardware is hardware which initial specification, usually in

6794-495: The term " reboot " signifies a new start to an established fictional universe , work, or series. A reboot usually discards continuity to re-create its characters, plotlines and backstory from the beginning. It has been described as a way to "rebrand" or "restart an entertainment universe that has already been established". Another definition of a reboot is a remake which is part of an established film series or other media franchise . The term has been criticized for being

6880-560: The term of copyright (particularly in the United States) and penalties, such as those articulated in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), placed on attempts to circumvent anti-piracy technologies. Although artistic appropriation is often permitted under fair-use doctrines, the complexity and ambiguity of these doctrines creates an atmosphere of uncertainty among cultural practitioners. Also,

6966-1099: The term to refer to other forms of open collaboration, such as in Internet forums , mailing lists and online communities . Open collaboration is also thought to be the operating principle underlining a gamut of diverse ventures, including TEDx and Misplaced Pages. Open collaboration is the principle underlying peer production , mass collaboration , and wikinomics . It was observed initially in open-source software, but can also be found in many other instances, such as in Internet forums , mailing lists , Internet communities, and many instances of open content , such as Creative Commons . It also explains some instances of crowdsourcing , collaborative consumption , and open innovation . Riehle et al. define open collaboration as collaboration based on three principles of egalitarianism , meritocracy , and self-organization . Levine and Prietula define open collaboration as "any system of innovation or production that relies on goal-oriented yet loosely coordinated participants who interact to create

7052-610: Was X-COM: Genesis , a real-time strategy and tactics game "going back to the roots but in full 3D." Another was X-COM: Alliance (also known as X-COM 4 and the project Fox Force Five ), an Aliens -inspired mix of strategy game and first-person perspective tactical shooter , using the licensed original Unreal Engine . However, both of these projects were cancelled after ex-MicroProse Hasbro Interactive studios were all shut down in 1999–2000 (with Alliance being later abortively reactivated in 2001-2002 before being quietly cancelled again without any official announcement). Terry Greer,

7138-482: Was especially active in the effort to popularize the new term. He made the first public call to the free software community to adopt it in February 1998. Shortly after, he founded The Open Source Initiative in collaboration with Bruce Perens . The term gained further visibility through an event organized in April 1998 by technology publisher Tim O'Reilly . Originally titled the "Freeware Summit" and later known as

7224-454: Was first widely distributed by posts to comp.os.linux on the Usenet, which is also where its development was discussed. Linux followed in this model. Open source as a term emerged in the late 1990s by a group of people in the free software movement who were critical of the political agenda and moral philosophy implied in the term "free software" and sought to reframe the discourse to reflect

7310-569: Was made available on Steam (which requires Enemy Unknown to play), as well as for iOS, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (those versions are standalone and do not require Enemy Unknown ). In 2015, Firaxis announced a sequel, XCOM 2 . It was released in 2016 for Windows, PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , OS X, and Linux (Later ported to several other platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, but not iOS). Its expansion, XCOM 2: War of

7396-472: Was renamed Atari SA ). In 2005, Atari SA transferred several IPs to Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and X-COM was transferred with them on June 12, 2005. The X-COM IP is currently owned by Take-Two and its subsidiaries; by 2007, first rumors emerged that Irrational Games (who are owned by Take-Two) were developing a new X-COM title (this game eventually became The Bureau: XCOM Declassified ). In May 2007, 2K Games (a subsidiary of Take-Two) inherited

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