Support independent game studios by paying what you want for the fourth Humble Bundle

In our view, the big media con­glom­er­ates that own most of the radio sta­tions, tele­vi­sion net­works, and pub­lish­ing hous­es in this coun­try could just as accu­rate­ly be described as big enter­tain­ment con­glom­er­ates. They sell and dis­trib­ute most of the movies, music, games, books, and soft­ware that we buy, often under oner­ous terms and con­di­tions that attempt to restrict our dig­i­tal freedoms.

When it comes to games, chances are, you’re famil­iar with com­pa­nies like Microsoft, Nin­ten­do, and Sony (which all make pop­u­lar gam­ing con­soles) or Elec­tron­ic Arts (which makes some of the best known titles for con­soles and com­put­ers). But these com­pa­nies hard­ly have a monop­oly on good games. Some of the best games in the world are made by inde­pen­dent game stu­dios that you may have nev­er heard of.

Last year, one of these stu­dios (Wolfire Games) con­vinced some oth­er stu­dios to join them in giv­ing users the oppor­tu­ni­ty to name their own price for a col­lec­tion of games. The offer­ing was called the Hum­ble Indie Bun­dle. Would-be play­ers were asked to donate what they wished to acquire five qual­i­ty titles, with the pro­ceeds being divid­ed between the devel­op­ers, the Hum­ble Bun­dle itself, and two great orga­ni­za­tions: the Elec­tron­ic Fron­tier Foun­da­tion (one of NPI’s favorite civ­il lib­er­ties watch­dogs) and Child’s Play (a ter­rif­ic Seat­tle-based charity).

The response, espe­cial­ly from the world­wide gam­ing com­mu­ni­ty, was strong. With­in two weeks, the Hum­ble Indie Bun­dle had racked up more than $1.2 mil­lion in sales. The pro­mo­tion was so suc­cess­ful that it led to a sec­ond Hum­ble Bun­dle in Decem­ber of 2010, and then a third, last spring. Just a few days ago, the fourth Hum­ble Bun­dle went on sale, and already, pro­ceeds have topped $1 million.

If you like qual­i­ty games that you can install and rein­stall on all of the com­put­ers you own, with no dig­i­tal restric­tions man­age­ment, then the Hum­ble Indie Bun­dle is for you. All of the titles are tru­ly cross-plat­form and will work on Win­dows, Mac, or your favorite GNU/Linux dis­tri­b­u­tion. In addi­tion, when you pur­chase the Hum­ble Indie Bun­dle, you get to decide how to split your dona­tion — between the devel­op­ers, the EFF, Child’s Play, and the Bun­dle itself.

It’s an incred­i­ble offer — one that’s real­ly, tru­ly worth tak­ing advan­tage of.

If you’re not famil­iar with the Hum­ble Bun­dle, we urge you to head on over to their site and take a look at the games that are being offered in the cur­rent pro­mo­tion. There’s no fine print and no catch: You pay what you want and you get some out­stand­ing games in return. It’s fun and easy to take part.

If you’re not a gamer your­self, con­sid­er buy­ing these titles as a gift for a friend and sup­port­ing two wor­thy char­i­ties (the EFF and Child’s Play) as well as some pio­neer­ing inde­pen­dent game studios.

You can’t go wrong with the Hum­ble Indie Bun­dle.