[BadVista Advocate] A few thoughts on games

[Don Hensley]

Never worry about sounding rude --I promise to always attempt to understand 
the basis of what someone says or asks of me. When I'm in doubt I'll ask for 
clarification.

;)  I'm not only thick skinned, I'm pretty deaf too...  ;) 

Actually I don't play any games at all, online or other wise. It is admittedly 
one of the reasons that the gaming aspect of migration away from Microsoft 
means nothing to me personally.

But I too deal with the aspect of users who have a lot of problems because 
they do play games (I admit this is not a big problem in my age group).

I spend some time at the local collage and often give small talks on GNU/Linux 
and Free Software issues in general --the school is nice enough to provide me 
with the use of the computer lab for this. As it is a small extension 
collage, I get all the high school kids and even some grade school kids (it's 
just if they want to attend, it's not even officially sponsored by the 
school).

So I am VERY often asked about games. I do recognize it as one of the strangle 
holds Microsoft has on the end user. The only way I have ever been able to 
reach anyone on this issue is by explaining it more or less as I did in my 
post (I have a lot more freedom to go into this in greater depth at a talk).

Glad my post tickled your brain, that's the reward we all seek.

thanks,
Don.
 *********************************
 On Thursday 03 May 2007 05:17 pm, Jacob Maynard wrote:
Without this sounding rude or anything resembling it, do you play a lot of
games? It's just a little uncommon for a person in your generation to play
a lot of video games.

I ask this because you speak very intelligently about the matter. Good
thinking on your part. I hadn't even considered these thoughts.

Jacob

> Most of us here understand that the reason a lot of games are only
> available
> on Microsoft platforms has to do with 3 things:
>
> 1. Closed source code
>
> 2. Dependencies on proprietary ancillary code (.net, Direct X, etc.)
>
> 3. (Microsoft FUD): Fear that all us GNU/Linux bad guys will steal the
> game...
> Pirates all.
>
> Well think about this for a minute.
>
> All Windows games that can be played on just a single computer --not
> Internet
> dependent on some outside server, have already been cracked --and not by
> GNU/Linux guys --we don't use Windows so what would we do with a Windows
> game, even if it was cracked? So it's Windows bad guys that are cracking
> (pirating) Windows games, not all of us.
>
> So #3 simply has no bearing on GNU/Linux users at all, for any Windows
> game
> that is ... lets call it 'self contained'.
>
> Now as to games that are not 'self contained'. Well, all of those have
> tons of
> cheats... the list of cheat sheet sites for any Windows game or games is
> simply endless. So 'Windows only' games come down to he who cheats best
> wins.
>
> Now ask your self if that really makes any sense to play a game that only
> by
> cheating can you really get somewhere at the game?
>
> Free Software games, on the other hand, are not likely to have 'cheats' as
> a
> practical part of the game --at least not for long, because either some
> one
> will patch it so that is no longer possible, or they may simply
> incorporate
> it into the game for the use of everyone (it becomes a feature that really
> is
> a new feature).
>
> Makes Free Software games a lot more fun because you can play it with a
> lot of
> faith that how you do will be based on your ability to play --not the
> other
> guy's ability to cheat.
>
> This relies on having the source available to all, which is why #1 is a
> stopper for us GNU/Linux types. Honesty is only insured by transparency.
>
> That only leaves problem #2... Well after a little thought about problems
> #1
> and #3, it becomes sort of obvious that #2 only exists to insure vendor
> lock
> in --not for the game, for the real vendor that wants everyone locked in
> --Microsoft.
>
> So if you want to play Microsoft's games (they are too, if you can only
> play
> them on Microsoft's OS, no matter who they nominally 'belong' to), then by
> all means do so.
>
> Just don't complain that GNU/Linux is bad because you can't play
> Microsoft's
> games on it... We like it that way, for all the above reasons --and a few
> more that have more of a philosophical nature (like understanding what
> losing
> Freedom means).
>
> So that's my two cents on Microsoft's games.
>
> Don.
> --
> GNU/Linux is the future.
> Join the FSF: http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=4458
> Get the Real Facts: http://BadVista.org
>
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