Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Interview with LGames' Michael Speck

Posted by michael on from the linux-has-games? dept.

Gentu writes "OSNews interviews one of the two more influential Free game developers for Linux today, Michael Speck of LGames. Michael talks about the Linux game market, about Linux's performance as a multimedia platform, his future plans and much more."

8 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Sad by Starship+Trooper · · Score: 0, Insightful

    While browsing the LGames website, and I noticed he prominently displays a "Legalise Marijuana" badge on his front page. This sort of puerile proselytising reflects badly both on the project and all Linux users, and I implore Mr. Speck to remove it. Regardless of your feelings about the drug war issue, a Linux games pages in not the place to raise it. What is the average Joe going to think when he searches for "linux games" on Google, comes to the lgames website, and is immediately assaulted with this image? When trying to get friends and coworkers to switch to Linux, by far the hardest hurdle I have to overcome is the stereotype of Linux users as freeloading, dirty, overzealous pigs who try to shove their dogma down the throats of anyone who talks to them. Things like Speck's shameless pot-promotion do little to help overcome this. I hope this post of mine will help him come to his senses.

    --
    Loneliness is a power that we possess to give or take away forever
    1. Re:Sad by Fourier · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A "legalize marijuana" badge might be inappropriate on, say LinuxGames or Happy Penguin. But this is Michael's personal development page. He wrote all the games, he wrote the website. If he wants to lobby for something totally unrelated, that's his prerogative. Deal.

    2. Re:Sad by garcia · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I really hope this is supposed to be some sort of humor.

      Whether you support it or not, the legalization of marijuana has plenty of good support and should be done. The recent drop in priority in the UK and the legislation attempting to pass in many US states should show that the general masses care little or less about the "so called" harmful effects of marijuana.

      We really need to have more medical usage of marijuana (anything is better than fucking Oxy and morphine -- if you have never seen an individual using either of these painkillers, you might want to then give marijuana a second look).

    3. Re:Sad by zeno_2 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Until then I will run LGames as a hobby of mine.

      Id really say he can put anything he wants to up on his website that is showing off his 'hobby'. We really shouldn't let political correctness control the way we live, and especially control our hobbyist nature.

      comes to the lgames website, and is immediately assaulted with this image?

      I also find it amusing that you would be immediately assaulted by an image of a pot leaf. I didn't even notice it when I first went there, I had to go back and look after reading your post..

  2. OK by thasmudyan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Michael seems to be a nice guy allright. And the games he did are really enjoyable little funny things. And it's clear hat he knows more about programming than me or 98% of the SlashDot crowd. ...BUT it REALLY surprises me that he is attributed "one of the two more influential Free game developers for Linux today". Look at a professional games developer for comparison and you know what I mean. I'm sure there would be a lot of fun games around if there where more people like Michael Speck but he has not yet done anything of (even moderately) big scope in the gaming scene. I'm only writing this because the SlashDot article implicitly suggested there was an interview with some sort of Linux games guru, when instead there was an interview with a gifted young hobby programmer learning his way through the SDL...

  3. Re:mod parent down. by t0qer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How about we mod you down?

    Even though I don't agree with the parent post (look at my name for petes sake) I think he pointed out something very interesting that made me go back and take a second look. Now we can have a nice thread amungsts us geeks about marijuana prohibition here on slash and I have the parent post to thank for that.

    A comment should never be moderated down unless it's completely stupid.

  4. Re:You couldn't be more right by garcia · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think you need to re-learn the facts.

    In 1972, after reviewing the scientific evidence, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded that while marijuana was not entirely safe, its dangers had been grossly overstated. Since then, researchers have conducted thousands of studies of humans, animals, and cell cultures. None reveal any findings dramatically different from those described by the National Commission in 1972. In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research, editors of the British medical journal Lancet concluded that 'the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health.

    Another obvious failure of DARE.

  5. Speck makes classic mistake regarding market ... by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Michael Speck: If games are developed platform-independant from the start which allows to sell it for different platforms in one package with one price then there will definitely be a market under Linux.

    As long as nearly all Linux gamers dual boot or emulate there is no Linux game market from a commercial point of view. Speck makes a classic mistake when determining the size of the Linux game market. The Linux game market is not the number of people who would buy a Linux version of a game, it is the number who would only buy the Linux version and never buy the Win32. He seems to fail to consider that replacing a Win32 sale with a Linux sale does no good for a publisher, there is no new sale.