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Interview with LGames' Michael Speck
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."
he couldnt find a good audio mixer for linux, so he had to use windows shareware to create the audio in his games. Hopefully reborn 1.0 and audicity 1.0 will fix his problem..
keanmarine.com
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...
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.
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).
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..
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.
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.
*Cough* *Cough*
passes Starship Trooper the bong.
When you have a picture of linus taking a bong rip or the tux penguin with a spliff in his mouth then you can start to worry. Last time I heard linux was being used to decode folding protiens and search for aliens, not marijuana promotion.
I sure hope they interview you. I love TuxPaint! Nice job. It makes me want to have kids so that I can make them use it (don't tell my girlfriend).
Hehe.. I know how you feel. If only my cats would use the computer. (No puns about 'mice,' please)
Then I'd have some VERY inexpensive (and cuddly) beta testers.
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.
Previously you would have received numerous fanatical replies filled with personal insults and scatological references, not to mention a share of "flamebait" moderations. I can attest to this.
I've been known for saying some harsh things about poor Loki customer service, orders of multiple products left unshipped for six months or more due to one product being held up, etc. And, boy, did I take a personal shit storm from many in the Linux community who stood up for Loki (and it's staff). I'm sure they had good motivation: to help the success of the Linux desktop through gaming. Unfortunately for the community, the company was run by a scam artist. I mean, what else do you call a guy who doesn't pay his employees for months on end, gets another employee to pony up with his personal credit card for payroll expenses, and never pays the guy a dime back? Scumbag comes to mind.
Yet, even in the worst of circumstances the engineers at Loki produced much wonderful work. They deserve real community kudos for their porting success, especially in the face of Scott's and Kayt's shenanigans. I still enjoy a few of the twelve or so games I bought from them, and I'm glad I tried to honestly support Linux gaming. I bought games from Loki on impulse, happy to know that the money was going toward a community effort. Sadly, I should have just donated the money to the EFF, FSF, EPIC, Debian, or whatever. Transgaming looks like the place to be for now, and that bunch seems to publicly work with the community a whole lot closer than Loki ever did. When I get a better machine I'll subscribe to their service.
I still think there's a good future for playing commercial games on x86/Linux. I'm glad another company has stepped up into Loki's shoes (just like economists predict). But I hope the community learns a good lesson from Loki and recognizes that every company must both serve its market and behave with a good set of ethical guidelines, or it will (in the long run) go out of business with massive damage to its employees and customers.
Loki did neither, due to lapses in it's management. Sadly, this kind of ethical failure isn't limited to the Linux community (where so many thought it was too small to be affected by corporate malfeasance), as the likes of Global crossing, Enron, Tyco (and on and on and on) shows.
I should note that I never worked for Loki or knew any of the participants at the company. I'm simply a customer who some time back felt completely fucked over by their customer service, or lack thereof. So I got pissed and wrote about it. But the news reports which have come out since show how little Draeker thought of the community, and how willing he was to screw over his own staff and customers without regard to basic business ethics. It's an honest shame for the community, and one we should face up to -- lest it should happen again.
--Maynard
This sort of puerile proselytising reflects badly both on the project and all Linux users [...] 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.
Hrmm. Proselytizing you say? Show their own dogman down the throats of anyone who talks to them you say?
Perhaps you should practice what you preach?
-- iCEBaLM
Oh get off your whiney soapbox and get a sense of perspective.
It's his website and he can prominently display whatever he likes. And yes, I support your right to prominently whine about it, but it won't make me think any better of you (or from pointing out your faults).
If I have friends that go over to linux, they will do it because its something that is useful to them. All the "legalise marijauna" stickers in the world won't change that.
Of course, this might be because my friends aren't whiney gits, and are quite happy to let other people do things their own way as long as they don't hurt others.
"Shameless pot-promotion"? What a wonderfully mealy mouthed way of implying that pot is wrong and so is promoting its legalisation. I don't do any recreational drugs but I support the right of people to do what they like as long as it doesn't adversely affect others.
I think your comment is far more harmful than Mr Speck's. At least he isn't trying to shut someone up. ie. He isn't trying to adversely affect others.
About the only censorship I find worthy is the suppression of suppression by mealy mouthed moral police that are convinced their way is the only "true" way to live.
Your assumption of some dubious moral high ground deserves to be put in its place. I hope you consider this reply a small step on the way to that goal.
I find it incredibly sad that some idiots actually moderated you up. Looks like people will never just live and let live.
-Nurf
---
Rrrriiiiigghhhtt. If it we're legalized, it wouldn't "fund terrorists." And since in the US much (most? figures anyone?) marijuana is domestically cultivated, it probably isn't funding terrorists to any great extent. (Those of you with an interest in opiates and a desire to patriotically only use domestic sources should puruse Opium for the Masses: A Practical Guide to Growing Poppies and Making Opium.) And if we're even going to discuss the ludicrous topic of free software and terrorism, shouldn't we start with PGP?
I don't suppose you have a citation from something within throwing distance of a peer reviewed journal for any of this? There *are* some results showing a problem with memory loss. But there are other papers claiming that the memory loss in the first test (I assume you're referencing the New Zealand test.) was because the people had gotten old since 24 years had passed. In any event, alcohol is, of course, the great recreational drug with this problem. Similarly with violence. I'm not sure how to test for irrationality (as opposed to paranoia) so I'll let that slide. There's plenty of evidence for violence surrounding the marijuana *trade* but that, ta da, is because it's illegal so criminals engage in it. And epliepsy is weird. There seems to be a great many people who use it to help seizures and others who say it exacerbates them. Surely it's terrible for your lungs but you didn't list that.
Sorry about your friend's cousin. Any chance the driver of that vehicle had had a few beers to go with their weed? In any event, yours is an argument against driving while impaired. It is not an argument (at least not a good one) against legalizing marijuana.
And your sig:
just kills me in the context of your being against marijuana legalization.
Much better reasons to oppose marijuana are its foul smell (especially those big sticky buds; nasty!), its boring users, and its role in the Frito-Lay cabal. Bill Hicks, why did you leave us when we need you most?
Q:How many libertarians does it take to stop a Panzer division? A:None. Obviously market forces will take care of it.
Because certain hardware vendors are still not interested in releasing proper Linux drivers for their video cards, or opening up the information to their products to projects who are willing to write drivers, we as users are stuck somewhere in the middle.
I experienced this recently whilst trying to get my ATI Radeon 7200 working under Linux. ATI dont produce a Linux driver of their own for this card, so I had to use drivers from the DRI project. Trying to get this to work was confusing enough.. the main example of this came after I visted the DRI page to try and get some FAQ's to read through.. there I spotted a message that said something along the lines of "Dont use the DRI modules that ship with the kernel! Use these ones instead!" - well why bother making them a feature of the kernel at all? Seeing as you are all in one big boat together, why not get projects like this syncronized?
I am left a little unsatisfied with the end result. I appreciate that the DRI guys can only do so much, but as I said the attitudes of some companies leave them in such a situation. As a result of this, my subscription to Transgaming WineX (which I hear is really good) has been wasted.. I can't get the card working reliably enough so I might as well just boot into Windows for gaming.
In contrast, I attempted the same with my work computer which has a TNT2 card in it.. downloaded the drivers from Nvidia, ran their install script, and restarted X. I was greeted with an Nvidia splash screen and everything worked.
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
Ill bite..
First give the guy a break, he has a image of something he believes in on his website and all of a sudden we are discussing that your friends cousin was killed by someone under the influence of POT and how bad it is on a project that he is good enough to contribute his time to for "free"
lets see how many people where killed last year by people under the influence of legal substances
iam sure for every talented programmer (OS&CS) that dies of a car accident with a pothead driver drink driving will match it * 100, not including people out of their faces on prescription drugs that their "therapist" gave them.
Driving under the influence of anything is a bad thing to do , we all know, its bad, yet millions of people think "it won't happen to me" every night they have a "just a couple of beers" on their way home from the office/work/site even tho its a imprisonable offence in most countries around the world we (as in people) think nothing of it.
and im not even going into the bad things that drink can do to your body, needless to say how many bar fights involve alcohol vs the wrath of violence you get from a hippy pot smoker ?
Drinks on me !
OK... this is bullshit. People seem to be whining that "if a politically correct soccer mom sees this, she might be offended, so change the page". Personally, I agree with the guy. And no, I don't smoke pot. I did, however, get knifed by a mugger who got turned loose. Did he walk because they needed more room for potheads? Yeah, at least in my state. And so, the government has their collective head up thier collective ass. I've never had a stoner come up out of the blue on the street and stick a knife in me. Who gives a shit how it looks to have that banner up? The average citizen IS a moron. Sorry, but that is also how it is. If you want to fight, assuming you already vote, start a NPO and get a PAC. Then whine, once you're playing the game on the level that everyone else is. I'd rather use the cell for the guy that stuck a knife in me than my buddy that enjoys a joint after work... but that doesn't get anyone elected, now does it?
Orwellian? Give me a break. You tell me, would you rather have murderers, rapists, and pedophiles loose on the streets, or stoners? Did you have to think about that? And no, I don't smoke. Now, how many of the first three categories have been turned loose onto YOUR streets because they had to make room for more stoners? Google it and weep. You need to get self righteous and tell and your congressmen that, now don't you? Or run for office yourself; that way you could force your misguided viewpoint down other people's throats.
My grandmother's dog got epilepsy. I got epilepsy because it chased chipmunks. You see, the chipmunk would go up, and the dog went straight, therefore banging its head into the tree. There is very simple solution to this, just ban chipmunks. This simple action, while not interfering with anyone's personal freedoms, would REALLY HELP the stupid dogs of this world. Write your congress critter. NOW.
Well, I guess they are. :)
one of the two more influential Free game developers for Linux today
I went to the LGames site and saw versions of Tetris, Breakout, the old memory game, and so on. Now don't get me wrong, I like Linux, and I like games, and I'm not a 3D bigot, but we're talking about stale old stuff here. If this is what an influential developer puts out, then I just don't know.
Your choice. And your loss... he does write some nice games.
Oh I understand what political correctness is. Marijuana is illegal for only political reasons. I say this because alcohol is legal and it is a much more dangerous drug. There are some very big players involved that do not want marijuana to be legalized, mainly because of hemp (think dupont). So yes, the only reason why him having this image on his website is because it doesn't jive with today's politics. If you have ever seen Super Troopers, or many many other movies which put marijuana in a different light then being 'a bad thing' then you might understand. Who gives a flying f*ck if he has a legalize marijuana image on his website, its his website, and its his hobby. And im wondering why you think I use this term, "political correct" to bash things I do not like, I don't post much, so I doubt you have read my previous posts. Ah well, too much time spent on an AC..
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
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.
The market for Linux games, or games on any non Windows / PS2 platform is going to be tough.
The only thing that makes people want to play a game on an OS is the game. If Linux has Doom 4 before windows, or even INSTEAD of windows then te market for Linux as a gaming platform will burst forth.
To have the choice of the windows of linux is, as you say, not advancing linux as a platform as the total sales are likely to be the same.
Linux needs some advantage to become a serious games platform - and new versions of pong and tetris are not that advantage!
He complains a lot about dependencies.
Whomever complains about dependencies is still in RPM Dark Ages, having not seen yet the dpkg light as witnessed by apt and dselect.
Seriously, it is just another case of a half-baked industry standard namely, RPM long surviving its own due lifespan, thus becoming a hindrance to the whole industry and giving a bad name to GNU/Linux.
Ironic that RPM was just a stop gap before dpkg was finished, or perhaps a bit of Not Invented Here syndrome.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
The market for Linux games, or games on any non Windows / PS2 platform is going to be tough.
Not really, targetting a niche platform like Linux or Mac is a plausible way to start. If a company is developed enough that they can target both Win32 and Linux then the Linux sales often canabalized Win32 sales and do no good for the publisher. However for a startup making a Mac-only or a Linux-only game can be a way to fund and grow a very small developer until they reach the point where they can afford to enter the Win32 realm. Example: Bungie. The niche markets have far less competition and are less demanding/very forgiving of platform-specific games. Examle: Mac, Clanlord.
If Linux has Doom 4 before windows, or even INSTEAD of windows then te market for Linux as a gaming platform will burst forth
In the sense that Linux gamers who normally buy Win32 would buy Linux, yes, in that gamers would switch platforms, no. The platform switchers would be few, at best there would be a handful of new dual booters who would normally buy Win32. However, the whole concept of a Linux-first/only game from an established Win32 capable developer is dubious. There is no commercial upside, it would essentially be a large charitable contribution where you don't even get a tax write-off.