After wandering around the U of M campus for the first time, I managed to find my way to Wiley Hall Room 175 just in time. Stallman took the stage moments later and began what would amount to 2 straight hours of speaking, evangelism, and laughs.

If you aren’t familiar with who Stallman is, well, I’m not surprised. Have you ever heard of the term ‘hacker?’ Stallman was one of the first. Ever heard of GNU, Linux, or Emacs? He either made them himself, or made them possible. If you’re still lost, then maybe you should stop reading here.

RMS began by explaining the four freedoms of free software.

• Freedom 0: The freedom to use software as you wish
• Freedom 1: The freedom to view the source code and modify it as you wish
• Freedom 2: The freedom to distribute copies of the software to others
• Freedom 3: The freedom to make improvements to the program and distribute those modifications to others

These four freedoms all must be true in order to call a piece of software ‘free.’ From there things really went everywhere.  There was much badmouthing of proprietary software and all the problems and hassles it brings. Stallman’s primary message was to refuse to use proprietary software, evangelise free software, and the computing world will become a much better place. Oh and there were a few jabs at the US government, Microsoft, large corporations that I’ll admit I laughed at.

RMS was also endlessly quotable:

“Ms. Clinton… probably mentions freedom more often than I do, but says much less about the substance of it.”

“If you see someone drowning, and there’s no one else around, and it’s not Bush, you have an obligation to save that person.”

“I am St Ignucius of the Church of Emacs.”

“Vi vi vi is the ‘Editor of the Beast’, but using a free implementation of vi is not a sin, it’s a penance.”

I can’t completely agree with Stallman though. It’s tough because I have a lot of respect for the man for what he’s accomplished and the views we share. Free software is great and so is the idea that we all should share and help each other out. However, that view is unrealistic. I think proprietary software has its place in the world too. And the world certainly isn’t as amiable and agreeable as Stallman would like it to be. I’m not about to give up my DVD movies, my Macbook Pro, or playing Warhammer Online, all of which are, run, or use proprietary software.

Most people probably don’t think about the freedoms they give when running proprietary software, but at the same time I think if they did, most would make the same choice. Because of that, Stallman’s vision of a utopia for free software will never exist. Nonetheless, I encourage Stallman and the Free Software Foundation to continue their work. He is exactly the kind of person you want to lead a movement. He’s pure, uncorruptable, and unflinchingly loyal. He’s made it his life’s purpose to bring his vision to reality. If only some of our politicians and world leaders had the same passion and outlook.

Hellgate London is a new MMORPG coming out next week. The publisher, Flagship Studios, is comprised mostly of ex-Blizzard North employees. Blizzard North, of course, was the studio that put out both Diablo games. Hearing the words “Diablo” and “MMO” in the same sentence is enough to make most any gamer salivate. Myself included.

However, Hellgate London is not a Diablo sequel, nor is it set in the Diablo universe. With all the demons and medieval weaponry, the game does have a very Diablo-inspired feel to it. In terms of gameplay, it is first and foremost an RPG. You quest, gain experience, develop skills, and collect armor, weapons, and items. The cool thing is it also includes things you’d normally see in a first person shooter. You use the standard movement keys (W, A, S, and D) to move around, but the camera is locked to your mouse. One click is equivalent to one swing of the sword or one shot from your gun. At first the hybrid gameplay style is confusing; especially coming from a traditional MMO like WoW. After a few minutes, I was able to rid my mind of the typical MMO controls though.

Ever since I got bored with WoW and stopped playing (about a month ago), I’ve been looking for something to fill that empty feeling. Like the avid reader, I always have that game that I’m “playing.” I think Hellgate London is going to be it. I found another detail that made the game even more enticing. There is no required monthly fee.

Instead, there are two classes of accounts: paid and unpaid. For only the price of the game, you get access to the online component for the life of the game. Paid (“Elite”) accounts get access to exclusive content for $9.95/mo. I can tell you, after paying $12.99/mo (Blizzards 6 mo bulk deal), $9.95 looks like a bargain. It seems as though they have a pretty good idea of how upgrading or downgrading your account is going to work too.

What game turned you into a gamer?

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Yesterday was Father’s Day and today I saw this story on Digg which made me remember my dad.

The question is what game turned you into a gamer. I thought a little bit and it was hard for me to pinpoint one single game. Maybe it’s because I’ve been a gamer most of my life and so it’s always just been part of who I am. I continued thinking and I tried to remember the first game I remembered playing. The first one that came to mind was Galaga.

The mall in town had a small arcade with about a dozen cabinets, one of which was “the spaceship game.” I was probably 6 years old at the time and as you can guess, the games were a little beyond me. I don’t think I could see the screen if I stood in front of the machine. So either my dad would play while I watched or he’d hold me up and it was my job to hit the shoot button as fast as possible. As you can imagine, we didn’t ever get too far, but I enjoyed every second of it.

While I wouldn’t consider my dad a gamer, there were a few games that I think he played more than I did. One time I remember waking up at 1AM to find my him playing a level farther into Blaster Master than I’d ever been. Another is SimCity 2000. I think that one got him in trouble with Mom a few times.

Looking back, many of my good gaming memories included my dad in some way. Maybe he’s responsible for my love of gaming.

I remember a couple of years ago being in Best Buy and they had the original Guitar Hero on the Playstation 2 demo console there. I watched someone play and thought it was just some cheap game with a silly expensive guitar-looking controller. Shortly after I began hearing how cool it was. Bands playing it constantly while on tour. Then there was the MLB pitcher who missed a game because he injured himself playing GH. And then there was the guy who started the site “Guitar Hero broke my knee” after an especially raucous session.

Anyway, Guitar Hero 2 is awesome and I can’t put it down.

I also set up Vista as a media extender for the Xbox. So now I can watch videos and listen to music from my computer on the home theater downstairs. Pretty cool! Now if I could only get it to play Xvid and Quicktime files…