I am sorry, but I am not going to moderate my beliefs or views simply because "companies [don't] like it". Nor am I going to be arrogant enough to assume that people are going to (or even should) take my comments as representing the whole Linux community, or even merely GamingOnLinux for that matter (and I would like to take a moment to thank Liam for allowing me to voice my views as loudly and boisterously as I am, even though I sure as hell know he does not fully agree or follow them). If you are worried about what I am saying, then I am sorry but that is your problem, not mine. My concern is to stay true to myself, my own values, and my own conscience, and by doing that I am not violating or using anyone's freedoms but my own.

And I would hardly say I was "raining on your parade" - I do not go to every Steam related article just to blast it, and only bring up my concerns with it when it is pertinent to the discussion. If I did otherwise, then I would be a troll. But I don't. I do moderate my opinions and fears enough that I do manage to keep a good enough code of behaviour (enough that I do not violate forum rules certainly) but that is about as far as I am willing to go. I am not going to moderate my views because someone may get a bad impression of me. If they take me, one man, to represent the whole Linux community then again, that is their problem, not mine. And Valve is not something I think that is really going to care about what I post. So I do not think you even have to worry.

And about me also being reactionary, certainly I am to an extent. But I like to think I take a bit more time to frame my arguments than that to at least allow them to be somewhat original. Certainly passion rules much of my words, but I do like to think I try and guard myself from them to some extent. What bothers me the most though is that I keep getting nailed to causes which used to be more of the norm but are now a complete struggle to keep going (DRM free gaming, family farming, etc...). I would much rather be a pure activist any day - at least then you are not fighting the decay of something you care about. And that is what I pity about RMS the most - he has been doing that for thirty years.

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That is quite a rant you got there, but it is hardly original. I have heard it all before. It is just another reactionary response to any kind of criticism.

This notion that I, by my stating of problems that are related to Steam, am somehow threatening your freedom to use Steam is depressingly prevalent. It is almost as if you believe my words are going to suddenly infect your computer and delete all of your DRMed titles out of existence on the wish of my merest whim. Words can never take your freedom away, thoughts can never either - actions can. So unless you see me writing such a piece of malware to take out your Steam accounts, I suggest that you take a step back and realize that there is a difference between criticism and an infringement of your rights. The fact that you try and blur the lines between the two is actually somewhat dangerous.

And again, I am not tackling the subject of free or open source games here. So you can banter on all you like about how SuperTuxKart ruined your life but that will never be pertinent to the argument.

Addressing your Humble Bundle comments, again, you can not simply wash away the fact they stood for more by blindly asserting they never did. Granted, you are indeed correct in saying that a lot of the developers involved honestly could not give a damn about it (which is part of the reasons a lot of the ports were so half-hearted), but the Humble Bundle guys themselves did openly and plainly assert that they were doing this for a wider cause, and indeed did seek support under those grounds. It was about more than just the charity, and it really does get on my nerves when people use charity as a blind for other less defensible actions, like how charity is often used to justify cutting valuable social programs and services (the Niall Ferguson argument, ugh...) or other ad nauseum.

As for what I stand for, I stand for what I have said. I wish to support DRM free gaming, and yes, I am going to do that by pointing out the flaws present in popular DRM systems. If that really bothers you, if that really gets to you, than you really need to examine your own motives, not mine. I stand for DRM free gaming just as much as I stand for native Linux gaming - and you can not silence me for that. After all, standing up for what some consider to be the minority opinion is what you yourself have been doing all of these years.

When you criticized Windows, were you taking people's "freedoms" away? Were you merely "complaining that a company isn't doing things the way you want"? If you have ever promoted an opinion that was counter to someone's else's, were you taking away that person's freedom to express it? No? Then you should not be taking such a huge exception to mine. Unless something I have said has actually really gotten to you and you just don't want to admit it.

(And my apologies to everyone if this sounds a little too combative, but I am really sick of these weak and repetitive arguments. I really have to pity RMS, I really do...)

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It's a bit unfortunate Steam dominates all hardcore PC download sales so heavily it's really too big a risk for us to do hardcore stuff without access to Steam.

Monopolies, eh? :(

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That's fine as far as it goes - and if the Humble Bundles never had pretensions of anything greater I honestly would not be writing these long angered tyraids about it. But the Humble Bundle made you feel like you were a part of something greater, and that was not just my impression of it, they deliberately advertised it as such. To see them act like everyone else in the end does hurt the reasons why we were so generous to them, and as I have said before, it dulls their original message to a blunt and chipped knife edge, as it shows that not even them are truly willing to believe it or follow it. :(

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Made this an Editors Pick since it has certainly made my week, and I think it has quite heavily contributed to Cheeseness' as well. ;)

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I just checked with Toploader over at RWS and he did confirm that the bulk of the non-Steam dependant features from the Postal and Postal 2 releases will also be making their way to the Desura versions as well. I do not know if this finally validates some of the Steam trickled down arguments that I have been hearing or just goes to further prove how awesome RWS is. :)

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The Holomatch port was actually someone kludging the game to work on the Quake3 source code. That being said, it actually works pretty well.

As to the other things you have linked to, those are merely the source code to the Modding SDK released under a restrictive license, and as such it would be useless when it comes to making a proper source port.

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Hands up everyone who played with QBASIC themselves when they were younger! ^_^

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It is interesting to see xerenas claim I am too young to understand how the game industry works, as xerenas himself seems to be the one ignorant of past events himself. DRM free gaming did not start as a reaction to DRM, but rather it was the norm for most of the industries history (just as Indie gaming was once the norm, especially when PC gaming was dominated by shareware). DRM free advocates are very much like free software advocates in that they are actually a reaction to unwelcome changes to the industry, rather than people who are actually trying to force a new separate change on it. His claim that DRM free gaming never truly existed is simply laughable.

Second, this has nothing to do with "open source" or the Linux Game Tome. The Linux Game Tome is not a DRM free site; in fact it's hosting was supplied by a company that extensively uses DRM in it's products. What about it's unfortunate closure has any bearing on this debate at all? Same thing with the debate about hobbyist gaming versus professional - that has nothing to do with this discussion. Saying I want to support DRM free gaming is not akin to saying I do not believe in professional game development. By claiming I am you are doing a disservice to your argument and biting off way more than you can chew when it comes to the discussion.

There is no solid evidence that DRM improves sales, or that it prevents piracy. You do not need it to earn a living. Professional game developers worked quite happily without it for decades before it's great rise about eight/nine years ago. We are not proposing something that is pie in the sky or even never attempted - we just want the industry to be like it was before game publishers decided to start persecuting their own customers.

Third, let us discuss the morality of it, especially with regards to the Humble Bundle. It is simply a joke to suggest their was no moral component in it, or at the very least the suggestion that it was all done for a good and ethical cause. That is why that example hurts the most, as they aspired to loftier goals and then soured on them right when they were milking in the true fruits of their success.

Finally, there may or may not be morality in "business", but there certainly is in human endeavour, whether business types wish to see it or not. Just because you are running a business does not give you the right view yourself as being above your obligations to society, it does not give you the right to treat others any worse than any other member of society, and it does not give you the right to spy on your customers and abuse their own rights and freedoms in the name of illusory profits.

In more philosophical terms, businessmen are bound by their social contracts to society just as much as anyone else is. This is true of anyone who works in a society, benefits from a society, and is protected by a society. The fact that we live in a world where people are convinced that they are somehow outside and above it goes to show why we have so much problems in this world, which go far beyond DRM.

In short, you can support what you want, but please, never accuse me of being too young or too ignorant. I know of what I speak and flailing your arms about and attacking strawman with cliches is not going to change that.

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Well, I in fact do "still use tux racer" if by that you mean keep playing and buying non-DRM games (it has admittedly been awhile since I have played Tux Racer itself though). 

The real problem here though with regards to the main topic of discussion is that the Humble brand used to stand for more, and back in the day they sold it as such, which is part of the reason why it initially got so much support. Now their message is meaningless since they themselves are not really willing to follow it and are seemingly willing to ignore what they stood for on the merest of whims. They used to be taking a stand for something, and now whenever they do something akin to their past principles it seems more like a half-hearted attempt to keep people like us buying their bundles.

The other problem for me is that Linux used to be a bastion for progressive DRM free gaming (which actually used to be the norm, but sadly that is no longer the case, mostly due to people like you who are willing to accept it) and now that is far from being the case. A lot of people promoted the arrival of Steam to people like us by saying that we would get other non-direct benefits from it, but so far it seems like we received a whole bunch of games we can not play unless we bend our principles,  which has actually caused a lot of people to do just that, including game developers, which is the greatest shame.

If you really think that is the best choice you can make by all means do it, play your Steam games and buy from these sales, but do not begrudge us mourning what once was and trying our best to maintain a gaming climate we can still ethically feel we can support.

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