RMS has long suffered from the 'you can be technically correct, and yet still act like a raging asshole about it' syndrome that Linus Torvalds, etc. also suffer from.

I don't like how media outlets have basically stretched and almost misquoted him in their headlines, because it makes it all sound like this is the only mis-step he's made over the years in this area. If that were the case, you'd not be wrong to be at least a little upset that this seems like a disproportionate reaction.

But that's the thing - in reality, this is more 'the straw that broke the camel's back'. RMS has been problematic for years, but the Epstein <-> MIT link was the kick at the end.

You can probably dig deeper if you're so inclined (here's one place to start - where Vice got their info.

I wish the FSF best of luck in finding someone new to champion their cause.

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I know I shouldn't bother reading the comments section on articles on this, but first - please have some context as to where the accusations of transphobia from the devs came from (and yes, they're legitimate):

Resetera link to Discord screens

The couple texture changes for items in game were made because that stuff ticked off 3D Realms; they don't want their name associated with this kind of stuff, so presumably they really wanted the devs to scrub the game clean of anything remotely homo/transphobic. That's their right to ask - they're the publisher, and sure, it's 'censorship' - you can even argue it's self-censorship since, after all, this is also their baby, and they felt the need to state an updated policy on this stuff for future games. None of this is being forced by a government, or the ESRB, or anything like that.

Now, some of you are probably wondering... how did people get these screenshots? Why were they in a Discord server for this (relatively obscure/niche) game? And why would they then be upset over this stuff?

Well, having a number of transfeminine and transmasculine (and enby and pan and...) friends and acquaintances online, this one hurt pretty hard because up until that point they were all super excited for this game and recommending it to each other! There's a joke in transfeminine circles that if you search for thigh-high rainbow or trans pride coloured socks on Amazon, you'll get recommendations for books on programming and computer parts in the 'People also Bought' section - trans people were quick to adopt the online world to be able to reach out to each other across vast distances; trans people, especially transfeminine people, maybe stereotypically, maybe not, tend to skew towards the nerdy side.

These people run Linux. They run FreeBSD. They reminisce about systems that were sometimes before their time. The designer of the ARM architecture was trans. They like to game, but are constantly being shut out by this cloud of toxicity that surrounds a lot of modern gaming, so they make their own, supporting each other in the process and getting onto platforms like itch.io.

They were fans of games like Duke3D when it came out. Some younger people discovered it on recommendation of the older folks. It's silly, over the top, fun, and yeah - a little sexist - but it was the '90s, and part of the pastiche. Think of the modern day band Steel Panther, and people 'get it' - it's all in good fun. At least, when it's acknowledged that's not how you actually treat people these days.

They game on Linux (and BSD!), and more than one have I pointed to this very site as an example of great reporting (<3 you, Liam and others!).

...but I have to remind them, 'just... don't read the comments', and they have to begrudgingly accept that. Like every other site, these days.

I don't expect things to change, but I hope for some of you this adds some more context as to why this was such a big deal. Having someone important that worked on something you were genuinely super excited for turn around and shit on your existence as a human being is not a great feeling.

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Pretty sure I got my copy in the Humble Bundle back then, too, so I'm probably not eligible and/or it's not worth the hassle for what would be basically $5 or less.

I wish I could like... convert it to a giftable and give it to a Windows-running friend or something instead, but eh. I've moved on, I feel, from all this. The way they handled Linux support in the past is almost a textbook example of 'how not to do it', but this gesture is probably the best that could come of it, in terms of fairness and cutting their (future) losses.

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Geo-blocking is BS, so for once the EU is in the right of it with their demands.

In Canada, the price for a game is the same across the country, whether you're in Ontario or the Yukon (barring GST/PST/HST differences, similar to VAT).

In the US, same deal - it doesn't matter what state you're in, the price of a game is the price of that game.

The article lists some EU member states in the Eurozone and some that aren't - sure, the requirement for currency exchange tends to mean there are winners and losers on the price difference... but isn't the point of the EU the whole 'single market' thing? So set the price of a game in Euro, let non-Eurozone-but-still-EU members buy it for whatever that converts to in their local currency, and otherwise treat the EU as a single 'country'.

I'd argue a step further and say games should just be priced globally in whatever the local currency of the developer/publisher is (e.g. Yen for Japanese games), and the rest of us pay whatever the equivalent of that is in our currency. The devs/publishers want to be paid in their own currency at the end of the day, right? If people are going to pirate it because they can't afford it, going to all the extra effort to get a pittance fraction of the cost from poorer regions just doesn't seem worth it.

But maybe it is, because the 'actual cost' is mostly fixed, and the reproduction/transmission cost of selling additional copies is next to nil (barring translations, etc.). So a game that sells for $60 in the US might still be worth translating and selling for the equivalent of $5 somewhere else. How much of that $60 is profit vs. the $5? What if the game was just... $20 everywhere in the world?

Global economics is hard. ;) But the internet is global. Artificial barriers will get broken, so it's a difficult proposition to figure out how to position your work so that poorer countries with weaker currencies could still afford and enjoy it, while not taking a chunk out of your earnings in wealthier nations. Maybe the 'cheaper' cost version is still enough to break even or make a little bit of money, and the 'wealthier' costing version is pure profit. Maybe the sales in wealthier countries subsidize the sales in poorer ones (though I doubt it - they'd just not bother offering it for sale in said countries then, right?).

I worry for smaller, Indie devs/publishers trying to get this right. I have no sympathy for the likes of EA/Ubisoft/Activision-Blizzard/etc., though, who abuse the crap out of their employees and give their execs multi million dollar salaries and bonuses.

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As much as I'd love to jump on this, the EULA shenanigans are gross:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/take-2-interactives-new-eula.632925/

Quote"By installing and using the Software, you consent to the information collection and usage terms set forth in this section and Licensor's Privacy Policy, including (where applicable) (i) the transfer of any personal information and other information to Licensor, its affiliates, vendors, and business partners, and to certain other third parties, such as governmental authorities, in the U.S. and other countries located outside Europe or your home country, including countries that may have lower standards of privacy protection; (ii) the public display of your data, such as identification of your user-created content or displaying your scores, ranking, achievements, and other gameplay data on websites and other platforms; (iii) the sharing of your gameplay data with hardware manufacturers, platform hosts, and Licensor's marketing partners; and (iv) other uses and disclosures of your personal information or other information as specified in the above-referenced Privacy Policy, as amended from time to time. If you do not want your information used or shared in this manner, then you should not use the Software."

"The information we collect may include personal information such as your first and/or last name, e-mail address, phone number, photo, mailing address, geolocation, or payment information. In addition, we may collect your age, gender, date of birth, zip code, hardware configuration, console ID, software products played, survey data, purchases, IP address and the systems you have played on. We may combine the information with your personal information and across other computers or devices that you may use."

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Oh wow. Watching the Game Grumps play through a bit of Everything was pretty hilarious, and it's still... interesting (different? Weird? But in a good way?)

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Remember the days when devs would pride themselves on building their own custom game engines?

id Tech, BUILD, and yes, the original Unreal? (GoldSrc only kind of counts since it was Quake/Quake II-based, and I think even Source still inherits some of that)

Oh hey, remember when id Software were awesome and not only released Linux builds of their games, but when the next id Tech engine came out, they quickly moved to open source the previous generation? Which is why we have a bunch of stuff based on everything up to Quake 3-and-a-bit-of-Doom 3/Quake 4?

But nothing after, with all the personnel changes that happened, and, y'know, Bethesda.

I mean, don't get me wrong - going through all the notes for UE4 and there's some amazing work being done there, but yeah - if you don't want to write your own, there's got to be plenty of open source resources out there, or just take a look at Godot, apparently.

Oh, wait, I think I get it - we've had an entire generation of developers trained on Unity and/or Unreal Engine, so they don't know anything else / aren't trained/adaptable. It's the same vendor lock-in that gets us Microsoft Office as 'the only office suite anyone knows' (despite LibreOffice being perfectly fine and awesome), Oracle as 'the only "good" database server', Windows as the only OS the general public knows how to work, and how the little blue 'E' is 'The Internet'. At least that last one is now 'the primary-colour spinny wheel', and 'Facebook' is 'The Internet' for people.

The people who actually care about this stuff already know about the alternatives and are either already using them, moving to them, or at least learning of them and planning their next projects with them in mind. The people who don't care and continue to use proprietary stuff in spite of there being better, open alternatives... don't care. And we can't really make them care. All we can do is keep chugging along in our own parallel universe and ignore what goes on in proprietary-land. ;)

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Just going to throw this out there: Every time I hear someone complain about 'SJWs', and how they're ruining-our-whatevers, all I can think of are articles about 'Millenials are killing X industry'.

GOG's social media manager made an insensitive mistake, and in typical fashion, they doubled down on it rather than apologizing or admitting fault.

There's better places to spend your hard earned cash, on DRM-free games or otherwise.

If people want to stop buying games from GOG because of their actions as a company, and if developers want to pull their support, that's all within their rights. Obligatory XKCD.

tl;dr, you start foaming and raving about 'teh SJWs', it's a big neon sign that says 'ignore what this person has to say and move on, as they've missed the point'.

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Wood grain finish?!

Someone get LGR on the horn, ASAP! :p

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After what nVidia tried to pull with forcing OEMs to drop AMD from their 'gaming' brands or risk not getting GPU stock/shipments, coupled with the fact that as far as I'm aware they STILL haven't released the firmware blobs to enable the GTX980 or newer under an open source driver like Nouveau?

Yeah. Boycott nVidia completely. Intel's not much nicer, but honestly, if their upcoming discrete cards are competitive and have good open source drivers like their current integrated stuff? It's a toss-up between them and AMD.

But never nVidia. Never again, and I say this owning a GTX980. :/

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