Twenty Bucks – Heroes of Newerth

In my last Twenty Bucks post, I pulled $10 from June to get Europe at War.  I played through one solo game against the AI, and now I’m playing by email with a friend from GWJ.  That gives me $10 left from June, $20 from July, and $20 for August.

Last night I put $30 towards a pre-order for Heroes of Newerth.  Because I’m in the beta and under NDA, I can’t tell you about the game; but the fact that I essentially bought a beta should communicate to you everything that matters. :)

HoN has a native Linux client, and no DRM, and so scores a two on my 3-point scale – though it is only playable through their site and requires a login similar to many other online games (no big deal).  Many thanks to S2 Games for their Linux support and sensible distribution strategy!

Birthday Donations

It’s that time of year again.  If you don’t have a group that you support directly, here are some of my suggestions:

• The Durham Rescue Mission.  This group does a lot of really great work around Durham, helping people who have no one else to turn to.  They need support now more than ever.
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation.  They are the reason why you have strong SSL encryption to protect your web transactions, and they are doing enormous good in the online world.
• The Free Software Foundation.  The software I’m using right now to write this blog entry is due in part to their efforts, and they continue to fight the good fight against copyright and patent abuse.

If you want to support me more directly, I am running for Durham City Council Ward 2 and will not turn away birthday donations. :)  You can also support the efforts of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina to get North Carolina’s ballot access restrictions struck down as unconstitutional.  The case is currently awaiting a verdict from the Court of Appeals.

Thanks!