I think the true marvel of this game is if they can build simulation into the game play. If the missions are similar to other MMOs where one is railroaded into building X module Y times to accomplish the mission the game will be little different than any other MMO that requires you to grind.

But if they simulate the actual dangers and pressures of entering space the possibilities of this game truly excite me. For example if a player needs to build a space ship to travel from the moon to mars they have to take into account: solar wind, high speed particles and meteorites, deadly radiation, life support, power generation and many other variables. One may build a large enough functional life support system but it's size may be to grate to be protected by the radiation shielding but adding more shielding would make it too massive to get to mars in time given the alloted fuel. She would then have to build a more streamlined life support or maybe make it a robotic mission. After construction of the ship simple (don't want to tax the servers too much) simulations would be run on how the normal forces of space affect the craft along with random encounters such as meteor showers or solar storms (Probabilities of encounter could be determined by weather or not they are traveling through the asteroyed belt, the Kuiper belt, near the Sun, etc.).

These obstacles are fun just to think about, trying to figure it out in a game setting would make it everything that I wanted spore to be: free the imagination and just provide simple constraints for people to discover and overcome with there own ingenuity.

The other great appeal of this game would be the possibilities of exploration. Its one thing to see photos, artistic renditions or even videos of alien landscapes, but to actually explore them in a 3-D environment would be truly amazing.

This is assuming he has a home. When I went traveling for 4 months I put my stuff in a friends basement and took off with no worries or constraints (rent, return date etc.) Sure he might have a friend willing to set up and maintain a VPN at their house but maybe he doesn't. Also he might not have any money (my budget was about 5 dollars a day) when you're given the choice of VPN or adequate food the decision is clear.

Actually I think the answer is government non-intervention. The problem is rooted in the government granting these ridiculous patents and subsequently intervening with software development and progress by enforcing them. What is needed is to reduce government involvement by not allowing these patents.

And what you think the technically uninclined are pushing down the gates to get at those street cleaning jobs? Nobody "really wants" to do menial street labor.

I am part of the polyamorous community and there are just as many woman as men.

Show them trusted (kind of) and family name organizations that work on/use FLOSS. Big ones that jump to mind are the DoDs use of linux, the NSAs creation of SE linux and everyone knows who IBM is.

Thats because they aren't a monopoly yet. If they had the same power and market stranglehold as Microsoft they would have just as much to loose from allowing competing standards to exist. Right now they are one of the competing standards. If they ever ascended to Microsoft's position I'm sure they would use the same underhanded tactics. Behavior like this is not specific to Microsoft, it's more that these tactics are inherent to monopolies.