Reading 03: Money for Something

  I like the game hackers; primarily due to how relatable they are. On the one hand, they like video games, which most people do. However, they also contain this entrepreneurial spirit that, to an extent, embodies the American Dream. These hackers dreamt of “the ultimate hack, but also fame and massive royalty checks.” While they share that core “hacker” identity with the true and hardware hackers, they differ in their interest in fame and money. The true hackers were obsessed with hacking and hacking only. The hardware hackers evolved to obsess about hacking and spreading the ability to hack. And here come the game hackers, who become interested in this new thing: money. And while the hardware hackers were willing to compromise parts of the Hacker Ethic, I believe Ken Williams completely diverged from it.


From the quote in the prompt: “Ken Williams was convinced that hackers should be stifled,” it is not controversial to say that Ken Williams didn’t exactly embody the hacker ethic. Early in Part 3, it is stated that Williams was “not a pure hacker.” He was initially deterred by computers, considering them to be “dumb beasts.” But over time, his relationship with computers turns around, and he proceeds to become obsessed with them, cranking out 3-day coding sessions just like his predecessors. But a key difference lies in Williams’ motivation. Williams wasn’t motivated by bumming code (like Stewart Nelson), but rather purely by money. As mentioned, anything that Ken or Roberta Williams could do for an “extra 200 dollars a week,” they would do. And it did not matter if Ken Williams would blatantly lie about his qualifications, or leave a job several weeks into beginning it, making money was always the primary goal. 


While the Williams couple certainly had their eyes on the pay, I think their relationship is quite admirable. For the first time, we are seeing hackers take an interest in romance. While this quote was referring to John Harris, hearing “he wanted a girlfriend” is a nice change of pace from the true hackers who seemed to turn a blind eye towards anything love-related. So hearing about Ken and Roberta working together to create an Adventure-esque game was very refreshing. 


Although I said that Ken Williams diverged from the Hacker Ethic, I will give him credit for abiding by some of the ethic’s principles. I look towards “the brotherhood” as a perfect example of an open source community. Even though the Broderbund, Sirius, and On-Line companies were technically competitors, they shared almost everything, including their current products - just so they didn’t work on the same things. So when I say that Williams diverged from the Hacker Ethic, he most certainly did with his quest for fortune, but he did not abandon the Ethic entirely. I think it is incredibly unique to see three competing companies share secrets and not exploit them for financial gain. I also find that a tad funny considering Williams’s drive for money, yet he has enough morality not to take advantage of his friends. 


Ultimately, while the game hackers might have been more motivated by greed than previous generations, they still maintained ethical standards, making them my favorite group of hackers.

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