Thursday, February 14, 2019

Introducing the Meson Quest

Most FOSS projects have a bug tracker, code repository and an IRC channel. Many even have a developer meeting, conference or awards given out to most prolific contributors. But do you know what no FOSS project has that they really should?

A Dragon Ball/NES/SNES style RPG quest.

To fill this void in the FOSS experience we have taken it upon ourselves to create one. The first thing any quest needs is artifacts worth fighting over. Going with the style of Dragon Ball we have created six power glasses infused with the power of software building. This is what they look like.


These items were hand-crafted in a blazing Finnish furnace in the dead of winter. Once cast and cooled the Meson logo and the developer team's secret motto were debossed on the side by artisanal free range engraving elves of Espoo.

To make the quest more challenging, we have scattered all the power glasses to the extreme ends of the world. Each is being held by a mini boss who must be defeated in order to obtain the corresponding power. In no particular order they are:

  • Igor Gnatenko, Czech republic, holding the power of the First Community Member
  • Nirbheek Chauhan, India, holding the power of the Co-Maintainer
  • Dylan Baker, USA, holding the power of 3D Graphics
  • Alexis Jeandet, France, holding the power of CI
  • Aleksey Filippov, Ireland, holding the power of Dependency Packaging
They have all stood as guardians of their respective power for an extended amount of time and for that they deserve vast heaps of praise and gratitude from all of us.

The sixth and last power glass is held under strict supervision in my Finnish volcano lair headquarters [1] and can only be unlocked when holding all the other five power glasses.

It is currently unclear whether this system behaves in the Mega Man style where you can use the powers of one boss against another or in the flat style where you get a fixed amount of XP and the battle order does not matter.

The only thing remaining is the final question, namely what will happen once all six power glasses have been reunited? We have not actually thought that far ahead yet. Considering that all of this is stolen from Dragon Ball, probably something fairly anticlimactic.

Post scriptum

Please don't actually go out and fight these people and steal their glassware. It would be very inconvenient for everyone involved. 

[1] Not guaranteed to contain an actual volcano, or even a replica of same.

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