So I have been one in the past to call out LGP on being so quiet but it looks like the cogs may finally be turning again.
Today their new owner Clive released a patch for Cold War to fix some startup issues. Cold War is actually one of their more interesting looking titles that I have wanted to pick up.
Also Clive did state on their facebook:
Although that we heard months ago I hope it comes true I don't like to see anything Linux gaming related fail!
I hope this is the start of them being a bit louder communication wise with the community that supports them. I just hope they don't keep promising they are "still working" on ports like Bandits which has been in porting for years now...
Other websites have pulled them up (Phoronix..) about if they are valid or not anymore because of Steam coming, I say yes of course they are they do Port games to Linux after all, games have to first be ported to be sold remember. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Today their new owner Clive released a patch for Cold War to fix some startup issues. Cold War is actually one of their more interesting looking titles that I have wanted to pick up.
Also Clive did state on their facebook:
Quotewe should hopefully have something more to share with you soon :)
Although that we heard months ago I hope it comes true I don't like to see anything Linux gaming related fail!
I hope this is the start of them being a bit louder communication wise with the community that supports them. I just hope they don't keep promising they are "still working" on ports like Bandits which has been in porting for years now...
Other websites have pulled them up (Phoronix..) about if they are valid or not anymore because of Steam coming, I say yes of course they are they do Port games to Linux after all, games have to first be ported to be sold remember. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I don't think that at 2012 they need to spend time and money on PPC, Sparc and Alpha.
Maybe they should choose easier games to port ?
If they see that the code is a mess and it's problematic, then port a different game.
I'm sure you can get all the technical details before you buy the porting rights.
Also as I've said before, use different porting/licensing approach.
Licensing an old game and trying to live of the sales is suicide.
Instead, try to release the Linux port closer to the release date of the game - and live of the % of Linux sales.
Hib anyone ?
Kickstarter ?
There are lots of opportunities out there, you need to evolve.
It's better that we get 3 Linux games a year from LGP, than zero.
Maybe they should choose easier games to port ?
If they see that the code is a mess and it's problematic, then port a different game.
I'm sure you can get all the technical details before you buy the porting rights.
Also as I've said before, use different porting/licensing approach.
Licensing an old game and trying to live of the sales is suicide.
Instead, try to release the Linux port closer to the release date of the game - and live of the % of Linux sales.
Hib anyone ?
Kickstarter ?
There are lots of opportunities out there, you need to evolve.
It's better that we get 3 Linux games a year from LGP, than zero.
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Quoting: "MaximB, post: 5024, member: 3"I don't think that at 2012 they need to spend time and money on PPC, Sparc and Alpha. It's better that we get 3 Linux games a year from LGP, than zero.
This is truth.
However since 2001 to 2009 they spent time and money on porting games to Linux PPC, Alpha, Sparc and x86-64 instead porting more new games to Linux x86-32.
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Quoting: "Bumadar, post: 5019, member: 93"but so is steam which we are all exited about :)
Not about the DRM I am not. I am still loath to Steamworks and it is the main thing that gives me pause whenever I consider using Steam. This is why I am still very much in the Desura camp myself.
Quoting: "Bumadar, post: 5018, member: 93"agree, but that is something totally different then writing pieces about them still being invalid and create the mood he does where people fanaticly want LGP to go bust. its more then trollish, its like doing his best to make a company look bad or irelevant
Possibly, though LGP is not the only the company Larabel does this to. I will submit that LGP is the one that has tried to do the most for Linux, so it is worse in that respect though.
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Quoting: "gbudny, post: 5025"This is truth.
However since 2001 to 2009 they spent time and money on porting games to Linux PPC, Alpha, Sparc and x86-64 instead porting more new games to Linux x86-32.
Actually x86-64 is good because it's current, many more people use it today than 32-bit.
I use 64-bit and anyone with 4+ GB of RAM (unless they use PAE Kernel ;)).
Any PC today is 64-bit.
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Quoting: "gbudny, post: 5010"Ridiculous DRM? This is a joke?
"Some features includes:
LGP copy protection does not require internet connection to install or play the game.
OK. I feel obligated to call you on this one. I was vocal about LGP's DRM when they announced it. After a while I bought one of their games with the DRM during a sale to see what it was like. For a while it seem ok as much as I wanted to dislike it. The annoying dialog every time I'd start the game, reminding me it was calling home, irked me every time I saw it. But I went ahead and bought a second game, X3 with the DRM.
Last May I was still playing the game. May 23 I tried to start the game and it hung. To try and debug it I fired up strace and discovered the game was stuck in a select() system call on a socket connected to 87.117.204.64. Whois said that address belonged to LGP. X3 is not a network game and this error was happening before the the DRM/call-home dialog. Since I couldn't spend the even playing X3, I used the time to write a nastygram to LGP. I'm using that email for reference now.
At the time of the failure I was also unable to reach the LGP website. That day I could not play a single player game I paid for because of a network problem. I think it also demonstrates that if LGP were to go down, I may not be allowed to play the games I've purchased. I believe that adding DRM was a poor choice on LGP's part and as much as I appreciate what they have done for Linux gaming over the years, I believe they deserve a black eye for that one.
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But I thought that it doesn't require and internet connection....I'm sure I've read it somewhere...
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I thought the whole point was you needed to be online to activate but after that you didn't need to do much? I thought it was only the initial activation it required the net for?
They really should remove their DRM completely though it doesn't do such a small company any favours.
They really should remove their DRM completely though it doesn't do such a small company any favours.
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Quoting: "MaximB, post: 5037, member: 3"But I thought that it doesn't require and internet connection....I'm sure I've read it somewhere...
You probably have read it. I know I have. After the initial uproar LGP started to say the the network was not needed. From http://blog.linuxgamepublishing.com/2009/02/27/answering-the-lgp-drm-questions
QuoteIt is thanks to the discussions we had with the community that we took out the requirement to be online when yiou register, and the requirement to be online when you start the game.
When it originally came out they had said (http://www.linuxgamepublishing.com/press_releases/200806241.txt
QuoteOnce the key has been verified on the LGP servers, and the password registered
then you are good to go, you never need to worry about the system again. It
will call to the LGP servers each time the game starts, to verify its
details.
They also said
QuoteContingencies are made so that if no internet connection is available, the
game will never lock out legitimate customers.
I know first hand, those contingencies can fail. I believe the hang I saw was probably just a bug that resulted from some unexpected network condition. But I'm still very unforgiving in this case. This bug was in DRM code that serves no purpose other than to second guess if I deserve to run the software I've paid for. I will only really notice when it fails. OK, I sometimes notice the start up dialog and I'm insulted by it, but that could be removed and then DRM becomes at best a slow noop with bad failure conditions.
So any how, it will be nice if LGP can get going again. But the market has gotten bigger. If they keep their DRM in future products, I know it can fail and I have other choices now.
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Quoting: "Eddward, post: 5044, member: 78"So any how, it will be nice if LGP can get going again. But the market has gotten bigger. If they keep their DRM in future products, I know it can fail and I have other choices now.
Essentially my thoughts on it - they are going to have to become more competitive and until they are I can not really support them. Remove the DRM and release a competitive product.
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