I, amongst others like Icculus and Aspyr, had the pleasure of speaking to Kyle Orland from Ars about the past, present and future of Linux gaming. See the full article on Ars here for referencing. I would suggest people read it, as it is an interesting look at the state of things.
As usual from a “bigger site” it has plenty of absolutely golden comments to take a look at. We are lucky here at GOL, in the way that myself and the other editors are as active as we are in the comments, so we try to keep things under control and sane, but I decided to risk my sanity to check out the comments on the Ars article.
If you go reading the comments yourself, I suggest having a friend handy to pull you out with a rope to avoid getting too sucked in.
Here are some choice comments, and some further thoughts of mine:
It’s nice to see people not properly read the article, and as I stated to Kyle I am quoted on saying that Steam Machines would not be an overnight success.
You may remember I also wrote an editorial recently about how Linux Gaming will be fine without Steam Machines, so no, I’m not saying it will be a resounding success, as I don’t know if it will be a success or not, but I am hopeful, there’s a difference.
Valve Time is always an issue, and yes, it has slowed things down a bit as we have already seen developers delay Linux ports due to this. As for games, even Windows doesn't have Destiny, so that example was rather pointless, not to mention Destiny is a shallow husk of what it should have been. As for Shadow of Mordor, well who knows, there has been a hint thanks to SteamDB, as we noted recently.
I used to agree about the porting, and was quite vocal about my annoyance on outsourced ports. I've stated a number of times having outsourced porting does often leave us in the dust, but Aspyr and Feral have started to prove that wrong with their fantastic efforts.
The last point is one I touch on often too. We need games to get a higher share of the market, but a lot of developers don’t enter a market until it reaches a higher point, and this is why I am so thankful we do have companies like Valve, Aspyr, Feral and one man porting machines like Ryan 'Icculus' Gordon.
This also directly goes into my points about Steam Machines not being an overnight success, but it should help our numbers grow a lot quicker than before.
Android came out of nowhere and quickly took a massive chunk of the mobile market, so it's certainly not impossible to break what people are comfortable with.
I will end this funny little look on a high note, this was a “reader favourite” and an “editors pick”:
I’m not exactly sure what % of my Steam library is on Linux, but almost all of my favourite games are now on Linux. I’ve been able to sink tons of hours into games like XCOM (see my full review of XCOM here) and Borderlands 2.
There are tons of other interesting, constructive, and argumentative comments about it never taking off, and let’s not forget the comments about us not understanding “gamers”, and just lots of silliness.
No matter what happens, I think we are all going to be pleasantly surprised next week when the GDC news comes flowing in. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
As usual from a “bigger site” it has plenty of absolutely golden comments to take a look at. We are lucky here at GOL, in the way that myself and the other editors are as active as we are in the comments, so we try to keep things under control and sane, but I decided to risk my sanity to check out the comments on the Ars article.
If you go reading the comments yourself, I suggest having a friend handy to pull you out with a rope to avoid getting too sucked in.
Here are some choice comments, and some further thoughts of mine:
BasPSo both the guy who ports games to Linux for a living and the guy who has a Linux gaming website think Steam games on Linux will be a success, eh? Unexpected!
It’s nice to see people not properly read the article, and as I stated to Kyle I am quoted on saying that Steam Machines would not be an overnight success.
You may remember I also wrote an editorial recently about how Linux Gaming will be fine without Steam Machines, so no, I’m not saying it will be a resounding success, as I don’t know if it will be a success or not, but I am hopeful, there’s a difference.
Operative MeThe Steam Machines were supposed to launch in October. Where's the glut of new games being released for Linux on the same date? Destiny? Shadows of Mordor?
Again, if you're a Linux fan, I'm happy you're getting more games. Be thrilled about that. But the idea that the Steam Machines were anything but an overreaction and a useless gesture just isn't borne out by reality. And the future of SteamOS and gaming on Linux just isn't set in stone. I'm sure there will continue to be some support for it. As it gets cheaper to port games, more games will be ported. But they're going to be late, and done by a third party who doesn't really care.
Linux, to get the support people seem to think they're going to get, would need to have more users than Macs. Do you realistically see Linux surpassing 10% marketshare?
Valve Time is always an issue, and yes, it has slowed things down a bit as we have already seen developers delay Linux ports due to this. As for games, even Windows doesn't have Destiny, so that example was rather pointless, not to mention Destiny is a shallow husk of what it should have been. As for Shadow of Mordor, well who knows, there has been a hint thanks to SteamDB, as we noted recently.
I used to agree about the porting, and was quite vocal about my annoyance on outsourced ports. I've stated a number of times having outsourced porting does often leave us in the dust, but Aspyr and Feral have started to prove that wrong with their fantastic efforts.
The last point is one I touch on often too. We need games to get a higher share of the market, but a lot of developers don’t enter a market until it reaches a higher point, and this is why I am so thankful we do have companies like Valve, Aspyr, Feral and one man porting machines like Ryan 'Icculus' Gordon.
This also directly goes into my points about Steam Machines not being an overnight success, but it should help our numbers grow a lot quicker than before.
Android came out of nowhere and quickly took a massive chunk of the mobile market, so it's certainly not impossible to break what people are comfortable with.
I will end this funny little look on a high note, this was a “reader favourite” and an “editors pick”:
andrewd18Almost 50% of my Steam library is natively available for Linux. No matter where SteamOS and the Linux gaming market goes from here, I already count that as a win.
I’m not exactly sure what % of my Steam library is on Linux, but almost all of my favourite games are now on Linux. I’ve been able to sink tons of hours into games like XCOM (see my full review of XCOM here) and Borderlands 2.
There are tons of other interesting, constructive, and argumentative comments about it never taking off, and let’s not forget the comments about us not understanding “gamers”, and just lots of silliness.
No matter what happens, I think we are all going to be pleasantly surprised next week when the GDC news comes flowing in. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: maodzedunObviously it always boils down to personal preference, but I cannot imagine how gaming can be your hobby and you'd lock yourself out of 90% of the great titles that come out for the PC. Hopefully in the coming years more of you guys will get a taste of that AAA goodness that us dual booters get to experience.
PS I know I always seem to bash on Linux in my comments but it's actually tough love and this place sure needs a devil's advocate ;)
What has gaming being someone's hobby got to do with AAA games? By that thought pattern, why doesn't every "gamer" own all consoles? I mean you can't seriously tell someone how to do their hobby ;), it's a hobby, it's what people like to do, and not what they should do by other people's thoughts.
Most AAA games coming out are terrible.
Personally, I have a PS3 and PS4 and every time I pick up one of these AAA games I am shocked at just how many bugs they have, and most of them are re-hashes of a previous game. Yes, there are also a few really good AAA games, but really not as much as people think.
I considering web programming my hobby, but I don't go out and learn every possible web language around. It's about what you like to do, and a lot of us love the games we have already.
Oh we have plenty of negative nancy's here as well, you're not the only one.
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I created steam account in 2013, I only use linux and I only buy linux games. I do have "non linux" games on steam only from humble bundles and many of these do support linux drm-free. So my ratio so far is: 166/194.
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FutureSuture Mar 1, 2015
Quoting: IvancilloThe last place (but not unmeritorious for that) is for GOG.com, which was very reticent to give Linux support.Can you elaborate on the latter part?
I think that the exit of The Enigmatic T took part in that change.
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Quoting: FutureSutureQuoting: IvancilloThe last place (but not unmeritorious for that) is for GOG.com, which was very reticent to give Linux support.Can you elaborate on the latter part?
I think that the exit of The Enigmatic T took part in that change.
I want this to be clear; I can't elaborate a real version because I haven't been in GoG's offices nor in Poland in my life.
I do neither met TeT nor anyone from GoG.
I'm a guy that only knows what could learn reading on the net. And there's nothing about this stuff on the net.
No, what I said it's just my personal theory.
If you remember, it was just after TeT exited GoG.com when they announce they were working on giving Linux support. I think it's not a mere coincidence.
And do you remember the article on this site where TeT entered to answer our questions?
It seemd to me that he personally dislike Linux.
Don't know exactly why. It's not an exact thing. His answers didn't convince us.
Again, my personal theory.
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Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: maodzedunObviously it always boils down to personal preference, but I cannot imagine how gaming can be your hobby and you'd lock yourself out of 90% of the great titles that come out for the PC. Hopefully in the coming years more of you guys will get a taste of that AAA goodness that us dual booters get to experience.
PS I know I always seem to bash on Linux in my comments but it's actually tough love and this place sure needs a devil's advocate ;)
What has gaming being someone's hobby got to do with AAA games? By that thought pattern, why doesn't every "gamer" own all consoles? I mean you can't seriously tell someone how to do their hobby ;), it's a hobby, it's what people like to do, and not what they should do by other people's thoughts.
Most AAA games coming out are terrible.
Personally, I have a PS3 and PS4 and every time I pick up one of these AAA games I am shocked at just how many bugs they have, and most of them are re-hashes of a previous game. Yes, there are also a few really good AAA games, but really not as much as people think.
I considering web programming my hobby, but I don't go out and learn every possible web language around. It's about what you like to do, and a lot of us love the games we have already.
Oh we have plenty of negative nancy's here as well, you're not the only one.
Like I said - personal preference. As somebody who would play almost anything short of a Barbie game (then again, I've never tried one :)) I just can't understand it. Plus, if using Linux is about expanding your horizons, why shouldn't the reverse logic apply. I've little to gain from using Linux - the software I use for work and the games I play are all on Windows. Yet for 6 years now, I've persisted in having a Linux partition, tried different distros and desktop environments and try to pop in regularly and just do stuff in Linux because I feel it is right thing to do. I see nothing wrong for a primarily Linux user to pop in Windows from time to time (for gaming for example).
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Any non-Linux centred gaming (or otherwise) site will be indifferent at best and hostile at worst towards anything Linux related.
I guess people hate change and prefer to remain where they feel comfortable. It's hard to fault them for it, really.
I guess people hate change and prefer to remain where they feel comfortable. It's hard to fault them for it, really.
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Quoting: maodzedunQuoting: liamdaweQuoting: maodzedunObviously it always boils down to personal preference, but I cannot imagine how gaming can be your hobby and you'd lock yourself out of 90% of the great titles that come out for the PC. Hopefully in the coming years more of you guys will get a taste of that AAA goodness that us dual booters get to experience.
PS I know I always seem to bash on Linux in my comments but it's actually tough love and this place sure needs a devil's advocate ;)
What has gaming being someone's hobby got to do with AAA games? By that thought pattern, why doesn't every "gamer" own all consoles? I mean you can't seriously tell someone how to do their hobby ;), it's a hobby, it's what people like to do, and not what they should do by other people's thoughts.
Most AAA games coming out are terrible.
Personally, I have a PS3 and PS4 and every time I pick up one of these AAA games I am shocked at just how many bugs they have, and most of them are re-hashes of a previous game. Yes, there are also a few really good AAA games, but really not as much as people think.
I considering web programming my hobby, but I don't go out and learn every possible web language around. It's about what you like to do, and a lot of us love the games we have already.
Oh we have plenty of negative nancy's here as well, you're not the only one.
Like I said - personal preference. As somebody who would play almost anything short of a Barbie game (then again, I've never tried one :)) I just can't understand it. Plus, if using Linux is about expanding your horizons, why shouldn't the reverse logic apply. I've little to gain from using Linux - the software I use for work and the games I play are all on Windows. Yet for 6 years now, I've persisted in having a Linux partition, tried different distros and desktop environments and try to pop in regularly and just do stuff in Linux because I feel it is right thing to do. I see nothing wrong for a primarily Linux user to pop in Windows from time to time (for gaming for example).
You seem to be missing one massive point, and that's many of us don't like Windows. I can't stand it, every time I am forced to use it to fix a family or friends computer every action seems to take forever, it's such a slow bloated mess and....i'm not going into everything here, but you get my drift.
I don't quite get why it's hard to understand that people don't want to give up their OS freedom to play some different games.
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oldrocker99 Mar 2, 2015
I had dual-booted for about 3 years, enough to acquire 436 Steam games 
, of which 319 (73%!) are native Linux games 
. I found Windows, after using Linux, to be incredibly annoying to use. The "Windows cannot update files while they are in use" statement really burned my @$$, and a frozen mouse pointer (which worked fine in Safe Mode, and then was frozen again after a reboot :><: kept me from booting into it. Yes, I know I could have reinstalled Windows, which I would have had to do, as the repair function did not work for me. And I did not want to. Linux just works. Windows 7 just did not.
Once X-COM came out and appeared in my Steam library, I said "To heck with Windows" and deleted the partition and am NOT looking back, ever. Since then, another Windows game I had bought, Empire:Total War, came out for Linux. I'd like to see some others (the Deus Ex series, Magicka, Bioshock I, Warhammer among them), but I have more than enough native Linux games available to keep this old gamer happy.
Yes, some Linux games run more slowly than some Windows games, but I was certainly used to that from running games on wine, so I consider that a wash. They all run 30+ fps, which consider, well, acceptable.
In other words, LINUX GAMING FTW!
, of which 319 (73%!) are native Linux games . I found Windows, after using Linux, to be incredibly annoying to use. The "Windows cannot update files while they are in use" statement really burned my @$$, and a frozen mouse pointer (which worked fine in Safe Mode, and then was frozen again after a reboot :><: kept me from booting into it. Yes, I know I could have reinstalled Windows, which I would have had to do, as the repair function did not work for me. And I did not want to. Linux just works. Windows 7 just did not.Once X-COM came out and appeared in my Steam library, I said "To heck with Windows" and deleted the partition and am NOT looking back, ever. Since then, another Windows game I had bought, Empire:Total War, came out for Linux. I'd like to see some others (the Deus Ex series, Magicka, Bioshock I, Warhammer among them), but I have more than enough native Linux games available to keep this old gamer happy.
Yes, some Linux games run more slowly than some Windows games, but I was certainly used to that from running games on wine, so I consider that a wash. They all run 30+ fps, which consider, well, acceptable.
In other words, LINUX GAMING FTW!
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