Aspyr Media is currently working on the feasibility of porting Civ VI to Linux. They are the same great company that gave us the Linux port for Civ V.
Note: This is also discussed in this Steam group.
The Steam topic in question is about Linux support, wherein we, the Linux community have been expressing interest and support of the possibly upcoming Linux release by Aspyr. We've also been talking about technical challenges, APIs, as well as things we'd like to see in a port.
Aside from the trolling from the usual people like meraco, it's been positive and encouraging.
The moderators are NOT employees of Aspyr, Firaxis or 2K Games. They are "volunteer" moderators who don't seem to have any responsibility to any of the involved companies. The moderators do not seem to have any direct connection or communication with Aspyr/Firaxis/2K Games, they get all their updates from Twitter and other social media just like the rest of us.
Thread:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/289070/discussions/0/364042063110545181/?ctp=6
NOTE: This thread has been heavily edited. Many of the supporting posts have been removed. I preserved a couple screenshots of my post just in case, but I wish I had the whole thing. Maybe some of the other community members can fill in some of the gaps here.
What's happening:
The mods are attacking the Linux community, citing rules violations for expressing support of a Linux port.
We begin, not suprisingly, with the user, meraco. Which you've likely heard of before. This time the mods jump on his bandwagon.
Banned.
This ban really bothers me.
This is what unacceptable developer/publisher support looks like.
A professional troll at work
Several users, myself included, have been banned. Many posts by many more users have been selectively erased to dismantle the consensus of support. None of the [notably anti-Linux] trolls have been banned, however.
The post that got me banned.
My ban notification.
Annnnnd throwing it down the memory hole.
From the 2K Games forum rules:
Should people be arguing with mods in general? No. Probably not.
Should mods visibly undermine Linux discussions? No. Probably not.
Should people be banned for respectfully staying on-topic? Again, No. Definitely not.
Moderation is a responsibility, not a position of power to arbitrarily abuse others for political reasons. If we cannot respectfully discuss these abuses in order to reinstate a positive atmosphere, we are only going to continue to be abused.
We've reached out to Aspyr on this issue. This was their reply:
Thanks again to Aspyr for being Linux champions.
As of writing this we've yet to receive a response from Firaxis or 2K Games.
Notes from liamdawe, the editor
Showing support for Linux games is great, but people like "meraco" should be completely ignored. Do not rise to their apparent trolling by quoting them or replying to them. They and other anti-Linux posters feed on your replies. Just don't rise to them, you make it worse by doing so. The moderators likely would have ignored it if people didn't rise to the trolls.
As for posting "+1", that alone is spam (by Steam's standards) so be sure to reply with more than that.
It's also never a good idea to discuss a moderators actions in public on Steam, as that will obviously have repercussions. Same goes for claiming it's some sort of dictatorship. That goes for any website, not just Steam.
As always, if you want to show support for a Linux port be smart about it. Feel free to use our forum at any time and link developers to it. I won't go around locking them. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Note: This is also discussed in this Steam group.
The Steam topic in question is about Linux support, wherein we, the Linux community have been expressing interest and support of the possibly upcoming Linux release by Aspyr. We've also been talking about technical challenges, APIs, as well as things we'd like to see in a port.
Aside from the trolling from the usual people like meraco, it's been positive and encouraging.
The moderators are NOT employees of Aspyr, Firaxis or 2K Games. They are "volunteer" moderators who don't seem to have any responsibility to any of the involved companies. The moderators do not seem to have any direct connection or communication with Aspyr/Firaxis/2K Games, they get all their updates from Twitter and other social media just like the rest of us.
Thread:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/289070/discussions/0/364042063110545181/?ctp=6
NOTE: This thread has been heavily edited. Many of the supporting posts have been removed. I preserved a couple screenshots of my post just in case, but I wish I had the whole thing. Maybe some of the other community members can fill in some of the gaps here.
What's happening:
The mods are attacking the Linux community, citing rules violations for expressing support of a Linux port.
We begin, not suprisingly, with the user, meraco. Which you've likely heard of before. This time the mods jump on his bandwagon.
Banned.
This ban really bothers me.
This is what unacceptable developer/publisher support looks like.
A professional troll at work
Several users, myself included, have been banned. Many posts by many more users have been selectively erased to dismantle the consensus of support. None of the [notably anti-Linux] trolls have been banned, however.
The post that got me banned.
My ban notification.
Annnnnd throwing it down the memory hole.
From the 2K Games forum rules:
Quote1. Be a Contributor
The 2K forums host civil discussions on a variety of topics, and we always want to keep the conversation welcoming, inclusive, and a positive experience.
Should people be arguing with mods in general? No. Probably not.
Should mods visibly undermine Linux discussions? No. Probably not.
Should people be banned for respectfully staying on-topic? Again, No. Definitely not.
Moderation is a responsibility, not a position of power to arbitrarily abuse others for political reasons. If we cannot respectfully discuss these abuses in order to reinstate a positive atmosphere, we are only going to continue to be abused.
We've reached out to Aspyr on this issue. This was their reply:
QuoteThank you so much for bringing this to our attention. The last thing we want is for players to feel ostracized. I have forwarded this email to those who monitor our forums and we will be discussing what to do shortly.
Again, thank you so much for your concern for this community. We really do appreciate it!
Thanks again to Aspyr for being Linux champions.
As of writing this we've yet to receive a response from Firaxis or 2K Games.
Notes from liamdawe, the editor
Showing support for Linux games is great, but people like "meraco" should be completely ignored. Do not rise to their apparent trolling by quoting them or replying to them. They and other anti-Linux posters feed on your replies. Just don't rise to them, you make it worse by doing so. The moderators likely would have ignored it if people didn't rise to the trolls.
As for posting "+1", that alone is spam (by Steam's standards) so be sure to reply with more than that.
It's also never a good idea to discuss a moderators actions in public on Steam, as that will obviously have repercussions. Same goes for claiming it's some sort of dictatorship. That goes for any website, not just Steam.
As always, if you want to show support for a Linux port be smart about it. Feel free to use our forum at any time and link developers to it. I won't go around locking them. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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"Don't feed the trolls" has NEVER worked, even back on USENET.
It's even less effective when what the "trolls" want is your silence.
What I did sometimes is talking about the trolls instead. They neither get real contact nor silence this way.
Kind of like the ancient parental advice to just ignore the bullies. Really, really doesn't help.
Not all problems have solutions at all. In an unmoderated space, there really is little or nothing you can do about trolls--about the only thing is, if you have superior numbers, just swamp them, get a group of people to agree that every time the troll makes a post, immediately post a bunch of other stuff that isn't a reply so they are almost instantly a page ago and thus irrelevant. Apparently this is actually a tactic used by propagandists--from intelligence services and such--to marginalize opposing political viewpoints in internet spaces they are trying to influence.
In a moderated space, you can potentially kill them with kindness. If you are skilled and restrained you could perhaps repeatedly answer them with sufficient sweetness and calm as to frustrate them into trying harder to get a rise, and lure them into getting themselves banned when their attempts to make you mad cross the line. But it's a delicate procedure and won't work on someone experienced.
No feathers of mine were ruffled but I always keep in mind that people such as meraco, don't need to have a vulgar and offensive language to cause harm/discomfort. (going to somewhat extremes) A politician for example doesn't need guns and grenades to cause problems, yet they still are able to create large problems.
Linux gamers may appear toxic, many times with good reason and here's a few examples I can think of:
- Linux ports that never came
- (Concerning GOG users), many games lack the Linux version on GOG where it is otherwise available on Steam. Hell if I had to comment on this point alone, it would make me look dangerously toxic.
- We may appear so because we're the black sheep of the herd. Win/Consoles have it all, Mac is supported despite most of their hardware is shit and limited unless you're ready to donate an organ. Then at the bottom of the list there's Linux, an OS that is capable of running almost (if not) any hardware setup Windows can, Linux gamers are more likely to have a stronger system than most Macs and equal to Windows. (Have to bear in mind that Mac buyers aren't exactly gamers so whatever game they get is just a bonus).
Can only say this to who frequents the Steam forums about Linux support - don't feed the trolls, remain polite to the devs and most importantly vote with your wallet.
Last edited by Avehicle7887 on 21 December 2016 at 12:06 am UTC
And if you start saying it's not the company etc. I don't care, they should think before doing stupid stuff like this.
There is a certain amount of emotional investment for some people in their choice of operating system and when they see others using something else they take it as a slight on the way they do things, or a choice they made. It's very silly, and most people don't realise they are doing it. For the same reason iPhone and Android users will have holy wars about their choice of phone OS too.
This is a lot of the reason that when a user attempts to use Linux and its not precisely the same as Windows they get annoyed with it and say Linux is terrible. I don't convert people to Linux, but if people do opt to try it I tell them "If you expect Linux to be 1:1 like Windows, you're gonna have a bad time".
Indeed, I wasn't recommending such a tactic against this particular person. The flooding approach might help--if his posts are quickly buried by a bunch of posts that ignore him, it makes it less likely that other people will feel like answering him and getting the toxic discussion going. It'd take a certain amount of teamwork though, a critical mass of people all agreeing that when they saw a post by this person, they would quickly post something to the thread that bypassed his contribution--replying to someone else, or something.
They are now anti-linux (the only platform I use) so why should I continue to support someone who dislikes me and my platform?
Sorry guys, but they just lost a guaranteed sale.