Everyone can remember the Witcher 2 launch :( this will be our doom. And its really sad

I think those people should probably read this. Best thing to do, is politely educate them that giving a developer grief is a damn good way to get them to say "fuck it" and not bother.

I feel like Witcher 2 came at a very particular time for Linux gaming. It felt like we were becoming a 'legit' platform and many started getting the sense that we should be supported like any other customer. IIRC the initial VP port only supported nVidia cards, and even then had really poor performance until a few patches later. This was a huge game for Linux, so I can understand the frustration at such a piss-poor release; though harassment is never justified, of course.

As for Witcher 3, you've got Valve and CDPR, both pretty opaque with their communication. We may never get a proper answer to that whole debacle, and honestly if their not bothered to say anything I'm not bothered about them. What's the point?

I found the thread you mentioned. The dev said
"I'm sorry guys, we might add support for Linux at some point, but not at the release.
The reason is that we simply cannot afford to spend our limited time fixing bugs pertaining to the Linux version. Also we don't own a Linux PC so it is difficult for us to support it. "

Everyone seemed to understand the 'limited time' bit, what they were annoyed with was the last sentence, because obviously you can install Linux onto any PC. So while harassment is a current issue, I don't see that as the case here.

As for entitlement, that word strikes a nerve with me as an American, since our society seems to hate the very concept. But entitlements are a part of our society (e.g. right to refund). When it comes to a game I purchased I do feel entitled, entitled to the same support customers on other platforms get; you don't get a discount for using Linux after all. Right now I feel like this is an issue, as many devs treat us as second class citizens; I'm sure we all have 'supported' games in our library that fail to launch or have major bugs going unfixed.

This isn't to say we shouldn't be polite ambassadors and all. My point (I think) is that we also shouldn't give a game a gold star for just being on Linux. If you don't have the resources/desire to put your game on Linux that's fine, but if you're going to do it, do it proper; I should feel like a customer and not a surprise beta tester. I think the prevalence of that may account for some of the hostility. Again, not justifying anyone's actions, but we also can't control other people.

Man that got wordy, hopefully something of value's in there :B

Edit: Oh, and to end on a positive note, I do think the situation has gotten better. Looking back at 2012 when I installed Ubuntu for the first time to now, it's amazing how quickly things have progressed. What's more, we've gotten to a point where popular distros can usually install current graphics drivers with ease!

While this doesn't apply to everyone, I sometimes get the feeling that this kind of attitude ties into the nature of many Linux power users. Highly proficient users with extensive knowledge and experience of the platform are often prone to elitism or talking down to others who don't know what they know or make mistakes they might not have made. They'll make disparaging comments about what a dev has done or has been doing wrong according to them, what they would have done better, and how obvious it is, without much consideration for said dev's particular circumstances (time, money, specialist skills and experience in every topic necessary to port a game to Linux and foresee the requirements and challenges thereof...). Some people seem to think that if someone can't do everything perfectly on the first try, they just shouldn't bother at all, and that developers who aren't already Linux experts shouldn't ever consider releasing on this OS.

Fortunately I also frequently see the opposite. Experienced people who position themselves as mentors and meet issues with constructive information and suggestions, if not outright patching things themselves. It's not unusual to see forum threads where other players post solutions or workarounds to game bugs before the devs can figure out the root cause or even see the thread. You might think it's not your job to explain ALSA's quirks and why their BGM is distorted as hell on certain distros, but once you've done it they'll carry that knowledge into their future work and everyone will be better for it.

Assholes will be assholes, ultimately, and I think the best we can do to show developers that the Linux market isn't all rotten is to add to the positivity while decrying the negativity.

Quoting: PatolaI've talked about this issue in other threads. I think the article on how to be a good advocate for a niche platform to be quite spot-on, but there is one quirk: we can't help but feel like second-class citizens when the developer gives low priority for our port. Worse yet, this very fact results in lower sales for the very platform they are already deprioritizing. So when a sequel to a game has been announced but there is no forecast for a Linux port, instead there is some PR bullshit, and we invested our money on that developer already (in previous games or in the current one), that is the spark that ignites the whole flamefest. You can't really condemn the Linux user who gets mad at the developer for a weak response - specially in light of all the talk about piracy. Users and developers should be supporting each other, not antagonizing.

So, yeah, Linux users need to behave on the forums, no doubt. But considering that they are frustrated, developers and publishers should also handle that situation better. A lot better. They are dealing with human beings. Promising something they can't realize, or worse yet, giving vague hope in the form of a fancy PR statement that basically says "maybe we can make a port in the future, sit and wait" is not even ethical considering the situation.

I think you're oversimplifying it quite a bit there though.

Naturally, when sequels are announced the contracts and so on to port them likely haven't been sign or anything, possibly under active discussion. These are the types of things porters can't usually talk about.

Too many people are quick to jump down a developers throat. It's fine to be frustrated, but there's so many times it just can't be helped from the developers side. There's nothing unethical about not being able or not knowing details about a Linux version coming out yet, really strange way to put it.

I agree with Liam there. In addition, throwing a tantrum because a game isn't ported/released as early as you want, has bugs or a dev decides it's not feasible at all for a particular title does nothing to motivate them to cater to your market in the future. I don't know that you can't blame people for losing their nerves; I'm pretty confident it doesn't achieve anything productive for themselves or others.

Generalization much -- "Linxu Gamers" ? There are idiots / kids in every group, OS has nothing to do with it LUL. Safer to assume it's a kid being a twit at the end of the day especially with games.

(not directed @OP personally)

I obviously play games on linux too, and I'm not like that at all.