Quoting: ixnari

QuoteNext up, they’ve decided you need another launcher with the Humble app, which will only be supported on Windows

Hm, yes, I see. Windows only again. The GOG approach, as it were. Because if we learned anything, it's that the best way to attract new customers is to piss off your existing ones.

I personally don't mind at all that GOG Galaxy is not available on GNU/Linux, and I'm not sure I want it anyway. I use Lutris for GOG games. They make their games available DRM-free with an offline installer, and it's not tied to the Galaxy client in any way.

From the sounds of it, the only way to get games from the Humble Games Collection is through the launcher, and no statement has been made on whether they will be DRM-Free. Humble Trove is being renamed to Humble Vault and they will apparently continue to be DRM-Free, but it's unclear if they'll only be accessible to download from the launcher from February 1st. I am considerably less okay with this if my speculation is on the mark.

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I've been on the classic subscription pricing until now, but it sounds like I should cancel and resubscribe so that I don't end up paying a 20% tax because of currency conversion.

QuoteIf you pause (now called Skip) or cancel, you lose access to the Humble Games Collection and the Vault.

This sounds like the Humble Games Collection is going to be encumbered with some form of DRM, especially because they're only accessible via the launcher. How disappointing.

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Speaking as someone who has experience with a Dell XPS 13 from a few years ago...the size of the screen is just wrong enough that everything needs to be zoomed out 10%, and the keys on the keyboard are far too shallow. Not a fan.

I do have a few old Dell laptops from a decade ago that I like, though; the keyboards are much better.

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Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: pleasereadthemanual

Quoting: rustybroomhandleWhy? This makes no sense. If that is the expectation they are setting for your users then yes, but if they are telling people that "these 80% verified green tick games work" then you should not expect to run the other 20% and then complain about it.

Well, if you go to the website, they don't say anything about some of your games not working. They set up expectations to the contrary like:

Steam, without compromises

Your Steam library is already on your Deck.

Once you've logged into Steam Deck, your entire Steam Library shows up, just like any other PC. You'll be able to find your collections and favorites - exactly where you left them.

And I still think it's really bad to market it like that, but the other side is...it's marketing, of course they're going to say that. The reality, as we all know, is different. Unless, they are hiding a number of Proton updates and have more anti-cheat stuff lined up.

I don't begrudge them for it, I was simply challenging the argument that all customers know what they're getting into. We know the reality is different, but I have to wonder how many others don't.

On the other hand, of course, you are right. They have to come out strong with a product like this, not start putting doubts into customers' minds. I'm personally partial to CodeWeavers' marketing for CrossOver, but that's a $60 software product that you can trial. Not a $399 hunk of metal you have to ship back.

I've heard some strange rumors about Valve holding onto an "internal" version of Proton that is supposedly much different to what regular users have access to, but I've dismissed it as people misunderstanding something about ProtonDB.

Time will tell, I suppose.

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Quoting: rustybroomhandleWhy? This makes no sense. If that is the expectation they are setting for your users then yes, but if they are telling people that "these 80% verified green tick games work" then you should not expect to run the other 20% and then complain about it.

Well, if you go to the website, they don't say anything about some of your games not working. They set up expectations to the contrary like:

Steam, without compromises

Your Steam library is already on your Deck.

Once you've logged into Steam Deck, your entire Steam Library shows up, just like any other PC. You'll be able to find your collections and favorites - exactly where you left them.

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QuoteThen there is the thorny issue of games not on Steam which, again, millions are going to want to play. Gamers are going to be able to expect to download EA Origin, Uplay, Epic (most will not know about Heroic) and expect to be able to install it. Again it won't be Steam or the developers of those stores who get the blame.

Why would customers expect to be able to play non-Steam games on the Steam Deck? I don't buy an Xbox console expecting to play PlayStation games, or a Switch expecting to play Xbox games.

You can argue that Valve is setting up this expectation by talking about how open it is, and how the customer actually owns the product, but this isn't a normal expectation at all.

In fact, I wonder how these users would even stumble out of the Steam client mode and onto the "regular desktop" and then onto epicgames.com. It's not obvious to me, from the few videos I've seen on it.

QuoteIt will be an unpopular opinion but Valve would have been better off shipping Windows on the Steam Deck out of the box and just not locking down the bootloader for anyone who wants to install linux.

That entirely depends on what Valve wants out of the Steam Deck. Most companies end up losing a lot of money on consoles anyway and make it back on the games and services.

Keep in mind that not all of these games would be playable on a Windows version of the Steam Deck, either. I can't imagine playing MapleStory or something like it on the Steam Deck; that would be painful. I think Valve really wants a platform—their own platform. Just like Microsoft wanted a Direct XBox, and Sony based their PlayStations on FreeBSD.

Ultimately, of course, the customer will decide if they want to be on that platform. Guess we'll find out next month.

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Halo Infinite depends on DirectX 12 API calls that Vulkan does not have an equivalent for (yet), so there's nothing Valve can do with VKD3D unless they start funding Vulkan development, which is unfortunate. I'm sure it's not the only new game on this list like that. On the other hand, from what I've played of the multiplayer and heard of the campaign...I'm not sure I even want to play it. I do want Halo: MCC to use a version of EAC that supports Proton, though.

Quoting: rustybroomhandle76%? Not good enough, it must be 100% or Linux fails! FAILS!

Sorry, my sarcasm gland is throbbing something fierce over here.

Between a certain video series and a well known Linux Youtuber telling people not to game on Linux I am a little grumpy. I understand criticisms, but I prefer a "here's what you must know" format to a "don't do it unless you are weird" type attitude, especially when they set unrealistically high bars*

* unrealistically high if you are high jumping, or unrealistically low if you are limbo dancing

My opinions are mixed. On the one hand, setting people up with high expectations is historically a bad idea because it doesn't end well for anyone, with animosity on all sides. But saying that GNU/Linux is DOA as a gaming platform is a bizarre take to me. For one thing, it really depends on what games you play. And for another, it has a library many times larger than any singular gaming console—and that's if you just count the Steam games. If, however, gaming is a social exercise for you, you're likely not going to be able to play games with your friends frequently. And it's not the only issue.

Coaxing eroge into functioning on GNU/Linux is an exercise in frustration I wouldn't recommend lightly, for instance. And when I finally do get them working, what I wouldn't give to be able to fullscreen some of these games without them crashing...800x640 resolution is not fun. If you're the type of person who mostly plays this genre of games, there's miles to go. Even if there's only really 2 or 3 DRM schemes blocking the way, my bet is that they're 10 years away from working in WINE, if they ever work at all.

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If we're only listing games that were released in 2021, this one's easy. Loop Hero. It's the only game I bought that was released this year. It's quite addicting, but it does lose its charm after a few hours. I beat the first chapter but haven't gotten around to progressing further; seems like too much grinding. It was definitely unique, and part of the reason for that is surely that I haven't played any autobattlers before because I thought they seemed boring. Loop Hero is a bit of a time commitment because you can't save a run mid-way through and come back to it, and they usually take about half an hour.

In terms of my favorite games I played this year, regardless of release date, I replayed Celeste again (this time on Linux) for the first time in a few years. It's still one of the best games to marry gameplay and storytelling, with amazing music. It really speaks to me.

This year, I finished my first visual novel in Japanese, その花びらにくちづけを. I liked it, but by virtue of being my first Japanese visual novel, it's special for that reason alone. There might have been a few too many H-scenes, but the characters are likable enough, and the last CG makes the whole thing worth it in the end. I played the direct sequel (technically the 6th game in the series) as well, and it had more depth, but I didn't like where the story went in the end. 3rd game in the series is in progress now. The chronology of this series is confusing as hell.

I played a bit of 穢翼のユースティア, a game I've owned for almost 5 years at this point, but only recently became decent enough at Japanese to struggle through, and despite the DRM hiccups in the beginning with getting it working, I'm really liking it. It has a very unique atmosphere. I'm only a few hours in, but it's very intriguing.

Huh. I guess I haven't really played many games, this year. Need to read more visual novels next year.

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Quoting: GrimfistAhh, this whole topic is pointless in my humble opinion. I love and daily use Linux, I know how to use it, and that's about it. I don't need "The Linux Desktop" to succeed, it already succeeded for me, I can do all I want with my Linux machine (gaming, programming, Netflix & chill).
Appealing to the masses always takes sacrifices, and I don't want that!

I don't know about you, but I don't want GNU/Linux on the desktop becoming the Amiga of the operating system market; everyone thinks it's dead, but a choice few stragglers are hanging onto their way of computing for dear life.

Perhaps Google moves on from supporting GNU/Linux and moves forward with their Zircon kernel and their own C library. While unlikely now, who knows what the future will hold? Why does this matter for you? Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and other platforms make use of Widevine DRM to protect their content. The only reason you're allowed to watch Netflix on GNU/Linux is by the grace of Google; they dropped support for 32-bit GNU/Linux systems earlier this year though maintain it for other, more popular operating systems. Regression is always possible.

If GNU/Linux is a shrinking niche, more software will become stale over time and proprietary software vendors will drop support for the platform.

For better or for worse, the only way to fight against this is constant progress...and part of that means catering to the needs of your target market. But that doesn't mean the Gentoos, the Arch Linuxes, and the NixOSes of the world will lose their way and start targeting different audiences. There's room enough for all of us here.

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Quoting: elmapulthat remind me of a thing...

pirating games on linux is harder, some times you have to do a bunch of steps on windows to crack an game, and the tutorials simply dont translate well to an linux enviroment.

i mean, i remember when i was trying to instal palib on linux, i dont remember if it had an linux version that i couldnt install or what, but installing on windows was already hard enough (you had to setup an enviroment variable, first time that i saw this term on an windows context), now imagine if i tried to install the windows version on linux back then...
google it "how to setup an windows variable on windows on linux"
or better "how to setup an windows enviroment variable on wine"

its an issue to specific and google might return 0 results, or tons of results for windows but only a few for linux if you dig deep enough, or maybe no one has ever tried.
now multiply that for every game you try to pirate.

regardless of what you think about piracy, this is an major issue that we have to solve if we want linux to become popular, most gamers dont purchase everything, many test drive the pirated version to know if its worth purchasing.

I never thought I'd hear "pirating software on GNU/Linux is too hard" as a reason not to use the system. I guess I really have heard it all, now.

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