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Latest Comments by Purple Library Guy
My thoughts on the MMO Albion Online on Linux, many months later
7 January 2017 at 10:18 pm UTC

I can see a potential problem here: If the basic schtick is that all the gear is crafted by players, then how can a dungeon have anything nice?
Possible workarounds:
--Dungeons have really nice, rare raw materials
--There is some kind of theft mechanic where some kind of critters or something swipe something random off people when they die, or when they die in certain ways (like, killed by another player--something the other person would have looted off your body might instead get grabbed by a gremlin of some sort) and then these stolen things end up in dungeons
--Dungeons have really nice, rare raw materials and it is possible to, instead of beating the dungeon, swap a crafted item of sufficient quality with the boss for some of their (whatever stuff); they then have whatever it is and they can use it against future dungeon raiders but it will also be lootable dungeon treasure

Eco - Global Survival Game, an incredibly interesting looking game that's already on Linux
4 January 2017 at 5:34 pm UTC Likes: 2

Pretty cool concept. I think it might even be something of an exception to the rule WorMzy mentioned, for two reasons:
1. The whole concept is going to sound boring as hell to typical trolls/griefers, although they might show up to some extent just to disrupt the game because of that
2. The player-run government & criminal justice system would allow outlawing the trolls/griefers and systematically hunting them down. They might find they don't have much fun because they keep getting killed real shortly after they spawn.

Which brings me back to my beginning point: Pretty cool concept.

Raft, a rather brilliant prototype game about being stuck in the middle of the ocean
2 January 2017 at 10:01 pm UTC

Quoting: GuestWith some more content and more stuff to do, this game would be great.

How much stuff can there really be to do on a bleedin' raft in the middle of the ocean?

The top 100 best sellers on Steam from 2016
2 January 2017 at 9:35 pm UTC Likes: 3

43/100 is definitely better than I would have expected. It also cuts directly against the meme of Linux games being all "crappy" indie games--to the contrary, clearly Linux has a bigger percentage of the top games than of games overall. I mean, I dunno how many of these top-selling games were technically "AAA" games in terms of mammoth budgets from big companies, but surely it's more important to have the games people actually bought than the most bloated ones.

I'd have to say this comes close to settling something: Really hard core gamers may still have reasons to want/need Windows so they can have every latest and greatest they choose. But for casual, or even average, gamers nearly half of the top sellers is plenty enough to be able to say, "Yeah you can play games on it".

System76 have been working with NVIDIA on Linux driver fixes, a chat with the System76 community manager
28 December 2016 at 9:44 pm UTC

System76 are great, and this is a good sign.
I'm also fond of ZaReason, who also ship Linux computers--the nice thing for me is that they will ship computers preloaded with distros other than Ubuntu, such as Mint.

Your staff are a bit more needy in Prison Architect update 11
28 December 2016 at 8:53 pm UTC

Quoting: GuestI see a lot of enthusiasm around linux gaming lately, phoronix had an article like "2016 was great for linux games" etc: I probably have more linux games than the average linux user (346 games in steam, plus a bunch on gog), I game on linux since Loki days (I have Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri from Loki on cd-rom, with the little tux icon on the cover) and in all honesty I can't share that enthusiasm...

I have that, too. Such a great game. There are some hacks to make it still run today, pretty much. It's funny, we have the new one (Civ: Beyond Earth) and at least one clone (Pandora) but what I'd really, really like is for someone to just take Alpha C., update the interface and the graphics, maybe make sure it was pretty moddable, and otherwise slavishly leave it completely alone.
I don't have nearly as many games as you do and yet I'm much more positive about the flood of games lately. The question isn't "Are we much better off for games now than before?" because we clearly are. The question is, can this surge sustain and continue? That's a bit more up in the air. The foundations lack solidity because Linux continues to lack (desktop) users.

Lifeless Planet Linux beta has been updated, with improved graphics from the PS4 version
26 December 2016 at 10:50 pm UTC

Lifeless, huh? It looks like a picture of Saskatchewan with a grain elevator.

Some thoughts on Age of Conquest IV
23 December 2016 at 11:10 pm UTC Likes: 3

Actually, a quickish strategy game I can dip in and out of is just the sort of thing I'd find nice right about now. I'll look into it.

Iron Sky Invasion now has a Linux beta on Steam, uses Wine
22 December 2016 at 5:29 pm UTC

Quoting: EnverexWhich bit(s) were assumptions? You used the word "hacks" so I assume you meant "not really great bits of code, but at least it gets the game working" which is typically what the word hacks means when applied to code.
Ah, the nuances of language. I didn't use the word "hacks". It's true the noun "hack", like if you say something is "a hack", generally means what you said. But the verb "to hack" does not generally have those implications. If someone is "hacking" on something, it does not imply that they are creating inferior code. I used the verb. And I can't think of any obvious reason in context why I would be claiming that all game programmers are inferior.

So it seemed to me that you were making the assumption that if someone is programming games, and they make some fixes to Wine, those fixes will be lousy, presumably because they are game programmers and either unskilled, unskilled in things relevant to Wine, or completely focused on their immediate problem to the exclusion of general utility. As I say, this strikes me as loading in rather a lot of assumptions.

Civ VI Steam forum mods banning users for expressing Linux support
21 December 2016 at 5:25 pm UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: BlackBloodRumWell, I was 100% sure I was going to buy Civ VI. But after seeing this.. I'm about 0% sure I'm buying it. In fact I'm tempted to just ignore it if it releases on Linux.

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.

That makes no sense, the company didn't do it. It's not even their forum it happened on.