Quoting: CreakA year and a half that they talked about it, and nothing since then. It seems Valve doesn't see how bad their UI is.

To be honest I don't see it either.

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Score 1 for Steam Play :)

Hope to see more of this happening in the future!

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Quoting: Beamboom

Quoting: SalvatosThat being the case, I feel that it's not necessary to try and beat Microsoft as a gaming platform, but rather to emulate the Windows gaming experience the best we can so that people who want to use Linux for other reasons can get their fix to a satisfying level.

It's a constructive perspective. Still... I hate sitting here as a third class citizen.

I understand :) I don't care too much when it comes to gaming, but it's certainly frustrating to hit a wall when I'd like to use professional software, and pay good money for it too, and companies find nothing better to say than "we also have a Mac client."

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Thanks. I'm not familiar with those other games but I'll definitely watch some gameplay later on, once the fixes have been in long enough to get an up-to-date feel for the game.

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Quoting: devnull

Quoting: SalvatosHow is that ironic? It seems pretty intuitive to me that experts in a field can better appreciate the subtleties of it and the meanings beneath the surface.

Because awards tend not to make any distinction between voter backgrounds. What exactly is "Best Video Game" for example. Best how, play? Linux support?

I fail to see how awards are relevant to the subject of my quote, but that would depend on the awards in question. Steam awards are obviously nothing more than a popularity contest.

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Quoting: BeamboomAnd nobody will jump to Linux for gaming just because we can emulate Windows. That's just simply not gonna happen.

I hold the view that nobody will jump to Linux because of gaming even if games run at parity with Windows, and even if they somehow ran better I think the gains would be marginal. I believe the state of gaming can dissuade people from coming to Linux, but not convince them to do so. There are many reasons for wanting to use Linux, but many of those reasons aren't popular, Linux isn't marketed to the mainstream and old habits die hard. Most people don't want to switch to something new unless they're properly fed up with what they currently have, and we can all see that their tolerance is mind-bogglingly high when it comes to some of the aspects that made us switch. So without being driven by some of those other fundamental reasons, someone who only cares about gaming will just stick to what's familiar as long as it's not greatly overshadowed by something else.

That being the case, I feel that it's not necessary to try and beat Microsoft as a gaming platform, but rather to emulate the Windows gaming experience the best we can so that people who want to use Linux for other reasons can get their fix to a satisfying level.

But I don't want to presume too much. I'd love to hear if anyone here uses Linux primarily because of how it does gaming, rather than tolerate its shortcomings with gaming because of their other reasons to prefer Linux.

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Quoting: tmtvlIf you're a fan of the classics, like Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment, this game blows PoE and Torment: Tides of Numeria out of the water.

I have an unpopular opinion I know, but what would you expect if I actually liked PoE better than BG?

Quoting: devnullIronic and perhaps paradoxical is the more invested you are in a field the more you gravitate to recognizing art within it.

How is that ironic? It seems pretty intuitive to me that experts in a field can better appreciate the subtleties of it and the meanings beneath the surface.

(Strange discussion to have in a Steam sale thread, come to think of it.)

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Quoting: morbiusNope. What I liked I would always buy afterwards. Depending on how much I liked it, I might even buy it on smaller discount, get special editions, DLCs, etc. And I would make sure to promote good games as well.

Oh, I get that approach. I do it a lot with music (although it's not always exactly piracy since it's often posted by the artists themselves). I can't imagine buying an album without listening to it first. At least you have Steam's no-questions-asked refund policy under 2 hours if you want to sample games before judging whether the price is fair.

Quoting: tmtvlI would definitely recommend Pathfinder Kingmaker to any RPG fans, most problems have been fixed, and it's a massively addicting game.

That's interesting to hear. I heard only about the weird difficulty balance/progression. Has that been fixed and what else has?

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Quoting: morbiuspeople are ruining a good thing here by getting greedy.

Quoting: morbiusHonestly, I might as well go back to piracy.

Double standards?

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Quoting: BeamboomBut as of right now, my main concern isn't really the number of big games released, but rather that it all hangs on one line: Feral. They are all we got left, to put it a bit simple. And they seem to have their regular 2-3 publishers as sources for their games.
And if they drop us? Who else can we turn to? It's that vulnerability that really really bothers me.

I understand the feeling. When it comes to porting AAAs, it does feel like Feral are the only ones pulling their weight and the rest are just dipping a toe in the Linux water at this time. Fortunately I don't personally care too much about AAAs, although you're certainly correct that they play a major role in platform attractiveness at large. And in that light, what I do find reassuring is that we still see a high number of developers releasing on Linux natively on their own. And indie or not, many of those are high-production, original games (A? AA?), not just GameMaker clones and pixel-art rogue-likes and platformers (not hating on those genres, but holy shit there's a lot of them and they're usually not blockbusters).

They may not be as prestigious, but there's something to be said for being a good ecosystem for the low- and mid-range productions. Those companies often have less shitty practices than AAA studios when it comes to DRM or data collection, if only because they don't have the means to implement them or the clout to get away with them, and as such are more in line with FLOSS philosophies even if they don't go as far as open sourcing their games. Honestly, even if EA or Ubisoft did make Linux versions of their games, I wouldn't want to put on the shackles that come with them, and I'm no Stallman.

I guess overall I prefer slow growth with more reasonable companies than Linux becoming popular with the masses by shedding off some its core values and becoming "Windows with a Linux kernel." I think we're treading a reasonable middle ground at the moment by accepting some proprietary software and DRM in our entertainment but preserving the "sanctity" of the OS and core applications. That's just my opinion, of course.

So I guess my short answer to your question would be: it doesn't really bother me if we end up losing all the AAAs as long as everything else keeps going well and better. I think we can continue to grow without them, if slower.

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