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Latest Comments by Salvatos
Psebay, an atmospheric moto trial adventure is coming to Linux
20 December 2018 at 5:07 pm UTC

This brings back memories of Elasto Mania. I don't think I would have the patience for this anymore :)

The Rocket League winter event is live, new GamingOnLinux tournaments details!
19 December 2018 at 10:53 pm UTC

How does one find the tournament in-game? I might go and give someone an easy win if I don't forget ^^

Some thoughts on Linux gaming in 2018, an end of year review
19 December 2018 at 8:44 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: BeamboomI'm the first to feel sorry for saying so, but to be honest I feel this is one of the weaker years in Linux gaming so far. It feels like we're taken quite a few steps back to the first years of Steam, with mostly indie titles coming our way.
Let's just say it like it is: Without Feral we would have had practically nothing in the pipeline now. Like we did back then.

So this is not something to be too cheerful about. Rather we should worry if the top was already reached.
Maybe Steam Play in fact is the only way forward after all. Forget games developed for our platform, forget ports even, we now need to emulate our way to the bigger games.
I'm just theorizing, but maybe this makes more sense than what we had been seeing. We got some of the biggest games before we had the market share to justify it. How many companies would port their games to a console that has a 1% market share? Isn't it pretty amazing that Linux got that treatment in the first place? Something like Steam Play can help us grow our market share demonstrably and feels less like putting the cart before the horse, in a way. Once devs and publishers see that our numbers have grown, thanks in part to us having access to dramatically more games and Windows having less of an advantage on that front, it will make more business sense for them to invest into Linux sales with better support and, for some, dedicated ports.

And that's one of the key but easy to underestimate strengths of Steam Play in my opinion: not only can we play Windows games through Wine, which is hardly new, but now game devs can see that those sales come from Linux users and that Linux users are actively playing their games on this OS in spite of the lack of official support. That sends a more powerful message than a bunch of +1's in a forum thread.

That said, the pendulum can definitely swing both ways and make some devs lazy. "They're already buying and playing my game and I didn't have to lift a finger." I think it will boil down to their individual philosophies. We already have companies that made the effort for a tiny 1-2% extra sales and have kept doing so despite the additional support overhead. And others that are so big that they could definitely afford the upfront cost of porting because the absolute number of sales would certainly offset it, yet choose not to. Just like a lot of users reject Linux purely because of their mindset rather than because Linux wouldn't serve them well/better, the choice to support Linux for a developer that has the resources to seems mostly to depend on the management's opinion of Linux. I think it's in the long game that we benefit, because it makes Linux adoption easier, which in turn makes us a more attractive target for those who are only after profits once that growth has become significant enough.

Lastly, even if some devs get lazy, Proton can be a positive for consumers and publishers alike. Suppose you don't want to port your game but you hear reports that it runs on Proton with the exception of one thing that you could fix by switching a library or rewriting one component of your engine. You do that one change and suddenly there's nothing stopping Linux gamers from buying your game, and you still don't have to give them any sort of guarantee or maintain an additional version of your software. That could be appealing to some, and foster a good habit of using Linux-compatible components from the start.

Some thoughts on Linux gaming in 2018, an end of year review
19 December 2018 at 6:51 pm UTC Likes: 8

Quoting: liamdawehere’s a small slice in no particular order
I'm on to you man, that list is clearly sorted alphabetically ;)

Happy holidays and thanks for all the coverage. GoL is the only place I go for gaming news altogether :)

Dead In Vinland, an impressive looking survival management sim just added a Linux beta
19 December 2018 at 1:02 am UTC

Gameplay looks interesting enough, but the writing sounds atrociously out of place. The original French sounds a little less cringeworthy, at least, but keeps alternating between present and past tenses. Disappointing. I'm not sure I would want to suffer through that.

Editorial: An open letter to Valve on why they should keep on embracing Linux
16 December 2018 at 7:40 pm UTC Likes: 2

Quoting: GuestI wanna play multiplayer games with linux users ONLY. Linux user has different brain than windows user.



Also, remember GOL rules:
Quote- No licensing wars. We do not care about the politics of FOSS/FLOSS/OSS or whatever. We are a gaming site, not a place for mindless zealotry.

Discord announce a 90/10 revenue split, Discord Store will support Linux
16 December 2018 at 3:04 am UTC

Well, that's assuming Epic and Discord are letting anything get onto their stores and not vetting games. Is that known at this point?

Discord announce a 90/10 revenue split, Discord Store will support Linux
14 December 2018 at 11:24 pm UTC Likes: 6

At this point I feel both amused and kind of mildly irritated when a company feels the need to point out that most of their users are on Windows to explain late Linux support. Like, no shit? We're all aware that we're marginal neckbeards and that we're not a priority for anyone looking to make money on the desktop. What we're asking is whether you do intend to let us give you more money down the road.

That said, this is not a jab at Discord in particular. They're chill and I've always been happy with their Linux support and the software in general. I'm much more inclined to believe that they're actively working on expanding the store to Linux than Epic are with their own store. I'm still sticking to Steam when it comes to renting games, though.

Valve in it for the 'long haul' with Artifact, first update out and a progression system due soon
14 December 2018 at 9:14 pm UTC Likes: 1

I think the operative words in bgh251f2's comment were that "you can't sell them anywhere you want and cant dispose of them in other ways" (emphasis mine). That much is true and indeed different from physical goods.

Valve in it for the 'long haul' with Artifact, first update out and a progression system due soon
14 December 2018 at 7:48 pm UTC

Quoting: jasondaigoEverything people do online is potentially anti social. And thats not good change.
That alone doesn't sound much different from offline to me.

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