Quoting: Purple Library GuyBut I am 100% certain that executives at Electronic Arts who exist anywhere near that mythical thing called a "decision" never, ever do. So no matter what any Linux gamer may say to diss EA on GamingonLinux, it will have precisely zero impact on whatever EA might or might not plan relating to Linux. Zero point zero zero zero repeating.

Yes, agree. Though I think technical people that did the actual work the original article is about might be familiar with sites this like. That aside, I didn't meant literally "voicing" only. Let's say EA publishes a single title on Linux as an experiment and it's received similar to the news of this thread, I guess then there won't be any titles ever again.

But let's stop this, I guess everything has been said, much is theoretical and every voice is valid of course.

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Quoting: PlintslîchoI haven't spotted any zealots in this thread though.

Agree. Sometimes heated, but still a civilized discussion.

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Quoting: PlintslîchoJust many people voicing their dislike of Electronic Arts, and frankly, you find enough of those in other forums as well. Has nothing to do with the operating system.

It depends on what you want to achieve. Are you happy with the status quo, 2% market share, every 6 month an AAA game? Sure, treat Linux like every other platform, voice your feelings and I guess that the current situation won't change.

If you want to bring Linux to the mass then you will need players like EA on board. The mass of people want to open their legacy documents, listen to their music in proprietary formats and play their favorite EA games. Once Linux has reached a significant market share you have a voice that counts and are able to influence the industry, but not before and not the other way around.

To word it differently:
I would prefer to swallow the evilness now with a bigger goal in the long run ;)

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In the library now.. works perfectly with the startup script modification. Very cool!

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Quoting: PlintslîchoI don't want to sound rude but a genuine question: why are you using Linux then? Wouldn't it be easier to simply run Windows, where all the cool game are anyway?

To make it short: games are not all, Linux is still the much better platform, despite some shortcomings (https://itvision.altervista.org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html has some very valid points imho). That said, my focus is on getting things done, not on fighting for freedom.

Edit: Removed some useless background info.

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By the way, does someone know if the big Feral, VP and Aspire ports were economically successful for the involved parties?

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Quoting: TiedemannThe ones that comes to the rescue are usually the Indie devs, and I think the future is there, more "specialized" games for whatever ppl are interested in that creates their own bubbles/communities.

I have thoroughly enjoyed several indie titles (e.g. FTL, Thimbeweed Park), but I have to admit playing one of the Feral ports like Tomb Raider or Deus Ex is a different league. Having a major EA title like FIFA on Linux and EA admitting that is was a economical success would in my opinion be a huge statement for potential new Linux users and also for other major publishers.

In the recent past were several key moments for me when I felt like Linux _is_ really growing on the desktop market. Most notably Steam coming to Linux, the lot of Feral ports but also e.g. Microsoft offering .Net Core or Visual Studio Code for Linux. Let's hope that this trend continues and it is not burned to the ground due to the ugly side of the Linux community.

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Quoting: qptain NemoAnd yeah, buy stuff. It's bought. As welcome as the availability of games is, they're not "gifts". (Unless they are literally free)

I would like to add that I do consider the availability of games as a gift. It is a chance for us to proof that Linux is worth an investment and to proof that the people behind their organization that supported Linux are not wrong. My guessing is that every port to Linux starts with a big internal fight/discussion if porting to Linux is feasible at all.

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Quoting: qptain NemoI'm gonna assume that if you saw my comment you'd include me in the vocal minority of religious fanatics so I'm gonna elaborate on my perspective a bit and on things I disagree with you on.

Thank you for doing so.

Quoting: qptain NemoEA destroyed my favorite game developer of all time, Westwood studios, and as far as I'm concerned I'm never getting over it. I'm absolutely a fanatic when it comes to that. You can consider that childish, petty and unreasonable. That's fair.

And I totally get where you're generally coming from, I'd consider buying from virtually any other company and I'm a fan of Valve and honestly a borderline fan of Nvidia for their awesome support of my platform. However there is no obligation on me or anyone else to pay money to companies or welcome them with open arms. You consider yourself free to only buy games if they're to your liking, well everybody else is also free to do with their money as they please and not necessarily welcome anyone with open arms and buy stuff unconditionally.

Fully agree, in the end everybody is free do to as they want as long as they accept possible consequences of their doing. That said, be able to forgive is one of mankind nicer habits. Please also note that the faces behind an organisation do change.

Quoting: qptain NemoAnd yeah, buy stuff. It's bought. As welcome as the availability of games is, they're not "gifts". (Unless they are literally free)

I'm not an expert economist but I think your phrase "completely unrealistic demands for such a small market" doesn't make a lot of sense. I think markets are shaped by demands not the other way around. And I sure agree 100% that we should be civil and reasonable, but I don't agree that we should be humble. Humility will earn us no favors, especially from AAA companies. Humility will get us walked all over and running DRM as root before long. Windows and console gamers get games not because they're nice, but because they can pay when their core demands are met. No company, especially a big one would expect to get anything but the boot if they don't meet the target audience's core demands, so coddling them is completely pointless and even arguably strategically disadvantageous. Being grateful when good stuff actually happens though, is again something I can get behind. We have some amazing stuff on our platform both indie and AAA and I'm super grateful for it. It makes me happy too.

Being a zealous fanatic might or might not be optimal for the well-being of the platform, but neither is the opposite extreme of kissing up to people who haven't shown some real concern or respect first. So yeah sure be friendly and approachable, buy from EA if you want, but also have some dignity. "we sorta considered it but then went eh screw it" is not reaching out a hand yet.

I think here we disagree a little bit where is perfect middle ground is. I fully agree that no company should force you to run stuff as root etc. But is this currently the case with Steam and the examples I gave? At the moment I think being humble for the 2 percent market share at max is not the worst option. My opinion is that publisher like Square Enix or Codemaster are still carefully exploring the linux market and see if grow and earning money is possible. If this exploration is only echoed with (in my opinion) completely unrealistic demands for everything free as beer then I guess they see their experiments as failed and turn their back again on Linux.

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Quoting: razing32What are you talking about ?

Well, I'm talking about a (hopefully) very small but very vocal part of the Linux community that is nearly blind due to ideology and principles and can't even see anymore when they get presented with a gift.

I'm truly happy and grateful when I'm behind my Fedora box with NVidia closed source driver and able to enjoy games like Hitman, Tomb Raider or CIV VI etc. purchased and started from Steam with just a few clicks. It is close to unbelievable that this is now possible on Linux. But instead of being very grateful to the companies and people behind it for making this possible and letting the market slowly grow, I'm constantly reading arguments that the parties that made this happen but obviously also want to earn money are evil and hostile against Linux:

- Steam is bad, they offer a closed source distribution platform
- Steam is even more evil because they seem to have lost they Linux focus and won't bring VR to Linux
- Gog is hostile because the abandoned their plans for Galaxy on Linux
- Nvidia is bad cause they don't open their driver and don't participate in upstream development
- Publishers are bad because they don't port game x or y
- Porting Studios are bad because because they use kind of wrappers and haven't yet completely embraced Vulkan
- Smaller Studios are bad because they don't want to deal with Linux support
- Newcomers on the complex Linux platform will be openly attacked when they can't get everything right the first time.

I could go on and go on :(

Really, I think Linux had they peak regarding to gaming. I sincerely hope that I'm wrong, but I fear we are shooting our self in the foot due to not seeing our chance and due to completely unrealistic demands for such a small market.

Coming back to the article this is about. It is actually fantastic news that some employees in the background of the big player EA do consider Linux in the future. But the overall response here is mostly: they are evil due to actions in the past, I wont buy from them, full period. I wouldn't blame the people that fought internally within EA to have some resource freed for Linux to throw the towel in the ring and give up on Linux entirely after reading this.

Please, just be a little bit grateful when companies and people behind it are reaching out a hand.

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