LWN: Comments on "Adventures in Linux gaming"

Steam Client to be Available for Linux

AndreE — Sat, 15 May 2010 23:20:53 +0000

Sure it's unambiguous.

But it is also completely unverified since there is no link to sources.

In other new, I can announce that Microsoft has officially released Office 2010 for Linux.

Steam Client to be Available for Linux

MrWim — Thu, 13 May 2010 23:06:34 +0000

I would agree that Phoronix's coverage has been a little over the top but they do link to "confirmation" in the telegraph (a British newspaper.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7715209/Steam...

"Valve has also confirmed that it will make Steam available to Linux users in the coming months."

I don't really understand how one goes about making a statement like this, and it would be nice to see it from the horse's mouth but that seems rather unambiguous.

Steam Client to be Available for Linux

AndreE — Thu, 13 May 2010 22:08:53 +0000

d`oh.

accept => except

Steam Client to be Available for Linux

AndreE — Thu, 13 May 2010 22:07:36 +0000

accept there is actually no official confirmation, just some pretty unethical journalistic tricks by phoronix

Steam Client to be Available for Linux

Cato — Thu, 13 May 2010 21:54:06 +0000

CD media eventually gets scratched, or lost, or the drive becomes obsolete (think floppies, and how many smaller laptops don't have optical drives now).

Steam lets me play the same games across PC upgrades (having done a Windows upgrade recently, the idea of playing Steam games just by downloading the client would be great compared to having to find and re-install apps). It even lets me play my games when at someone else's house, quite legally, or on a Mac or (soon) Linux. I can play on laptops without optical drives, and in virtual machines (if they had decent 3D, which is coming).

You may not be familiar with the awfulness of much other Windows game DRM, and the move to more intrusive Internet DRM: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/blog-post/1601659/ubi... - Ubisoft now makes you stay online all the time just to play the game. Wolfire have a good article about all this: http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/03/Internet-DRM-and-the-chan...

It's true there is no resale value for Steam games, but that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

Steam Client to be Available for Linux

shapr — Thu, 13 May 2010 21:01:17 +0000

On the good side, you can't lose your games, and you can pick 'em back up years later after several cross-country or international moves.
That's one reason I enjoy buying digital books from webscription.net, I always have access to them. (and the books are DRM-free too)

Adventures in Linux gaming

iabervon — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:20:33 +0000

I think it would be best for Ryzom if they released the geography they were using on their services, but had the loot and interesting places be in patches that they wouldn't release (or wouldn't release until the community had stopped being interested in them). Servers run by people other than Winch Gate would just have different adventures, in much that same way that WordPress doesn't come with any blog posts, but does come with styles, so you can use it contributing only your own text. It sounds like the example data provided so far isn't enough to be a world where contributed adventures could happen.

Steam Client to be Available for Linux

drag — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:53:31 +0000

I personally would not use Steam.

For other people, however, the convenience and 'app store' type experience more then makes up for the lack of freedom.

But this is going to be a issue with any sort of proprietary commercial game. So it's all just shades of gray at that point if you want to compare and contrast Steam vs DRM'd cdroms.

Steam Client to be Available for Linux

foom — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:39:50 +0000

Is it really the least objectionable? It means there is zero resale value of any games you buy that use Steam. It is now impossible to sell used games. You also cannot lend them to friends for them to play. You just cannot transfer games, period.

Even if you bought the physical media and attempt to resell that, you cannot. The new user is required to register the CDKey with Steam, and will get an error saying it's already registered to a different account. And Steam Support will not unregister it from your account. They will point to the EULA which says you cannot transfer games.

You can't even resell the whole account (it's also against the EULA, they claim they will close the account if they find out you have done so).

This seems to me much worse than a hidden sector check on a CD!

Adventures in Linux gaming

Cato — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:31:14 +0000

It's fair enough not to release the game data for the reasons you mention, but releasing the game data as well would help unleash creativity there as well, e.g. for older games. The phenomenon of game modding means that there is a huge pool of people creating their own game data though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_%28computer_gaming%29

Adventures in Linux gaming

Cato — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:28:02 +0000

At least on Ubuntu 8.04, I just used the default open source Intel graphics driver. Some Intel graphics (the recent Core i3 and i5 in particular) is a bit broken even for scrolling Firefox, but most should be OK.

rms is happy too

alex — Thu, 13 May 2010 13:11:49 +0000

IIRC from a talk he gave in Manchester his main concern is the code was free, he's happy for non-code assets not to be. I did wonder if he would be quite so relaxed about scripted events, after all that's code.

Adventures in Linux gaming

epa — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:40:02 +0000

World of Goo does need hardware acceleration for compositing its 2d shapes. I tried playing it on a Core Duo system without 3d acceleration, and it was okay for the first few levels but too slow and jerky with large numbers of goos on the screen. Once I got the Intel graphics drivers working it was fine.

Adventures in Linux gaming

ewan — Thu, 13 May 2010 10:09:41 +0000

I think that's a very reasonable model for games, and one I'd be happy to see more of. It brings most of the practical advantages of having the code free (ability to re-use, study, port to new platforms etc.), and it provides a reasonable mechanism for the creators to get paid in a market where selling support contracts is unlikely to be a good fit.

There also seems to me to be a fundamental difference between games and game data and other kinds of software - a Firefox with KDE integration patches is still essentially Firefox, but World of Goo with different physics parameters is something else. Patching a feature into a browser or editor or whatnot on the basis that it's really useful seems reasonable, patching a couple of extra knights into chess on the same basis does not.

Adventures in Linux gaming

DOT — Thu, 13 May 2010 10:09:26 +0000

I think that could be a good model for Linux gaming: you release the engine under a free license, so you can have a platform for games, and then you sell content on that platform. I don't think a whole lot of people would mind paying for content while the technology is free. Books and music also work this way.

Adventures in Linux gaming

Cato — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:59:07 +0000

World of Goo is single handedly responsible for me getting back into games - it really is an amazing game in concept, execution, design and music, and tremendous fun on any platform. Runs on almost any Linux PC I'd guess, as it's a 2D game - no 3D drivers required, it runs fine on Intel graphics.

Buying the Humble Indie Bundle now is still possible to get a copy of this and some other great games, and will help prove there is a Linux games market.

Steam Client to be Available for Linux

Cato — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:29:11 +0000

This is hugely significant - as well as the groundswell of great indie games, many of which are on Steam already, Steam brings some top-tier games such as Portal, Half Life and potentially many others. Valve, the owners of Steam, have always been quite Linux friendly (using it for dedicated game servers run by individuals) and now have confirmed they will ship Linux games.

The great thing about Steam in this context is that, as with Windows and the recently added Mac, you can initially run games on one platform and (assuming they are supported) instantly run them on another, e.g. use Portal on PC today and on Linux when it's available, without paying extra. In fact all Steam games can run on any mix of Windows PCs, Macs and (soon) Linux.

Valve also sell the Source engine for 3D games, which while a little behind the cutting edge is commercially viable, and has the benefit of not requiring very high end hardware. This major game engine will also be supported on Linux, making it much easier for third party game developers who already use Steam and the Source engine on Windows to support Linux.

Steam does use DRM but it's entirely network based - no hidden sectors on CDs, no fingerprinting of PC hardware. You just supply the Steam username and password on any PC and you are able to install and run the games in your account. Of all the various DRM systems it's the least objectionable. The Crossover Games and WINE community has been supporting Steam games for quite a while now, because it's quite easy to have Steam work on Linux.

Adventures in Linux gaming

zmower — Thu, 13 May 2010 08:31:18 +0000

Proof that linux users are generous!

I have suggested before that LWN allow those on Project Leader level to set their own price.

Adventures in Linux gaming

pabs — Thu, 13 May 2010 07:52:14 +0000

Lugaru is not fully free software, the game data is not commercially redistributable and they only included enough for a demo. From the announcement:

We have included enough of the game data to run the demo version. Please note that the game data is not under the GPL, and forbids commercial redistribution.

The full license is here.

Steam Client to be Available for Linux

MrWim — Thu, 13 May 2010 01:57:04 +0000

Also worth noting is that Valve's Steam is coming to Linux as reported at Phoronix:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=va...

Adventures in Linux gaming

ewan — Thu, 13 May 2010 01:19:27 +0000

World of Goo has been involved in something similar before; they had a 'set you own price' sale and the results showed a similar effect.