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Re: [ubuntu-marketing] Ubuntu Gaming Team

 

In response to Oli, isn't your first argument like comparing Windows to
Ubuntu? Maybe Ubuntu is a little bit ahead compared to FOSS gaming versus
proprietary games, but that's what this team was set up to change. We
understand the arguments for porting commercial games to Linux, and don't
deny that that will help migration to Linux, but this team is not just about
Linux adoption. This is for people who care about FOSS games, and software
freedom for all software. As already stated, there is already development of
Wine for Windows games and pressure on video game publishers to release
games for Linux, and Valve is supposedly working on that (although i haven't
heard anything new on that in a while). Although those things will help
Linux adoption, that simply isn't what this team is about, so if your
interest ends at getting commercial games on Linux, then this team isn't for
you =]

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 07:07, Senectus . <senectus@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>
> 2009/4/24 Oli Warner <oli@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>> How do you expect FOSS to make serious gains into the gaming market? Big
>> commercial games (read COD, Oblivion, Fallout, most RPGs) are like
>> interactive movies and they take about the same amount of money and manpower
>> to produce... That's something FOSS is rarely going to be able to reproduce.
>>
>> You're treating this as if Windows gamers don't use Ubuntu because they
>> don't have enough access to FOSS games. Truth is, most popular FOSS games
>> have binary installers for Windows but you ask one Windows gamer if they
>> care about something like Nexuiz and chances are they've never heard of it
>> because they're too busy with the likes of Fallout 3, Bioshock, Assassins
>> Creed or Call of Duty World at War. *That's where the problem is; studios
>> aren't making the games for Linux so gamers don't migrate.
>>
>> *It's Chicken vs Egg. You're pushing for the Chicken. Get the gamers here
>> and studios will make the games cross-platform. But I think you infinitely
>> more chance of success backing the Egg. "If you build it, they will come"
>>
>> If I were you, I'd talk to small independent game studios. Give them a
>> route-to-market (coming up next) and help them with the development. There
>> are a couple of companies that provide porting services but they're not
>> in-house, they're not cheap and they're not ideal for the end-users.
>>
>> They're still commercial games, so they still need to sell. One thing
>> stopping companies moving over is there isn't a decent platform for selling
>> their games. If there was "a Steam" for Linux, showing off the best of Linux
>> gaming (both FOSS and commercial), I think a LOT more companies (large and
>> small) would consider Linux as a viable platform.
>>
>> Once that reaches critical mass, your work is done. Critical mass. More
>> users will move over and more companies will develop for it.
>>
>
> Some of your points are quite valid, though it's untrue to paint all high
> profile games with the same damned brush.
>
>
> ID quite quickly release Linux Native Ports of most their games (Doom,
> Quake, Quake ET etc) Epic used to, though the technology/licenses they chose
> for the latest incarnation of UT doesn't appear to be making life easy for
> Icculus to port.
>
> LGP port quite high profile games, though their method or possibly business
> model can be quite slow at times to get it out the door (I beta test for
> these guys as much as I can).
>
> I think we're starting to see growth in the "indy" Linux port market
> (Lugaru/Overgrowth, Darwinia etc), but this is all moot anyway as the
> original poster was quite clear in saying this is not really about pushing
> commercial games.
>
> it's about FOSS gaming.
>
> To tell you the truth, I'm not yet quite sure how this can be of help other
> than canonical and the Ubuntu community can offer something that the FOSS
> community sorely needs... Organisation.
>
> I suspect this is the weakest point of this genre, lots and lots of well
> meaning and sporadically enthusiastic individuals but little focus and
> staying power.
>
> I'll watch this with interest, and help where I can but I'm afraid I'm a
> little over committed IRL at the moment to be much use.
>
>
>
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