ubuntu-gaming team mailing list archive

[Christian Ahmer <barde667@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Ryan,

Python may be a good solution, but my coding background is object oriented 
programming in php / ruby, so this is why I choose ruby. It should not be that 
kind of a problem since the ruby gems I use are not that big and the merb 
framework is rather tiny in size compared with a full stack like e.g. rails.
I don't speak python and don't wanna learn it, so I prefer ruby.

I'll check what the existing Gaming frontends lack... I am sure they miss 
something, maybe important aspects. You could help me with that - please write 
about whatever these frontends do bad or what they are not capable of.

To assure you that I don't like to work against exisiting Ubuntu Desktops, I 
changed my view of how to embed the frontend. Instead of setting it to 
fullscreen, what might be a bit too invasive (in Desktop using terms), I 
changed it, so that it works like a desktop background - so it is fixed to the 
root window of X11. It's more elegant in my opinion. Thanks for the tip.

What I have running here now reminds me a little bit of what was "Active 
Desktop" in my early Win98 days ;-) But it is fast, reliable and does not 
consume too much memory.

When the whole thing is ready to show off, I'll send some screenshots and maybe 
a little demo will be available in the next weeks.

thanks,
Christian

Am Sonntag, 3. Mai 2009 05:45:11 schrieb Ryan Prior:
> tl;dr
>
> A few points:
>
> * Python is the official scripting language of Ubuntu and should be
> preferred over Ruby
> * "Gaming front-ends" already exist and gamers do not like them
>   - Xbox Live and the PS3 console are becoming more like traditional OS's
>   - PC gamers really like platforms like Steam that let them do their
> normal thing while browsing games
> * What you're proposing actually takes the Ubuntu Desktop as we know
> it out of the picture, which is counter-productive to most of the work
> that the community does
>
>
> In short: -1
>
> Far be it from me to shoot you down without offering a better
> alternative: let's create a "games browser" which shows the available
> games along with screen shots (possibly animated!), descriptions,
> links to ratings by game sites, etc. Allow users to sort games by
> genre, by age-level appropriateness, by violence levels, by system
> requirements, etc). Extend this with Telepathy to have a "friends"
> page which shows what games your friends are playing and allows you to
> join them or start a chat with them using your preferred chat client.
> Integrate it with a system like Mumble which allows for chatting
> during games.
>
> All these things fit within the desktop paradigm we've already got and
> will clearly benefit gamers, while requiring less hackery to boot.