ubuntu-gaming team mailing list archive

[sakuramboo <sakuramboo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ingo Ruhnke wrote:
> 2009/5/24 sakuramboo <sakuramboo@xxxxxxxxx>:
> > Then why even use Linux?
>
> Because Windows costs lots of money, dual booting is extremely
> annoying and most of all because Wine is for many games enough.
And commercial games don't cost? If you are willing to spend money on 
games, the cost of the OS should not be an issue.
> > Why even put up with all that hassle of configuring Wine to MAYBE get 
> > a game to work?
>
> Well, thats why I pointed to PlayOnLine/WineDoors, those tools can
> reduces all the hassle to zero. If those tools would include patches
> and mods they could be even easier to use then real Windows.
Oh really? Zero hassle? Get Final Fantasy 11 to work. Oh, that's right, 
you can't! Use configuration tools all you want, they don't always work. 
To claim that they are a god send is just plain wrong.
> > And even if you do get it to work, you will still be lacking in certain
> > functionality (forced to play at lower resolutions, low frame rates,
> > weird graphical artifacts or bugs, lack of network play, etc.).
>
> The whole point is that this is simply not the case. Wine has matured
> a lot over the years and there are quite a few games that work close
> to perfection in Wine and many more that work good enough that dual
> booting just isn't worth it.
That is true, but that still doesn't make it a valid excuse because what 
works for you may not work for me. As I was hinting at with my last 
email, my hardware may be different from yours, driver version may be 
different and because of that, my usage of Wine may yield totally 
different results than you. This is why Wine is not the answer. Native 
game ports are.
> > Instead of pushing Wine, if proprietary games are a must, then why 
> > not push
> > those that actually support Linux?
>
> Of course you can push those to, but when you push just those you
> simply don't end up with a large enough collection of games. All means
> to play games on Linux should be pushed and promoted, not just a
> subset of them.
I do agree with that. However, even though Wine has matured, it is no 
where near ready, despite their version 1.0 release. It will be the same 
backlash that Ubuntu faced when they didn't follow the guidelines for 
Pulseaudio, releasing something into the main branch that wasn't quite 
ready.

The argument that most Windows gamers have as to the reason why they 
don't switch to Linux is because they "think" there aren't any games. By 
telling them they can just use Wine doesn't help because most of them 
don't even know that there may in fact BE a Linux client available.

It reminds me of this one guy on one of the message boards i frequent. 
In his clan, he focuses on DM type FPS's, namely, the entire Quake 
series. That is what he is good at. I asked him why he doesn't use Linux 
and he replied because he needs his games. To which I informed him that 
Id offers native Linux clients to all of the Quake games. I don't know 
if he ever switched, there are a few Windows-only titles he plays, so I 
doubt it. But, I digress. The point is, most don't even know that the 
games they currently play already are available on Linux.

And besides, gaming specific distros has been done before and all 
failed. What in particular would this attempt offer that the others didn't?