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Quoting: "Xpander, post: 5056, member: 92"i bet mid august for beta and early september release

Of Steam? We were talking about when the next blog post might appear >_<

Quoting: "liamdawe, post: 5059, member: 1"Guys news sites often use images from linked articles its fair use (also free advertising for the games in question any developer who complains would be a complete moron to do so), if we ever get asked (its never happened) to remove an image by the owners and no one else we will until then no need to talk about it lets not derail threads with chat nothing to do with the news item please, create a new topic if you want to debate fair use, linked images etc. Feel free to link images in news posts, since i own the site i will deal with issue that arise.

At the risk of further derailing, I have to point out that I will always clarify my position on anything that I believe is unclear. If that warrants a banning or my posting rights revoked, so be it (this isn't meant to sound rantish or confrontational, it's just how I need to be).

Quoting: "Hamish, post: 5061, member: 6"What I find interesting about the interview is that he basically confirms a lot of what Larabel said, that the disaster that Valve thinks Windows 8 is going to be is the main reason they are investing in Linux. Interesting to know.

Surely Larabel isn't the topic either :D
According to rumours, emails and articles that have been floating around, Valve had been poking around with Linux long before the Windows 8 preview builds were available and possibly before the UI was unveiled. Whilst I'm sure there is an element of wanting to stay diverse to survive the Windows 8 fallout, I can't imagine that this is the driving force that started things (perhaps it has put pressure on lately, but it's also possible that highlighting Linux as a viable alternative is a good strategy for promoting their upcoming client - especially when the majority of the Linux user community seems to be anti-Windows).

This seems to be a full transcript of the interview, which covers a bit more stuff:
http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/25/valves-gabe-newell-talks/

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Well, to get us back on topic:
http://allthingsd.com/20120725/valves-gabe-newell-on-the-future-of-games-wearable-computers-windows-8-and-more/

What I find interesting about the interview is that he basically confirms a lot of what Larabel said, that the disaster that Valve thinks Windows 8 is going to be is the main reason they are investing in Linux. Interesting to know.

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Quoting: "Qantourisc, post: 5058, member: 181"Btw, where DID you get that image ? :)

It's noted in the post + if you read the linked site it's there.

Guys news sites often use images from linked articles its fair use (also free advertising for the games in question any developer who complains would be a complete moron to do so), if we ever get asked (its never happened) to remove an image by the owners and no one else we will until then no need to talk about it lets not derail threads with chat nothing to do with the news item please, create a new topic if you want to debate fair use, linked images etc. Feel free to link images in news posts, since i own the site i will deal with issue that arise.

I don't mean to rant but let's try to keep on topic ;)

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Quoting: "Cheeseness, post: 5046, member: 122"[ATTACH=full]384[/ATTACH]

Btw, where DID you get that image ? :)

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i bet mid august for beta and early september release

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Quoting: "liamdawe, post: 5054, member: 1"Starting playing it again in the past week, such a good game forgot how good actually.

I played a campaign tonight. Completely forgot how unreliable it is under Wine. In the 4 stage campaign, my girlfriend and I got booted no less than a dozen times all up due to file inconsistency errors (Wine gives false positives with these from what I can tell).

Quoting: "liamdawe, post: 5054, member: 1"So time to place bets, I say it will be out in October.

I don't really bet, but if there were a time that I'd be guessing that one would show up, I think it'd be late August/September.

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Nice to see it on the official website and them state This Year as well. Good work on the news boys keep it rolling! Also while Valve Time could be an issue remember this is a game already in existance and all the content is already there I doubt it will slip into next year at all.

Starting playing it again in the past week, such a good game forgot how good actually.

I really do hope they bring the new counter strike out for Linux though, that would be killer to have such a decent modern day FPS on Linux. Or at least CS:Source! Not interested in Team Fortress 2 myself just can't get into it just another fast paced shooter in my eyes (I still own it though).

I am thinking we won't see another blog post for a while though.

So time to place bets, I say it will be out in October.

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Quoting: "Rustybolts, post: 5052, member: 13"I put it there, I'm sure it will be fine, free press and advertising etc

I've been unknowingly involved in similar situations where people started saying they were going to pursue legal action (even after I pulled down the content in question which somebody else had put up). I find there are fewer headaches with erring on the side of caution (but in this case, so long as we say where it's come from, I don't see a problem) ^_^

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I put it there, I'm sure it will be fine, free press and advertising etc

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Quoting: "Hamish, post: 5047, member: 6"Official now? :p

It was official when the Linux blog went live :b

Hope there aren't any copyright/attribution issues with that image (for the record, I didn't put it there).

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Official now? :P

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This is one of the my most favorite game..yuppie!!

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I recommend mid wars, 5v5 matchmaking map with only one lane and almost no respawn timer. It's crazy fun, and people tend to rage less if you're bad in midwars.

Also, they've made it a lot more accessible recently, adding in things like range indicators and the like on skills, and having in game guides is just fantastic.

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unfortunately HoN didn't appeal me enough. it has native client and pretty good graphics, but i play LoL instead because its just much more simpler game to play and i'm too lazy to play hardcore.
too bad that LoL doesn't have native client. but it works without problems with playonlinux.
anyway i might give few more tries to HoN in the future

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Quoting: "Eddward, post: 5044, member: 78"So any how, it will be nice if LGP can get going again. But the market has gotten bigger. If they keep their DRM in future products, I know it can fail and I have other choices now.

Essentially my thoughts on it - they are going to have to become more competitive and until they are I can not really support them. Remove the DRM and release a competitive product.

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Quoting: "MaximB, post: 5037, member: 3"But I thought that it doesn't require and internet connection....I'm sure I've read it somewhere...

You probably have read it. I know I have. After the initial uproar LGP started to say the the network was not needed. From http://blog.linuxgamepublishing.com/2009/02/27/answering-the-lgp-drm-questions

QuoteIt is thanks to the discussions we had with the community that we took out the requirement to be online when yiou register, and the requirement to be online when you start the game.

When it originally came out they had said (http://www.linuxgamepublishing.com/press_releases/200806241.txt

QuoteOnce the key has been verified on the LGP servers, and the password registered
then you are good to go, you never need to worry about the system again. It
will call to the LGP servers each time the game starts, to verify its
details.

They also said

QuoteContingencies are made so that if no internet connection is available, the
game will never lock out legitimate customers.

I know first hand, those contingencies can fail. I believe the hang I saw was probably just a bug that resulted from some unexpected network condition. But I'm still very unforgiving in this case. This bug was in DRM code that serves no purpose other than to second guess if I deserve to run the software I've paid for. I will only really notice when it fails. OK, I sometimes notice the start up dialog and I'm insulted by it, but that could be removed and then DRM becomes at best a slow noop with bad failure conditions.

So any how, it will be nice if LGP can get going again. But the market has gotten bigger. If they keep their DRM in future products, I know it can fail and I have other choices now.

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I thought the whole point was you needed to be online to activate but after that you didn't need to do much? I thought it was only the initial activation it required the net for?

They really should remove their DRM completely though it doesn't do such a small company any favours.

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But I thought that it doesn't require and internet connection....I'm sure I've read it somewhere...

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Quoting: "gbudny, post: 5010"Ridiculous DRM? This is a joke?

"Some features includes:

LGP copy protection does not require internet connection to install or play the game.

OK. I feel obligated to call you on this one. I was vocal about LGP's DRM when they announced it. After a while I bought one of their games with the DRM during a sale to see what it was like. For a while it seem ok as much as I wanted to dislike it. The annoying dialog every time I'd start the game, reminding me it was calling home, irked me every time I saw it. But I went ahead and bought a second game, X3 with the DRM.

Last May I was still playing the game. May 23 I tried to start the game and it hung. To try and debug it I fired up strace and discovered the game was stuck in a select() system call on a socket connected to 87.117.204.64. Whois said that address belonged to LGP. X3 is not a network game and this error was happening before the the DRM/call-home dialog. Since I couldn't spend the even playing X3, I used the time to write a nastygram to LGP. I'm using that email for reference now.

At the time of the failure I was also unable to reach the LGP website. That day I could not play a single player game I paid for because of a network problem. I think it also demonstrates that if LGP were to go down, I may not be allowed to play the games I've purchased. I believe that adding DRM was a poor choice on LGP's part and as much as I appreciate what they have done for Linux gaming over the years, I believe they deserve a black eye for that one.

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Quoting: "gbudny, post: 5025"This is truth.
However since 2001 to 2009 they spent time and money on porting games to Linux PPC, Alpha, Sparc and x86-64 instead porting more new games to Linux x86-32.

Actually x86-64 is good because it's current, many more people use it today than 32-bit.
I use 64-bit and anyone with 4+ GB of RAM (unless they use PAE Kernel ;)).
Any PC today is 64-bit.

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Quoting: "Bumadar, post: 5019, member: 93"but so is steam which we are all exited about :)

Not about the DRM I am not. I am still loath to Steamworks and it is the main thing that gives me pause whenever I consider using Steam. This is why I am still very much in the Desura camp myself.

Quoting: "Bumadar, post: 5018, member: 93"agree, but that is something totally different then writing pieces about them still being invalid and create the mood he does where people fanaticly want LGP to go bust. its more then trollish, its like doing his best to make a company look bad or irelevant

Possibly, though LGP is not the only the company Larabel does this to. I will submit that LGP is the one that has tried to do the most for Linux, so it is worse in that respect though.

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Quoting: "MaximB, post: 5024, member: 3"I don't think that at 2012 they need to spend time and money on PPC, Sparc and Alpha. It's better that we get 3 Linux games a year from LGP, than zero.

This is truth.
However since 2001 to 2009 they spent time and money on porting games to Linux PPC, Alpha, Sparc and x86-64 instead porting more new games to Linux x86-32.

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I don't think that at 2012 they need to spend time and money on PPC, Sparc and Alpha.

Maybe they should choose easier games to port ?
If they see that the code is a mess and it's problematic, then port a different game.
I'm sure you can get all the technical details before you buy the porting rights.
Also as I've said before, use different porting/licensing approach.
Licensing an old game and trying to live of the sales is suicide.
Instead, try to release the Linux port closer to the release date of the game - and live of the % of Linux sales.
Hib anyone ?
Kickstarter ?
There are lots of opportunities out there, you need to evolve.

It's better that we get 3 Linux games a year from LGP, than zero.

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Quoting: "MaximB, post: 5021, member: 3"I love LGP and all they done for Linux gaming, but times have changed and they must evolve.
One thing I could not understand....why Ryan Gordon ported much more games than LGP (and newer games) ?

Ryan often didn't make patches for older games.
He didn't ported commercial games to Linux PPC, Sparc or Alpha.
For example he ported Candy Cruncher only to Linux x86.

QuoteMe: Did you ported Candy cruncher to Linux Sparc and PowerPC?

Ryan Gordon: We had it running on PowerPC for the Mac OS version, but I'm pretty sure
I only dird the x86 version. (LGP probably had source code access and
added Sparc and PPC ports).
--ryan.

"According to Ryan C. Gordon. a game port is not all that difficult and a single developer can spend anywhere from 24 hours to 3 months making a port. Could you confirm this? What then is it that takes such a long time getting a Linux-port out of the door?
Ryans estimate is based on the fact that a) a lot of the games he ports are already using OpenGL so the hardest part of a port doesn't exist, b) most of the games he ports have a custom or non-existent network stack, and so the second hardest part of a port is a whole lot simpler, and c) he is a coding machine, better than most at what he does, and he has 10 years experience doing it. Not everyone has his skill level."
http://www.hardware.no/artikler/ryan_c_gordon_and_michael_simms/68450/4
LGP has many unpublished games for Linux. Three months ago I found empty PPC folder on CD with Knights and Merchants: The Shattered Kingdom for Linux.

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I love LGP and all they done for Linux gaming, but times have changed and they must evolve.
One thing I could not understand....why Ryan Gordon ported much more games than LGP (and newer games) ?
I think LGP should not be porting old games, but as suggested before try to port game that are in production and get funds from Linux sales (40% to them 60% to the developers- or something similar).
Posting good 10 year old games is a bad idea.

They don't have to license the porting and sales rights, that as it seems never covers the costs.
Also they need to choose games that are easier to port, games that use more Linux friendly engines.

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Quoting: "whizse, post: 5011, member: 126"It's certainly less bad than some alternatives, but it's still DRM.

but so is steam which we are all exited about :)

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Quoting: "Hamish, post: 5007, member: 6"They do have to up their game now. It is not just them playing in the sandbox anymore.

agree, but that is something totally different then writing pieces about them still being invalid and create the mood he does where people fanaticly want LGP to go bust.

Quoting: "Hamish, post: 5007, member: 6"But I do agree that Larabel does tend to be a bit trollish - but he is like that about everything. :rolleyes:

its more then trollish, its like doing his best to make a company look bad or irelevant

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Quoting: "gbudny, post: 5010"Ridiculous DRM? This is a joke?

When I already own several of the games they sell with no DRM restrictions from another service, the joke happens to be on them. No matter how benevolent they try to make their DRM, it is still a bad practice and it did bite people who purchased LGP titles during their now infamous server outage. I personally do not find it to be defensible.

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Oh, and to get back to the topic, I would gladly support LGP, but they really need to do a full 180 before I start throwing money their way.

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It's certainly less bad than some alternatives, but it's still DRM.

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