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Latest Comments by Purple Library Guy
Stellaris: Apocalypse is due soon & there's a new overview video up, also a note about Linux sales
16 Feb 2018 at 8:51 am UTC

Quoting: KandarihuI wish we could point out to Paradox that the reason for the abysmally small market share in Linux is largely due to growth of Windows in Asia (particularly China) is outstripping Linux growth worldwide.
Growth in Steam membership /= growth in number of computers, and both of those things are /= to growth in game purchases, particularly since a good deal of that growth in Steam use is oriented towards the playing of a single very popular game. That is, the growth in Asian Steam use does not mainly represent a growth in Windows in Asia but rather an expansion of Steam into an existing market which was always of mainly Windows computers. And the growth in Asian Steam use very likely does not imply many Asian Windows sales of Paradox games since, at least for the moment, most of them are mainly interested in purchasing and playing one single game and it's not from Paradox.
So if we pointed your point out to Paradox we would be mistaken.

Stellaris: Apocalypse is due soon & there's a new overview video up, also a note about Linux sales
15 Feb 2018 at 10:36 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: libgradev
Quoting: liamdaweThis is what I find interesting though, you're not forced to buy the DLC, you can likely buy the base game and be content with the many hours it would bring you. Once it feels stale, pick up one the major DLC and so on. Paradox strategy games are generally full of content to keep you busy without expansions.
True, you're not, but from the article: "I've thought for too long the combat in Stellaris was quite lacking". I'd just rather play a 'functionally' complete game once (either with/without ~3 content expansions). The model often used here just feels like too much of a guessing game personally.

I do appreciate the flexibility Paradox's approach affords though - for myself (and possibly others in my position) it just doesn't sit quite right :)
I think most of the actual gameplay changes/enhancements that accompany a DLC do get rolled into the main game, though. So if I don't buy Apocalypse I won't get the planetbusters or the huge flagships but I will still get the Cherryh rule changes, not so? So if the rule changes improve combat I get my improved combat, and if I buy the game after Apocalypse comes out I will be buying a version of the game with the improved combat.

Stellaris: Apocalypse is due soon & there's a new overview video up, also a note about Linux sales
15 Feb 2018 at 7:57 pm UTC

Quoting: jens
Quoting: Alm888
Quoting: KimyrielleIn other words, yes, I think you're a part of the problem here.
No, I am part of the solution! :D
Yeah, this is what every extremist believes right? I haven't found a case in history where that ever turned out positive..
I'm not sure disagreeing with one person with "extreme" views on one topic is a valid reason to claim the median between opposing views is the correct answer in all cases without regard for specifics. Maybe the right answer would have been for Stalin to compromise and only kill off half as many people? Perhaps the Americans should only have napalmed half of Vietnam? Maybe we should be working with a theory of the solar system in which the Earth and the Sun switch off which one is at the centre every leap year, instead of accepting those radical Galilean ideas whole hog.
When the radicals turn out to be right, their thesis stops being radical and becomes received wisdom, and so it doesn't occur to anybody to consider it a "case in history" in which extremists were right.

The Communist Dogifesto, a sci-fi FPS built on Linux is now out and it's open source
15 Feb 2018 at 7:47 pm UTC Likes: 3

My problem here is that, from the description, I'm kind of on the dogs' side. I mean, dragged away from Earth to a space station by a brutal regime, the poor dogs are subjected to creepy experimentation. Gaining intelligence, they revolt against their oppressors. Well, who wouldn't? And so the game puts me in the shoes of the last remaining tyrant? Well, crap.

Stellaris: Apocalypse is due soon & there's a new overview video up, also a note about Linux sales
15 Feb 2018 at 7:22 pm UTC Likes: 3

I've never quite understood the big problem with Steam "DRM". As far as I can tell, I can play my games in offline mode without an internet connection. So, like, the games will play without phoning home. So what's the problem? What Dee Arrs are actually being Emmed here?

Stellaris: Apocalypse is due soon & there's a new overview video up, also a note about Linux sales
15 Feb 2018 at 7:19 pm UTC

Quoting: Leopard
SteamOS didn't turn out to be what we all hoped
Without AAA games and lack of popular games , what did they expect exactly?
They maybe expected that Valve's apparent, and indeed claimed, push to make Linux gaming a mainstream thing was real. But Valve's efforts both to make SteamOS a solid gaming platform and to make Steam Machines a thing were half-hearted and have so far produced few results. So I think it's fairly reasonable for Paradox to consider their hopes dashed.

Consider that both your problems 1 and 3 are susceptible to having money thrown at them, money which Valve didn't throw. It's less obvious that (3) could be solved with money, but seems to me it would be possible to simply pay NVidia to fix their closed driver issues. Sign a contract all nice and specific, NVidia makes their drivers work on Wayland and does other laundry list of things in return for Valve providing one (1) boatload of money. Then it's still all closed and Seekrut so NVidia's happy. It's not the ideal solution, but it would work.
Now that said, Valve has done more for Linux gaming by far than any other entity related specifically to gaming, and I don't think Valve actually owes it to anybody to singlehandedly make Linux a viable mainstream gaming desktop with a significant market share. But they did give people reasons to hope they were going to do that, so it's not unreasonable for someone like Paradox to say "We hoped they were going to do that and it hasn't happened."
I've been saying for years that the current momentum for Linux gaming is threatened if Linux fails to actually pick up market share (although this is mitigated by engine support making cross-platform releases easier for game developers who use them).

(Your problem 2 I don't agree exists--use a distro intended for user friendly and Linux is more user friendly than Windows)

THQ Nordic now own Koch Media GmbH
15 Feb 2018 at 9:36 am UTC

Quoting: no_information_here
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI was assuming that Koch Industries had lots of little subsidiaries of various sorts, which it may but clearly not that one.
I would be careful with associating everything on the planet named "Koch" with the american industrialists. It is just a German family name. Lots of people share it and I am sure would be horrified to be associated with the Koch brothers.

Just pray that some jerk that shares your last name doesn't become a notorious dictator! Snap judgements by association are common but ultimately unfair.
My dear fellow, I think you are perhaps over-reacting a tad.

THQ Nordic now own Koch Media GmbH
15 Feb 2018 at 12:47 am UTC

Quoting: Eike
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI know nothing about the specifics. However, one thing that's certain is that the Koch brothers are assholes. So all else being equal, things relevant to us not being owned by them should be a good thing.
Koch Media(1) is not owned or founded by any Koch brothers. I guess you're confusing this with Koch Industries(2)?

(1) a not too big German media company, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Media [External Link]
(2) an big US corporation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries [External Link]
Ah, thank you for the clarification. Yes, I was (well, I was assuming that Koch Industries had lots of little subsidiaries of various sorts, which it may but clearly not that one).

THQ Nordic now own Koch Media GmbH
14 Feb 2018 at 4:55 pm UTC Likes: 1

I know nothing about the specifics. However, one thing that's certain is that the Koch brothers are assholes. So all else being equal, things relevant to us not being owned by them should be a good thing.

Microsoft is rumoured to be looking to buy Valve, EA and others
11 Feb 2018 at 3:52 pm UTC

Quoting: Whitewolfe80
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: KuduzkehpanWhat if Valve buys microsoft first, then open sources it and removes found unsafe codes :D yea welcome to GNU/windows. maybe then we replace kernel and upstart bla bla bla. dx12 with Vulkan. Yea LoL for the night.
Ha, Then it is discovered that it has been BSD with a shell on it since Windows 8, because they copied Apple?

Just as likely...
Well that would be history repeating itself given that Apple gave ms the GUI and the mouse interface while MS was being courted by apple way back in the late 70's
Not that Apple invented any of those things themselves.