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Latest Comments by Purple Library Guy
The top 100 best sellers on Steam from 2016
2 Jan 2017 at 9:35 pm UTC Likes: 3

43/100 is definitely better than I would have expected. It also cuts directly against the meme of Linux games being all "crappy" indie games--to the contrary, clearly Linux has a bigger percentage of the top games than of games overall. I mean, I dunno how many of these top-selling games were technically "AAA" games in terms of mammoth budgets from big companies, but surely it's more important to have the games people actually bought than the most bloated ones.

I'd have to say this comes close to settling something: Really hard core gamers may still have reasons to want/need Windows so they can have every latest and greatest they choose. But for casual, or even average, gamers nearly half of the top sellers is plenty enough to be able to say, "Yeah you can play games on it".

System76 have been working with NVIDIA on Linux driver fixes, a chat with the System76 community manager
28 Dec 2016 at 9:44 pm UTC

System76 are great, and this is a good sign.
I'm also fond of ZaReason, who also ship Linux computers--the nice thing for me is that they will ship computers preloaded with distros other than Ubuntu, such as Mint.

Your staff are a bit more needy in Prison Architect update 11
28 Dec 2016 at 8:53 pm UTC

Quoting: GuestI see a lot of enthusiasm around linux gaming lately, phoronix had an article like "2016 was great for linux games" etc: I probably have more linux games than the average linux user (346 games in steam, plus a bunch on gog), I game on linux since Loki days (I have Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri from Loki on cd-rom, with the little tux icon on the cover) and in all honesty I can't share that enthusiasm...
I have that, too. Such a great game. There are some hacks to make it still run today, pretty much. It's funny, we have the new one (Civ: Beyond Earth) and at least one clone (Pandora) but what I'd really, really like is for someone to just take Alpha C., update the interface and the graphics, maybe make sure it was pretty moddable, and otherwise slavishly leave it completely alone.
I don't have nearly as many games as you do and yet I'm much more positive about the flood of games lately. The question isn't "Are we much better off for games now than before?" because we clearly are. The question is, can this surge sustain and continue? That's a bit more up in the air. The foundations lack solidity because Linux continues to lack (desktop) users.

Lifeless Planet Linux beta has been updated, with improved graphics from the PS4 version
26 Dec 2016 at 10:50 pm UTC

Lifeless, huh? It looks like a picture of Saskatchewan with a grain elevator.

Some thoughts on Age of Conquest IV
23 Dec 2016 at 11:10 pm UTC Likes: 3

Actually, a quickish strategy game I can dip in and out of is just the sort of thing I'd find nice right about now. I'll look into it.

Iron Sky Invasion now has a Linux beta on Steam, uses Wine
22 Dec 2016 at 5:29 pm UTC

Quoting: EnverexWhich bit(s) were assumptions? You used the word "hacks" so I assume you meant "not really great bits of code, but at least it gets the game working" which is typically what the word hacks means when applied to code.
Ah, the nuances of language. I didn't use the word "hacks". It's true the noun "hack", like if you say something is "a hack", generally means what you said. But the verb "to hack" does not generally have those implications. If someone is "hacking" on something, it does not imply that they are creating inferior code. I used the verb. And I can't think of any obvious reason in context why I would be claiming that all game programmers are inferior.

So it seemed to me that you were making the assumption that if someone is programming games, and they make some fixes to Wine, those fixes will be lousy, presumably because they are game programmers and either unskilled, unskilled in things relevant to Wine, or completely focused on their immediate problem to the exclusion of general utility. As I say, this strikes me as loading in rather a lot of assumptions.

Civ VI Steam forum mods banning users for expressing Linux support
21 Dec 2016 at 5:25 pm UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: BlackBloodRumWell, I was 100% sure I was going to buy Civ VI. But after seeing this.. I'm about 0% sure I'm buying it. In fact I'm tempted to just ignore it if it releases on Linux.

They are now anti-linux (the only platform I use) so why should I continue to support someone who dislikes me and my platform?

Sorry guys, but they just lost a guaranteed sale.
That makes no sense, the company didn't do it. It's not even their forum it happened on.

Civ VI Steam forum mods banning users for expressing Linux support
21 Dec 2016 at 3:30 am UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: SeeK
Quoting: Purple Library GuyIn a moderated space, you can potentially kill them with kindness. If you are skilled and restrained you could perhaps repeatedly answer them with sufficient sweetness and calm as to frustrate them into trying harder to get a rise, and lure them into getting themselves banned when their attempts to make you mad cross the line. But it's a delicate procedure and won't work on someone experienced.
That's cute, but this guy is literally a professional troll. I think you'll find that he has nothing personal to lose or gain. He has the advantage of experience and a paycheck from Microsoft.
Indeed, I wasn't recommending such a tactic against this particular person. The flooding approach might help--if his posts are quickly buried by a bunch of posts that ignore him, it makes it less likely that other people will feel like answering him and getting the toxic discussion going. It'd take a certain amount of teamwork though, a critical mass of people all agreeing that when they saw a post by this person, they would quickly post something to the thread that bypassed his contribution--replying to someone else, or something.

Civ VI Steam forum mods banning users for expressing Linux support
20 Dec 2016 at 11:04 pm UTC Likes: 4

Quoting: Kels
Quoting: SeeKIf this were a situation in which we could harmlessly ignore these people, that would be great. The problem is that these trolls are infiltrating the system and sabotaging our very ability to communicate respectfully with developers and amongst ourselves where they operate.

Remember, Microsoft pays people to crash Linux conventions for a reason.
"Don't feed the trolls" has NEVER worked, even back on USENET.

It's even less effective when what the "trolls" want is your silence.
Kind of like the ancient parental advice to just ignore the bullies. Really, really doesn't help.
Not all problems have solutions at all. In an unmoderated space, there really is little or nothing you can do about trolls--about the only thing is, if you have superior numbers, just swamp them, get a group of people to agree that every time the troll makes a post, immediately post a bunch of other stuff that isn't a reply so they are almost instantly a page ago and thus irrelevant. Apparently this is actually a tactic used by propagandists--from intelligence services and such--to marginalize opposing political viewpoints in internet spaces they are trying to influence.

In a moderated space, you can potentially kill them with kindness. If you are skilled and restrained you could perhaps repeatedly answer them with sufficient sweetness and calm as to frustrate them into trying harder to get a rise, and lure them into getting themselves banned when their attempts to make you mad cross the line. But it's a delicate procedure and won't work on someone experienced.

Pizza Crash, a prototype game about delivering pizza which shows promise
20 Dec 2016 at 12:37 am UTC

The Deliverator takes no guff from upstart hot dog trucks. The Deliverator stands tall, your pie in thirty minutes or you can have it free, shoot the driver, take his car, file a class-action suit.