Hopefully their long-standing clicking bug won't plague the Linux version as well.

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I think somewhere in the FAQ they say the monthly subscription gives you 80 hours' worth of credits. But that was two weeks ago so don't quote me on that.

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Open source is awesome, but having skilled developers hired full time to work in open source is magnificent. My thanks to Valve in this regard.

Quoting: meggermanValve were right about Microsofts goals with regards to gaming on windows via the app stores and a walled garden approach. Recently MS has been moving forward at a faster pace with their xbox integration and valve are ( relatively speaking ) running out of time for a viable alternative.

I thought that had stalled a while ago, but I've been hearing about their app store becoming a reality recently and some kind of controversy involving a certain game's release. @Liam, as someone who isn't trying to keep up on Windows happenings, a "state of gaming on Windows" article would be interesting. It might not be "gaming on Linux" per se, but people keep saying Microsoft's moves are the driving force behind Steam's Linux efforts so it would be informative to see the correlations. And if Microsoft's crappy new restrictions extend beyond games, that's even better for Linux adoption :)

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Quoting: chancho_zombieYes you can choose your OS, you can choose Ubuntu ( it's still being implemented)
look https://youtu.be/sVLL0XLASbM?t=2m14s

I understand the fact that it could actually harm linux gaming. But on the other side if it runs virtualized ubuntu boxes it could potentially bring some new users into linux. Remember there are some people that don't even know how to burn a dvd image or to copy a usb image, having linux in just a few clicks is sort of convenient.

Now that's pretty interesting. If I look at my own situation, that means I could buy Mad Max (counted as a Linux sale) wherever I want (suppose I want to buy directly from Feral to support them), play it on a Linux computer with a month's subscription, and be done with it. Whereas right now I can't play it on my specs and would have to wait a few years until I upgrade my GPU. And several years down the line the game would still be in my Steam account and I could replay it on my newer PC whenever I want. That's really not so bad. Kind of like buying a console game and renting the console for a weekend every so often until you can afford to buy it.

As for the other part of your comment, a free ad-based virtual system does sound like it could be a convenient testing environment for a lot of things. One-click install and three hours to try out Ubuntu for the first time? Cool! A fast system where you can test unstable builds and wipe it in minutes if everything crashes and burns? Could be nice. Free access to a Windows system for those times Wine just won't cut it and there's no alternative? Better than paying a license to Microsoft and dual-booting, I say.

I don't see myself subscribing full-time, but there's potential here. I'll keep them in the back of my mind.

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Quoting: chancho_zombieIt looks really promising . How does it work? The videos I saw will let you use a full fledged windows 10, and then you have to login into steam? It's like a virtualbox on the cloud?

Pretty much, except it's more powerful than a virtualized PC since it doesn't run on a fraction of your actual computer's power, but rather it's an independent computer that's better than your own. You're not limited to Steam either, you can install and run anything that's Windows-compatible and compliant with their terms (no torrenting, for example, so you can't use it as a seedbox). Basically you're renting a gaming PC and controlling it remotely.

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I've seen a few services like this come up over the years and it doesn't look like anything really caught on and managed to stay alive. I saw a new one on Kickstarter a few months back. I also remember playing a Tomb Raider game on Square's Core Online for free with ads every 20 minutes or so. It wasn't ideal, but if you can't afford games and don't want to steal them, I figured it was a pretty cool service. Even today, if I could play any PC game for say 10$ a month and practically never have to upgrade my computer again nor buy games separately (LiquidSky doesn't do the latter), it would be worth considering. But you do need a competitive price point and a very reliable service to offset the disadvantages (can't play without an Internet connection, can't play if the server is down, you'll always have at least some lag by design, it's unlikely anyone could provide every game on the market, prime time would probably be difficult for the servers...).

If you're a frugal gamer like me who doesn't play that many games, buys them on sale and waits years to play "hot new games" because you only upgrade your PC every 5 years or more, it's hard to compete on the pricing angle in the long run (for 120$ a year, I could just as well save up for PC parts instead). The only real benefits would be the ability to play games at release and access to non-Linux games.

I'll admit that the way LiquidSky are handling this is interesting, though. Allowing you to control your remote PC and install/run almost whatever you want on it definitely makes it more compelling. You could even use it as a render farm of sorts if you're a movie maker on a budget. With that much freedom, though, I wonder how they'll handle virus-riddled machines. I'd be more interested if you could choose the OS your SkyPC runs on and if you could rent them sporadically without losing your data every time you go on hiatus.

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It's out now! :)
http://steamcommunity.com/games/336240/announcements/detail/483411560865255731

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Quoting: GoboIt looks very interesting indeed, but I doubt non native speakers will get the most out of it. Some challenges seem to be done under time constraints and some words could be hard to grok. And I somehow doubt such a game can be seamlessly localized.

I disagree on the first count. In one video I watched I immediately saw the anagram for "down" while the reviewer had to think about it for a couple seconds. I think it would be a more accurate assessment to just say you need a certain level of proficiency with English, as with any word game.

Now localizing a game like this, that would be quite the challenge. Imagine the added difficulty of dealing with languages that use different alphabets, when even some of the environment relies on letters (for instance the spike traps made of A's), not to mention the protagonist's body.

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Wishlisted (33% sounds like a really good deal so soon after release, but then I haven't really been gaming these past couple months...).

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I was very excited when I saw this Kickstarter campaign because I remember my uncles playing the original games when I was a kid and having tons of fun with them. I think it's the second project I backed and Kickstarter was still a new concept to me. Now Stainless is a company I never want to support again and I just don't give a shit about the franchise anymore. It's sad.

I've backed several other projects on KS and IGG since, however, and had positive experiences with nearly all of them. You just gotta be discerning and see if the things promised to you are likely to be achieved by the creators based on their track record--or determine how much money you're willing to gamble on indies that don't have much of a reputation. In this particular case, a company that adds Linux support in a stretch goal as an afterthought is very different from a company that provides a Linux demo up front and expects a simultaneous release.

I always shake my head when I see someone say they'll never use crowdfunding again because they got burned by one project. It's like saying you fell victim to phishing and you'll never use e-mail again. You're blaming the tool and giving up on all the useful things it can do in the right hands.

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