I do not see much competition:
Desura: Launch platform for Windows, Mac OS X, and all versions of Linux.
Ubuntu Software Centre: Launch platform for only one version of Linux.

Keep in mind, by all accounts the majority of Linux users are still using other distros, even if out of all the distros Ubuntu has the most users. But the combined forces of Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE and the rest still far outnumber the total Ubuntu user share. So for any serious company, it would be a serious mistake to lock yourself to only one distribution. After all, there is still a common if incorrect belief that the Linux market is still to small for any developers to be seriously interested in anyway. Why would anyone want to more than halve that market? As such, I can not see the USC as being a serious thorn in Desura side. Any smart indie would be considering them first and the USC second.

And this is coming from someone who was not even that intersted in Desura until a few months ago. :)

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I think the only three words are appropriate here: What The @#$% :P

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Well, saying something looks better or works better are subjective Liam. I personally prefer interfaces with less bling, which is why I generally avoid compositing window managers and desktop effects, and the new website does have more bling than the old. I do agree that the theme for the old one was rather ugly though, and the fact that it did not fit with the forums was a sizeable aesthetic drawback. But I heartily respect the effort you put into the mobile website, and I may vary well use it when I am stuck on the modem as I am now. Still, considering I barely go to the main webpage and mostly just prowl around the forums looking for unsuspecting victims to assault with my devastatingly witty comments :p, it does not change much since this understandably can not change the forums. But the effort is appreciated. ;)

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Sorry for the double post, I think me and my modem need a little hammer time... :mad:

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I think they are setting their price a bit high if they want to compete with some of the other indies. I do think that some of them do undercharge sometimes, but having the full price at thirty bucks?

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How about a game called Invasion of the *Binary* Blobs? :p

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Overhauled the Steel Storm Wikipedia article in response:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Storm [External Link] (*edited link Rustybolts)

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I am not actually against your view entirely, as GOG is a wonderful service in many ways, and if the games are old enough to be on GOG they are not really commercially viable. I personally would still hesitate to buy for them at the moment though, but I do consider what you are doing to just be an acceptable compromise.

What I was many referring to is people who will spend their time buying Windows games developed in the last five to eight years and play them through Wine, and they turn around and say "it is all right, it works on Linux!". Majesty 2 would count as that, so I put that clearly in the "no" checkbox. But if you really want to play the original Baldurs Gate or Tomb Raider through Dosbox or Wine or whatever, I am not really that upset.

And sorry if my post was little spirited, I am just a little grumpy and irritated because it is May 8th and my pipes are still frozen meaning I do not have running water. :mad:

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Hey, well, I appreciated Majesty. It is not my most favourite game in the world but it can be fun, and it is Michael Simms favourite game FYI. Although I do not know how good the second game was, I would not mind trying it out, but would only be willing to do that if it has a native port. I do not "care" if it runs in Wine; for me the game does not exist unless it goes native.

I also disagree with your comment that porting games that work in Wine is necessarily a waste. Saying that something does not need to be ported because it works in Wine is giving the project too much legitimacy. Wine should be respected as a amazing technical feat, but it should not be treated as being equivalent to native applications. This is based on the fact we have to make the Linux ecosystem respected under its own merits, and the fact that I have only rarely had a game which ran flawlessly in Wine, and then when you are lucky enough to have one it gets screwed up in the next Wine release. Wine can never be trusted as providing official support for applications.

As for porting games that "do not run on Linux", if it has to be ran through Wine it does not run on Linux. It runs on virtual Windows, that is all Wine is. So Majesty 2 is just as much fair game as Gothic 3, 4 , Risen, and all of these other games I have never heard of. That is another thing, once I switched to Linux full time, I basically came to the conclusion that a game (well, at least any modern still commercially viable game) only really exists if it has a native port. If it does not, then it is not real. It is just some Windows fantasy.

Call it a bit of a twisted reasoning if you like, but it is that kind of stubroness that has gotten us this far, where you can game only on Linux and still play more games than you ever would want to. But until we are treated with respect, we must continue not to give them any. They must earn our respect, and our acceptance, by giving us the consideration of a port. And we in return, must be grateful. So I will be grateful to LGP for whatever they give us in the next few months (years?).

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Just to throw my hat into the ring, how about Majesty 2? :D

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