Guild Wars 2

MehWhatever.1248:

For now, it’s just WinRT, but it’s only a matter of time (and one, maybe two subsequent Windows releases) for Microsoft to lock down the desktop, too.

This isn’t going to happen for a very long time because there are too many existing customers (mainly enterprise but not only) that depend on the current behavior of the desktop. Windows RT is a different kettle of fish since it’s new devices only, but even there I can’t predict whether it’ll last too long – does anyone really want it? Will anyone really want it two years from now as Intel CPUs continue to improve their power efficiency and there’s not much reason not to just go with Windows 8?

Anyway, there are some people who are looking at Linux due to being disillusioned with Windows 8 – not really that many in the grand scheme of things, but they’re there, and a lot of them are gamers. So this may be a conversation ArenaNet will wind up having, sooner or later.

Sirius.4510:

MehWhatever.1248:

For now, it’s just WinRT, but it’s only a matter of time (and one, maybe two subsequent Windows releases) for Microsoft to lock down the desktop, too.

This isn’t going to happen for a very long time because there are too many existing customers (mainly enterprise but not only) that depend on the current behavior of the desktop. Windows RT is a different kettle of fish since it’s new devices only, but even there I can’t predict whether it’ll last too long – does anyone really want it? Will anyone really want it two years from now as Intel CPUs continue to improve their power efficiency and there’s not much reason not to just go with Windows 8?

Anyway, there are some people who are looking at Linux due to being disillusioned with Windows 8 – not really that many in the grand scheme of things, but they’re there, and a lot of them are gamers. So this may be a conversation ArenaNet will wind up having, sooner or later.

Well, I think WinRT is pretty much dead on arrival, largely because of its complexity. WinRT still has its roots on the desktop, and for a mobile OS it’s absolutely huge. Android needs a 500MB system partition, WinRT needs gigabytes. Android needs 512MB of RAM, WinRT seems to need 2GB. It’s good for a desktop OS, but not for mobile (unless you’re aiming for the premium market only). WinRT also inherits a lot of WinAPI code that’s not used any more because the new Metro API is built on top of it. I also doubt they’re on par with Android or MeeGo or anything else Linux based in terms of hardware abstraction. So in short, WinRT is a mess, and its advantages are very few (the only thing I can think about right now is Office).

Windows on the desktop, however, is a very different beast, as is Windows in the enterprise space. Microsoft has made it quite clear that sideloading is here to stay, at least for enterprises. The future of the desktop, however, seems to be a walled garden. It will, of course, be bypassable using the same enterprise tools to sideload apps, but it will make distribution outside the Windows Store much more complicated, and not everyone will want to mess with signatures and hidden settings just to install an app. If Microsoft wants (and they likely do), they can effectively lock most not-so-tech-savvy people in. And that’s why expanding to other platforms is important pretty much for everyone now.

DarkHorse.1059:

Game plays fine in Ubuntu with wine. No problems… doesn’t need a special client.

Not really ..

DarkHorse.1059:

Game plays fine in Ubuntu with wine. No problems… doesn’t need a special client.

I’d love to know your secret. To me GW2 in wine suffers from horrible fps as soon as I move the camera

There are many advantages with having an open ecosystem such as Linux when developers have full access to the source code and dont have to guess how things work in order to write good code, and there are no nasty suprises when metro or anything else is being forced uppon users, or the system is being locked down.

C’mon ArenaNet, you know you wanna!

ArenaNet you NEED to do this. With Steam on Linux and the rumored SteamBox you’d be throwing away money by NOT supporting Linux. I haven’t played GW2 for a long time now because I simply refuse to reboot my computer to play 1 game when I have many games that now run beautifully with Steam on Linux.

We want a Linux client so we can throw more money your way! =)

Spongeroberto.7182:

DarkHorse.1059:

Game plays fine in Ubuntu with wine. No problems… doesn’t need a special client.

I’d love to know your secret. To me GW2 in wine suffers from horrible fps as soon as I move the camera

That’s mostly because of raw support… Before they “fixed” it this issue was absent (although you had to use the raw3 patch).

That said… Once I’ve tried to recompile wine (from the wine-multimedia repository, with pulseaudio support) and actually got WAY better FPS, no freezes, no crashes, no big performance problems at all with maxed settings (although I do have some nice hardware)! Too bad, a week later, some unknown commit must have screwed things up, for the new version again caused a huge performance loss.
However, I’m still in possession of the version of wine which can actually run GW2 with no big performance loss (although that could be hardware dependant), if somebody wants I can upload a tarball on rapidshare. It’s been built on Debian Sid with libc 2.15 (i think) and nvidia support (although I don’t think it has AMD graphics support)…
Else, people can try to get an older version of wine (prior to 1.5.9, i think) and patch it with the raw3.patch that can be found on WineHQ

Come on Arena net! I refuse to install windows because all my games are in linux now with steam. Why don’t you do it too? Please!!!!

I vote for this. Linux is the future

With Steam for Linux release, I’m finally going to give Linux a go. It’s sad to see that so many games aren’t native to Linux and all of the workarounds a user must deal with in order to get many games running, including GW2. I would not hesitate to switch to Linux if GW2 had official support from ArenaNet, sine Valve and other game companies have begun to support it. Linux is free and open source, and Windows 8 is not looking too desirable.

Take notes ArenaNet, take notes…
http://store.steampowered.com/sale/linux_release/

+1 for Linux here too.

Safest bet would be a supported Ubuntu client (like the Steam client would mostly work beyond but you could only have to worry about supporting Ubuntu).

To be honest, like some others here have pointed out for themselves, I haven’t been playing GW2 either because I’ve been having more and more issues with my Windows partition. A GW2 client would be wonderful.

At the moment, trying to install it with Crossover since they have a pre-set up for it. Wish me luck.

With all my favorite games having been to Linux in most part, it’s rather unfortunate that I’m Guild wars 2 standing in the way of me making a complete switch, I’m knowledgeable enough to realize this shouldn’t be a heavy task for ArenaNet and should get on board on releasing a Linux client. I know and would be successful in using a 3rd party solution i.e WINE but I would prefer if this was endorsed by the parent company.

So please see how big thread this and realise the many more out there who would be very happy with this development. Please +1 for Linux

With the horrors of Windows 8 and the Apple-like computing scheme that comes with it, I went ahead and switched away to Linux last week. I am very happy and it rekindled my love for computers and learning. If you are thinking about switching, check out Ubuntu LTS first. It’s not the latest, but its stable and there is a lot of hand-holding throughout the experience.

Beyond that, the arguments I typically see are actually part of a larger cycle from what I can tell. The reason why many game companies choose not to create a Linux port for their products is because most gamers do not use Linux. However, I believe that most gamers do not use Linux because all the good games are on Windows. So it goes in a circle. I think this cycle is breakable by both sides just biting the bullet and supporting/switching to a major, user-friendly distribution of Linux such as Ubuntu, Mint, or the like.

I for one have done just that in hopes to become part of the solution (permanently switching to Linux at home) instead of remaining part of the problem (staying with Windows for whatever reasons).

Just saying.

EDIT: Just so that you guys know, you can play all sorts of Windows games in Linux. I have Diablo 3, Skyrim, and even DOS games running. And if you play Linux-native games such as Team Fortress 2, they run A LOT better in Linux than on the same PC with Windows.

MehWhatever.1248:

Metro is a matter of choice, though it seems like a complete clusterkitten of everything that could possibly go wrong and a bit more. The real issue here is that Microsoft is starting to build a closed ecosystem with Windows 8, a ‘walled garden’ similar to Apple’s. Windows RT doesn’t allow you to sideload applications, and other stores like Steam are not allowed on the Windows Store, which leaves the developers with the Windows Store itself as the only distribution channel. For now, it’s just WinRT, but it’s only a matter of time (and one, maybe two subsequent Windows releases) for Microsoft to lock down the desktop, too.

This is exactly right. I remember way back in the day, many years ago watching a keynote from Bill Gates talking about wanting to take Microsoft and computers in that exact direction. A closed system where everything is linked with Microsoft at the center of it all. They are, for all intents and purposes, doing just that. It’s just slow so the average PC user doesn’t catch on until its too late.

No, most companies don´t create linux games for 2 reasons
1 – Directx is a well known and documented library for game development with a huge base. Opengl was really obscure on its past and make Directx the best flavor for someone needing a more faster and stable development.
2 – Remember Loki. He went bankrupt. He was porting a lot of games to Linux and Linux Users pirated the games instead of buying the games. If it´s people forcing companies to work only with opensource games like some claimed that time I really don´t know. What I know is that it closed a huge amount of doors wanting to make good games on linux.

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/133824-valve-opengl-is-faster-than-directx-even-on-windows

Seems like a pretty good article on DirectX vs OpenGL and why we aren’t using all OpenGL games these days.

evolverzilla.2359:

No, most companies don´t create linux games for 2 reasons
1 – Directx is a well known and documented library for game development with a huge base. Opengl was really obscure on its past and make Directx the best flavor for someone needing a more faster and stable development.
2 – Remember Loki. He went bankrupt. He was porting a lot of games to Linux and Linux Users pirated the games instead of buying the games. If it´s people forcing companies to work only with opensource games like some claimed that time I really don´t know. What I know is that it closed a huge amount of doors wanting to make good games on linux.

1) Yep, DirectX is a great API. OpenGL was pretty bad. But that time is long past, and now it’s a very viable option, as proven by many games already.
2) Loki’s bankrupcy was caused by bad management and financial decisions, not piracy. Some people like to assume that Linux is free, and therefore everyone who uses Linux only uses free stuff and pirates the rest. This makes no sense at all. Just like with Windows, there are Linux users who pirate their games, but there also are those who pay for games, and from my experience, those are the majority.

P.S. On a sidenote, thank you for expressing your opinion in a neutral, unoffensive way.

Tyler.7168:

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/133824-valve-opengl-is-faster-than-directx-even-on-windows

Seems like a pretty good article on DirectX vs OpenGL and why we aren’t using all OpenGL games these days.

I have been looking into it a bit. It seems most indie developers and those who are learning to code games nowadays go for opengl. The AAA developers seem to prefer directX, and that kinda makes sense.

Indies need everyone they can to buy their game, so the 5% of players using linux and 15% using mac will be helpful—especially because those platforms are more indie-oriented.

AAA developers are typically mre old-school and need something that is stable and works. They have been using DirectX for a good while. They know they can sell games off of it and they know how it works. No reason to switch saddles if you know the horse you’ve got.

That being said. I feel if the pace keeps up, Opengl will be the API of choice in the next few years.

PS: the percentages were made up.

@Mehwhatever
I know opengl TODAY is much more complete than 10-20 years ago, but in computer time 10 years is like eons, and people jut create a huge directx base. So opengl will need more time to change minds. Maybe Valve change this showing the benefits of open source software, working togheter with proprietary developers but it will take time.

And about Loki.

Try piracy on a 90% market and try piracy on a 10% market. It will be a huge money difference.

Let´s see. Let´s imagine 1 million user. 90% windows, 10% linux (like Loki´s time). And let´s imagine a 50% piracy. On the first case we will have 450.000 paying customers. If they buy a 60 bucks game they will gain 27 million dollars. It´s a lot of money to pay for development process… Now to linux. 50.000 paying customers for a 60 dollar game. 3 million dollar. Well, it´s a lot of money but i don´t know if this will pay all trouble for distribution, production, rights, etc…

So Loki went bankrupt for piracy, there aren´t enough buying customers to pay the development costs. And even most linux users will never buy a proprietary software (even without piracy).

I´m not comparing linux piracy with windows piracy, both are bad and both have a lot of users. But linux piracy is more harmful than windows piracy.

Expanding… For an MMO game like GW2, piracy is not a problem, if you don´t pay you don´t play. But for most developers piracy is a big cut on their “game”.

evolverzilla.2359:

@Mehwhatever
I know opengl TODAY is much more complete than 10-20 years ago, but in computer time 10 years is like eons, and people jut create a huge directx base. So opengl will need more time to change minds. Maybe Valve change this showing the benefits of open source software, working togheter with proprietary developers but it will take time.

This makes sense, but you should remember that OpenGL is already used in many games, especially on OS X, PS3 and mobile.

evolverzilla.2359:

And about Loki.

Try piracy on a 90% market and try piracy on a 10% market. It will be a huge money difference.

Let´s see. Let´s imagine 1 million user. 90% windows, 10% linux (like Loki´s time). And let´s imagine a 50% piracy. On the first case we will have 450.000 paying customers. If they buy a 60 bucks game they will gain 27 million dollars. It´s a lot of money to pay for development process… Now to linux. 50.000 paying customers for a 60 dollar game. 3 million dollar. Well, it´s a lot of money but i don´t know if this will pay all trouble for distribution, production, rights, etc…

So Loki went bankrupt for piracy, there aren´t enough buying customers to pay the development costs.

This I do understand. But it’s not just piracy. Many games are still ported to Linux by ex-Loki employees. Piracy always plays its part, but the main reason was that they took on too many games at once, and couldn’t release any of them to make money for the rest.

evolverzilla.2359:

And even most linux users will never buy a proprietary software (even without piracy).

You came dangerously to losing me at this very sentence. Not all Linux users are GNU fanatics, and most of us already use proprietary software, at least in the form of hardware drivers / firmwares.

evolverzilla.2359:

I´m not comparing linux piracy with windows piracy, both are bad and both have a lot of users. But linux piracy is more harmful than windows piracy.

Stats or it didn’t happen.

evolverzilla.2359:

Expanding… For an MMO game like GW2, piracy is not a problem, if you don´t pay you don´t play. But for most developers piracy is a big cut on their “game”.

Agreed.

evolverzilla.2359:

@Mehwhatever
I know opengl TODAY is much more complete than 10-20 years ago, but in computer time 10 years is like eons, and people jut create a huge directx base. So opengl will need more time to change minds. Maybe Valve change this showing the benefits of open source software, working togheter with proprietary developers but it will take time.

And about Loki.

Try piracy on a 90% market and try piracy on a 10% market. It will be a huge money difference.

Let´s see. Let´s imagine 1 million user. 90% windows, 10% linux (like Loki´s time). And let´s imagine a 50% piracy. On the first case we will have 450.000 paying customers. If they buy a 60 bucks game they will gain 27 million dollars. It´s a lot of money to pay for development process… Now to linux. 50.000 paying customers for a 60 dollar game. 3 million dollar. Well, it´s a lot of money but i don´t know if this will pay all trouble for distribution, production, rights, etc…

So Loki went bankrupt for piracy, there aren´t enough buying customers to pay the development costs. And even most linux users will never buy a proprietary software (even without piracy).

I´m not comparing linux piracy with windows piracy, both are bad and both have a lot of users. But linux piracy is more harmful than windows piracy.

Expanding… For an MMO game like GW2, piracy is not a problem, if you don´t pay you don´t play. But for most developers piracy is a big cut on their “game”.

So, you made a bunch of numbers up and got to the conclusion that Loki went bankrupt because of piracy practiced by Linux users?

It’s sad to see that the image people get from Linux is the one spread by the zealots vocal minority. The good thing is that things like Humble Indie Bundle and hopefully Steam will show how we are willing to pay for games as much or even more than Windows/OSX users.

You can’t make a good linux client. Which distro? Which download format? What about every 6 months or so when everything is updated for all the major distros, which will probably break this game?

And worst of all: GPL v3. No commercial company in its right mind will allow their product anywhere near this mess.

danbuter.2314:

You can’t make a good linux client. Which distro? Which download format? What about every 6 months or so when everything is updated for all the major distros, which will probably break this game?

I have heard this concern a lot and am slightly off-put by it. Of course, then again, I use Arch. My system doesn’t break unless I authorize it to. To me, it doesn’t matter how they port the game. So long as they port it to a viable linux distribution, I can install the appropriate packages and it will work fine on my pc as well.

Even though I prefer Arch’s build system, ubuntu is the obvious port. It is the most popular, and valve has already lead the way on that distro. From there, the other distributions will port it to their own repositories, and that will be that.

I would like to mention that the question of “who to port to” does not seem (to me) to be as big of a deal as everyone makes it out to be. Port to the most popular distro. If someone’s pc cannot play the game, it is his/her job, as a native linux user, to fix it.

Just my 2 cents. Again, this is from an Archie who only knows C++ and python, so take them or leave them as you will.

Leios.8965:

Tyler.7168:

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/133824-valve-opengl-is-faster-than-directx-even-on-windows

Seems like a pretty good article on DirectX vs OpenGL and why we aren’t using all OpenGL games these days.

I have been looking into it a bit. It seems most indie developers and those who are learning to code games nowadays go for opengl. The AAA developers seem to prefer directX, and that kinda makes sense.

Indies need everyone they can to buy their game, so the 5% of players using linux and 15% using mac will be helpful—especially because those platforms are more indie-oriented.

AAA developers are typically mre old-school and need something that is stable and works. They have been using DirectX for a good while. They know they can sell games off of it and they know how it works. No reason to switch saddles if you know the horse you’ve got.

Everyone keep making the same mistake over and over. Opengl is a competitor to Direct3D, not to DirectX. Why most developers use DirectX? Because it has been made so that it’ll handle both input and output for you. On Windows, that’s it. If you don’t use DX you pretty much have to reinvent the wheel, and that is a big turn down.
Why indie developers use Opengl more than big SH? An Indie developer has the time to learn how to handle input/output without DX and on other OSs, and still make some money. Big SH have time tables and budgets to respect, and to make such a thing it’d take them a lot of money and time to retrain their programmers. Just look how much it took them to make Mac ports…
It’s not really about stability (heck, why even make games for Windows then), it’s more like a big “I don’t want to spend money on that and I don’t really care about what you think, so if you want to play my game do as I please” from SHs. At least, that’s how I see it. After all, why should they change while they can still milk the same old cow?

evolverzilla.2359:

So Loki went bankrupt for piracy, there aren´t enough buying customers to pay the development costs. And even most linux users will never buy a proprietary software (even without piracy).

I’m quite offended by that. To be quite fair, that’s a form of racism. I know there are some “free software extremists” that will never buy software, but first off they are mostly old school developers who probably aren’t interested in games anyways, and secondly they are probably not even as many as those “I won’t buy any games because I can torrent them, I’m so cool suckers” windows kiddies. And now don’t start saying that those aren’t the majority of Windows users, it’s the same kind of generalization.
Linux users don’t just use free or open software. As other people said before me, just check the data from Humble Bundle’s sales. Or just talk with some everyday Linux users.

danbuter.2314:

You can’t make a good linux client. Which distro? Which download format? What about every 6 months or so when everything is updated for all the major distros, which will probably break this game?

And worst of all: GPL v3. No commercial company in its right mind will allow their product anywhere near this mess.

That “which download format” actually made me laugh, and I’ll take you don’t have the slightest experience with Linux, probably you don’t even know what you’re talking about. Anyways…
1. Which distro?
You don’t have to rewrite the client for each distro. Just to repackage it. Actually, you don’t even have to do that, just look what happened with Steam’s package: Valve created a .deb package for Ubuntu and nothing more, but right after it appeared in Arch’s AUR. Users repackaged it, with not so many problems. Some rpm packages came along as well, and so did Debian-compatible .deb.
2. What about every 6 months or so when everything is updated for all the major distros, which will probably break this game?
Most (sadly not all) libraries are backwards compatible. Meaning you can probably still run the same client even after 6 months or so. But let’s say that the client will have to be compiled again… You are aware that the client itself gets updated every so often under Windows too, right? It’s not that they won’t update it at all (especially since GW2 is still at an early stage)… By the way, do you know how much it takes to compile a program?
3. GPL
Why should ANet use GPL for their client? They could make an open source client under GPL3 (in which case, they wouldn’t even have to package or compile it themselves, many other people would do so for them, thus invalidating the 2 issues above), but why? They can use any license they want for it, and they don’t have to make it open source or anything. Believing that everything on Linux must be licensed under GPL (or that its source code must be avaible) is a really stupid preconcept dictated by plain ignorance on the subject.

I switched to linux about 6 months ago when steam for linux came out. Couldn’t stand windows and I was willing to sacrifice Guild Wars 2 for a better system with 100 native games on steam (and counting….). My solution is this: Why don’t Arena net cut off the code for the authorise and release everything else. In that way everyone could package the game for its system. Then when you will download the client the authorize will be automatically packaged for your distro. There are not so many. The main distros which 99% of people use are just 5 which means it will be easy to package them.

Come on Anet, appease the linux crowd. Linux users heart GW2.

Savoritias.8194:

I switched to linux about 6 months ago when steam for linux came out. Couldn’t stand windows and I was willing to sacrifice Guild Wars 2 for a better system with 100 native games on steam (and counting….). My solution is this: Why don’t Arena net cut off the code for the authorise and release everything else. In that way everyone could package the game for its system. Then when you will download the client the authorize will be automatically packaged for your distro. There are not so many. The main distros which 99% of people use are just 5 which means it will be easy to package them.

That’ll be very easy to exploit. If the main client is open source, it will be impossible to produce identical binaries on all configurations, so even if the network code itself is implemented in a separate library, the client still has complete control over it, and arbitrary code can be disguised as the client quite easily.

I haven’t really read through the thread, but a Linux client would be really great.

Windowmaker.1683:

I haven’t really read through the thread, but a Linux client would be really great.

There were some great posts detailing the process of porting games, and some of the complications that can arise, so give it a read if that’s interesting for you. Other then that, it’s mostly +1s (that’s good) and Linux hate (that’s bad).

When purchasing Guild Wars 2, I was fully aware that it was a Windows-only game, and that’s fine. Also, I don’t expect ANet to just do something for free out of the goodness of their hearts (though it would be nice).

So, how about something like a Kickstarter program for a Linux client? I would pay an additional $20-$30 on top of what I have already paid for Guild Wars 2 to fund development of a native Linux client, and I’m sure there are many more out there who would do this as well. Do some math, find out how much it would cost to pay a developer to make and maintain a Linux client, and set that as a kickstarter goal (or something reasonable).

I would love to see this. Running via WINE isn’t the same as a native client, and doesn’t work for me in any case.

fog.1098:

So, how about something like a Kickstarter program for a Linux client?

That’s a good idea, I know I would pay.
Valve is doing a great job porting their games, but it would be nice to have some MMORPGs as well u.u .

As long as it doesn’t take away resources from other projects, cross-platform play is still there and it does not affect negatively the game, I don’t see why anyone should be against another platform, even if it’s consoles.

The more the merrier.

If Steam can do it, so can you anet

I would defintiely be interested to see the estimated cost of porting GW2 to linux (To see if a kickstarter would even be worth it). Two estimates would be nice: one with Cedega, and another as a true port. Anet is most likely going to use Cedega to port their game (if they port it at all) regardless of what we say or do, but it would be nice to see the cost comparison.

+1 for a Linux client! Always! Sure, I don’t feel at all entitled to it, and I’m used to running games in unsupported environments (it’s been so many years! I’m so old! AGH!), but I’m still as optimistic as ever.

I finally picked up GW2 today, after putting it off for some time now, (having anticipated it after many years of playing GW on wine), and am always interested in seeing Linux gaming really take off. On most days lately, the number of games on my Windows partition shrinks! I will try GW2 on wine this weekend, and from all the reports I’ve seen, it may work out all right, but native/supported via a compatibility layer is much nicer.

With the advent of Steam on Linux, I’ve bought more PC games in the last week then I have in the last several years. I’d probably have ordered a GW2 Collector’s edition at launch instead of waiting for a deal and an opportune time if Linux was supported from the beginning, and will certain play more often/buy more extra stuff if I don’t have to reboot to play.

That said, perhaps us Linux users are just too capable, resourceful and easy-going to put real pressure on game developers? I know plenty of Mac users that think the operating system is somehow baked into the hardware, while I’ve never met a Linux user that wasn’t willing to install something new to get what they want. It probably doesn’t help matters that you need to specifically want Linux to use it on almost all available-at-retail desktops and laptops.

We want Linux Client please!

Even if a native client would be out of the question, at the very least a wine wrapped port with some native support would be amazing. Getting gw2 with a precompiled wine build ala the Mac sox port of gw2 and numerous humble bundle ports would be nice.

DarkHorse.1059:

Game plays fine in Ubuntu with wine. No problems… doesn’t need a special client.

If you have no problems running GW2 under wine, consider yourself very lucky. A quick visit to the winehq page will show you major problems, including these:

The installer crashes at regular intervals while downloading the game the first time.
The launcher disappears and cannot be used unless the -dx9single flag is used.
Character rendering is corrupted every time you change clothes/armor.
The trading post (and therefore the economy) is completely inaccessible unless you have a specially-patched build of wine.
Screen shots are horribly corrupted.
Surround sound doesn’t work at all.
The highest quality textures cannot be selected unless you use an older version of wine.
Multi-core CPUs are not used properly, leading to much worse performance in wine than in Windows on the same hardware. Even with the fastest, newest intel i5 with all cores pushed to max boost speed (which is technically overclocking) GW2 struggles to do more than 20 fps on a quiet day in Lion’s Arch overflow, while the GPU sits and twiddles its thumbs.

danbuter.2314:

You can’t make a good linux client. Which distro? Which download format? What about every 6 months or so when everything is updated for all the major distros, which will probably break this game?

And worst of all: GPL v3. No commercial company in its right mind will allow their product anywhere near this mess.

Yes, you can, as Valve has proven with their Steam client. Target Ubuntu on x86, because it’s the single most widely used desktop distro in the world. Offer deb downloads (or a repo), and maybe a tarball. That covers Ubuntu, all of its derivatives, and probably all debian derivatives as well, natively. It is trivial to extract the files from a deb or tarball for use on other distributions.

Regular updates every 6 months or so do not tend to break apps on Ubuntu systems, because the old libraries are carried forward and remain available in new releases. I’m still using ancient versions of Skype, Nero, Amazon Downloader, World of Goo, Amnesia, Stepmania, and others. All have survived years of OS upgrades just fine. If you’re really paranoid, target an LTS release.

GPL does not attach itself to commercial games deployed for linux, and therefore has nothing to do with this discussion.

Perhaps aNet should make an OpenGL option for their Windows client and then tell WINE users to use the -opengl argument. I’m curious as to what the more Linux/UNIX savvy people in this forum have to say to my idea.

John Yanez.5486:

Perhaps aNet should make an OpenGL option for their Windows client and then tell WINE users to use the -opengl argument. I’m curious as to what the more Linux/UNIX savvy people in this forum have to say to my idea.

If they do that, they would have ported the most complicated part. Adding input and audio abstractions would be pretty easy, maybe even through winelib.

John Yanez.5486:

Perhaps aNet should make an OpenGL option for their Windows client and then tell WINE users to use the -opengl argument. I’m curious as to what the more Linux/UNIX savvy people in this forum have to say to my idea.

I would be very interested to try such a thing. I’m not a wine developer, but I have read that wine’s inefficient Direct3D-to-OpenGL translation layer could explain GW2’s poor multi-core performance. Native OpenGL support might make it run much better on wine, and would probably be a huge step toward a real linux client.

I have friends that use linux and want to buy the game. Heck, I want to switch to linux and can’t because there are so many games that aren’t playable on there. But with Steam making a linux version, that won’t be an issue for long.

So please A-net, make a linux version of the client! I want to play with my friends!!

I just have to say, while many people seem to think this is a good idea, they don’t really understand the basics behind the business end of the idea.

Valve makes games for Linux because Valve makes games for everything in an attempt to push as much crap on as many idiots as possible.

People with Linux are mostly people who either don’t want to, or can’t spend money. Exactly the wrong kind of people to try to market a product to.

Instead, get the Mac client going, and then we can all go over there and be happy.

Linux users don’t get accounts for free. The question would be, is there’s a large enough market demand in the linux platform. See, the money they save on the OS, they spend it on the games. lol. Oh, and GW2 could be the killer app for linux for the gamers.

Zahld, that would be great, except developing a working version of an MMO on an OS that changes on the whims of the completely random people that make it is… well, it’s hard. Most console games, from small indie titles to big Steam titles are not often updated, and are easy to port to anything. Look at Skyrim as a perfect example. It can be played on everything from the Xbox to a calculator.

MMO games do not work like this.

yes, I want Linux client as well since I want to switch to full time Linux.

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

Valve makes games for Linux because Valve makes games for everything in an attempt to push as much crap on as many idiots as possible.

I love you too. Sincerely, an idiot who plays crap.

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

People with Linux are mostly people who either don’t want to, or can’t spend money. Exactly the wrong kind of people to try to market a product to.

OK, real talk now. Take that generalization and shove it up your kitten. As a Linux user I’m offended by this and I’m not going to tolerate this any more. I pay for all my games, and most people I know do the same, no matter what platform they are on.

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

Instead, get the Mac client going, and then we can all go over there and be happy.

If they make a native Mac client, there will be no reason not to target Linux.

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

Zahld, that would be great, except developing a working version of an MMO on an OS that changes on the whims of the completely random people that make it is… well, it’s hard.

I’m not really sure who you mean, but here is what Linus Torvalds (yes, that guy who wrote Linux) thinks about binary compatibility. Also, I guess Fujitsu, IBM, Intel, HP, NEC, Oracle, Samsung, AMD, Cisco, Citrix, Google, Hitachi, Huawei, Motorola, Panasonic, Toyota, Adobe, ARM, Barnes and Noble, Broadcom, Canonical, D-Link, Dell, DreamWorks, Epson, LG, Marvell, MIPS, Nokia, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Siemens, Sony, Twitter, VMWare, Yahoo and many others really are random people. Seriously, does anyone know any of those companies?

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

Most console games, from small indie titles to big Steam titles are not often updated, and are easy to port to anything. Look at Skyrim as a perfect example. It can be played on everything from the Xbox to a calculator.

How come my calculator can’t handle it? Also, I suggest you go and do some research on console architectures and SDKs. They don’t port games to consoles because it’s easy, they port games to consoles because that’s where the money is.

TL;DR Ignorance ignorance ignorance personal offence ignorance.