Guild Wars 2

With the recent push toward Linux in the PC industry in general, do you have any plans for a Linux compatible game client?

+1 for Linux.

Windows 8 has been a godsend for me. I have wanted to move completely Linux for so long…the only thing holding me on Windows was gaming. But the software industry has been so angry with Windows 8 that there has even been an announcement by Blizzard that they have been developing a Linux native game.

Anyway, in case you didn’t know, you can grab a workable GW2 install on Linux using Wine and “Play On Linux.” I am installing right now so I can’t speak as to how well it works, but a lot of people have been posting about it.

There is already a thread going about this. A Client For Linux

I agree though when I saw windows 8 in the alpha stage I was like “Um this isn’t going to work for gamers and certain applications”.

I think also what woke people up to Linux is Android while it isn’t a desktop it did expose people to it’s potential and gave Apple/Microsoft some real competition. The people can benefit from having competition and right now Linux is now coming into light for allot of people as a very viable alternative.

I’ve been using Linux for nearly 15 years so I’ve witnessed it’s evolution first hand along with it’s API’s it is More than possible to have a game native to Linux. The problem is as I stated on the other post. Microsoft has a monopoly on the game industry with DirectX and allot of the Game Developers don’t want to pay to 1. re-train current software devs or 2. Higher news ones all together for use with OpenGL.

However more and more I see games now that began in Linux crossing over to Windows like Nexuiz . Also seeing game engines with crossover support out of the box like Uningine. However I think the future of games as online broadband connections are much easier and cheaper to obtain cloud gaming like On-Live and Gaikai is active and will be more popular in the near future.

Yeah I saw the other thread as it were.

There is a lot of things culminating right now which is causing Linux to emerge as a major competitor for the game industry. Not the least of which is Microsoft’s catastrophe of Windows 8. Microsoft’s choices with Windows 8 have made OEM’s, software developers, and users alike, to varying degrees, raise up and look for alternatives.

As far as games that began in Linux crossing over to Windows, I can only guess that the dev’s saw an opportunity for money making. I would also point out that in the last 3 months we are seeing a very large shift in games towards Linux (large is a rather relative term here…since only a very small percentage of game dev’s have done/announced anything…but that is huge given the resounding silence that was the reality of game development for Linux just a year ago).

And you may have a point regarding Cloud gaming…but I think the performance gains that you see by eliminating a rate-limiter such as an internet connection are going to mean on hard disk games are going to predominate for the foreseeable future.

Regardles…if I can get reasonable performance from Wine and Play On Linux for the time being, I am going to kiss my Window’s good bye. Dual-booting is a pain when I do software development on one side but not the other.

That’s exactly what people said back when Vista came out.
That’s exactly what people said back when Windows NT came out.
That’s exactly what people said back when Windows 98 came out.

Do you see the pattern?

I think you have a point there.

However, I do not think I am “jumping the gun” as it were. Here are some differences between then and now.

This is the first time Windows has tried to lock you into Windows at the hardware level with UEFI-boot.

This is the first time “triple A” game developers have announced plans to move forwared with Linux native platforms (Valve and Blizzard).

On the compatibility note (between Linux and games), Wine has come a long way between even Vista and now. Furthermore, we have seen hardware manufacturers expand Linux support which has even further increased performance on Linux gaming (see Nvidia’s change in position regarding driver support for Linux).

I mean…you could ignore all of these, or argue that they aren’t as drastic/game changeing as I make them seem…but I would caution against ignoring them completely.

Bottom line is, Microsoft has recently generated a lot of ire in the PC market…OEM’s are unhappy, game developers are unhappy, users are even unhappy…and unhappiness nurtures action.

Ravenmoon.5318:

That’s exactly what people said back when Vista came out.
That’s exactly what people said back when Windows NT came out.
That’s exactly what people said back when Windows 98 came out.

Do you see the pattern?

No it’s not exactly the same this time around because the UI has been completely changed as well morphed into some kind of pile of crap of Tablet knock off style GUI. On top of it for other issues that is whirling around it. Also Vista was a flop lol That’s why they pumped out Windows 7 so fast.

I’m also going by end user input of windows 8 not just what people are saying in the tech world. “Ugh Windows 8 is horrible”. It’s so bad they Microsoft is offering people whom bought a Windows 8 PC a roll back Windows 7 key. Granted it’s a bit involved but just by offering it isn’t a good sign for their New OS.

Also this time YOU SEE developers rejecting it rather than scurry re-integrate their stuff Like Blizzard , Valve, as well as others they didn’t that crap with the release of other versions of Windows and definitely not ever look to Linux as seriously as they are now.

Why are you people so scared of progress and competition this only makes good things better and bad things good. Holy hell you would think these people have stock in Microsoft or are related to Bill Gates.

P.S. I happen to like Windows 7 very much, most solid OS they had in years so this isn’t a Bash Microsoft post but people keep trying to turn it into a bash Linux episode.

1) Metro UI is just a revamped start menu that can run HTML/Javascript apps inside of it
2) You still have the desktop
3) You can completely remove Metro UI and get the good ol’ start menu back

Question: Have you tried Windows 8 for more than few hours?
I think it’s a great OS that takes less resource than Win7 runs great and its more convenient to use once you let go of old bad habbits. Not to mention that boot and shutdown times are unprecedented!

For me Blizzard and Valve are nobodies (personal statement) as I don’t play their games because I don’t like the games. I give a good credit to valve for bringing us cheap games through Steam though especially when they are on sale I just love it, but that’s about it. Valve going to linux means just a few games of the likes “Left4Dead” “Counter Strike” “portal” “half life” and all of the likes going linux,
if you deal with your OS.

Not to mention that they’re aiming for Ubuntu and I’m not sure how many of you linux lovers enjoys ubuntu/debian.

PS: All of the UEFI fiasco is because of the MBR exploits. People blame Microsoft for making insecure software while the exploit is not within the OS itself. There’s your answer to the claim.
Infact Microsoft writes the most secure code, it just have dozen more people trying to exploit it.
Also most manufacturers allow you to disable secure boot although some doesn’t and that is why people cry. It’s not like you don’t have the option though. Fight the secure boot by being a good consumer. Buy the stuff that allows you to block it.

So I am not sure how much technical knowledge you have…but I am going to guess not a whole lot (? correct me if I am wrong…I don’t mean to assume). But I am going to operate on this assumption and add a bit more detail to some of the points you bring up (if that is alright with you)…from a technical stand point.

“Question: Have you tried Windows 8 for more than few hours? "
Yes, I have. In fact myself and 2 others no my development team spent a week exploring Windows 8, it’s dual booting capabilities and nuances for the purposes of client support. I work for a small EMR/PM company that supports OpenEMR for medical professionals. At the end of our experiments we discovered that dual booting WAS possible but a LOT less convenient than before, so much so that the company decided to bag it and stick to Win7 laptops for employees with dual boot into Linux (we don’t care what distro you prefer). The loss of productivity was just not justified for what amounted to no gain.

“I think it’s a great OS that takes less resource than Win7”

I am not sure where you get this. Everything I have heard and tested has shown Win8 to basically be Win7 with a new interface. Memory speeds, CPU performance, Graphics performance…etc. Even the base install size on disk is rougly equivalent to Win7.

“PS: All of the UEFI fiasco is because of the MBR exploits. People blame Microsoft for making insecure software while the exploit is not within the OS itself. There’s your answer to the claim. "

UEFI-Secure Boot is an excellent hardware-level development for additonal machine security. It would make all machines and all operating systems more secure. Unfortunately, Microsoft perverted the technology and tried to get OEM’s to produce machines with UEFI-Secure Boot modules that accepted only “signed-keys”…the premise (to a non-super-user) sounds great! To a tech person, reading deeper into this, discovered that “signed-keys” were to be controlled, distributed, and vetted by Microsoft and Microsoft only. OEM’s (for the first time) revolted and said “NO WAY”. But, still, Microsoft was still able to leverage it’s market share and get away with making it harder, but not impossible, for other operating systems (mainly targeted at Linux) to be installed.

“Infact Microsoft writes the most secure code, it just have dozen more people trying to exploit it. "

Hmm. I would like to hear your sources for this. In my experience, many of the Microsoft vulnerabilities are somehow related to/stem from the underlying Operating System Architecture. Namely, Unix (Linux) vs. Dos (Microsoft). This dates back to the original deal between Microsoft and Intel (way before the Wintel breakup). Basically, Bill Gates (as a PC manufacturer) wanted to sign a contract with Intel. To make the deal sweeter Bill Gates promised them an “operating system.” He had none. So he went out and found a small hobbyist coder who had written an Operating System “Q-Dos” which stood for “Quick and Dirty Operating System”. This system was basically a hobbyist tool which overarching design was to “get it done”. This mentality was great back then and for his hobbyist uses…but it left lot to be desired in security and other aspects. The infamous first “Windows” was Q-Dos merely with it’s command prompt renamed “MS-Dos”.

So it is true that Microsoft has a lot of exploiters to deal with, and a lot of it is due to market share…but Microsoft, if it had been on Unix would be a lot better off. From here we could go into much greater details into difference like Unix micro-kernels and such, but for this I would leave to you to read about if you have interest.

“Also most manufacturers allow you to disable secure boot although some doesn’t and that is why people cry.”

This is what I was talking about OEM’s taking action. However, by disabling secure boot you render Win8 unusable. For a software company (like my tiny firm), we constantly need to be testing for QA on as many OS’s as we can. Basically, this feature garuntees that any machine we buy to potentially QA for Win8 is useless for anything else we would consider “productive”.

And furthermore, for the regular consumer, this basically means that if you buy Win8 you are stuck with Win8. No easy bootable Linux Media for installation. And let’s face it, most users don’t have the know-how to use Bios level features. Linux has been rapidly gaining market share (relatively) and most of this is from the Linux bootable media being so easy to install for non-technical users.

“For me Blizzard and Valve are nobodies (personal statement) as I don’t play their games because I don’t like the games. I give a good credit to valve for bringing us cheap games through Steam though especially when they are on sale I just love it, but that’s about it. Valve going to linux means just a few games of the likes “Left4Dead” “Counter Strike” “portal” “half life” and all of the likes going linux,
if you deal with your OS.”

Well that is a reasonable personal opinion. But Blizzard and Valve represent very large gaming companies. Blizzard sports the largest online MMO community and Valve is the most widely used gaming platform (Steam). So, from a market stand point, they are huge power players. And Valve porting the Source engine is just a beginning. There is a lot still to be done, but Valve making a move can and probably will start a massive development push for Linux native clients. Linux based Steam has been in public Beta for 3 months and already has grown wildly.

“Not to mention that they’re aiming for Ubuntu and I’m not sure how many of you linux lovers enjoys ubuntu/debian.”

Now the reason they are aiming for Ubuntu is because Ubuntu is more “stable”. Like Windows, Ubuntu offers large-scale releases with sweeping upgrades. And this is only after the changes have been tested to work. Debian is more of a “constantly” changing environment. Updates are rolled out as they come as quickly as possible. Now this is dangerous because a security update or minor change in a Kernel can cause many little bugs which prevent various software and things to cease working correctly. It usually requires higher user knowlege to use as oppossed to Ubuntu.

I hope this clarifies some of the technical details for you.

You are telling me nothing new. Granted you bothered to write a wall of text about it.
I guess we could wait and see how linux gaming evolves.
But linux is not yet consumer ready. It does require some technical knowledge. And really its only Ubuntu addressing this issue.
Yes, most distros install easily, some even easier than windows, but what happens afterwards is bad

Thanks DantesRequiem, you saved me a bunch of typing lol.

Only thing you left out was the point “So What they’re working with Ubuntu” apparently he doesn’t know much about Linux. If there is a working source code or even binary which most of the repositories are filled with. It can “Very Easily” be used with other a different Distro. Take Gentoo an example which requires some work to get it setup etc I see tons of ebuilds with urls straight to debian package links *.deb".
Because you can simply extract the same package and do what you must with it lol.
Also Ubuntu has Canonical which is a huge monetary support system for Ubuntu not to mention they also have main stream business partners like IBM, Asus, and Dell so it’s no surprise that these developers would team up with the Ubuntu team.
Once again I’ll state if it work in one Linux distro you can get it to work in anything it’s up to the other Linux Distro devs to make sure it does which isn’t Game Developers problem or Ubuntu’s cause all they’re going to say is “We have a working Linux client/Game whatever”.

I guarantee once its working in Ubuntu you can bet with in a week to a month for sure it will in all Linux Distributions lol.

Ravenmoon.5318:

You are telling me nothing new. Granted you bothered to write a wall of text about it.
I guess we could wait and see how linux gaming evolves.
But linux is not yet consumer ready. It does require some technical knowledge. And really its only Ubuntu addressing this issue.
Yes, most distros install easily, some even easier than windows, but what happens afterwards is bad

Rofl , what happens after you install windows is bad too. Are you kidding me? Hell windows tells you to back up your data while your installing it lol A freshly new windows install can be come messed up/corrupted just as fast with a large amount of issues including hardware compatibility. Windows isn’t impervious to it’s share of headaches hell ME was nick named “Migraine Edition”.

Again Ravenmoon why do keep turning every thread of people asking for a Linux client into a Windows Vs Linux argument I just don’t get it. If you love windows so much great I have good news for you there is already a working client in windows go play the kitten game and let us worry about asking for a Linux client.

As far as any issues within Linux whether it be hardware or software I’m sure we the community can handle it while your in windows playing the game.

Here let me start the thread over:
“I want a working Linux Client to play Guild Wars 2 in Please”

Because I spend the majority of my time in Linux it would be nice not having to boot into Windows just to play a game. For the people that hate Linux I have great news you don’t have to install Linux to play the game because there is already a working Windows client, isn’t that wonderful?

So I was going to respond in a polite way and then I re-read your post so I was like kitten it.
So let’s get back at the history. You all said Windows is going to die even after the Migrane Edition (which i frankly had no issues with but fair enough). Guess what? Windows is still dominating the desktop market.

Also here’s another newsflash.
Every successfull game with a crapy forum community has linux begging thread but guess what, no clients. So yeah, why don’t YOU guys give up now and request about linux client for Guild Wars 3 xD
As a self-respecting gamer and paying customer I would much rather see them fixing the windows game, rather than splitting the team to port to linux

And that’s about what’s going to happen :p …. again
ROFL/GOFL as much as you want, and then face the truth.

Yeah most of these threads do wind up in a Linux vs everything else debate it seems – though this is probably because they tend to start out as “I want a Linux client because Windows suxxxx and I would like to be able to uninstall it finally”. Which is a valid opinion to have, it’s just that it’s also bait even if you didn’t mean it to be.

Perversely though, maybe it’s a good thing? If all the replies were just “me too, Linux is my main OS” the thread might die pretty fast… and while I personally have no interest in a Linux client it only helps show that there’s an audience (even if not all the posts actually do that, at least enough do) on behalf of those who do have interest. If that made any sense with all its vague hand-waving…

why must ignorant people who have no idea what they are talking about start the darned flaming wars on forums? do they have NOTHING BETTER to do with their time than troll? That guy knows NOTHING about Linux… I know practically nothing (comparatively lol) about Linux, and I have been using it since High School (I’m 25). I know almost nothing, and I get by using it just fine!!! I love Linux, I love Windows 7… but Windows 8 is for the birds… It is utter CRAP. I would love a native Linux client, also… I would also love Mr. William G. to take his Metro UI and… well, I’ll keep it civil :P

But yeah, I’ll stick with Windows 7 and my fancy Linux Mint with LXDE… My Girlfriend has her MacBook, and WINDOWS 8 SUCKS. Problem, Buck-a-roo? Go have fun buttering Bill’s bread, and making him sandwiches… Also have fun acting like a jerk. The rest of us GROWN UPS (And mature young adults/adolescents) will carry on our conversation in a civil manner I’ll let you know when you can come out of Time-Out LOL

So last night, I realized that the other thread had 10 pages worth of discussion. I had been following it for some time, along with searching for other linux-related posts for a while now. The fact of the matter is that we, as linux gamers, know we are at the bottom of the totem pole. Does that make sense to us? Not really, especially considering the statistics that have come out within the past months with steam sales. Regardless, we know that Anet is going to work on what they are going to work on, and that is not likely going to be a linux client (This is probably why there is so much QQ about it).

At the same time, I know that I would really like to help them with it (over the summer and such). It will take time and effort, but if they commission several experienced linux users to work with bits and pieces of the source code, it could be done. I do not think; however, that Anet does any opengl programming (simply because they are using Cider for mac). So it might be easier just to make the game a little easier to use with WINE.

No matter how it is done, we just need to keep the suggestion alive. Eventually Anet will get the picture.

That being said, threads where the old Linux V Windows debate starts up are not worth anyone’s time. Windows users realize the game is buggy enough as-is, thus there is no reason to caiter to 1% of the gaming population when there is still so much to be done. Linux users realize that they are being completely neglected as a community, and this saddens them. We’ve heard it before.

Honestly, if a single Anet employee would jsut get on these forums and say, “A linux client has been spoken of, but we have too much else to work on right now.” I would be content.