Slashdot Mirror
Loki may port Starcraft and Diablo II
Michael Simms writes "According to an article in the Loki Requests newsgroup, Sam Lantinga, lead programmer for Loki Games states that
'We are going to try to do Starcraft and Diablo II as soon as we sell enough units to make it interesting to Blizzard'
One way to help to persuade Blizzard that they should work with Loki on this is to sign the Games Petitions Page run by Tux Games.
"
I've bought five games from Loki and Unreal Tournament because of the Linux support. Profit is the only real development which will prod games makers into supporting Linux over the long haul. I earn a good deal of money from my UNIX and Linux skills, so I'm in a position to use this to support those projects and companies promote those values and products I desire. If you're earning a good salery from this you should put your money where your signature is as well and go to the Loki web site and plunk some money down for that game you've always wanted under Linux.
:-)
There's one depressing problem with this... unfortunately Civ: Call To Power has kept me up to all hours destroying my daytime productivity. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Everquest's cool, but if Wolf Pack pulls off what they're aiming for (and it's looking like they might...) you're going to want it over EQ. I'd be petitioning for EQ, but I'd also be petitioning for ShadowBane. There's a petition going on at one of the news sites. Go over there and put your vote in.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
(It's hard enough avoiding "nethack".)
Tell me about it! NetHack is the best game ever made. Well, it would be, if it were multiplayer... I've thought about tackling that challenge, but then I realize it's like 3MB (compressed) of source code... hmmm... no, not right now... Though, I've also heard of efforts to do nasty things like add a 3D graphical interface to nethack, which makes me sick. That defeats the purpose! As I envision multiplayer nethack, each player would simply be an @ symbol, and you'd have multiple @s on the screen at once (provided you could see each other). I have no idea how difficult this would be to implement. You'd have to have some sort of server keep track of the maps... and the fact that the game is basically turn based makes things even more difficult. Oh well, probably never happen.
Supreme Lord High Commander of the Interstellar Task Force for the Eradication of Stupidity
I was just thinking how I need to use less wine with my games. This would help a lot... :)
You know, I put together my Linux box because I kept telling myself "Self, you should really stop wasting all that time playing games, and do some real programming and stuff". So I get the linux box. I download egcs. I start throwing some stuff together.
And what happens?
I download a bunch of demos from Loki. Have I done anything worthwhile since? No...
Now they are porting the sequel to one of the most addictive games I've ever played ("Diablo") and the successor to one of the other most addictive games I've ever played ("Alpha Centauri", the true successor to "Civilization II").
Bastards. Now I'm never going to get anything real done.
All I can say is that it is a damn good thing I can't play these things in a telnet session, or I wouldn't get anything done at work, either. (It's hard enough avoiding "nethack".)
The cake is a pie
First, I have top convince my MS-addicted friends that yes, there are such things as *spreadsheets* and *web browsers* for Linux. I find this gap in understanding amazing.
Then I have to convince them that, while some dists are very hard to install, others will hold your hand. This, to me, is a very valid concern from the point of view of Joe AOL and Marsha MS. [Ed: May not be actual people, but demeaning archetypes.] But there are answers here, too.
But it's very tough to come up with a satisfying response to the people who won't switch over until they can get some games. Games are as important, in terms of comforting the average user, as many other features they think about when they compare two oses (even when the comparison isn't accurate). The more games that get ported, the better it is for us, of course, and the better it is for the general acceptability of the os.
Of course, the trick is not to be as snobby as we sometimes are with regards to other issues. Sure, starcraft is the greatest rts game in history, and unreal the greatest fps, but those deer-hunting games sell. Point being, we should watch the snide remarks when Game Hunter XLVII gets ported, cause it's a stupid game, but it's indicative of the fact that Linux is winning market share, which, i think we can agree, is a good thing, relatively speaking.
god is just pretend.
Well, basically this means that we need to by loki games and let them get some figures to show Blizzard. Now, personally, I think Quake3 will be the vehicle. It just has the best chance, not these (sorry, Loki, I still love you guys) older, almost second tier games. Heavy gear 2 will be a good one, but it is not a Quake game. It might also be time for us to revisit the linux advocacy how-to and not say mean things to Blizzard demanding games. A tasteful email to them would be in order, something to the effect that you are a gamer and you have bought such and such games from blizzard, and love their company, and would like to see them have linux ports, or allow Loki (who has done an excellent job) to. In some sense we need a CONTROLLED slashdot effect on blizzard.
;)
You have no idea (well maybe you do) of how much I want Diablo 2 for linux. As with everyone and his brother, I swore to remove windows from my machine if they ported it. The reason is because it is big enough that Linux will have a slew of games out by the time I am done
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
For anyone interested in linux games, point your news-reader to news.lokigames.com and keep track there. You can also get some good support on install/running problems on their games.
--
Looking at the WINE app database it appears that Starcraft runs pretty well under WINE. This makes me wonder if the port could be done simply by using WINElib and fixing the few remaining bugs (mainly multiplayer stuff) that may be left. Any thoughts?
If you like Windows for gaming, disregard this post. :)
I bought Myth II for Linux a month ago and loved it! It runs fast, the graphics are great and best of all, no crashing! I am planning on buying one Linux game a month.
If you want to game on Linux _now_ is the time to buy a Linux game. You know you want to...
And just think that you can justify the purchase to your significant other. "But I have to buy a Linux game to help all the other people out!"
Buying a Linux game is alturistic, because if Loki sells enough games, then future games will come out for Linux at the same time as Windows. They don't care what OS they sell their games on, only that the games that they sell make money.
So help everyone out and buy a Linux version of a game today. (And have fun playing those games!)
Look out Civ, here I come!
-- Never make a general statement.
I remember reading, dont' know if it was from Loki's newgroup, linuxgames.com, or maybe even a slasdot post. But Blizzard said they would have linux ports when Loki's sales reached 50,000 units a game.
Whether that's true or not, I don't know. But it does bringup and interesting question. How many games HAS Loki sold? I mean, I'd assume 50,000 linux users(me being one of them)bought Quake 3 Arena. And I know there has to be 50,000 linux users in the world that want Sim City 3000.
It also brings up a second question. Do linux gamers buy games they wouldn't have normally bought JUST to get the sales figures up so games they DO want get released? That's a big weight on a comsumers sholders. The idea of "If you don't buy game x which you don't like, you may not game y which you been waiting for for over a year" is not one many people want to be put in, including myself.
I've bought Quake 3 Arena, I'm looking forward to Sim City 3000, and I'll buy what good games come out for linux that I want to play. I won't be forced into buying a $50 game that I don't like to "maybe" get a port of a game I do.
I look at some of these games and the average suggested price of many are over $50!!
This isn't flamebait, but my opinion, I am not able to pay more than about $25 for ANY game, or for that matter any software in general. I am a student, and on a budget. The end result of this is I get a game that's been out for a while and everybody else has mastered it already, I get my A** kicked a few dozen times at it, then I am a competitive player, if I play networked, or I play the scenarios and then decide I don't want to play any further. In this case I pass the game on to one of my friends, lock, stock and barrel.
This is my opinion, there are laws against being killed for having one.
Laugh, it's good for you!