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EVE Online's Linux/Mac Client Goes Live Tuesday

Posted by Zonk on from the mmogtastic dept.

The official EVE Online site has details of upcoming patch 'Revelations 2.3'. Along with a number of bug-fixes to the PvP-focused Massively Multiplayer Online Game, this game fix will offer up compatibility with Mac OS X and Linux. Though the Mac client is a native port, Linux will require the used of Cedega. The post suggests that if you'd like a preview of what the game will be like on your rig, you can download the client and tool around the test server. System requirements are also listed, as are the distributions of Linux they are specifically supporting: Ubuntu 7+, Suse 10+, and Linspire 6. Update: 11/04 14:32 GMT by Z : Fixed implication of native Linux client.

17 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. So long GPA.... by lordofthechia · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh god... no...why? Crap, the only thing that has kept me from trying that game was the lack of a linux port. And Tuesday? Lets see 3 weeks before finals.... Well it's official, I'm switching to business.

    --
    Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
    1. Re:So long GPA.... by kcbanner · · Score: 5, Informative

      Its not a linux port. They simply packaged Cedega with EVE. I wish people would stop praising them for that...its not a native client.

      --
      Obligatory blog plug: http://www.caseybanner.ca/
    2. Re:So long GPA.... by cloricus · · Score: 4, Informative

      Compare EVE Online under WINE (currently performs slightly better than Cedega at running eve) to Doom 3.

      Oh you wanted more to this comment? Guess you honestly don't understand the difference between native and the limitations of compatibiliy layers. There is simply no comparison to a native supported application.

      --
      I ate your fish.
    3. Re:So long GPA.... by kripkenstein · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Its not a linux port. They simply packaged Cedega with EVE. I wish people would stop praising them for that...its not a native client. Sure, a native port would be better, but this is still a step in the right direction. They deserve *some* praise for it.

      If it lets a few more people not have to dual-boot into Windows to play games, then they are doing something right. Hopefully this will grow the non-Windows gaming market enough so that eventually native clients *are* released for Linux / Mac.

      And as for Cedega not being truly open-sourced, and the games themselves certainly not, well, as a Linux desktop user and FOSS supporter this bothers me. But the fact is, at this point in time hardcore games are mostly a closed-source environment, whether on a console or a PC. Games are different than most typical desktop apps for various reasons. Hopefully in the future this will change, but meanwhile lots of Linux users want to play games, so this announcement is positive news.
    4. Re:So long GPA.... by Dwindlehop · · Score: 4, Informative

      Correction: They simply packaged Cedega with EVE for no additional cost. You don't have to subscribe to Cedega in order to play Eve. That's the important distinction.

      --
      Jonathan Pearce jonathan@pearce.name
      3EAAFB2A http://www.jonathan.pearce.name/
  2. Wow! by seebs · · Score: 3, Funny

    WoW, really.

    I know a lot of people who play WoW. All of us play it, across a mix of Windows and WINE and other systems, because one person we know had a Mac. We wanted to play together, so all of us went with WoW, even though some other games sounded interesting.

    I hope the same thing happens for EVE, and they find a sales boost that goes beyond just the influx of Mac and Linux gamers.

    (I won't be one of them; I have zero interest in PvP, or in playing a game which is built around real and lasting consequences for mistakes. I play a game like that about 14-18 hours a day already, and I want something different for my recreation.)

    --
    My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
    1. Re:Wow! by dameron · · Score: 4, Funny

      > I have zero interest in PvP, or in playing a game which is built around real and lasting consequences for mistakes.

      WoW has "real" consequences for mistakes?

      "Lasting", in a virtual world?

      Bah.

      I believe you're looking for an "activity". "Games" are for people ballsy enough to keep score.

    2. Re:Wow! by seebs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, WoW doesn't. EVE does. They keep bragging about how a minute's play can wipe out months of work. Not interesting to me. In WoW, I can lose an amount of money that will take me as much as an hour to earn back. No problem, I can cope.

      --
      My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
    3. Re:Wow! by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It won't, really. The Linux and Mac gaming markets aren't all that large, especially since in both cases the option always exists to boot to Windows if you really want to play games. EVE's small market share isn't due to its lack of cross platform, it is sue to its game design. They chose to make a very hardcore game. This really doesn't appeal to a lot of people since they find it to not be fun. As such, it is always going to be far more niche than World of Warcraft. One of the major reasons WoW was so much more popular than any other MMORPG before it is because Blizzard heavily took the attitude that a game isn't supposed to punish you for failure. It functioned more like a single player game, where failure means reloading a save and trying something again, rather than being set back a large distance.

      So while I'm sure it will get a boost in sales (they wouldn't do it if they didn't think they'd make some money), it isn't likely to be that huge. The game simply appeals to a much more narrow group of people than WoW. WoW is one of those games that I'll recommend to anybody. I believe it is simple enough for anyone to learn to play, and anyone to find enjoyable. That is not true of many games, and EVE is certainly one it isn't true of. I'd only recommend that to people I know that are very intense gamers, and that can deal with the consequences for failure that game has.

    4. Re:Wow! by EotB · · Score: 3, Informative

      I didn't think that the 'danger' aspect of the game would really appeal to me, but it gives you an amazing sense of consequence for your actions. I got bored with WoW and the repetitive PvE/BG grind where the worst that can happen is that you don't make progress (although arenas are a good start). In EVE, when they say you can lose a months worth of work in minutes, they mean it. Thats what makes the game unbelievably thrilling to play.

      I can understand why that may be a little bit too risky to cope with for some people though...

    5. Re:Wow! by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 4, Funny

      If I wanted a minute's play to wipe out months of work, I'd just run my programs from a root account all the time. No need to take that kind of risk for fun.

  3. It uses Cedega on Linux by kcbanner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its not a native client. It uses a stripped-down version of the commercial fork of the now-obsolete xwine (what with normal wine having most dx things now), Cedega. People have been running the eve online client under wine and cedega for years now, I can run it under wine and get better fps than windows in some cases :P.

    Anyway, the point is that they didn't actually take the time to write a native client, its simply packaged with Cedega, so this isn't really anything to praise them for.
    I just thought I'd mention that because they don't until it actually starts installing.

    --
    Obligatory blog plug: http://www.caseybanner.ca/
    1. Re:It uses Cedega on Linux by QuantumG · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If more games companies (*cough* Blizzard) would test their stuff with WINE and support it, we'd have a different PC industry.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
  4. EVE vs Vendetta by x1n933k · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can't speak for EVE since I am a Mac user and never played the game however the idea, game play and such seem an awfully like Vendetta Online who natively support Windows, Linux (64Bit too), and Mac and looks great. Not to mention a great backstory.

    It is also quite cheap compared to other online games. Can anyone vouch for EVE being any better than Vendetta? Although I quit playing VO it was one of the few MMOs that still support PPC.

    Cheers,
    [J]

  5. One of the only MMOs worth playing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It doesn't change the rules to cater to the lowest common denominator, unlike WoW and other MMOs - it follows a specific vision, and users can either adapt or leave.

    The openness and freedom of an old-school PK MUD combined with the concept of Elite/TradeWars/etc. make for an amazing, engrossing game.

    Given its quality and lack of compromise, I'm surprised it's managed to survive so long.

  6. Re:Hopefully by LingNoi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Because depending on wine makes you look like you don't care about your market and your relying on a third party such as winehq to make your game work.

    If Eve brings out a patch that no longer makes it work under wine and 100 people send in hate mail then you can see why maybe a native client might be a good thing.

  7. "Months of work" by Per+Abrahamsen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > They keep bragging about how a minute's play can wipe out months of work.

    I would never get that far, I refuse to play any game for which playtime feels like work.