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Ask Slashdot: Is Linux Set To Be PC Gaming's Number Two Platform?
monkeyhybrid writes "Following a tweet from the developer of Maia (a cross platform game soon to hit Steam) that Linux was bringing him more game sales than OS X. Gaming On Linux decided to investigate further by reaching out to multiple developers for platform sales statistics. Although the findings and developer comments show Linux sales to still be sitting in third place, behind those of OS X and Windows, they are showing promise. Developer feedback certainly appears to be positive about the platform's future. With Steam OS on its way, surely leading to more big title releases making their way to the Linux platform, could Linux gaming be set to take the number two spot from Apple?"
Linux on the desktop, BABY!
I'll become a gamer again if this happens. Just the idea of this makes me incredibly happy.
no!
It's a variant of Linux but it's not for use with a general purpose computer. By that standard, BSD (iOS sorta kinda) and Linux (Android) are already major game platforms.
..there isn't much holding me back from dumping Windows all together so seeing that Linux as a viable gaming platform is on the rise it shouldn't be too much longer before I can dump it all together and go full Linux. Sure Linux has Wine support but I would prefer to have native support instead.
Number six
Be seeing you
Maia isn't a game that's "soon to be released". Maia is in a very early alpha stage with very little of the final functionality - you'd expect Linux to be over represented in that particular sample.
As I understand what I've read, Steam OS allows the user to exit the Steam client, run GNOME, and install games from unknown sources. Android (both Google Play and Fire OS flavors) likewise lets users install games from unknown sources. The odd man out here is iOS.
The problem is that Linux still needs a baseline distro for developers to target. Ubuntu had a lot of promise until the last few years where it's been shifted to target every device *except* desktops. Not to mention the weird shit they've been pushing like ads in the OS.
I'd really like to see something to the effect of a Linux Gaming Standard, where as long as certain structural conditions are met within any given distro, developers could simply target those standards and build their rpm/deb packages and not have to worry about supporting Ubuntu specifically. I'm talking things like specific libraries and drivers that need to be present for "Linux Gaming Standard" certification, so that people aren't having to worry about hunting down the right repo by blindly copy/pasting some forum suggestion for someone else into their terminal hoping to make magic happen.
Sure Linux has Wine support but I would prefer to have native support instead.
Wine is not an emulator but a reimplementation of the Win32 API. So long as the developer of a video game or other application tests its product on Wine, it's just another toolkit, just as GTK+ and Qt and SDL are toolkits. In such a case, I don't see how an app running in Wine is any less "native" than, say, a Qt app running on a GTK+-based distribution. If you complain instead that not enough developers and publishers of games designed for Windows care about Wine compatibility, I can agree with that complaint though. Is that what you're trying to say?
you misspelled nvidia.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
But how would buyers of an AMD-powered Steam Machine be in any worse of a position than, say, console buyers? PlayStation 4 uses AMD graphics, Xbox One uses AMD graphics, and Wii U uses AMD graphics. The odd man out is OUYA, which has NVIDIA Tegra 3 graphics; is it even doing better than the Wii U?
..there isn't much holding me back from dumping Windows all together so seeing that Linux as a viable gaming platform is on the rise it shouldn't be too much longer before I can dump it all together and go full Linux. Sure Linux has Wine support but I would prefer to have native support instead.
This is a very common opinion. However the problem is that switching from Windows to Linux does not really help the developer. The developer replaced a Windows sale with a Linux sale. Basically Linux will largely cannibalize Windows sales. So the justification to the developer for doing a Linux version has to go beyond simply the number of Linux sales.
For a small and not-well-known developer this benefit may be greater exposure and word of mouth. For the large established developer the benefits for a Linux version are a bit iffier. Assuming of course the large developer does not have a software distribution platform to promote.
I still have a core 2 duo laptop with one of the broken nvidia gpus. For about two years there any laptop with a nvidia chip would eventually fail. Nvidia settled quickly so many people didn't find out about the class action lawsuit until their laptop broke and by then it was too late. Not that it mattered much, the most nvidia offered was a Eee PC netbook to compensate them for their broken Alienware laptops.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
If the increased popularity means Spies'R'Us will start using Steam/Linux as yet another way to spy on me, then sure hope not. [/tinfoil]
been number 2 to me.
HAHA, it's a joke. I use Linux, have written drivers for Linux, and I have written robotic code on Linux.
Please don't hurt me.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Annoyingly, you'd be able to use discrete graphics cards with any modern Mac if Apple would stop refusing to license thunderbolt PCIe bays. Benchmarks (via enthusiasts hacking together solutions) show that even a Macbook Air can provide good gaming performance (5x or more the framerate of the iGPU) when connected to a high-end graphics card via Thunderbolt (even on the internal display). Since Apple refuses to license them, however, you're restricted to doing it under bootcamp with expensive enterprise-targeted enclosures.
In other words, there is no technical reason why you couldn't simply plug an external discrete GPU into any Mac and instantly get massively improved gaming performance. Apple is actively blocking such things.
Apple does not seem to be much interested on building affordable computers for gaming.
Then what are iPod touch and iPad mini? They're not general-purpose out of the box,* but they do compute, and they do run games.
The premise here is a bit odd. Windows is the obvious #1 platform on PC but the #2 Mac doesn't have a close second to Windows globally. Taking 2nd place here isn't very hard. There aren't even many desktop OSes capable of running modern games now. I also though Linux wasn't a "platform" since it isn't an OS, its the kernel. Anyhow, given the small number of desktop gaming OSes, it won't be hard to be #3 or #4. Unless I'm mistaken. Maybe there are a lot of gamers using DOS, OS/2, Solaris, BSD, BeOS, QNX ....
On the Maia website, for system requirements:
OS: LINUX 64, WINDOWS. MAC SUPPORT COMING SOON.
When confronted with one problem, some think "I'll use recursion". Now they are confronted with one problem.
Now now, don't go muddying up a good narrative with facts!
#DeleteChrome
Funny that. I have an AMD graphics card in my gaming Linux system, with Steam, and it works pretty well. AMD's driver support has sucked (and I built the system before I switched the gaming system over to Linux), but with the current experimental drivers it's actually pretty good. I have not noticed any problems with any of my games.
AMD is working with Valve to produce driver improvements, so I would expect that things to continue improving.
Linux is GPL 2.0. General Public License 2.0 does not have the "2.0 or any greater version clause" so Linux can't have a viral open source lock-down like GPL 3.0 and Linus Torvalds doesn't seem interested or able (the contributions to GPL 2.0 *cannot be relicensed to GPL 2.1 or GPL 3.0*
So things like Android and Steam OS aren't going to bring Linux style "freedom".
You can still do TIVOization and use the operating system itself but also have proprietary stuff (think NVIDIA Linux video card drivers.
So in some ways these Linux "forks" that are gaming solution, and these are important, aren't necessarily "open source" or "freedom" wins. Still, there are very few good reasons why gaming needs to be on Windows --- and I am thankful for Linux gaming stepping forward.
But I'm a realist and I understand that due to the above, don't think Linux solutions are the absence of evil in these scenarios.
There are and WILL be strings, unlike the operating system itself. Correct me if I am wrong, but I'm pretty sure I am correct --- and please only people that know what they are talking about (so thank you in advance!).
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
Basically Linux will largely cannibalize Windows sales.
Not for games designed around the 2 to 4 controllers and large monitor in a living room. Only a tiny number of people have put together a living room gaming PC running Windows. The Steam Machines, on the other hand, are designed for the living room in order to make it easier for developers to get controller-friendly games out to the public with less overhead and less red tape than the consoles.
The only major game development tool that I know of so far which can create games for Linux is Unity3D, and it doesn't even run under Linux, and so is very unlikely to result in any Linux-exclusive games, If the developer already has windows or a mac, and they are making a desktop version of a game anyways, even if they ultimately intend to support Linux, they are almost always going to target their own native platform first.
Exclusive content is important if there's ever to be any large scale adoption expected. Becase without it, people will just continue to use whatever they have already, because it's good enough for them. This means that migration to Linux for gaming will progress at a much slower rate than it otherwise potentially could.
And there's plenty of historical precedent in the gaming industry of people going out of their way to just to buy hardware with exclusive content. With Linux, it may not even require that a person buy new hardware... it just requires a different OS to be installed, one that's freely available, even.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
is what Steam should have gone with if they insist on doing this venture (which I decidedly think is a solution searching for a problem). FreeBSD is good enough for Playstation and Sony seems to know what they are doing when it comes to consoles and gaming.
There are at least two reasons that OP is saying that Wine is not "native." The first is that not all libraries that programs expect are implemented (the vast majority of the most frequently used ones are, but there are a TON that are basically never used; unfortunately these libraries are available on native Windows, but not Wine).
Then developers should test their apps in Wine and report failures in these unimplemented APIs to the Wine developers.
The second reason has to do with graphics performance, specifically for DirectX.
I thought the only games for Windows that had to use DirectX were Windows Phone games, Windows RT games, and Windows 8 games sold as Windows Store apps. Otherwise, the developer can use OpenGL, unless the developer never plans to port the game to any platform other than Windows family and Xbox family.
Then let me try to rephrase the other Anonymous Coward's comment the way I understood it: "Linux is still incredibly unusable on the desktop due to many of these little stupid bugs that regular people shouldn't have to bother with. It's too developer-centric and not enough inexperienced-user-centric." Steam Machines are supposed to compete with the major video game consoles, which are designed from the ground up for inexperienced users.
when you incorrectly shut-down most linux distro's you'll actually destroy your OS ~ install ubuntu (non-virtualized) and force shutdown (for proof)
My experience differs. I have Xubuntu 12.04 LTS on my laptop and Xubuntu 12.04 LTS on my grandmother's decade-old desktop PC. Sure, Alt+SysRq+REISUB makes panic shutdowns cleaner, but if sudden loss of power rendered the operating system unbootable, you wouldn't be able to read the comment that I'm typing right now on the laptop.
Right, because there market is the rich elite which don't care about games or play them on xbox, or techies which are smart enough to dual boot into windows.
So until their customers want games beyond Angy Birds, they won't and don't care.
Apple has never been about giving you freedom and customization, they want you to use their product they way they designed it for the purpose they designed it for.
Now I grant that the games in the sales statistics are mostly indie games, not a list of top level titles. But the sales revenue percentage from Linux ranged from 1-6%, which is much better than I expected.
But I have a hard time seeing SteamOS get much of a foothold. I would love to be proven wrong. But it has got a weaker selection of big name games than the competing consoles are expected to get, and a weaker selection of big name games than the Windows version of Steam will have, and most of the hardware skews will be more expensive than an Xbox One and Playstation 4. Plus, last time I checked, it won't have support for Netflix, Skype, and similar services. That's a hard sell!
I want to get a SteamBox. But I would not be surprised if we have the only one in town.
It's called the Steam Runtime.
The major consoles aren't personal computers (PCs) because they don't let the person who owns it control the computing done on it. So currently it's Windows, OS X, and then GNU/Linux, and the featured article suggests that GNU/Linux is set to overtake OS X soon.
I would think Linux already has taken #2 if you include Android game apps.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
If anything is "metrosexual", it's Windows 8.x before you install Classic Shell.
Is Linux Set To Be PC Gaming's Number Two Platform?
RTFM
"Massively improved gaming performance"? Is that true? I thought the conventional wisdom on external GPUs is that they were a waste of money even on PCs. For roughly the same amount as the external GPU, you could just build a gaming rig that would be comparable to the external + PC.
Let me state clearly that I have no idea of how true that is, I don't know hardware. Just that the last time I looked into it for my laptop, I was quickly convinced it was not a good idea.
... the year of the linux gaming PC.
Apple is responsible for licensing accessories for OS X, regardless of what connection mechanism they use. Considering that such a solution would likely require driver support to work under OS X, that's relevant.
It doesn't even meet the POSIX specs which would be required (it ignores part of that just because they don't really make any sense).
Since a version of Linux was certified to meet the Single Unix Spec (SUS) years ago, simply by adding STREAMs (which Linus has refused to add to the mainstream kernel for good reason), and since SUS is far stricter than POSIX, I doubt this. (Also, STREAMs were made optional in more recent versions of the SUS, so any random vanilla Linux system might well be certifiable as a True Unix(tm) today, if anyone actually cared.)
I suspect you are A) getting your standards mixed up, and B) relying on out-of-date information, but please feel free to prove me wrong with specific examples from POSIX, if you can.
POSIX is a really low bar to meet. In fact, some elements of it were specifically designed to allow VMS to meet the standard (which is how NT was also able to do so, at one point). If you're trying to suggest that VMS or NT is a better "emulation" of Unix than Linux, I can only conclude that you've never used any of the systems in question! :)
" that's when you incorrectly shut-down most linux distro's you'll actually destroy your OS"
Citation needed or take your FUD elsewhere. I've been using a variety of distros since 1999 and have had FAR more problems with Windows when power is interrupted.
Incidentally, rescuing Linux with the live media I install it with in the first place is very convenient, though most rescues I use Linux to perform are on Windows machines.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Here's one set of benchmarks from a guy who did it using a rather indirect way involving a thunderbolt-to-expresscard adapter combined with an expresscard-to-pcie adapter:
http://forum.techinferno.com/d...
And here's a guy who did it more directly using a thunderbolt-to-pcie adapter:
http://forum.techinferno.com/d...
You can see the benchmarks there for yourself. External monitor benchmarks are higher, probably because of the extra copying that has to go on to use the internal monitor. As an example, the first guy on an 11" 2013 macbook air got 69 FPS running Bioshock Infinite on max settings at 1366x768 (versus 15 FPS on the stock iGPU), and the second guy reported running Battlefield 3 on "Ultra" quality at 40FPS at 1920x1080.
Is there a big performance hit from doing all this, including using a dual-core ultrabook-class CPU? Sure, but it's hard to argue that the results aren't playable. It certainly proves the concept, and a properly supported solution at an affordable price could make one hell of an improvement to a notebook docking solution. Having the portability of an ultrabook, but docking it at home to your home monitor/speakers/mouse/keyboard/storage/network/etc? That'd be pretty nice. For many people, it might obviate the need to have both a desktop for gaming and a notebook for portability.
I included links to two people who did it, including benchmarks, in another reply: http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
Summary of the results I posted there: a 2013 11" macbook air gets 69FPS running Bioshock Infinite on max quality at 1366x768 when combined with an external GTX 570. That ain't half bad.
Sorry to double-reply here, but I thought I'd point out that one difference between previous external GPUs and what we're talking about here is the interface. Lots of previous solutions are using USB, which is a very resource intensive and low-speed interface. Thunderbolt is basically just PCI-Express over a cable, so when you route a PCI-Express graphics card over Thunderbolt, the PC and graphics card can communicate in their originally intended form. There is indeed a big drop in bandwidth because you're taking a graphics card meant for a 16x PCIe slot and running it over a Thunderbolt solution that behaves more like a 4x PCIe slot, but that's still fast enough for pretty decent performance. It helps that a graphics card on a 16x slot isn't anywhere close to bandwidth limited.
IMO, it's pretty childish to carry on about whether Linux is beating Max OS X in game sales, or which platform has the bigger market-share.
The reality of things is, OS X game development has always lagged far behind Windows because so many developers got behind Microsoft's Direct-X and didn't opt to code for OpenGL. In those cases, the only time you got a Mac release was when one of the Mac only companies deemed the game worthy of doing a ground-up conversion of the code to make it OS X compatible. (Aspyr and MacPlay used to be your two main companies with expertise in this area and I guess Feral Interactive is more of a contender now.) Typically, these Mac conversions not only ran with far poorer frame-rates than the Windows counterparts, but took 6 months to a year before getting released, after the Windows version was out and sold many, many copies.
Historically, when a popular game title was released for Windows with OpenGL support, OS X versions came along fairly quickly afterwards. (Doom 1, 2 and 3 for example.... the Quake series.... even games like Soldier of Fortune 1 and 2, Postal, Redneck Rampage, and pretty much all the stuff Blizzard ever makes) Usually, this meant, by extension, a Linux release was possible.
At this point though, I'd say the entire COMPUTER gaming market is a dying thing. Consoles have far surpassed everything else in sheer number of new titles. The SteamBox, while trying to pretend it's just another console like a PS3 or XBox, really has deeper roots in the computer gaming scene -- so I think its success or failure is going to have more to do with what the computer game devs decide to code, moving forward.
I'm of the opinion that a new title announcing Linux support is good news for Mac OS X users, because it shouldn't take a lot of work to port it as a Mac version. And the same holds true for going the other direction -- making a Linux version of something initially designed for a Mac. The real enemy for all of us are the big name console makers. Microsoft doesn't have a reason to care anymore if Windows game titles sell. They're just as happy to sell it to you for the XBox. Sony and Nintendo will keep on paying developers to build top notch new titles just for their proprietary systems, to encourage further sales of the hardware.
I will say, though, it's also worth noting that Apple REALLY needs to step things up in the graphics support department. Even the high $ new Mac Pro is proving to struggle in some areas when rendering using professional packages compared to Windows versions of the same software packages, simply because Apple's ATI drivers just aren't as optimized as the ones provided for Windows on FirePro series cards. I'm not sue any of that really caused Macs to lose out on getting new game titles though. I think when the software companies felt it would sell, they went ahead with Mac versions anyway and just quoted higher minimum hardware specs on the box to compensate.
True, and Valve's intent to branch into this market was obvious ever since it added Big Picture mode and a "controller-friendly" filter to the Steam client.
If every Android phone had a button that dropped users into a GNOME shell, it would be disingenuous to call all Android devices Linux desktops.
What you describe is almost exactly what Canonical has been trying to achieve with "Ubuntu for Android", except with Unity instead of GNOME Shell. Plug your phone's HDMI out into a monitor and pair a Bluetooth keyboard, and you can use the phone as if it were a (somewhat underpowered) desktop computer. And from what I've seen of AOSP 2.2 on my Archos 43 Internet Tablet, the device's touch screen would become a trackpad.
This thing is meant to be a gaming console, and if it's even a _halfway_ decent one, almost nobody will use that button.
How "halfway decent" it is depends on two things: 1. how many worthwhile games Valve can approve through Steam Greenlight, and 2. how many people are going to want to get a sneak peek at a game before it's officially approved.
I am a bit of an apple fan, all the way back to using Apple IIs' in High School, and I have to say it, Macs are no good for gaming. Yes, I know there are a few games; but, nothing near the PC quantity.
I do not see that as a big problem, I probably should be reading a book rather than playing a game anyways; and, there are enough games, just not as many. It is just that, contrary to the popular misconception, the apple is much more of a business computer than the PC. No, I am not one of the "rich elite" I am embarrassed to say what I earn, other than I know I would make more if I went back to truck driving. I am also not an overly artsy type; I hold an MBA, not an MFA.
I have to agree with others, the Mac is a well built business machine, if you want to play games, get a pc or a console.
Eh hoser?
"The OWC Mercury Helios PCIe Expansion Chassis gives users of Thunderboltâ port equipped computers including the Apple Mac mini, iMac, and MacBook the ability to tap into a wide variety of professional-level performance PCIe adapters that were once the sole domain of desktop workstations. Helios utilizes any half-length PCIe 2.0 card (up to 6.5") to provide a massive boost to your workflow."
when you incorrectly shut-down most linux distro's you'll actually destroy your OS
quick, someone should inform all those *idiots* that filled up countless data centers with linux blades... if the ups fails, they are all toast!
using your same argument, microsoft has only one way to go too
Number two.
That is all.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Isn't Mac OSX certified as Unix S3 compliant since 10.5'ish? Does this help in any way to port a Linux game to OSX?
I am under the impression it is, albeit lack of full OPEN GL support in their video card drivers.
It's already happening and it's all thanks to Steam. Look at the games on greenlight; most support linux. Those that don't, the forums are filled with people asking for linux support.
Look at kickstarter; most games being made by indies are going to support Linux
I'm excited
Ron Gilbert (creator of monkey island) once met Steve Jobs personally:
"
I arrived at the meeting and went into the conference room. John Lasseter was there (who I casually knew from when Pixar was part of Lucasfilm) and we chit-chatted.
A few minutes later Steve Jobs came in. He sat right across the table from me and the first words out of his mouth where: "I don't believe you can tell stories in games."
"
Source: http://grumpygamer.com/5851503
They still see games as toys.
I have a Linux smartphone in my pocket.
I had a Linux GPS for the last 10 years.
I have a Linux e-book reader at home.
I have Linux-based devices on my network at work, they are considered industry standard for what they do.
I have put 50 Linux netbooks into a school, they stayed there for 5+ years.
I have put Linux desktops into several schools, they stayed there for many years.
I have put Linux devices into schools. They happen to be the ones that made the news.
I have put computer newbies on Linux to save them a Windows key on an old computer. They have stayed like that for several years and been perfectly happy.
The general feeling is that Linux is perfectly good for whatever you want to do.
The people not to listen to are those that make *market* predictions. Who would have guessed that a tiny e-book reader or smartphone would take off after DECADES of sub-par market penetration of Palm etc. devices? Who would have thought that Blackberry would be dead a few years ago and that Android (and Java, in a way!) would own the smartphone market?
The point is that there's nothing to STOP Linux on the desktop. Just don't give a date if you don't want to look like an idiot. And don't brush off a perfectly viable technology because a particular instance hs not got 51% of market penetration (hint: Windows XP Tablet Edition anyone?).
..it can be argued that Linux is gamings #1 platform already
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
"but there still is one huge problem for regular people and linux, and that's when you incorrectly shut-down most linux distro's you'll actually destroy your OS ~ install ubuntu (non-virtualized) and force shutdown (for proof)" This, friends and neighbours, is just so much bullshit. You have no idea what you're talking about.
And of course Quake being released on Linux ahead of windows.
With 32-bit lib dependencies
Which you would also need to run a 32-bit Linux game on 64-bit Linux. Not all games require more than 2 GB of RAM.
dangerous behavior (open txt by default in WINE's notepad? sure, I really want that, yeah)
What default? When I installed Wine on this copy of Xubuntu, Leafpad stayed the default for text/plain, even though Wine Notepad was added to the "Open With" list.
weird rendering
In what manner?
instability
Why haven't developers of applications that are unstable in Wine reported the defects in Wine to the Wine developers?
Might as well call Windows in VirtualBox toolkit as well.
There are two differences. One is technical: Unlike Wine, VirtualBox has to emulate privileged instructions. The other is legal: Unlike Wine, Windows is payware. One of the reasons for Steam OS is to cut the Windows royalty out of the cost of goods in order to get the cost close to that of a major game console.
I don't know what phone you have
Actually my phone is an Audiovox 8610 flip phone. I carry it and a first-generation Nexus 7 tablet because carriers want to charge me hundreds of dollars a year extra to combine it and my tablet into one device. Going from $84 per year for a dumbphone to $420 per year for a smartphone needs some sort of killer app for mobile data that I happen not to have found yet.
but I bet that it has more than twice the CPU power and memory compared to what was considered a high end desktop when Windows XP came out.
True, but it's "underpowered" compared to prevailing user preferences. Look at how companies stopped making Atom laptops, which had been comparable in CPU and GPU terms to a contemporary smartphone. I have an Atom laptop, and I use Xubuntu on it because it successfully avoids the bloat you're speaking of, but I'll probably have to replace it with a tablet and keyboard once it finally bites the dust.
Wow, your phone is more 'powerful' than a 14 year-old desktop?
Seriously doubt it.
The 14-year-old PC that got me through college had a single-core Pentium II CPU, 64 MB of RAM (later upgraded to 192), and a NeoMagic 2D-only GPU. Phones with the same specs as my first-generation Nexus 7 tablet have a Tegra 3 CPU (quad core ARM Cortex-A9 and NVIDIA integrated GPU) and 1 GB of RAM.
Maia developer here. To clarify, the game's website is out of date and the stats I gave to Gaming on Linux were based on the Steam sales rather than the limited direct preorders.
I want to play Age of Empires.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Did you actually read my post? I certainly never said that Apple actively blocking external GPUs was somehow evidence of them taking gaming seriously. That's absurd.
Going by the quality of their website and the various trailers, this Maia game looks pretty terrible. I'm not surprised not many Mac users have bought into it. Really lacks polish, frankly, unless the trailers are giving me a really bad impression of their product.
planet texture maps and more
I believe that ultimately the PC master race should dominate, but I also believe that PC gaming first needs to solve the problems listed in that article as well as this one. Steam Machines have the potential to help with ease of use and pricing compared to a standard Windows PC. The curation of Steam Greenlight helps gamers who might not know what games are worthwhile while softening the transition for gamers who end up becoming more adventurous. With console gaming, one can stick to approved games, but trying not-yet-approved games requires buying a gaming PC. With the Steam Machine, as I understand it, one can try something new by just closing the Steam client. Still, gamers are still saddled with the choice of Steam Machine to buy, and developers that of which to target.
Seriously, how many developers for Windows games target their products on Wine?
Anyone who used TransGaming's Cider library to make a Mac port, for instance. See Slashdot stories about Cider
If Linux gamers are virgins, then any Android gamer is a virgin even if they didn't get their phone from a Sprint MVNO. And if FreeBSD gamers are also virgins, then every Mac gamer, iOS gamer, and PlayStation 4 gamer is a virgin. What platforms does that leave that can coexist with sexual activity? And why is there so much stigma against virgins anyway? It's not everybody's job to propagate the species.
No, Time Machine is a Mac technology. But plenty of desktops that came with Windows 98 Second Edition (standard on home PCs 14 years ago) or Windows 2000 (introduced 14 years ago for professional PCs) were upgraded to Windows XP.
One copy of a $60 game costs less than three or four copies of a $30 game
My game preorders are usually only $35 for AAA titles
$140 if you have four gamers in the household. Conventional wisdom is that not enough PC games offer single-screen multiplayer or spawn installation; each player needs his own gaming PC and copy of the game.
Also, humble bundle and steam sales giving us games for next to nothing.
If everyone were to wait for sales, then how would AAA games' production budgets get covered?
As for the online thing - Steam gives you 30+ days between check ins if you save your password locally.
Other Slashdot users have told me that 30 days is still not good enough for deployed members of the armed forces.
The whole "Paradox of Choice" is not a real study
Yet people stopped buying Atari 2600 games in 1983 when there were too many bad choices on the shelves. What keeps another 1983 gaming recession from happening again?
The point of the PC Master Race is FREEDOM. We can use what we want, when we want.
Does this include freedom to use a game with whom you want, including to play with someone else in the same room and to let someone else play after you're done with a game? Does it include freedom from cheaters?
From how you post, I seriously doubt that you are a PC gamer.
I started posting this way after I met a certain PlayStation fan on Slashdot who claimed that nobody wanted to play PC games together in the same room. I really want to prove each point in that article invalid; you're invited to post in more detail on its talk page.
I assumed that would be the case, but I know that if I hear about a game and want to learn more, I go to the game's website to check it out. I generally don't browse around Steam, or even open it up until I'm ready to try the game out.
I like the Steam service, but as a game browser it's really horrible (like Apple's App Store, it basically takes a website and crams it into something that's not a real browser, and won't do multiple tabs).
When confronted with one problem, some think "I'll use recursion". Now they are confronted with one problem.