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  • #41
    Originally posted by gbudny View Post
    That is a joke?
    LGP had published and ported many games to Linux since 2001 to 2009 when many companies did want to do it. Can you indicate a company who published more games to Linux in that period of the time?

    I can not understand why a new CEO of LGP has became a person who was well-known only for the LGP employees and Michel Simms. We do not know how many games he has ported to Linux

    The only thing that we can observe that Clive Crous want to spend more time on Nethack than games published by LGP.
    And these days, if it weren't for their DRM they'd be as irrelevant as Loki games is today.

    Comment


    • #42
      Originally posted by dashcloud View Post
      Hi, this post by Ethan Lee (well-regarded Linux porter) on Google+ talks about the common case of people thinking a game on Steam has DRM, and about Steamworks and how even that can be used without it being DRM or needing to be online: The problem with DRM....
      In there, he mentions a tweet by Ryan Gordon (icculus), about the most common reason people think Steamworks is DRM: Only checking for a 1, and exiting on a 0.

      The post by Ethan is fantastic anyway, and some of the things he mentions could be possible in the 2nd-to-last paragraph are amazing,
      That stuff is aimed for game programmers who plan to publish in STEAM.

      But I don't see how a common user could bypass that exit(1) path without the game's source code.

      Ryan names his entry with a title that exonerates steamworks as a DRM tool.
      But inmediatly he claims that programmers use it as that.

      Comment


      • #43
        Originally posted by Kivada View Post
        And these days, if it weren't for their DRM they'd be as irrelevant as Loki games is today.
        If I undertood well your comment, you are suggesting that if LGP didn't tie its games with DRM they would bankrupt even some time before?

        The LGP problem wasn't piracy.

        The problem was primarly expensive prices in pounds (40? each game, over 67.91 US dollars), for games only in English that generally were dubbed / subtitled to various languages in its Windows version and that were outdated at the time of release.

        As outdated as some games were gifted (Windows version) with gaming magazines while they were selling it for that absurd price.

        Comment


        • #44
          Originally posted by DebianLinuxero View Post
          The problem was primarly expensive prices in pounds (40? each game, over 67.91 US dollars), for games only in English that generally were dubbed / subtitled to various languages in its Windows version and that were outdated at the time of release.
          This is not exactly the truth.
          They made horrible mistake with their games because they did not pay attention about language versions in games. For example, Knights & Merchants: The Shattered Kingdom is available in several languages but they have never added this information to their website. I can indicate more similar examples, but that will not change anything now.

          Comment


          • #45
            Originally posted by gbudny View Post
            That is a joke?
            LGP had published and ported many games to Linux since 2001 to 2009 when many companies did want to do it. Can you indicate a company who published more games to Linux in that period of the time?

            I can not understand why a new CEO of LGP has became a person who was well-known only for the LGP employees and Michel Simms. We do not know how many games he has ported to Linux

            The only thing that we can observe that Clive Crous want to spend more time on Nethack than games published by LGP.
            Just because they have been relevant in the past doesn't mean they are relevant now. They are not. They are a non-entity at best, a nuisance at worst.

            Comment


            • #46
              Originally posted by DebianLinuxero View Post
              As outdated as some games were gifted (Windows version) with gaming magazines while they were selling it for that absurd price.
              Outdated games for the absurd prices?

              I want to remind you about other companies and platforms:

              Creatures: Internet Edition - 2001 (LGP), 2001 (Windows), 2009 (Mac)
              MindRover: The Europa Project - 2002 (LGP), 2001 (Linux - Loki), 2000 (Windows), 2003 (Mac)
              Candy Cruncher - 2003 (LGP - x86, PowerPC, Sparc), 2002 (Linux x86), 2001 (Windows), 2002 (Mac), 2002 (PalmOS), 2002 (Zaurus)
              Majesty: Gold Edition - 2003 (LGP - x86, PowerPC), 2002 (Windows), Only standard edition - 2000 (Mac) Android (2011) iOS (2011) Windows Phone 7 (2012)
              NingPo MahJong - 2004 (LGP - x86, PowerPC), 2003 (Linux x86), 2002 (Windows), 2003 (Mac)
              Hyperspace Delivery Boy! - 2004 (LGP), 2001 (Windows), not available (Mac), 2001 (Windows Mobile)
              Software Tycoon - 2005 (LGP), 2001 (Windows), 2002 (Mac), 2002 (MorphOS)
              Postal?: Share The Pain - 2005 (LGP), 2003 (Windows), 2004 (Mac)
              Soul Ride - 2005 (LGP - x86, PowerPC, Sparc, Alpha), 2000 (Windows), not available (Mac)
              X?: The Threat - 2006 (LGP), 2003 (Windows), 2004 (Mac)
              Gorky 17 - 2006 (LGP - x86, PowerPC ), 1999 (Windows), 2002 (Mac)
              Cold War - 2006 (LGP), 2005 (Windows), 2006 (Mac), 2005 (Xbox)
              Knights and Merchants - 2007 (LGP), 1998 (Windows), 2001 (Mac), 2003 (MorphOS)
              Ballistics - 2007 (LGP), 2001 (Windows), not available (Mac)
              X?: Reunion - 2008 (LGP), 2005 (Windows), 2007 (Mac - Cider), 2010 (Mac - native)
              Jets'n'Guns - 2009 (LGP), 2004 (Windows), 2006 (Mac)
              Sacred Gold - 2009 (LGP), 2005 (Windows), not available (Mac)
              Shadowgrounds - 2009 (LGP), 2005 (Windows), 2011 (Mac)
              Shadowgrounds - 2009 (LGP), 2007 (Windows), 2011 (Mac)

              Comment


              • #47
                Originally posted by DebianLinuxero View Post
                If I undertood well your comment, you are suggesting that if LGP didn't tie its games with DRM they would bankrupt even some time before?

                The LGP problem wasn't piracy.

                The problem was primarly expensive prices in pounds (40? each game, over 67.91 US dollars), for games only in English that generally were dubbed / subtitled to various languages in its Windows version and that were outdated at the time of release.

                As outdated as some games were gifted (Windows version) with gaming magazines while they were selling it for that absurd price.
                No, LGP would still be just as dead, but there wouldn't be this series of articles as nobody would have given a shit anymore. The few people that owned games with their crap DRM implementation are locked out of those games as the company can't even get a backup server going before they take the current server offline.

                LGP was always a duct tape and WD-40 operation with no hope of expanding their catalogs to games people actually wanted to buy.

                By comparison Valve IS the big leagues as far as the PC gaming market is concerned, as in there is no larger game distribution platform. They hit the ground running with their own top tier titles and have the clout and contracts to get any other developer to follow them to Linux.

                A better comparison is Desura to Valve, Desura didn't do anything for Linux gaming that wasn't already being pushed by the Humble Bundle guys, their client is a bug riddled bush league job and their bad ripoff of the HIB is almost always Windows only even though they carry games for Linux and Macs, as a result they are lucky to break 5000 sales in a bundle.

                LGP isn't even as successful as Gameolith, who set out a few years to be yet another game shop platform that catered to Linux and Mac, but their library was even worse then Desura's. These days they still exist, but only as a game reseller without a platform, though since I'm one of the only people that even remembers they still exist their sales numbers can't be good at all, since most of the time they aren't even listed on GamingOnLinux's deals list while shops like GreenMan are.

                ------------------------------------

                To your other point, at that time Valve was just another small dev studio, they still had to deal with publishers and the DRM they wanted, so they decided to try direct sales with Steam, yes, at first the DRM was not agreeable, but unlike most devs, they listened to the customers, who asked for less restrictive DRM, they tried it and it sold like gangbusters. So they expanded their store to carry the games of other devs, now they are the largest game shop there is. Even GoG.com is tiny by comparison even though they are DRM free, thats how unobtrusive the Steam DRM is.

                With that, so long as the Gaben one draws breath on this earth, Steam's DRM will not be a reason for me not to buy from them. The only reasons I'll not buy a game from Steam is if it comes with additional DRM, in which case it's not going to be available DRM free anywhere but TPB, enjoy your virus. The only other reason for me not to buy a game is if it comes with Wine/eOn or Flash/AIR, those are deal breakers. If I need Wine I'll just pirate the Windows version and run it in Wine myself, if it needs Flash/AIR I'm never going to play it because it'll never work in Gnash/Lightspark anyways.

                Comment


                • #48
                  Originally posted by gbudny View Post
                  Outdated games for the absurd prices?

                  I want to remind you about other companies and platforms:

                  Creatures: Internet Edition - 2001 (LGP), 2001 (Windows), 2009 (Mac)
                  MindRover: The Europa Project - 2002 (LGP), 2001 (Linux - Loki), 2000 (Windows), 2003 (Mac)
                  Candy Cruncher - 2003 (LGP - x86, PowerPC, Sparc), 2002 (Linux x86), 2001 (Windows), 2002 (Mac), 2002 (PalmOS), 2002 (Zaurus)
                  Majesty: Gold Edition - 2003 (LGP - x86, PowerPC), 2002 (Windows), Only standard edition - 2000 (Mac) Android (2011) iOS (2011) Windows Phone 7 (2012)
                  NingPo MahJong - 2004 (LGP - x86, PowerPC), 2003 (Linux x86), 2002 (Windows), 2003 (Mac)
                  Hyperspace Delivery Boy! - 2004 (LGP), 2001 (Windows), not available (Mac), 2001 (Windows Mobile)
                  Software Tycoon - 2005 (LGP), 2001 (Windows), 2002 (Mac), 2002 (MorphOS)
                  Postal?: Share The Pain - 2005 (LGP), 2003 (Windows), 2004 (Mac)
                  Soul Ride - 2005 (LGP - x86, PowerPC, Sparc, Alpha), 2000 (Windows), not available (Mac)
                  X?: The Threat - 2006 (LGP), 2003 (Windows), 2004 (Mac)
                  Gorky 17 - 2006 (LGP - x86, PowerPC ), 1999 (Windows), 2002 (Mac)
                  Cold War - 2006 (LGP), 2005 (Windows), 2006 (Mac), 2005 (Xbox)
                  Knights and Merchants - 2007 (LGP), 1998 (Windows), 2001 (Mac), 2003 (MorphOS)
                  Ballistics - 2007 (LGP), 2001 (Windows), not available (Mac)
                  X?: Reunion - 2008 (LGP), 2005 (Windows), 2007 (Mac - Cider), 2010 (Mac - native)
                  Jets'n'Guns - 2009 (LGP), 2004 (Windows), 2006 (Mac)
                  Sacred Gold - 2009 (LGP), 2005 (Windows), not available (Mac)
                  Shadowgrounds - 2009 (LGP), 2005 (Windows), 2011 (Mac), so R300 compatible
                  Shadowgrounds - 2009 (LGP), 2007 (Windows), 2011 (Mac)
                  IIRC some of those non x86 ports are broken, not that it matters, I recently tried to get the OSS radeon drivers working on an 2006 PowerPC iBook, it's got a Radeon Mobility 9550(RV360, OpenGL2.1 R300 driver compatible), they don't work, at all(apparently they haven't built properly in years on PPC), so thats a total sum of zero games working on PPC right now. I doubt the situation is any different on SPARC or Alpha.
                  Last edited by Kivada; 17 June 2014, 01:37 AM.

                  Comment


                  • #49
                    Originally posted by gbudny View Post
                    This is not exactly the truth.
                    They made horrible mistake with their games because they did not pay attention about language versions in games. For example, Knights & Merchants: The Shattered Kingdom is available in several languages but they have never added this information to their website. I can indicate more similar examples, but that will not change anything now.
                    No, their problem is and has always been their ineptitude, hence this series of articles and the previous set about their many months long downtime before and the fact that they haven't ported any new games in years.

                    Comment

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