Blizzard asks for Linux support feedback

[niniendowarrior]

Of course there's a part of me that wants to be the skeptic, but there's also that part that hopes they're serious this time around.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt if they deserve it.

Asking for feedback seems like the logical first step.

Serious? No they're not. I'll believe that some of their devs are Linux-advocates, otherwise, they wouldn't be trying to back pedal like that. But let's face it, their devs know it isn't in the map, which is why they said what they said in those interviews. There's a far bigger chance of an asteroid hitting the Statue of Liberty than Blizzard taking up Linux. I can respect their devs saying it's not coming, but to give some false hope. That is bollocks.

[RobbieAB]

And with the kind of feedback this thread is showing, if they were serious, it's now past tense...

I'll take such "feedback requests" with a pinch of salt, but I'm not going to shoot my mouth of about how "It will never happen", because such statements are self-fulfilling.

[me262]

I think it's the same boat as iD. Blizzard has a history of making top AAA titles, and selling millions of them.

No one will be able to stop them from doing this should they decide to. Given that it was rumored that the WoW development client had a Linux version, that in this slashdot post, there is an internal Linux client. That both of their 3D games can utilize an -opengl switch. They are already fairly Linux friendly, they just need to go the last mile and compile the code on Linux and make it available. A fairly large step to take.

What I think would be interesting is to open source the level editor. It would still need the assets of the retail game, and would probably need some identifier to separate the mainline from the forks, but it would yield some interesting maps, along with fixes and features.

[Thetargos]

I certainly hope they are serious about this, and for what is worth (or not) I'll voice MY support for Linux, if they take it, thank you Blizzard, if they don't, at least I did express my opinion.

[Juice]

Blizzard had a linux Client

** should have read the linked story first instead of just dumping a (now) useless comment **

Blizzard has had at least a partially functional beta client during the wow beta. They even distributed it maybe by accident i cant judge that.
If you want proof you should hunt for the files of the original beta.
I extracted the files with a small patch to the windows installer to make it extract all the files in PLATFORM instead of only the Win32 files.
The patch was written by one of the people who worked on the server code back then. He went by the nick Ignatich.

I still think that the support costs for releasing a client at that time did not justify releasing it.
At that time I did not feel like disclosing this out of fear of damaging Blizzard.


For people who want to verify this: get the original closed Beta of World of Warcraft, extract the LINUX binaries from the WoW 0.91 installer MPQ files(there are 3 folders in the PLATFORM directory one for windows one for MAC and one for linux). Then if you hunt the Internet for one of the server emulators made in that era it is actually not hard to give yourself a tech demo of a WORKING WoW linux client (32 bit x86). It does run on my amd64 gentoo machine though.

P.S. This client even saves its WTF and WDB files and client settings in a .prefixed directory in your homedir.

[Killermuecke]

They plan on perusing the comments below for user feedback and interest, so don't be shy.

I don't believe a single word.

That didn't keep me from sending an email directly to the blizzard support

[gfordham]

You Read My Mind

To be honest I think hell freezes over before this happens.

I just posted this on the WOW site.

I think not having a native Linux client probably has more to do with not pissing off Microsoft than it does any technical challenges. Who knows they may even have some side deal with Microsoft where Blizzard gets paid a certain amount, probably the projected revenue gain from the current estimated Linux user base, so long as Blizzard doesn't release a Linux client. Gaming is the biggest battleground area between Microsoft and Linux now that Open Office has gained in popularity. Just my opinion.

Anyways I also run WOW under WINE and my hardware is just borderline playable if there was a native client it would play fine. So Blizzard is alienating all those people who can't justify spending the money to buy better hardware, just to play the game.

Needless to say I just ordered a bunch of new components from newegg 'cause I have a hunch it'll be a cold day in hell before there's a native Linux World Of Warcraft client.


WOW Suggestion Forum

[Rooksr]

I've been sending...

...Blizzard emails and phone calls for about 2 years now about native Linux clients for all their games. I agree with dashcloud, they can release however they want, I'll buy/support/use.
If they open source their old titles, I'll get em. If they release everything as binarys, I'll buy 'em. The more support we show the more weight they have to throw around to promote native Linux software. Whether for profit or part of an OS agenda, games won't be released w/o us showing support.

I've told them on the phone and in email, I'll say it here too. I'll re-buy every Blizzard game they release on Linux if they want money for them (free is acceptable too). I pretty much own all of them already, but I want to show support for more "AAA" devs and distributors.

,Rooksr

[mdmadph]

I'll believe it when I see it, though it'd be nice -- being able to run WoW on Linux (and be able to get others to do so) would allow me to finally get rid of Windows once and for all.

[geamandura]

I was really hoping Sam Lantinga can change things over at Blizzard once I read he is working there, I don't know him but I'm really "rooting" for him, so I heard the kids say

Of course it takes a huge company years since the moment it decides to do something new but it's worth hoping. I think we really need a very successful company to take the first step of porting to small-market-share-platform, as the first step will never happen the other way around -- that the existing Linux games start selling in enormous numbers, so that the big companies can get interested -- as much as every one of us hopes.

I like programming and nosing around stuff including Linux but I really don't give a damn about open sourcing their older games, except for the purpose of being able to make them still run in 10 or 20 years. But I'm hugely interested in buying games for Linux, like that Eschalon for example.

As the years pass it just looks like the big companies had no balls to take the first step, even if they have a lot of money, I'm thinking about Blizzard and/or EA.