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The state of Mac and Linux gaming

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Re: The state of Mac and Linux gaming

#11

Post by tomjen3 »

mambodog wrote: post #3

I think a big part of the problem with the Mac games market is that to some people, Mac games are worth less. I myself would never buy a Mac-only game (ie, a Mac OS only license) despite being a fairly avid gamer (and game design major) and using Mac OS as my primary OS, because buying a Mac game means that I've effectively tied my purchase to a weaker gaming platform. I think this is part of the reason for the high…

I doubt that is much of a problem for indies: most of the open source game engines run on both direct x and opengl, so all you need is mac to test on.

Re: The state of Mac and Linux gaming

#12

Post by linhat »

"They often spend more on launch advertising than on actual development-- for example, Modern Warfare 2 spent $50 million on development, and $150 million on launch advertising"

i wish it would have been the other way around...

Re: The state of Mac and Linux gaming

#13

Post by thristian »

As a Linux user, I don't like to buy commercial games for Linux. I did participate in the recent Humble Bundle, but I'd known about and decided against buying at least three of the bundled games previously.

If I buy a book or a CD or a DVD that I like, I can be pretty sure that in five or ten years if I want to experience it again, or share it with a friend. If I acquire a Free Software game that I like, the same applies - I can enjoy it for years to come. Even if they're not Free, games that are written to a VM can last if there's a Free runtime for them, such as ScummVM or the various text-adventure interpreters. Some games are written for hardware that's simple and standard enough to be a de-facto VM, such as older game consoles (NES, SNES) and PCs (Apple II, Commodore 64). Some games are popular enough that people have written sufficiently-similar re-implementations (FreeCiv, Neverball, Lockjaw).

Most commercial games probably won't be around, though. Linux has never been particularly good about binary ocmpatibility, and even when it's possible, the odds that then-modern systems will be set up to handle old software is slim. Of the two Humble Bundle games I've played with so far, neither has working sound and one actually hangs on exit in the sound code - and those games are comparatively recent!

Compared to other forms of entertainment available to me, commercial games seem to have a much, much shorter shelf-life, and hence seem to be a worse use of my entertainment dollar.

Re: The state of Mac and Linux gaming

#14

Post by thribbler »

A question about PC gaming. It can be irritating to have to keep the game disc inserted in order to play, even after the install. One reason is that children frequently empty the drive trays and discs can quickly get scratched. Is there a way around this or am I being hopelessly naive?

Re: The state of Mac and Linux gaming

#15

Post by plorkyeran »

thribbler wrote: post #14

A question about PC gaming. It can be irritating to have to keep the game disc inserted in order to play, even after the install. One reason is that children frequently empty the drive trays and discs can quickly get scratched. Is there a way around this or am I being hopelessly naive?

NoCD cracks are intended for piracy, but there's generally nothing stopping you from using them with legitimate copies of games.

Re: The state of Mac and Linux gaming

#16

Post by ovi256 »

plorkyeran wrote: post #15
thribbler wrote: post #14

A question about PC gaming. It can be irritating to have to keep the game disc inserted in order to play, even after the install. One reason is that children frequently empty the drive trays and discs can quickly get scratched. Is there a way around this or am I being hopelessly naive?

NoCD cracks are intended for piracy, but there's generally nothing stopping you from using them with legitimate copies of games.

I've seen this question raised so many times on games forums, that I speculate more CD cracks are used by legitimate users than pirates.

Re: The state of Mac and Linux gaming

#17

Post by mambodog »

tomjen3 wrote: post #11
mambodog wrote: post #3

I think a big part of the problem with the Mac games market is that to some people, Mac games are worth less. I myself would never buy a Mac-only game (ie, a Mac OS only license) despite being a fairly avid gamer (and game design major) and using Mac OS as my primary OS, because buying a Mac game means that I've effectively tied my purchase to a weaker gaming platform. I think this is part of the reason for the high…

I doubt that is much of a problem for indies: most of the open source game engines run on both direct x and opengl, so all you need is mac to test on.

The point I was trying to make was more along the lines of: "If you want to sell me a Mac game, be sure you're selling me a portable multi-platform licence for that game". I guess I wasn't exactly succinct.

Re: The state of Mac and Linux gaming

#18

Post by mambodog »

thribbler wrote: post #14

A question about PC gaming. It can be irritating to have to keep the game disc inserted in order to play, even after the install. One reason is that children frequently empty the drive trays and discs can quickly get scratched. Is there a way around this or am I being hopelessly naive?

These days the main method is to use an optical drive emulator like Daemon-Tools, although in the last few years there has been a bit of a game of cat and mouse between games blacklisting virtual drives and tools that allow you to 'hide' them (or disguise their virtual nature).

The other alternative is just making a really accurate duplicate of the original disc, by ripping and burning it with a utility like Alcohol 120%, which can make perceptibly identical copies of the game media.

Re: The state of Mac and Linux gaming

#19

Post by mattrepl »

Create wrote: post #9

http://www.hemispheregames.com/osmos/#anchor_demos Enter the ambient world of Osmos: elegant, physics-based gameplay, dreamlike visuals, and a minimalist, electronic soundtrack. Your objective is to grow by absorbing other motes. Propel yourself by ejecting matter behind you. But be wise: ejecting matter also shrinks you. Relax… good things come to those who wait. Progress from serenely ambient levels into varied and…

The above post was random but Osmos is worth playing. It can be relaxing, though gameplay varies from slow and methodic to frenzied.

Re: The state of Mac and Linux gaming

#20

Post by ZachPruckowski »

>"As you can see, the Mac version was released a year after the Windows version, as customer interest and awareness was reaching an all-time low. I realized that the Mac percentages are so low not because the Mac versions sell poorly, but because the Windows sales are artificially inflated by the marketing campaign."

I think this hits the nail on the head. By the time the game comes out for the Mac, my PC friends have mostly moved on. Throw in that many Mac ports can't play online vs. the PC version, and there's a lot less incentive to buy the game.

>"The NPD survey shows that Mac users make twice as many electronics purchases"

Unfortunately, this also means they're more likely to have a Mac and a game console.

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