The future of game management on openSUSE (Desura?)

**canislycan** · 12-Dec-2011, 14:59

I was testing out Desura and contemplating its impact on the Linux gaming community. For me, this decreases any motive I may have to package games and submit them to the Game repo. Currently, I'm holding off to see how/if open source game developers make use of Desura, and:

* It seems redundant to package a game when the developers are already using a distribution platform I have access too.
* I don't have to rely on package maintainers to keep packages up to date (or spend time doing it myself)...same story for friends on other distros.
* Desura offers easy options to financially support projects, including AlphaFunding.
* Feedback/community discussion surrounds gaming, for gamers, by gamers (General communities -here- usually have a limited understating of the wants/needs of a special group).
* MOD management (could be the greatest thing ever...managing mods = HUGE time-sink)

I don't see Desura as a comprehensive solution for the Linux gamer. We still need access to stable open source drivers for gaming peripherals. Believe me, gampads, joysticks, and mice with non-functioning keys (if they work at all) are pretty darn irritating. Playing with THAT disadvantage = not fun when you are trying really, really hard to win. Other needs are 3D drivers that perform exceptionally well, sound drivers that allow me to use my MIC and output sound in digital 5.1...that would be bloody wonderful (/sarcasm), voice clients (Mumble/Mangler), and even guild management utilities such as, say, joomla or drupal with all the requisite addons a Guild leader would want. These latter needs make more sense maintained on the platform of choice rather then Desura, or something equivalent.

My opinion, Desura offers a paradigm shift for the Linux gamer, just like Steam did for Windows. I think its something that could be used to augment the openSUSE gaming experience and worth considering if there is such a thing as "Linux gaming + strategic planning on openSUSE".

At any rate, I'm still thinking on it and waiting to see where things go. Your thoughts?

* Desura
* DJL
* GameStore

Other things of interest:
* PlayDeb
* Steam Games on Linux

**JoergJaeger** · 12-Dec-2011, 16:45

Not sure how to vote. I am a gamer and what kept me away was that there was never any good games (aka big franchise).
Steam is a big player and it has inhaled most of the market share. But although i am not a big pc gamer anymore, it does play an important role.

Sadly, i have no knowledge over the linux platform and how much work is involved in packaging a program. But for any consumer with limited knowledge about advanced computing, a platform like steam and perhaps Desura is a blessing. Anything that makes it easier to access and use programs is a win for him.
As i was younger i was tweaking games on the Windows platform. The good old Dos days.
Now i just want the things to work and i may work a little around problems but not to much.

I checked Desura for titles and it seems that you can run a game like defcon on Linux. But i assume that is in conjunction with Wine. I just don't think it is written for Linux, but i am not sure.

But there is another point that is valid in my view. If a frontend like Desura succeeds, that would make Linux a more serious player to the commercial community. So far Linux does not play any significant role i can think off.

Not sure how many people play in the openSUSE community and respond, but it is an interesting thought.

A while back, i remember, people were getting pretty excited by a rumor from phorenix that Steam may be ported to Linux. Of course it was not true as it turned out. In my humble opinion Desura may be a good thing.

**canislycan** · 13-Dec-2011, 16:44

I checked Desura for titles and it seems that you can run a game like defcon on Linux. But i assume that is in conjunction with Wine. I just don't think it is written for Linux, but i am not sure.

Currently, the games you can get for Linux are all native, no Wine. Some open source, some not. There is also speculation that Desura may have the capability to support wine (sorry can't find link where I read that).

But there is another point that is valid in my view. If a frontend like Desura succeeds, that would make Linux a more serious player to the commercial community. So far Linux does not play any significant role i can think off.

Agree, on the desktop. I think Desura will succeed, with Indie developers at least. Beyond that, it's so hard to predict.

A while back, i remember, people were getting pretty excited by a rumor from phorenix that Steam may be ported to Linux. Of course it was not true as it turned out.

I was one of those people, cry or laugh, I'm not sure which to do. =]

/cheers mate

**JoergJaeger** · 13-Dec-2011, 19:40

Currently, the games you can get for Linux are all native, no Wine. Some open source, some not. There is also speculation that Desura may have the capability to support wine (sorry can't find link where I read that)

Did you mean Linux games or also these commercial games like Defcon?

Agree, on the desktop. I think Desura will succeed, with Indie developers at least. Beyond that, it's so hard to predict.

The Indie is what MS is just killing off i heard. So maybe there is a chance. Steam works pretty well with Indie's too. But how is the common recognition off Desura?

I was one of those people, cry or laugh, I'm not sure which to do. =]

/cheers mate

I don't want to say that i knew that at the time, because that would be just mean. I wished i were wrong but it was highly unlikely that Valve would do that. The only reason they went after OSX was the higher market share (just my thought).

**canislycan** · 13-Dec-2011, 22:47

Did you mean Linux games or also these commercial games like Defcon?

Commercial also, Defcon included. I've only purchased one game so far (Hacker Evolution: Untold) but plan on getting a few more soon, including Defcon.

**canislycan** · 17-Dec-2011, 01:23

For clarity (concerning the Desura features), MODs are currently unsupported in Linux. A future possibility, but doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon.