I came across this petition and encourage all gamers and Linux users to sign it. Maybe with enough support we can change the minds of game developers to include native Linux support for games. Even if you are not a gamer, keep in mind that support for commercial games in Linux is a big barrier for adoption by many users. Your support is also welcome.

http://www.gamersforlinux.com/index.php

Game developers or rather game studios\manufacturers will change their mind on this in one case: if it worths it financially. So there's no point signing this petition. Rather buy a game which runs on Linux.

dexter's right, i've seen quite a few of these petitions since i joined the linux world in '99, with hundreds of thousands of signatures, still - nothing has changed because of them. only showing support by actually buying linux games helps anything.

I'm with dexter and tyme - put your money where your mouth is, because the developers don't care about petitions.

That said, Neverwinter Nights was bought by thousands of Linux users, but they still stopped Linux support for NWN 2 - the problem is that many games have both installers in the same box, so when you buy it the developers have no way of knowing what OS you're running it on.

What they said.

Seriously purchasing power and demand are the heaviest influences on companies and the decisions they make!

I agree completely with your points but I have one small problem with it. Where am I to look to find these Linux games? Most of the games with native Linux support that people mention (NWN, Call to Power, etc.) are quite a few years old. The only recent games of note with Linux support are the id and Epic releases and that is dual OS support as SoulSe mentioned. I am all for buying Linux games but how do I do that when there are so few to buy and they are not as easy to locate?

that's the question we've been trying to answer

the real solution is to get linux to such a large market share that gaming companies can't ignore it. anything else would just be a temporary and often useless solution.

They could at least put if they have linux support on the box...

Unreal Tournament 2004 advertised it on the box. We need more developers like those.

Yup they sure did, sadly tho the box has been gathering dust since I bought WoW.

haha...if I could afford it...wait I can...if I wasn't so lazy...

My whole life is gathering dust since I bought WoW

I love UT2004, one of the best FPS ever imho. I need the Mac version for my powerbook though - and since I've already paid for the Windows / Linux version, I can't be arsed to buy it again.

Downloading it is a problem too. It's a huge image. Guess I better get started

Looks like I will be dusting off UT 2004, I just quit WoW. Not because I was addicted or anything , start a new job shortly, and WoW was taking up too much time for me. On the downside though, I now have a KDE desktop...........some random freak result of giving up WoW, well at least that's my excuse

When speaking about Linux games... According to my knowledge, one of the most anticipated titles of the coming year, Splash Damage's Enemy Territory Quake Wars, will be released for Linux too. I'm looking forward to buy it, as Battlefield 2142 is a mistake for me, not only having in mind all of the stability and gameplay issues with BF2 patches. Anyone is planning to buy this game? Should be a really amazing FPS

I've been playing BF2 and 2142 with no problems at all. I do boot into the windows side to do it though. None of the games I play really work well in Linux and if they do you gotta jump through some serious hoops to get it done. I just want to play, not jump through hoops. Also TeamSpeak and game playing on Linux really don't go hand in hand without some trouble to get through.

Linux is a great O.S., but for game playing I'll just stick to Windows.

I beg to differ. I used TeamSpeak with my friends playing NWN constantly. I even hosted both the game and the TS server...on Linux.

I am appealing to people from CD Project RED in each fan of "The Witcher" game's name, using Linux operating system for creating native installator for this system platform. Linux is more often and often used operating system, that is why we feel victims, and we are asking for reconsidering this decision. Each game developer, who thinks about future and values new solutions, should fix their attention on the biggest possible group of customers, and try to extend this group. Creating native installator for Linux for "The Witcher" game is a step to do it. We, signed below, are asking for affirmative answer for this petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/7730722/petition.html

http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/Linux_nativ...r_and_Fallout_3

I loved Enemy Territory (had a native Linux version) and can't wait for the new one. I believe it will have native VOIP built into the client, so no need for TS.

I generally agree, however, that building a bigger desktop market for Linux is a necessary first step. The Dell thing will definitely help. Windows Vista is helping a lot too.