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Stardock's immersive strategies up to 75% off!



Now, who doesn't enjoy a bit of a strategic challenge every once in awhile? Good thing is, you can find it in all sorts of battlegrounds in this <span class="bold">Weekly Sale</span>! It sure awaits you in the wars raging across the fantasy lands of Fallen Enchantress. Just add a strong dash of RPG to your turn-based tactics, customize your units like a proper leader, and you're ready to ruin or rule entire kingdoms.

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There's more – including Ashes of the Singularity Escalation, Star Control, and Sorcerer King - Rivals – up to 75% off. Plus, stay tuned for new games and deals this Friday!
The <span class="bold">Weekly Sale</span> will last until January 23, 5:00 PM GMT.
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hollunder: There are some games I am interested in in principle, yet I won't buy anything. Three reasons:
1) If I see a game with ten DLCs I won't bother. I will only get it if all DLCs are included or the DLCs do not really add anything to the game (artwork, music, etc., see Crypt of the Necrodancer for an example)
2) No native Linux support and no positive entries on winehq. That means I have no idea whether the game will work for me.
3) Most games are still too expensive, even without DLCs. I will not pay more than ~ 10 € unless I really want to have a game.
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ciemnogrodzianin: I have very similar criteria, but I'm under no illusions that anybody cares about Linux. It's still a small part of the whole business with all the consequences. I think it's nice that we receive the support as it is, I've never expected I'd be able to play on Linux so easily.

Regarding DLCs - I also don't like them and on GOG, where we have a lot of old titles in gold/diamond/complete editions. It's really annoying to scroll a long list of DLCs or thinking which one is the standalone product...
I don't expect everything on Linux. However, there are things that GOG could do and it might get them some sales.

1) Provide Linux versions if they already exist elsewhere. There is a whole list of that kind of games. I am pretty certain there is next to no technical difficulty there. Certainly nothing nearly as involved as porting a game to Linux. It is hard for me to understand why the Linux versions are so often only available elsewhere

2) If there is no review on WineHQ, add one. I often enough for games I play. GOG does not do that so far AFAIK, but they could. If Linux users can be reasonably certain that a game works in wine, then they are more likely to buy it.

As for DLCs, for me they are a relatively new fad that is almost as bad as micro transactions. I simply don't like them. I grew up in a time where I bought a complete game and maybe a large expansion. DLCs nowadays are, with few exceptions, nothing but a sneaky way to increase revenue, and I will not have it.
I am not sure how much GOG could do against that even if they wanted to. Anyway, in my case it will cost them sales or delay them until it is what it should have been from the start, a single game at a fair price.
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hollunder: I don't expect everything on Linux. However, there are things that GOG could do and it might get them some sales.

1) Provide Linux versions if they already exist elsewhere. There is a whole list of that kind of games. I am pretty certain there is next to no technical difficulty there. Certainly nothing nearly as involved as porting a game to Linux. It is hard for me to understand why the Linux versions are so often only available elsewhere

2) If there is no review on WineHQ, add one. I often enough for games I play. GOG does not do that so far AFAIK, but they could. If Linux users can be reasonably certain that a game works in wine, then they are more likely to buy it.

As for DLCs, for me they are a relatively new fad that is almost as bad as micro transactions. I simply don't like them. I grew up in a time where I bought a complete game and maybe a large expansion. DLCs nowadays are, with few exceptions, nothing but a sneaky way to increase revenue, and I will not have it.
I am not sure how much GOG could do against that even if they wanted to. Anyway, in my case it will cost them sales or delay them until it is what it should have been from the start, a single game at a fair price.
Well, fully agreed.

Regarding Linux ports available elsewhere, I asked a few publishers recently and I haven't received any reasonable answer so far. Some of them answered that such port will be never available in GOG - and in case of The Banner Saga someone explained to me that GOG would never accept the port's quality (which is no problem You-Know-Where).

For DLCs - I have a huge backlog, I like and I still play a lot of classics and I have exactly the same strategy. I can wait to buy complete edition, year or two is still perfectly fine for me. I just consider the game as in development for now ;)

For WineHQ - the problem is they don't accept reviews based on PlayOnLinux or any other additional layers. My reviews have been removed due to PoL mentioned in them, even if some dependencies and libraries were also listed.
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hollunder: I don't expect everything on Linux. However, there are things that GOG could do and it might get them some sales.

1) Provide Linux versions if they already exist elsewhere. There is a whole list of that kind of games. I am pretty certain there is next to no technical difficulty there. Certainly nothing nearly as involved as porting a game to Linux. It is hard for me to understand why the Linux versions are so often only available elsewhere

2) If there is no review on WineHQ, add one. I often enough for games I play. GOG does not do that so far AFAIK, but they could. If Linux users can be reasonably certain that a game works in wine, then they are more likely to buy it.

As for DLCs, for me they are a relatively new fad that is almost as bad as micro transactions. I simply don't like them. I grew up in a time where I bought a complete game and maybe a large expansion. DLCs nowadays are, with few exceptions, nothing but a sneaky way to increase revenue, and I will not have it.
I am not sure how much GOG could do against that even if they wanted to. Anyway, in my case it will cost them sales or delay them until it is what it should have been from the start, a single game at a fair price.
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ciemnogrodzianin: Well, fully agreed.

Regarding Linux ports available elsewhere, I asked a few publishers recently and I haven't received any reasonable answer so far. Some of them answered that such port will be never available in GOG - and in case of The Banner Saga someone explained to me that GOG would never accept the port's quality (which is no problem You-Know-Where).

For DLCs - I have a huge backlog, I like and I still play a lot of classics and I have exactly the same strategy. I can wait to buy complete edition, year or two is still perfectly fine for me. I just consider the game as in development for now ;)

For WineHQ - the problem is they don't accept reviews based on PlayOnLinux or any other additional layers. My reviews have been removed due to PoL mentioned in them, even if some dependencies and libraries were also listed.
I read of a few humble bundle games that they are very shoddy. To be honest, I am not using a supported Linux version anyway and often need to apply a certain amount of hackery to make it work. I am really curious to see how GOG will handle this is the future, because many games are not maintained while the rest of the ecosystem moves on.

Same here, I can wait. If I did nothing else it would still take me years to finish the games I own on GOG. I can, for the most part, wait for the complete game. With the added benefit of fewer bugs.

WineHQ and POL is a different story and has little to do with what I suggest here. My suggestion is that some GOG employee gets the games working through wine and posts this on wineHQ in case there is no Linux version and no good review there already. This would by no means be a guarantee or anything like that, just something that would give some confidence that it works.

I think there must be some story between wine and POL that I am not aware of, because the policy is ridiculous. Neither POL nor winetricks is anywhere near perfect or bug free, they both suck a fair bit. For the most part they do exactly the same thing, except that POL tries to be a bit more user friendly. I mostly use POL and simply avoid mentioning this on wineHQ. I have found almost no case where it would matter.
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hollunder: My suggestion is that some GOG employee gets the games working through wine and posts this on wineHQ in case there is no Linux version and no good review there already. This would by no means be a guarantee or anything like that, just something that would give some confidence that it works.
There's at least Judas who is already doing this. Although I think he's doing it in his spare time, not officially for GOG. And there's this thread about Wine compatibility, just in case you do not already know it.