I find it interesting that the linux crew are paying over twice as much as windows/mac users on average. Higher average age and therefore disposable income do you suppose?
1. Linux users having fewer games to choose from so they are willing to pay more for whatever games do come out
2. Linux users want Linux to seem like a viable platform for gaming to encourage more game development for Linux
3. There's probably also a competitiveness to seem "better" than Windows users.
In Linux circles, "I use Linux, and Windows in dual boot just for games" is a common phrase. Many Linux users want their Windows partition gone, and games is the only thing that really keeps them from doing so. All other programs have decent substitutes, some are arguably better. If OpenOffice or GIMP doesn't work for you, it's mostly likely some business requirement, compatibility with enterprise software, etc.
By the way, I was among people who paid more for Linux version.
I think it's more the points child comment makes above, along with:
a- Linux users want to support the philosophy behind these humble sales (pay-what-you-want, independent studio, DRM-free).
b- Total supposition: Many linux users come across this from sources like HN or their friends as "check out the way these are being sold", whereas many windows users it's more "check out how cheap these games are".
- Freeciv: duh - The Dark Mod: Thief clone - Hedgewars: Worms clone - Violetland: Crimsonland clone - OpenArena, Alien Arena, Nexuiz, Warsow (Quake1/3 clones) - Wesnoth: Final Fantasy Tactics ? Console TBS ? Simple to the point where armor is represented via more hitpoints and tin can knights need more healing. - billion of DooM source ports - Cube, Sauerbraten FPS games have intriguing engines utilizing octrees, which enables to display huge number of geometry. These engines are used almost exclusively to creat dumb Quake clones.
Sadly, many good or promising Open Source games started as commercial ones. The code was released later, often because the game was a commercial failure (i.e. Fish Fillets, 0. A.D. ). More generally, open source is often where software goes to "die".
About the only games I can name as exceptions are roguelikes, particularly Nethack and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. These are open-source games with no equivalent in proprietary/commercial world.
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I'm convinced this is not a problem with lack of money, time, or motivation. Even the greediest of the bunch, 2D and 3D artists, end up contributing to mature projects. OpenOffice, Mozilla, GIMP. Hell, Linux ! I think it's a problem with leadership. This article, incidentally - linked from Hacker News - was an eye opener for me:
http://blog.asmartbear.com/ignoring-the-wisdom-of-crowds.htm...
("Design is not a democratic process", "Eventually you realize there’s only way to please everyone: Cook something bland, mild, and safe, like chicken and rice. But does chicken and rice actually please anyone? Not really, it was just what everyone hated the least.", "Votes become vetoes")
It also talks about stuff like the jellybeans experiment. What wisdom of crowds is good or bad for.
Usually, innovative, potentially bad ideas are shot down. You're left with chicken and rice - things that people hated the least. That's why clones are so popular - you know in advance it is a solid game idea. It's much easier to get contributors. But good luck getting motivated contributors for a unique game !
More generally, I think open-source games often end up going one of 2 paths: - bland clone, huge project inertia - Frankenstein feature creep, in my opinion Nethack belongs here
I think open source is bad at going where no one has gone before, and this is important for games. It won't stop me from trying, though.
I think Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is one notable exception - it mostly manages to keep leadership focus. You could say they don't exclusively use greedy algorithms for design.
> More generally, open source is often where software goes to "die".
Regarding games, would you say that the Quake franchise is dead? Doom? Hardly. You are right about Open Source project games being fairly bland, but to call any game on Linux failed from the get-go because of the open source nature of the OS is very short sighted. There is a large consumer base willing to pay money for binaries (not code) for entertainment purposes. The HumbleBundle continues to show this.
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Linux games don't have to be open source, but it's a development model I like for practical and ideological reasons. Open source, also GPL, is really the point of Linux. Otherwise why not just go with BSD ? Perhaps I wasn't so clear - I like open source development because in theory it has no restrictions on game design, as opposed to Hollywood style products. But in practice fear of unknown (I guess ?) prevents lots of open source innovation from happening.
Copyright and monopoly originated not to make people profit, not because X deserves Y, but to get more stuff into public domain. You know Gutenberg we praise so much tried to destroy his printing press and keep the secret to himself ? Yet the industrial revolution only started once James Watt's patents expired and he could no longer innovators with lawsuits.
Open source is great for maintenance - I wish companies realized that ! Look at dosbox, wine, various old games. They think they gain a competitive advantage by keeping their infrastructure secret, but how much do they spend in maintenance costs ?
Actually, that's not the case.
The gameplay for Blizzard's Diablo and Diablo2 are highly reminiscent of Angband.
I've never seen a commercial variant of something as twisted as Nethack though. :-)
Save/continue combined with permanent death has BIG impact on gameplay, it's almost like a separate genre. Look at Dominions3 (TBS from 2010, free demo). It fulfills the condition I described. It has things unthinkable in many other games, like many divination spells that provide information. In a save/load game they would be pointless, you could just go into an unexplored area and reload, repeat. Also, Dominions3 has spells that bring back your valued commanders from dead... but they make them weaker (wight, mummy) and can't be reused over and over.
Save/continue with permadeath has large impact on player behavior too. Players tend to a lot more carefully, value escape tools. Knowing what's coming in advance is good.
You may want to try Notrium. The game is free, however it won't run on Linux without wine. Aside from save/load, I think it's a much better graphical/realtime roguelike than Diablos.