OMG, the comments below that first post are full of ignorance. It's just so painful to see what people think and say of Linux (even the ones who defend it).
You can't expect the average teenage gamer to understand what's the difference between a kernel and an operating system.
In the end, maybe rms was always right, we should use "GNU/Linux". Ten years ago it was humorous because the GNU userland was pretty much the only one available but now with Android, SteamOS and friends it's becoming really misleading.
It's the primary reason I stopped frequenting video game communities.. Which is a shame because I've been a gamer all my life, and I wish there was a vibrant (and large) community for intelligent discussion like Hacker News but that was game focused.. I'm sure there is somewhere, but I haven't found it..
> and I wish there was a vibrant (and large) community for intelligent discussion like Hacker News
I was thinking the exact same thing ! We really should try to do something about that. Interested?
What this means is that if you plan to have a somewhat "grown up" community you'll have to find a way to raise the bar somehow.
Some people have tried making more mature gaming communities, such as the owner of Insomnia who enforces a very strict posting guideline[1] and requires a paid subscription in order to participate[2], but I feel that these types of communities are often too restrictive in the types of content they can provide, often limiting themselves to specific discussions on higher level game mechanics of specific genres, and, as a result, lack the diversity found in forums like NeoGAF.
[0]http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=390708 [1]http://insomnia.ac/commentary/posting_guidelines/ [2]http://culture.vg/subscribe.html
They even post warnings on threads that real /r/all where people not subscribed to /r/Gaming will see it and come in to comment.
There is also /r/linux_gaming which will have better discussions on the Linux aspect of Valve's new developments.
But it's not perfect. Just one of the better options.
The site attracts a lot of developers, game journalists and industry people and you'll find discussion of niche topics that will rarely if ever appear on Reddit. For example there's a weekly Japanese sales thread that has been going on for years where Japanese sales trends are exhaustingly examined.
Fact is, performance on Linux is fantastic, graphics drivers are a non-issue unless you're on AMD graphics (Intel is decent, Nvidia is great), OpenGL is up to the latest version on Nvidia, 3.0 on Intel, and sound is the weak point, but still not that bad.
For developing, you have pretty good, easy tools like Maratis, Irrlicht, Panda3D, SDL, Blender, etc... Not to mention commercial engines like Unreal, Unigine, and others I'm sure...
Linux isn't perfect, but it is pretty good, and it can run AAA games just fine, right now.