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Games Entertainment

Sierra Studios asking about Linux 190

Posted by Hemos from the loki-needs-competition-:) dept.
eh writes "Sierra Studios, makers and distributors of such fine games as Kings Quest and more recently Half-Life, has a poll up on their main page asking where they should steer their attention. One of the options happens to be "Linux Games", which is sitting so very lonely at 11%. " I remember the sheer hours Rob whilled away at Leisure Suit Larry. Of course, I only got Outpost, which the first time around stunk.
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Sierra Studios asking about Linux More

Sierra Studios asking about Linux

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  • Re:SPACE QUEST! (DosEMU) (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I've found that the ol' Sierra games run GREAT under DosEMU. (I just beat SQ3 again yesterday...) :)

    -Jared Maguire
    jared@ccs.neu.edu
  • The polls are useless in any case (all self-selected polls are useless).

    I agree nonetheless that refering to pools where /.'ers are likely to lie (i.e. "would you buy for Linux?"), but in this case the question is of a kind that most /.'ers are likely to answer truthfully.
  • Posted by My_Favorite_Anonymous_Coward:

    see title
  • Hmm... I still get the same problem as the first time I clicked the link on /....

    It looks like the frames are messed up. I see four Sierra logos and two toolbars and an 404 Not Found in the main window... strange. Might be a NS 4.51 problem...?

  • LSL (Score:1)

    by Mondo54 ( 48155 )
    Ohh yeah, Leisure Suit Larry the tarball.
  • Well this is an interesting turn of events. If you've been watching the Sierra site lately, you'll see that the Mac and Linux users are duking it out pretty feverishly. 5 minutes ago Mac was up to 60% and now it's down to about 50% running neck and neck with Linux. Whoop. Now it's back up. Now it's back down. This is fun!
  • Years ago, I bought many Sierra games. I had *all* of the Space Quest series (all of them that would run in DOS anyway). I also had most of the Kings Quest series as well. In addition to that, I had Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist and a few others. I had all of this because I loved their games.

    Once they made their games Windows-only, I refused to purchase any more (because I could not play them). I vaguely remember something about sending them an e-mail about this, but I could have been mistaken...

    Anyway, I love Sierra games and would run out to purchase any Linux ports, ESPECIALLY any Space Quest ones.

  • Re:Civ (Score:1)

    by hawky ( 14175 )
    I was at Fry's on Friday and they still don't have it, they said to check back in a few weeks. They sales people seem to know that linux games will be coming in, which I think is a good sign.
  • I just voted, and it's Mac 55%, Console, DVD and PC 0% (actually 2% divided among the 3 of em, I'd guess), linux games 43%

    I guess somebody posted the poll in a Mac-news page :)

    Vox

  • except (Score:1)

    by mattdm ( 1931 )
    There are no free games that even approach the polish found in commercial games. Take that as a call to arms if you want, but, for example, check out Civ:CTP as compared to FreeCiv. I think it's one of the few software products people will pay for.

    Maybe it's something along the lines of: the necessities should be free, but I'll pay for luxuries.

    --

  • Are the other polls self-selected as well?

    In that case, all you can conclude is that the self selection bias of your Internet active listeners aren't very different from the self selection bias of your listeners in general.
  • Maybe perhaps it's time to vote again if you

    1) Have actually installed Linux
    2) Have actually gotten your sound card and video card properly configured in Linux
    3) Actually intend on supporting Sierra in a Linux game development effort.
  • I voted because I would definitely buy a Sierra game if it were released for Linux. Heck, if Half-Life were out for Linux, I'd be camping out at the software store!

    Games for Linux are just about ready to explode. We're going from "no games at all" to "an explosion of new games" in a really short time. It's hectic. I love it.
  • Even if Linux currently makes up 5 - 6 % of home PC OSs, any company can still make money doing Linux games because the commercial Linux games market has so few competitors. In the WinXX world they have to compete with so many other games, but given the choice of Linux games, and the obvious want for them, they'd sell to a (relatively) large proportion of Linux users. Obviously this will help expand the market too.
  • I haven't bought CIV yet, but I have asked my CompUSA store to order it for me. They have tons of the Win95 version but none of the Linux version .

  • Recovering from slashdotted polls (Score:3)

    by Alan Cox ( 27532 ) on Sunday May 30, 1999 @06:58AM (#1874462) Homepage
    Its very very easy for a vendor to recover a poll from slashdot aberrations. The nice visible spike makes it easy to drop results for a given time period, and also to drop results via referrer tracking.

    Don't forget there is also a work in progress free player for the old Sierra games too.
  • Its now about 9:45 (Central) in the morning on beautiful Sunny day. By the time I read the message and went to vote over at Sierra, "Linux Games" was already up to 74%.

    The power of Slashdot has no end. The only thing that worries me is that it could actually cause ill effects in the name of good. Lets say Sierra finds out that the story was posted on Slashdot. Now instead of seeing 74% (Or whatever it ends up at), they see a statistical sample that is not demographically correct.

    Im sure most of you know, or feel, that most people view slashdot readers as "A Technically Elite Group. Now I personally dont believe this, but I must admit, most of the people I show Slashdot, view it as a "Geek's Page".

    So now this 74%, has no bearing whatsoever on Sierra's decision to support Linux Games. Please tell me Im dreaming, cause I would hate to have the "Slashdot Effect" doing harm for the Linux movement.
  • To be more exact the X is the capital chi greek letter.
    And the chi is the initial letter of Christ.
    Another symbol, the fish, is written in ancient greek as IXTUS
    Iesus Xristos Teou Uios Soter : Jesus Christ Saviour Son of God.
    All these symbology was necessary to notice the church inside the cathacombs during the roman persecutions.
    Of course the simbology survive until now so that you can see X letter as fish represented inside some church walls.
    Good bye Antonio.

  • another sierra game i'd like to see go linux (Score:3)

    by sho-gun ( 2440 ) on Sunday May 30, 1999 @05:42AM (#1874467)
    I for one would like to see Sierra steer thier
    aquisition Papyrus to release thier Nascar Racing
    series to linux. Doubtful though, as Papyrus's
    latest (Grand Prix Legends) and future releases
    (Nascar 2000) seem to be deeply embedded in
    DirectX 6.

    If they could do this, it would remove my reasons
    for booting to windows at all.

    I could dream, cant I? :)
  • Wrong, it is time to vote again if you can honestly answer the question being asked:

    In what direction do you think Sierra Studios
    should expand their gaming expertise?

    Answering the stated question honestly is _all_ you can reasonably be requested to do in a poll.
  • Funny you should ask. There's an interpreter available:
    LAGII 0.1.5 [freshmeat.net]
  • Whoah, So much anger...

    So y'all are saying the poll hasn't been thrown out a little?

    Think about this. How many sites are there athat console, mac, windows, etc devotees check almost daily? And how many of those sites do you think announced sierra's poll? Now how many people do you think just happened to check the Sierra site since the poll went up?

    On the other hand, If Sierra is dopey enough to take this as a statistically sound survey, well that's gotta be more games for linux, which is good. Might prompt more developement in the video driver spectrum, too.
  • The people who visit Sierra's homepage are most likely Sierra game players. However, the minute you introduce the Slashdot effect, you have a biased crowd, who for the most part go vote for these polls just to _see_ the Slashdot Effect in action.
  • anyone remember that great fun game for the IBM XT/AT age? all in CGA glory too -- i'd love an online multiplayer, full 24 bit colour version of it today ... hehe ...
  • I guess Sierra's web page just doesn't expect to get very many hits at all. Or at least, 'informed' good voting citizens.

    --
  • Hey, /. effect is definately working. The poll has been changed to What upcoming Studios game would you like to see ported to Linux? (the choices are TeamFortress 2, Pharaoh, Homeworld, Gabriel Knight 3, Babylon 5 )
  • Polls are all fine and dandy until someone loses an eye,..

    We can click, click and even click again and vote for more Linux games, but at some point someone is going to look at the refer log and see all these people who voted and all these people who came from Slash. I think they'll put two and two together.

    It's great they put the option in the poll, but I myself make a habit of sending off an e-mail or two directed at software companies asking for Linux stuff.

    Personally myself, I would take a hard drive full of "more Linux stuff" e-mail over a web poll anyday.

    I think e-mailing these companies and asking WHEN such and such software is going to be released would be more effective.

    But,.. that's just me.
  • Yes, apparently the Mac users woke up and are counterattacking in force. I guess one more reason why they'll dump the results of the poll...
  • I beleive the entries for DVD, PC etc (the vague ones) are to thow people off the scent about the true nature of the poll. Instead of seeing what they should do (eg stick with PC/Windows), they are seeing what sort of market for Mac/Linux games there is out there. I think they will just take the numbers of people that voted (what, about 12-15 thousand by now, due to the resets) and use that to determine the possible size of the market (extrapolating due to the fact that not everyone will vote).

    This (I believe) is not a poll to see whether they should concentrate on Mac or Linux or Windows, or even what sort of market share each os has (others do that), but whether the Mac and Linux markets are big enough for them to bother with. I would say that with ~15k responses, the markets are big enough.

  • Yes folks,

    It was a blatantly flawed example. You'll all be pleased to know that as of this morning, I've signed up for Ex-Christian Anger Management therapy. There I hope to learn how to...how you say...LIGHTEN UP!!!!

  • No it won't. Here's why: (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Linux may only own 6 or 7 percent of the total market, but it's a 6 or 7 percent that would generally be willing to purchase ports of existing titles. Porting a game costs a hell of a lot less than developing one from scratch, so for a relatively small investment, you can breathe new life into your existing games. And if you write new titles with an eye to portability, your return on your investment will be even higher.
  • It's still statisticlly valid, it just has a different meaning. In this case it means "Of the group of people who visited this site and participated in the poll, who want's what?". That's usualy all that an internet poll can mean.

  • ...if you voted before the numbers were reset.
  • i dualboot 98 and Be, and were it not for games i could drop 98 without a second thought... Be is a fine technical os, and it would be a shame to see it go to waste without proper developer support..

    tchort
  • I absolutely agree!

    Too bad another option wasn't list on the poll:
    * Make some GOOD games on any platform
  • Well, it looks like the games market has finally seen the light. Once the first few companies get involved, market pressure pushes everybody else into the ring. I'm glad to see this happen. For so many of us, Windows resided on a spare partition _just_ so we can play games. Now if Blizard would just start releasing Linux games, we'd be set.
    -earl
  • Posted by Nericus:

    The poll results aren't unbiased...but they show the market share of Linux users out there...One thing I'm curious about tho...What's "Stay focused on PC games" supposed to mean? Linux/DVD are both "PC" capable...that's Windows in disguise. The poll is skewed in creation... More Mac 48% Linux 50% votes 6401

  • Re:Malda stop doing polls a long time ago (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    On the other hand, how many people regularly visit "sierrastudios.com"?? Who would have even found this site and thier poll had it not been for Slashdot? I had actually thought Sierra had fired everyone and was gone based on a Slashdot story a few months back. I think coming back as a Linux games company would be great for both them and all of the rapidly growing Linux user base!!

  • but on that self-same note, if bluesnews.com, planetquake.com, planethalflife.com, stomped etc all posted 'Hey sierra has a poll that calls for a gamer's vote, go look' there would be a FLOOD of windows9x users saying, hey yeah, concentrate on MY games..

    tchort
  • Self-selected polls are _never_ representative, on the Internet or elsewhere.
  • Posted by kenmcneil:

    Is there a force stronger than the /. effect? Apparently there is. Check the poll results: Mac Games (55%), Console Games (0%), DVD Games (0%), Linux Games (45%), Stayed Focued on PC Games (0%). Apparently the Mac nuts are stronger than the Linux nuts. Is there a /. for Mac users out there somewhere that I don't know about?

    Note: this was as of 10:30 a.m. PDT with ~3500 votes

  • (/flame)possibly because of the M$ in MSNBC

  • Heu man, can't they understand that techie and gamer aren't incompatible???

    Why should people be profiled in just one category???
  • No, they meant "In what direction do you think Sierra Studios should expand their gaming expertise?" That doesn't mean all options have to be exclusive.

    --

  • Well, the votes biased, but i'll buy the game when they come out. That's all that matters.
  • Port what? The old games were interpreted. There's a linux interpreter called Sarien here [ihug.com.au]
  • yeah, I posted that (1000 votes) before I looked at the dates/times. I also didn't realise yesterday was a holiday for Americans. Much better now.

    I didn't like the format of the poll - what if you wanted more than one game, or older games or whatever. So emailed the webmaster and told him they should release source code for the "obsolete" ones. :)
  • Heh, and now 69%

    Wonder if it'll be taken seriously tho.

  • I've got nearly every Sierra game worth having (that is to say, the non-scary ones), and I'll buy Linux versions if they produce 'em. It's one HECK of a lot easier than dealing with DOS nonsense.
    -russ

  • MSNBC.. (Score:1)

    by drendite ( 3 )
    I remember once, /. /.'ed a MSNBC poll. I don't remember exactly what it was, it was a long time ago.. But I do remember that MSNBC took down the poll after we skewed it.

  • I'll buy! (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sierra Studios: I'm happy to vote with my dollars for Linux games -- I've bought many games in the past, and wrote "support Linux!" on each product registration card.

    I'd probably even buy some games that I wouldn't have otherwise if they were made available in Linux versions.
  • I for one don't have a problem paying for software in general. It's platform-type stuff that I have a problem with, and simple utilities I could write myself but don't want to take the time.

    Windows has tons of Shareware authors trying to make $5 here and $10 there on simple utilities, all of which are free for Linux. On the other hand, I have already payed good money for Civ:CTP, Hopkins FBI, and WABI (so I could run my company's proprietary Win 3.1 software, which didn't run properly under WINE).

    So, I think if you find the right market, people will pay for Linux software. Just don't try to sell Office software for home use ;-)

  • I preordered it, and its great :) Definately a good purchase.

    If your local CompUSA and such don't have it, consider ordering it online. It costs about the same, and that way you know you're going to get it, as opposed to waiting until the stores decide to carry it.
  • It was at 75% when I cast my vote. Ahh, the power of the slashdot effect...
  • Then bundle the interpreter and all the old game datafiles in a nice package, and sell it for Linux.
  • Which means that you need to vote again...

    (Off topic item: HotJava sucks ! I am trying it out because
    Netscape 4.5X got the infamous "Bus Error" back again with Java apparently (Got
    to wonder about that...). It's so slow that it is unable to keep up with a user
    when they are typing- it gets all the keypunches, but when they get to
    the edit field, they get jumbled all up. Example: I'm ytping ta normal pseed and s
    ee what BS acme out...)

  • Resetting the Poll (Score:5)

    by miracle69 ( 34841 ) on Sunday May 30, 1999 @10:30AM (#1874523)
    I've watched the poll since early this morning. It appears that the poll has been reset at least twice. The first reset came when Linux had nearly 75% of the vote - and 2500 votes were cast away. Next, Linux and Mac were neck in neck, with Mac having the slight lead, in over 4000 votes - at which point after, it was reset. It's 2:30 Central (US) and the poll shows almost 2300 votes, with a Linux percentage of 63%.

    I wonder if someone is resetting the data because they don't like the results, or if their poll data is saved to another file and then reset so visitors feel that their vote carries more weight.
  • As long as they don't release every game at the same time and expect every linux user to go on a shopping spree.



  • Garumph! It seems to be broken. I've tried to submit my vote several times, and the results still site at zero! Maybe it's because I'm behind a firewall. Anybody else have any luck?
  • 'net polls have never had any statistical value.
    If the Sierra executives actually believe that they can read anything out of the results of this one, then they'll get what they deserve- A whole new market and thousands of happy Linux gamers.
    Er. Well, maybe that's not what they'd deserve.
  • Posted by majestic1:

    I said that I would buy it, and Ive been looking at my local Best Buy and CompUSA almost every weekend... maybe it's time to order online or something.
  • Actually, the results of the poll at this moment look just about normal. (I don't think very many people must have voted at the time the poll was noticed.) I mean, sure, Linux Games has 49%, Mac Games has 48%, but look at the other choices. Console games, DVD games, and "stay focussed on PC games."

    Let's face it, among people likely to be browsing to a webpage, PCs, Linux, and Mac are about the only systems (DVD isn't really a "system", and anything Sierra develops will probably eventually come out on DVD anyway, if only in one of those "5 old but neat games for $20" collections) that they're seriously going to be interested in. And they've got plenty of stuff out for PCs already.

    About all that should really interest them, I think, would be the overall numbers.
  • Out of sheer boredom, I went back and saw something VERY Interesting:

    Just checked the Polls about a minute ago, and it was sitting pretty at 75% dominating the rest of them.

    More Mac Games:
    |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
    (51%)

    Console Games:
    ||||
    (0%)

    DVD Games:
    |||
    (0%)

    Linux Games:
    |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
    (46%)

    Stay focused on PC
    Games:
    ||
    (1%)

    --- As of May 30, 1999 12:13pm

    Anyone else think something is SERIOUSLY wrong here?

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • ah (Score:3)

    by aphr0 ( 7423 ) on Sunday May 30, 1999 @05:20AM (#1874533)
    So many turn into activists when doing so is simple.

  • Whatchoo Talkin' Bout, Willis? (Score:5)

    by Ryandav ( 5475 ) on Sunday May 30, 1999 @06:29AM (#1874537) Homepage Journal
    What part of the logic chain am I missing?

    1. PHB wishes to know if there is some intrest in a particular branch of development.

    2. Poll is established and 6000 people vote for linux.

    3. PHB says, "Hmm, that's interesting. Tell me more, lets get some numbers and ask a consulting firm or two..."

    No company or business is going to base developer decisions on an online poll, whether they get 6 votes total or 100,000 for linux. They are gauging (sp?) an intrest level. So what if slashdot sends a very large number of linux zealots over? They are still each and every one a potential customer, and a company likes to find a new market with lots of customers.

    If some mac evangelista site links the poll, they would have every chance to flood the poll too, and that might be listened to as well.

    There is also a final possibility, one I know from personal experience: Maybe the PHB's Number One is a big time reader of slashdot and is trying to steer his boss into learning something about linux. In a seemingly innocuous poll they get a LARGE amount of linux intrest. Mission Accomplished.
  • Newsflash: Sierra mail server crashes from well-meaning repentent SlashDot poll-swayers.
  • I'd just like to note that Sierra(/Valve) does already do some Linux stuff. There is a Linux version of the Half-Life server out. No client yet, though...and frankly, I would love to see that. I'd pay the $50 all over again to be able to play it under Linux.

    So I think that there is a pretty good chance of them listening to the fact that there have been so many Linux responses on the poll, even if they throw out the numbers themselves.

    Now, if we just had some decent 3D drivers for TNT cards for Linux...
  • TIM did and does indeed kick ass. I have my 8 year old playing it... lateral thinking at its finest.

    A halflife/TFC/TF2 client would just about send me into spasms, personally. ;) I was fortunate enough to be on the betatest team for the halflife SERVER, at least.

    --
    rickf@transpect.SPAM-B-GONE.net (remove the SPAM-B-GONE bit)

  • Re:Civ (Score:1)

    by mattdm ( 1931 )
    I bought it.

    --

  • Just how important is this poll to Sierra anyway? (Score:5)

    by rnt ( 31403 ) on Sunday May 30, 1999 @08:44AM (#1874544)
    Come on, I've been reading comments from people worrying about skewed polls, businesses being misinformed, and so on...

    I think we worry too much about it.

    Someone else already commented that the results of such polls most probably will be used to see if there are markets to be researched.

    Just looking at the pollresults they will be likely to realise they've gotten themselves into the middle of a Mac vs. Linux voting war.

    Internet poll results are *always* biased!
    First of all there still are people that do not have access to Internet.
    Besides that, only people that know about the poll get to vote in it. There must be dozens of polls on subjects I think I have something to say about, but I just don't have the time (or interest) to visit all the sites that may carry those polls. Occasionaly I stumble on a poll (most of the time thanks to sites like slashdot...) and vote as my conscience tells me to ;-)

    The fact Sierra seemed to have reset the scores is probably an indication about the importance of the poll. They have learned that they should investigate both Mac and Linux markets.
  • With this sort of poll, they're not truely after percentages (unlike, say, electoral polls). What they are after is shear numbers. Lets say that 6000 Windows users vote: that would probably lead to 90% (5400) voting for Windows games. This doesn't mean alot really: Sierra already does Windows games. Now lets say 80000 Slashdotters vote, leading to something like still mean nothhing, but the absolute numbers reveal that there is a potential Linux market of at least 56000 customers, probably more as this is only a small portion of the Linux community. Lets say Sierra makes $20 a pop for each game: by these numbers alone, they could get $1,120,000 from the Linux market, likely more. Would you sneer at such figures? I wouldn't, I'ld be saying gimme gimme gimme! (and get that game out). Oh, and they'ld probably achieve such figures on an old game (eg Kings/Space Quest), let alone a new one. It would cost them, what, $50-100k, to do the port? 900% profits. Very good for the bottom line.
  • How are these votes any less valid because they all happened in a short time? Let the MAC, Win and console players post the link on their fan sites and go vote.

    This isn't like the hank-the-angry-drunken-dwarf farce from people magazine's poll. There people were making a point that web popularity polls for 'beautiful people' was subject to ridicule by the large majority of net users.

    Here we have a legit poll on the potential audience for games developed for specific platforms. I hope they recognize that linux users are a valuable segment, regardless of the time interval in which we cast our votes. :-)

    If nothing else, they must recognize the capability we have to somewhat organize ourselves and make our collective presence known. This in itself can be valuable market research data which they can incorporate into whatever strategy develops from this poll.


  • Looking at it, it's funny, becouse they are ALL so vague, except for Linux. PC Games can be Linux games.. DVD games can be Linux games.. I think what they MEANT here is Windows, Linux, Mac, or Playstation.. ;-P
  • I hasn't been removed, it's still there.. 4069 votes and rising, linux games category down to 47% and losing ground.

    If you don't want them to be able to check that /. has referred the page, just open up a new browser and type www.sierrastudios.com in the locator..
  • I voted for more linux games because I want more linux games. Got civ CTP and want more. Yeah, I wouldn't have known about the poll save for slashdot, but my vote was honest. I don't think people will vote for linux games if they won't buy them---really, who would just push the button because the word "linux" appears?
  • Okay, the poll is working now, but we have to live up to our side of the bargain -- at least 9,000 people said "we want to see Sierra games on Linux" Well, Sierra listened, and have now put up a poll asking what games we want. Guess what, only ~900 have answered that question so far. So are we for real? Or what?
  • Posted by My_Favorite_Anonymous_Coward:

    I think when the game companies become bigger, the decisive factor of a game weight more toward marketing, directing, the cost of making multi-platform games wouldn't be that big a concern anymore. Now making a game is just like getting a script approved, getting the green light.

  • The power of Slashdot has no end. The only thing that worries me is that it could actually cause ill effects in the name of good. Lets say Sierra finds out that the story was posted on Slashdot. Now instead of seeing 74% (Or whatever it ends up at), they see a statistical sample that is not demographically correct.


    True, but if they look at the numbers, they'd have to be stupid NOT to realize it isn't demographically correct. Windows users outnumer Linux users (at least) 10 to 1.
    What will count here is the actual number of people who vote for each particular topic.

    By the way, did anyone else notice that this was a very poorly designed poll? I mean, I wouldn't mind seeing more DVD games out on the market, regardless of the system. It'd be great if they were released for Linux (once we get some support) but isn't DVD non-os dependant once you write the drivers?

    However, at least this option will act like Ross Perot. It will draw votes away from "More PC games"

    Sancho

  • Maybe not. (Score:5)

    by ciphersnow ( 27137 ) on Sunday May 30, 1999 @07:13AM (#1874554)

    The demographics of linux users is largely males from 18-35. This same niche buys the most computer games. Indeed, the businesses using linux in the closet as a server won't be buying games, but that really isn't the largest demographic (it's a growing one, of course.)

    I talked with some guys from Loki at the linux expo and fired by the success of their Civ CTP port, they have begun work on MythII and Railroad Tycoon for linux. Look, if the code is written it can be ported to linux, especially if it uses openGL or something besides DriectX (like Half-Life.) It's not going to be a huge ante to "...BET ON LINUX." Even if it works out, it won't be as expensive as creating and marketing a single flop game. (And remember how games were all for dos, then for windows? That's recent history, don't forget. Platforms change.)

    Windows isn't a bad gaming platform with DirectX, but eventually people are going to realize that it's silly to support a seperate OS just for games. I have windows95, but I have no plans to upgrade it just to play games. When games begin to require 98 or NT or 2000, I will not be able to play them. I do all my work on Linux and Solaris and it's insane to buy a gaming OS for $200. I'd rather spend $150 on a console system.

  • If I knew any Mac community sites, Id look for them but I don't know of any. Anyone know where on the web they are comming from? It would be interesting if there was the equivalent to /. there. My suspicion is that there are a series of Mac sites routing their regulars to the Sierra site. All we need is one /. :)

    Gee, this is sorta like war, huh? They will probably disregard the results anyway but this is entertaining. Gee, I wonder who would win?

    --

  • Civ (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30, 1999 @05:40AM (#1874561)
    How many people bought Civilization now it came out for linux? i am wondering if as many people bought it as they claimed they would. any one have any mnumbers?
  • Good Im not alone. While the "Slashdot Effect" allows us all to feel part of "Powerful Group", we quite possibly could be shooting ourselves in the foot.

    I do disagree with you on your statement "Internet polls are of no statistical value". I am working with a company that does radio research for several Radio Stations, online. The polls that are taken, are taken by listeners of the radio station, with there own login/password. This type of "Internet Poll", can be powerful, and yet still be statistically acurate.

    But I would agree with you if it were "Open For Public Internet Polls are of no statistical value".
  • It's still statisticlly valid, it just has a different meaning. In this case it means "Of the group of people who visited this site and participated in the poll, who want's what?"
    Exactly! Now prior to the /. effect, this site would mainly have been visited by customers of Sierra games, who are a pretty Windows-oriented lot. At that point, the results were biased in favor of Windows. All we're doing here is biasing it the other way.

    Now, looking at the results, the 'more mac games' option is currently slightly ahead of the linux option. I'm willing to bet that there's some Mac advocacy group out there who has put word around in much the same way we have.

    Bruce

  • Hey Sierra, your old games are still worth playing. Port 'em to Linux. The DOS versions should port pretty easily, since they don't
    require an awful lot of the machine.
    -russ

  • 69% (Score:2)

    by suprax ( 2463 )
    The poll is up to 69% for linux games. Let's all hope that they take the poll seriously and concentrate on expanding their efforts to linux.

  • Re:Newsflash: (Score:3)

    by Snowfox ( 34467 ) <snowfox@NOsPaM.snowfox.net> on Sunday May 30, 1999 @06:08AM (#1874587) Homepage

    Excuse me, but I didn't see Hemos tell anyone to go vote. He merely said that it's there. The feeling seems to be strong, and doubtless for the same reason many/most of those voting will rush out and buy the first few Linux games to show support.

  • Look, every platform has its devotees; Sierra is just trying to get a handle on how many people like Linux.

    If 300 thousand /.ers head over to Sierra's page and say they want more Linux games, Sierra will know they have at least 300 thousand people who are into Linux and at least vaguely interested in seeing Sierra games ported to the platform. That's an fairly considerable market.

    So, there's nothing to get suspicious of; let the slashdot effect do its work. The worst that can happen is that they'll decide there's not enough interest to port their games.

    ----

  • What's more, by my watch, it was up from 11% to 60% within 6 minutes of being posted.
    Of course, this makes you wonder just how useful such a poll would be--stuffing the ballot and all. In fact, if Sierra puts two and two together (i.e., poll posted on slashdot, sudden increase in votes for linux games) they might forget about the poll altogether. Oh well, it's worth a shot, no?

  • Newsflash: (Score:4)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30, 1999 @05:06AM (#1874605)
    Newsflash: Slashdot effect moves from sinking websites to sinking gaming companies by swaying their online marketing studies.
  • It wasn't "representive" before, even ignoring the "self-selection" part of it. The people who visit Sierra's home page are most likely to be people using Sierra's current products. People using platforms not supported by Sierra are obviously underrepresented in that group.

    The only way the poll will get any value whatsoever, is if the _absolute_ numbers becomes sufficiently impressing. So, game-loving /.'ers, go to the poll and vote.

  • The point of the poll is to get an idea on what areas of game development have the largest need. If I was a decision maker at Sierra, and I saw how one single post on a web site can spawn thousands to jump to their site for a poll, I would not view the poll as tainted. I would see a market of computer users that WANT games, the type/style/manufacturer may not be the top concern to them, but they want quality games. With developers like Activision (C:CTP) and ID (Q3) jumping on the Linux bandwagon, they also will see that it is not uncharted waters and may start looking seriously at it.

    At the worst case, this can't hurt so if want good games for Linux, vote.

  • ..., pointing out that Internet polls are of no statistical value, whatever the result.

    The polls have no statistical value, but can still have commercial value. A poll like this will make people aware of their interest in making something for linux.

    What better way to get free advertisement space on slashdot than putting up a poll on the web site about a possible port?

    Hans

  • I've heard it said that some companies, governments, etc. have a formula they apply to protest mail, poll results, and so forth.

    For every one person who cared enough to write in, they figure, there might be, say, nine more who hold the same opinion but didn't care quite enough to take the time and effort to get around to writing, or didn't know where to send the letter, or whatever.

    The figure might well be higher for Sierra's purposes, who knows...but even if it's only 10x, same as for those write-in polls...I've regularly seen twenty to thirty thousand people vote on /. polls. If only, say, ten thousand of those vote for Linux in Sierra's poll, that means they can assume there's a hundred thousand people out there who would buy Linux games from them.

    Which represents about 10% of the number of copies Half-Life has sold so far--or about four to five million dollars' worth of business, at box prices.

    Something to think about.
  • Most Linux users _dont_ buy games, because most games/software are free. Granted there are those of us who would buy games for Linux, were they available, there is still a rather large group of Linux users who like Linux because almost everything is free.

    Sierra has to determine whether or not investing their design time, can show profit, or just give them good Linux PR. I vote for the second.

  • THis will backfire. (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30, 1999 @06:28AM (#1874627)
    The problem is linux only owns around 6 to 7% of the total pc market sales of os's and most of those copies are just sitting under someones desk. They are used as an evaluation tool or someone takes a course in unix in college and needs it but I bet over half of the linux buyers switch back to windows because only windows does ms vb and ms vc or ms office. Its a very sad world in the pc market today. My other point is even if 100% of all those buyers of linux actually ran it, how many of them would buy games. Most college students and server administrators dont buy games or dont have the time. I am a student and hobbyist but I quite games over a year ago so I can work. I might play half-life this summer if it is ever ported to linux but were are all very tiny in the pc market thanks to monopolies. My last point and most important one is that the current poll at 75% is not accurate thanks to the /. effect. If 100% off all 6 to 7% of linux users who actual use it and on top of that have time for games and on top of that dont use corporate servers so they can play games buy all these linux games, then it would be a flop. Think about how much it would cost to switch a directx 6 game to linux. The whole gaqme would have to be rewritten. Only Id software had the balls to go agaisnt the microsoft game marketing department which actually punishes game companies for not developing with directx. Its true. Go to www.maximumpc.com and there is a guy named Alex st. john who was a former ms employee. He even admitted playing hardball with Carmack for opengl and he would actually follow them to game showes and make up fud like "glquake=glide quake. Opengl couldn't handle games,,,,". He also mentioned directx was designed from the ground up to thorw apple out of the game and multimedia market by making directx as proprietary and hard to port as possible. It would cost millions and years of rewriting code in opengl for it to be ported to linux for what..? only 300,000 users or around 2% of the market. It doesnt make any econimic sense and ms has them right where they want them. They would lose money left and right. I bet about 1 or 2% should be more acurate for there poll since 85% of all windows users do not want to leave. If sierra ported all there games to linux, they would lose so much money that all the other game companies would use serria as an example on why they shouldn't write for linux. CIV had only minimal if any directx code but half-life has hell of alot more. There is a huge, huge difference.

    Before you guys start hopping mad and flame me and send my score down I have this to say. I do not intend to sound like a troll and I am not a troll. I am just trying to protect the overall success of linux becuase a story like "..BIG GAME COMPANY LOSES BET WITH LINUX" would be distarous. Remember that microsoft has a team of ten people looking for news like this to help spread fud around. We should all be emailing the doj and talking about directx with Ralph Naders pro comp or voluntering for messa or opengl for unix instead of hyping polls that dont give a accurate view on the overall market.

    I wish ms would just shrivel up and die so we can have linux, be, os/2 and mac osx instead of this windows everwhere trash.

  • M$ consperacy...I don't think so. Netscape was the ones that first came up with the concept of frames, not M$. In fact, Netscape started most of the newer HTML additions, Microsux just copied off of them, as with all of their "innovative" software.

    M$ look and feel -- Mac
    M$ Money -- Quicken
    M$ IE -- Mosaic
    M$ DOS -- Unix CLI
    and the list goes on and on

  • "Game Company trusted self-selected pool" would be the correct reason a potential failure.

    In any case, even though there are fewer Linux users than MS Windows users, there are also fewer providers of commercial games. This gives a smaller marked divided into fewer pieces. In numbers, the potential Linux marked is close to the size of the Mac marked, with fewer suppliers. That ought to be a good investment.




  • I bought Civ:CTP at LinuxExpo. I doubt that I will play it (not really my type of game), but I wanted to support Loki and encourage other companies that may port games I would like to play.

    The quality of the port and packaging seem top-notch to me. The install went well, game was fast and generally it looked to be comparable to a PC or windows game. Not bad for a first effort. Congrats to the people at Loki!
  • With the exception of polls where bad results are a good thing (i.e. should encryption be exportable), Malda stop doing polls quite a while ago. It's not right to skew the results to these companies, the long term results can be bad for the companies and the linux community (as horor stories of failed attempts to join the linux movement surface). You can't tell slashdotters not to fill out the poll only if you mean it, so lets stop giving these kind of polls to slashdotters.


  • By the time I've typed this, it'll be over 70%, probably over 90% in an hour, so they'll probably discount the results, the way ``Hank'' got mostly discarded as a joke for the personality of the year vote.

    The question is, does this sort of thing frighten the pointy haired types at the companies that get hit by the slashdot effect ?

    If the PHB says ``set up a poll'' and the results come back so radically screwed that there is clearly no statistical value in them (rather than being bogus, but looking all right, which would be the case sans slashdot :-) does this not just have a tendency to make the PHB frightened of this bunch of marauding Techies, who screwed up his plan of making more golf time (by delegating his decisions to Internet polls).

    Perhaps Hemos should send an appology for screwing thier poll up, pointing out that Internet polls are of no statistical value, whatever the result.

    --

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