Rosen Billblatt

Sorry about this. I believe we drifted to a useless and subject to controversies "how many people are using linux" thread. I'll reformulate the original question to BFC, which - quite amazingly - had almost nothing to do with the *contingent* and hard to assess relative quantities of windows, linux and MAC users (eventually had indeed something to do with the future, and even harder to assess, relative quantities, but let's please leave all these pissing contests aside) -------------------------------------- A question to BFC: why don't you go down the 'neverwinternights' path with CMx1? That is, making CMx1 (or at least CMBB and CMAK) disponible for the linux community, as the neverwinternights guys did with their three creations. If possible (better) publishing (opening) its source code, with a GPL license, if not possible, or deemed economically inconvenient, at least doing it exactly "à la neverwinternights", so that all people that have (or buy) a legit copy can play it on linux. The advantages for BFC would be, imho, quite multifold and big: 1) following the vista flop, more and more people are turning to recent (and quite powerful) linux distros like ubuntu, and this trend will grow more and more during the next years. So you would have an extra base of aficionados for CMx1, a game that you are not developing any more, while still getting your money with your new CMx2 from the windows mob: a win win situation. 2) even if the recent distros have banalized linux and made it so easy that my old parents can run it (in fact they really do: I installed ubuntu on their box and they said kinda "thanks, windows runs much better now", not realizing they were now running a different OS) most linux users are still quite programming savvy, and could - and prolly will - help finetune and ameliorate the old CMx1 giving it ten more years of life, especially if you release the code. 3) if CMx2 does not turn out the success it should have been, for whatever reason, you would have already gained a (big) foot on an alternative and promising platform that has just one deficit vis-à-vis the windows world: games. Exactly your speciality. 4) announcing that CMBB and CMAK will be released and will run natively under linux would guarantee a BIG advertisement campaign for BFC, given the 'hunger' for games inside the growing linux community. As you probably know, both Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS have a growth rate, especially among younger people, that shames older distributions like Redhat and Suse. Additionally I may add that games like the combat mission series (as opposed to the ususal shoot them up frenzies) will probably be even more appreciated by the 'more mature' linux community. Most of the time and with the due exception of the revered populace of these forums, the 'point and click' windows guys seem conditioned by the zelda and mario approaches they had to endure in their infancy, no offence intended. I have listed above the advantages for BFC, I don't need to list the obvious advantages for the many among us that use linux for almost everything but are compelled to keep a dual boot and to start windows just in order to play a couple of games that don't run (yet) under wine. Our wish is to ditch windows completely once for all, and it is sad to have to keep a windows partition (or an extra dedicated box) just in order to run a couple of games

Please, yes, windows has still MANY more users than linux has, and yes, linux users are growing very fast. Both assessments being true, let's stop quabbling about the simple and known fact that linux usage -even for the older distros like novell and redhat- is growing fast (again: thanks the vista flop) and windows is QUICKLY losing ground even on "their" desktop market after having already lost the battle for the server market. This is quite off topic imho. Please let's get back to the point of the thread. I think that BFC could NOW have a chance, releasing to the linux community a game (CMx1) that they don't develop any more. Doesn't matter if they do release the source code (better) or if they chose a solution "à la neverwinternights" where only those that have bought OR WILL BUY -note the uppercase- a legit copy of CMx1 will be able to play it. A chance that could well turn out to bring them some ADDITIONAL money in and could represent in perspective a major card up their sleeves in a very difficult moment of their existence (as I fear CMx2 failed acceptance to have provoked). Maybe I don't understand much about marketing, maybe BFC couldn't care less about the linux users base, but this is a possibility that BFC should at least evaluate, and then eventually ditch, or eventually accept (and enjoy). [ September 30, 2007, 07:51 AM: Message edited by: Rosen Billblatt ]

This is a tag off topic, since the whole point of my post was to convince BFC to release CMx1 for linux, which is as you know a non-proprietary OS (no offence for MAcs intended). But yes, I reckon you can use either parallel and bootcamp on a Mac to run windows games (up to direcX 8.1, I think). And you can of course run ubuntu in vmware inside a (intel) mac and try it out to your heart's content Again. I was just suggesting that BFC could get huge rewards releasing a game engine, a game engine they don't develop any more, to a quikly growing community of millions of young people that have a bazillion superb applications (k3b is for instance a free open source copy/burn appz that puts nero to shame) but, dunnow why -prolly coz linux was until recently a OS for geeks- have just a few good games. Ah, a last thing: "market share" does not mean nothing, since free operating systems are not purchased, making linux usage (not so for MACs) VERY under-represented in those stats. It's hard to say how many people are using linux nowadays, but the general consensus is that linux usage has been growing quite a lot since late 2006, thanks vista among other things, and ubuntu being the most famous example of it (not by chance Dell and HP have now begun selling boxes with ubuntu preinstalled, an unheard of fact one year ago). Cheers. [ September 30, 2007, 05:41 AM: Message edited by: Rosen Billblatt ]

A question to BFC: why don't you go down the 'neverwinternights' path with CMx1? That is, making CMx1 (or at least CMBB and CMAK) disponible for the linux community, as the neverwinternights guys did with their three creations. If possible (better) publishing (opening) its source code, with a GPL license, if not possible, or deemed economically inconvenient, at least doing it exactly "à la neverwinternights", so that all people that have (or buy) a legit copy can play it on linux. The advantages for BFC would be, imho, quite multifold and big: 1) following the vista flop, more and more people are turning to recent (and quite powerful) linux distros like ubuntu, and this trend will grow more and more during the next years. So you would have an extra base of aficionados for CMx1, a game that you are not developing any more, while still getting your money with your new CMx2 from the windows mob: a win win situation. 2) even if the recent distros have banalized linux and made it so easy that my old parents can run it (in fact they really do: I installed ubuntu on their box and they said kinda "thanks, windows runs much better now", not realizing they were now running a different OS) most linux users are still quite programming savvy, and could - and prolly will - help finetune and ameliorate the old CMx1 giving it ten more years of life, especially if you release the code. 3) if CMx2 does not turn out the success it should have been, for whatever reason, you would have already gained a (big) foot on an alternative and promising platform that has just one deficit vis-à-vis the windows world: games. Exactly your speciality. 4) announcing that CMBB and CMAK will be released and will run natively under linux would guarantee a BIG advertisement campaign for BFC, given the 'hunger' for games inside the growing linux community. As you probably know, both Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS have a growth rate, especially among younger people, that shames older distributions like Redhat and Suse. Additionally I may add that games like the combat mission series (as opposed to the ususal shoot them up frenzies) will probably be even more appreciated by the 'more mature' linux community. Most of the time and with the due exception of the revered populace of these forums, the 'point and click' windows guys seem conditioned by the zelda and mario approaches they had to endure in their infancy, no offence intended. I have listed above the advantages for BFC, I don't need to list the obvious advantages for the many among us that use linux for almost everything but are compelled to keep a dual boot and to start windows just in order to play a couple of games that don't run (yet) under wine. Our wish is to ditch windows completely once for all, and it is sad to have to keep a windows partition (or an extra dedicated box) just in order to run a couple of games

I tried hard to like this game, but it's next to impossible, dear Steve (and Charlie). I wish you all the best, but now I believe you should have tried an improved CMx1 instead. And I don't understand why nobody is discussing the most awful aspect, which is those "theatre of war"-style blue and red icons floating in the air. Good games -as we all know- last MANY years. Crap games last the time of the commercial/graphic hype, a couple of months at most. I still play steel panther (in its modern variations: SPWW2, SPMBT etc) and it is great fun, because you can poke danemark against iran. And I still play the 'obsolete' CMBO, besides the greatest CMBB and the good CMAK. You know why? Because those games have all "a soul". They are balanced, they are immersive, they keep you playing again and again. CMSF does not have such "soul", imho. And I doubt anyone will play this game in three years time, though I wish they will for you, Steve and Charlie. This CMSF game is just -in my eyes- a T72/Theatre of war americanocentric "amelioration" by BFC, amelioration indeed, thanks Charles' genius, but it is still not, imho, a "real" combat mission game, and with this I mean a game so finetuned and balanced and clever that I can play it for 10 years. I'll still continue to buy your games, even if not really good, out of respect for what you did with CMBB, which deserves a lot, but I will hardly play them if this CMSF is really the way you'r going now. So, I'll go back lurking now. Excuse my rant.