[ut3] Invitation to connect on LinkedIn

Sun Jul 3 06:07:17 EDT 2011

I think that the Humble Indie Bundle just hits a soft spot for Linux
users, where most Windows gamers just don't care.
Most gamers I know don't want to buy 2D games, just because they're
2D. People I know spend hundreds of hours on a pirated version of
Minecraft, just because (and I quote) "I'm not going to pay for a game
that looks like this".

Now OS-X and Linux users don't have a whole lot of games, so they buy
the Humble Indie Bundle. There's not much of a choice, and they
appreciate all the choices they get.
Linux users pay more, because there's a large amount of programmers in
the Linux demographic. They know how much effort it takes to make a
game, and thus know what it's worth and pay more.

The market share of desktop OS's are generally believed to look like
this (forgot the source):
Windows 90%
OS-X 9%
Linux 1%

The rest are so little you can hardly even count them.

On my website, I do see something different:
I get an explosive amount (60%) of Mac users, and about 2% of Linux
users. I think that has a lot to do with the subject of my site, more
than the actual values. Also, I think my stats application counts
Android as Linux, so that counts towards the value for Linux too.

Steam and the Mac App Store tie most Mac users to the same place,
which is very convenient for the developers and publishers. Bringing
Steam to Linux might do the same thing, and hopefully Linux users
would take up more than 5% of Steam users by then.

Also, calling gamers 'geeks' is a bit 1980's.

2011/7/3 Keith Z-G <keithzg at gmail.com>:
> Sure, that's one interpretation (and although I generally disagree,
> it's probably still part of it). But even if that's the entire
> picture, it still proves that Linux gamers are more worthwhile to
> cater to, though. For that, the "why" doesn't matter yet.
>
> On Sun, Jul 3, 2011 at 12:06 AM, Valeriy <jazzvoid at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Humble Bundle sale might show as well that Linux users just have less games
>> to play and are willing to pay for anything.
>>
>> 2011/7/3 Keith Z-G <keithzg at gmail.com>
>>>
>>> Brizz brings up a good point. I know back in the day, Ryan commented
>>> that the UT2004 master server showed about 10 times as many *Linux*
>>> users than it showed OSX users; still single-digit numbers, but it
>>> seemed to show that if you're figuring it's worth targeting OSX then
>>> it's pretty obviously worth targeting Linux. Now, OSX has grown quite
>>> a bit since those days, but there's also a hell of a lot more people
>>> running Linux now (it's no longer exclusively the domain of a
>>> particular subset of geeks).
>>>
>>> There's the perception that because OSX is put out there by a visible
>>> and single company (which spends tons of money making their products
>>> appear everywhere) that it's orders of magnitude more popular than
>>> Linux, but not only is that misleading, I think it forgets that
>>> there's a far larger overlap between "people geeky enough to pay for
>>> computer games" and "people running Linux" than the former and "people
>>> running OSX". So apart from raw numbers of sales and players most of
>>> what people are spouting is going to be a bit divorced from the actual
>>> reality.
>>>
>>> As such, I present for your consideration:
>>>
>>> http://www.humblebundle.com/
>>>
>>> Just take a look at the sales percentages, and I think that shows
>>> pretty clearly that there can't be 10 times more Mac gamers than Linux
>>> gamers; hell, if those numbers are representative (which of course, as
>>> a single skewed example, they aren't) the conclusion would be that
>>> indeed Linux has a richer playerbase to tap.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 5:36 PM, Valeriy <jazzvoid at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > Well
>>> > http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/macintosh/
>>> > http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/linux/
>>> > 2011/7/2 Sir Brizz <sir.brizz at gmail.com>
>>> >>
>>> >> Are there 10 times more Mac gamers, though? I doubt it.
>>> >>
>>> >> On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 2:53 AM, robin van ee <robin.vanee at gmail.com>
>>> >> wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Referring to Windows as "PC" pisses me off.
>>> >>> Anyway, Linux games are hard to market, I have heard it said that it's
>>> >>> simply not worth it. A Mac game, you can simply pop into the Appstore
>>> >>> and Steam, and while Linux does have some of that, it's not as
>>> >>> widespread.
>>> >>> Besides that, there's about 10 times more Mac users than Linux users.
>>> >>> It's more worth it than Linux.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> 2011/6/24 Zato-2 <zato.two at gmail.com>:
>>> >>> >> Not seeing Linux there but seeing OSX there just pisses me off.
>>> >>> >> Apple
>>> >>> >> may be
>>> >>> >> at the so-called "forefront" of gaming with their mobile devices,
>>> >>> >> but
>>> >>> >> on the
>>> >>> >> desktop they are still "worthless" to support (arguably even more
>>> >>> >> so
>>> >>> >> than
>>> >>> >> Linux).
>>> >>> >
>>> >>> > Steam supports PC and Mac but not linux, as do many games.
>>> >>> > _______________________________________________
>>> >>> > ut3 mailing list
>>> >>> > ut3 at icculus.org
>>> >>> > http://icculus.org/mailman/listinfo/ut3
>>> >>> >
>>> >>> _______________________________________________
>>> >>> ut3 mailing list
>>> >>> ut3 at icculus.org
>>> >>> http://icculus.org/mailman/listinfo/ut3
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> --
>>> >> Sir_Brizz
>>> >> Technical Manager
>>> >> sir_brizz at beyondunreal.com
>>> >>
>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>> >> ut3 mailing list
>>> >> ut3 at icculus.org
>>> >> http://icculus.org/mailman/listinfo/ut3
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Valeriy
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > ut3 mailing list
>>> > ut3 at icculus.org
>>> > http://icculus.org/mailman/listinfo/ut3
>>> >
>>> >
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ut3 mailing list
>>> ut3 at icculus.org
>>> http://icculus.org/mailman/listinfo/ut3
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Valeriy
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> ut3 mailing list
>> ut3 at icculus.org
>> http://icculus.org/mailman/listinfo/ut3
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> ut3 mailing list
> ut3 at icculus.org
> http://icculus.org/mailman/listinfo/ut3
>