a game version optimized for emulators (WINE)

[Hauke_Laging]

Two assumptions:

1. You don't care about your customers' OS. You just want to sell your game.
2. For games which are sold in such huge numbers like Civilization there should be enough (potential) customers who want to be able to play it without booting Windows but under their favorite OS (Linux, MacOS) using WINE (or similar).

Unfortunately not all versions of Civilization run well under WINE. I do not know this but I assume that the problems are not serious from the technical perspective of the game developers. They just don't care.

My proposal: You could sell a "compatibility update" of the game binary. Considering

• the time and effort you need to make it work under Linux
• the annoyance of big performance penalties
• the money you spend for WINE extensions (Cedega / Cross over) in order to get it finally working...

I assume that most users of an alternative OS (with WINE support) would spend a slightly higher price for the game in order to avoid the mentioned problems.

It would not even be necessary to release such a compatibility version at the same time. But it would probably not take much time to make the necessary compilation changes if this works is started in parallel to the normal development.

In contrast to the Emulator (or rather: wrapper) developers you had the option to simply deactivate feature which cause problems.

This upgrade could probably not be sold at all retail shops due to the smaller volume. And I admit that a copy protection problem arises: You can hardly check for two CDs/DVDs (paying more for less convenience...?) so if you would require a CD to run this upgrade then the original CD could be given away. But that shouldn't be problems that prevent such an offer.

[Procylon]

Standardization is practically a cornerstone of modern industrial society. I don't see why the computer industry should be any different.

If you want to run operating software that differs from 80-90% of world computers, you shouldn't expect developers to go out of their way to cater to you.

I would much rather the extra time and development be spent crushing the game ending crashes and other problems that the majority of people face.

[Hauke_Laging]

Your reply doesn't make any sense to me. We are talking about completely different things.

Standardization is practically a cornerstone of modern industrial society. I don't see why the computer industry should be any different.

The base of modern society is the relation of supply and demand. That usually leads to standardization.

If you want to run operating software that differs from 80-90% of world computers, you shouldn't expect developers to go out of their way to cater to you.

I do not expect the developers to change anything of the "existing" product. I suggest the development and selling of an additional product.

I would much rather the extra time and development be spent crushing the game ending crashes and other problems that the majority of people face.

That is correct for the base product. My proposal is similar to sellig technical support. In this case not a single customers pays for an individual problem to be fixed but some thounsand customers pay for the solution of a problem that is common to them.

[ancalimonungol]

I completely agree if it isn't too difficult to make Civ compatible with alternative operating systems, please make it so. By the way, if Civilization 5 was to released for the new AmigaOS4.1 and AmigaOne X1 platform, that would be really surprising.

[Hauke_Laging]

I completely agree if it isn't too difficult to make Civ compatible with alternative operating systems, please make it so.

That's not my argument (though I'd support that one, too ).

My argument is: If it IS difficult then check whether this difficulty can be overcome by the development potential that could be funded by an additional (support/compatibility) product.

[kingdmen]

ooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr buy a pc.

King

[Pry87]

ooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr buy a pc.

King

Well since Linux runs on the same PC architecture I'm assuming he already has one. Releasing a compatibility update to run in wine, would make economical sense, depending on how difficult it is to do. Linux is a superior operating system but I know it has difficulty running games so I have to keep an XP OS installed and I would rather not, the fact is that the Linux market is growing and for the minimal effort they could make the game WINE compatible and boost their sales.