Linux

One of the refunds reasons you can select is "the game doesn't run on my PC". This is completely valid.

Complex and recent games run on Linux these days.

Not allowing run a game in Linux is, nowadays, a choice from its developer rather then a causality. Proton is a really powerful tool!

If a game don't run in Linux, via Proton or natively, that's dev issue that actively blocked Linux.

Blaming the Publishers and Devs because it's actually pretty hard to fuck up a game so that it doesn't work on proton these days

If there's a game that can't run on Linux in the current year then that's intentional and it's not worth anyone's money.

I've been gaming exclusively on Linux since 2014. Gaming on Linux is so good nowadays, thanks to Proton, there are so many amazing titles available to play. Proton makes it all easy - thanks to it, it's just a matter of hitting install and play on Steam (in most cases).

There are so many of them, If something doesn't run on Linux, I just don't care. My backlog of great games is so big, who cares about some singular titles that are not available.

I've recently been playing Baldurs Gate 3, ARMORED CORE VI, Anno 1800 and Battlebit Remastered on my Ubuntu rig. All run great. Neither need any special tweaks (I own them on Steam).

BG3 and Battlebit Remastered are especially stellar.

I recommend BG3 to anyone who likes true roleplaying games with great writing, reactivity and player agency.

Battlebit Remastered is a great multiplayer title with massive 256 player battles and it sits somewhere between Battlefield and Squad (a mixture of arcade and mil-sim elements).

I'd just like to interject for moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, Steam/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, Steam plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another component of a fully functioning Steam system made useful by Steam Proton, DXVK, and vital Wine components comprising a full OS as defined by Valve.

me, who doesn't care who's to blame, wishing the issue was fixed by anyone

For me Linux gaming is Steam/Proton. If is works with Steam/Proton, I am playing them. I find that native Linux games are not updated regularly or at all. And Steam wants games to run with the Steam deck. And they are willing work to make that happen.

And game companies know there are a lot of Steam decks out there. And it is not hard to put some effort to see that it runs on that equipment.

All this is a big help for the Linux community. Many gamers don't know that they don't need to buy windows to game. Linux/Steam/Proton is a great option. That is why I make a point to tell people that I am playing Baldur's Gate 3 on my Linux Ubuntu gaming PC. This is how I found out that Linux can play games and switch from Windows. Another Linux gamer told me it was possible.

Wine and DXVK made it increadably easy to support Linux and if a company doesn't even put in that much effort or intentionally breaks the game for you it's certainly not worth your money! I pirate rather than use the refund window but the principal is the same since I do buy good games after all.

I mean, it is not a fault on Linux's end. We have all the tools we need in the form of wine and dxvk, it's the game which fails to work due to some obscure dependency or a mandatory rootkit. One great example is genshin- the game itself works flawlessly, but it has a rootkit which obviously does not work on Linux and you have to patch it out.

A reminder that on last steam report, Linux overcome Mac as second in usage operating system. They don't have to excuse of only support the top 2 OS.

Instead to refund is to negative review, games companies are much more affected by losing a positive rating that a refund.

A friend recently asked me to play a game with him that had an anticheat that Intentinay made it impossible to play the game on linux

I had both linux and windows on my computer, but windows was broken

I tried to make a virtual machine and install windows on it, but i couldnt install it

He blamed all the problems on linux

Ok, hear me out. Linux is not an easy platform to develop for because it's in constant flux where systems and libraries come, change and go constantly. Linux itself is a somewhat slippery concept (if we expand from the kernel) where "works on linux" can really mean it's been tested on one particular distro. Debian stable and rolling releases are not the same. Unless I am completely mistaken, I can see why major developers are hesitant to support linux, whatever it even is. Is Android linux?

Now, I'm all for this message. Given how OSs have been developing, I advocate for linux adoption and wish people would "vote with their wallet". Otherwise things just will not change. Well, not for better, if recent history is anything to go by. I just feel that this problem has more prongs than we like to admit, being linux enthusiasts.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Linux compatibility or I send it back!

There's some BS happening around Linux support from some devs. e.g. Metro Exodus is Linux native, Metro Exodus Enhanced is Windows only and doesn't work with AMD GPUs.

I bought the game twice (made a mistake and bought it on Epic at launch and now bought it again on Steam to support Linux development and companies that release native builds).

I'm disappointed to see I'm unable to play the Enhanced version.

In my experience, the effort to fix Linux issues serve as a good litmus test as to how well supported the game is in general.

At least with games that aren't from big studios.

I've recently started gaming on linux with surprisingly little problem, given that the last time I tried was about 15 years ago. I don't even know what proton is, but I just installed steam and then my games.. surprisingly on some slightly older games (tf2, HL2) I get a huge FPS boost in Linux compared to windows. Not sure why that would be.

I'm blaming companies making a windows and linux version of a software while the linux version is wastly inferior, full of bugs and unstable. I do love the OS but the software experience sometimes ruining it.

If it's anti cheat stopping it I blame the game. If it's a bug or poor performance I just say oh well it will work one day.

I was just thinking about this the other day...like games are optized for windows usually, but windows is not optimized for games. A fresh Windows 10 runs at 2gb ram on idle. It all went down hill for gamers when Microsoft killed xp

As a GOG customer, I'll take anything they are giving away, even if I can't run it.

I can always install it in someone's computer for them to enjoy.

everything is changing

Blaming the purchaser for not checking beforehand if it will work. ProtonDB is a good source.

Does "plays on linux" mean native , or just 'works fine with WINE (edit: or proton, apparently)'?

I had a heck of a time trying to get It Takes Two to work on my machine. Apparently every game that launches the EA App from Steam is broken now and needs a custom fix using ProtonTricks.

After a while of searching, I found this guide and it was a lifesaver.
https://steamdeckhq.com/tips-and-guides/fixing-ea-play-blank-screen-for-ea-games-on-steam/

These are sadly the kind of issues that scare people away from Linux gaming. The stuff that works, works great. But when something is not supported, it can be a real pain to find a fix.

Well, you can't blame developers to not cater to their 1% player base. Especially since that group usually have the most problems and requires more development time.

I'll buy Windows games at full price only if the developer has made efforts to better support Linux users (say by fixing a bug that only affects Linux users).

Refund?? 🏴‍☠️