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Fine, I'll make my two cents a nickel. This is my most favorite game in the world we're talking about. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks the entire game industry needs to take copious notes from FFE and come up with something better than privateer, or freelancer, or X.. the biggest nods by the industry towards FFE to ever manifest, even if they were weak, paltry shadows of Elite. Of them, I think Terminus is the best FFE contemporary, even though it's only one solar system, and as Abandonware as it gets.. (it still seemed to make it out for Linux however)
I've been living and working basically Windows free for about 10 years now, and I can tell you ad nauseum about how I don't miss pirating or paying for windows (or OSX), and dealing with worrying about getting caught, viruses, hacking, auditing, or budgeting for, or doing New Math(tm) license calculation.
Frankly It's no more difficult to run Linux than it is to run Windows, the tradeoffs are about the same for Mac users, In general it's a better OS, the only shortcomings really revolve around the rest of the applications industry. Then there's
this kid.
I can give you an example. I bought a PC game not that long ago and it didn't work correctly on my machine. Tracked it down to a driver issue and updated the driver - easy enough. Unfortunaly the new video driver wrecks havoc with the desktop-settings on my machine to the extent that every time I boot my machine I have to reconfigure the resolution of my displays (as well as which one is on the left side, colour-depth etc). So I had a choice.. I could play the game or I could have a working desktop.
You should try that game under WINE, instead. And when i works, you can curse out everybody for having to have a whole other operating system installed, just to... play your game.. oh, wait..
There are plenty of issues gaming on the PC, sure, but generally PC gamers are a class of gamer more likely to solve their own problems, support others who've had the same problems, and pressure developers to patch, and/or make their own patches. Funny how this is the same class of gamer who loves the emergent complexity in such a simple game as FFE.
So there's no trade-offs developing for a console, huh? There are plenty of issues I can see right off; developing for 3 or 4 different, disparate console platforms (the manufacturers of which who would gladly pay you not to develop on their competitors,) the cost incentive there is for not supporting ALL consoles, the potential marketshare being lost out on by excluding platforms, ad nausuem.
I recognize that your point is from an enduser standpoint, and the point I raise is a developer standpoint, but what about end users? How does it impact the modding community? Can the modding community honestly believe There'll be an Elite 4 which can be modded across platforms without issue?
It would seem a bit ivory tower to believe that E4 will be such a perfectly good game out of the box that it won't have a community of enthusiasts not hell bent on modding it. It would be a waste of community-building (read: involved, contributing customers bringing ensured longevity to a title) potential. It would also be a waste of what will no doubt be a remarkably awesome gaming technology. FFE had to be reduced to assembly before it could be modded, and given more life than Gametek could have ever EVER imagined... But it was modded, and people still play it, and love it, and it's a great honor and a credit to all involved (and uninvolved) that it's still got so much life today..
When E4 comes out, and everybodys wettest dreams are realized, there'll still be those who'd love to make a wing commander mod, and a battlestar galactica mod, and a star [trek,wars] mod, and hell, probably an X3 mod (for giggles of course,) add the ship modelers/texturers dying to contribute, the scripters, ad nauseum. And why not? It'd be a crime not to, especially if it's going to be the epicness we all expect from the ideas germane in its predecessors, and the decade+ of fandom and speculation built up around it to this day! unless... it's for console... then we're all just screwed.
That would be up to the WINE developers to ensure. As for Linux: If E4 gets a publisher that feel there is a case for a Linux-version then it will happen - otherwise it won't.
..Actually, we're
all WINE developers. WINE is
free software, and I'm sure you're tired about hearing how freedom isn't free, so yes, it's actually in large part up to the Frontier Developments cathedral whether or not it works with WINE, not some other walled-off cabal. WINE Developers(tm) would have no insight into your code as to why it didn't work with WINE, assuming E4 comes out for PC. This how it's actually on
Frontier as to whether or not it'll be made easy to work under WINE or not. As has been mentioned before; chicken, meet egg. Egg, chicken.
Protip: It's working great for Steam.
You have a penchant for mentioning that you'd like everything to be out on the XBOX360, and while i don't take that as "E4 is coming out for Xbox360", I do worry that it might, simply because that would mean business deals by corporations which actively make a Linux version not just discouraged, but attempts to make work (under WINE, for example) actively fought, or engineered against, or worse, outright ignored by the one source of information which might have been able to help make it happen.
The "publisher" bat is a good one to wave around, it kept the linux fans off Obsidian Entertainment's forums and in Atari's forums for years before Neverwinter Nights 2 came out, and surprise, it didn't make one whit of difference. When SecureROM was announced, both Linux and Mac fans who'd enjoy'd Neverwinter 1, knew they were screwed. Obsidian doesn't look any better for it. Now, that NWN2 didn't do nearly as well as NWN1, and the fact NWN1 is still alive and kicking among (Linux) gamers, and that mods are still being released for it; may have little or nothing to do with the decision to only support one platform. Nevertheless,
NWN2 was tackled by WINE and is only just now, years after its release becoming somewhat playable.
If that's Elite 4's fate, that's really gonna suck. I just hope the developer response is more than just "oh well!", but I guess I shouldn't hold my breath.
It's not actually Linux's fault for not supporting software game development industry. No company owns Linux, so there's no 2 billion marketing budget promoting the idea to game development houses. (SDL? OpenAL? QT? GTK? anyone?) There's only the software development industry, freely making a choice to support the Linux platform and enjoying the effects of a highly technical fanbase capable of supporting itself, or being paid/discouraged not to, by other corporate interests. Some games don't really belong on Linux, I don't think I'd ever play Thrillville, or Rollercoaster tycoon (though it appears it runs well under WINE), they're just not my cups of tea.. But Elite 4???? I'd play little else.
So since no Corporate Sponsor from Linux(tm) is going to come tell you it, take it from your fans; even if you don't make a Linux native version of E4, assuming you make it for the PC at all, just please don't be hostile towards helping make it work. You won't escape being asked to help, I assure you. Your biggest fans, and the ones most likely to be most involved in the longevity of the game, will remain all cake and ice cream about you.
Cheers,
btw mention Elite on their forum and watch how you get blacklisted ! 