Hi all,
Actually text attached to stop this webmail client from screwing it up.
Regards,
Hans
Goede, J.W.R. de wrote:
Hi All,
I don't know if any of you realise it, but this month its a year ago that Tibbs started the games SIG. Hence this "Games SIG State of the Union".
[...]
Your opinion on the future of the Games SIG is much appreciated, add your 2 cents please!
Since you asked... :)
I've been exteremely impressed with the large number of quality games that have appeared. A Games menu in the gnome panel that doesn't fit on a 1600x1200 screen is a _good_ problem to have. :) Along those lines, there are a few things to consider:
1) Breaking the menu up into more manageable submenus. I think Hans started some work on this, but it got stalled somewhere. Maybe he can update us on the status and we can find some warm bodies to help push it forward.
2) A Fedora Games spin, or live CD. I've been tossing this idea around in my head for a few weeks, and I don't know if it's a good idea or not. On the one hand, it would be good publicity to show what we've done, and what great free games are available for both Fedora and Linux in general. On the other hand, lack of decent free 3D support for the two popular video card manufacturers will stir up the "3D sucks in Fedora/Linux" chanting again, and may turn into bad publicity. I read a review recently (I forget where) of a 'Game Edition' of some linux distro, and it got panned because of the lack of real 3D support.
I agree that documentation of what we've done, whether it's through a 'news' release, or set of wiki pages, is an important goal for the coming year.Before he disappeared, Hugo (Eitch) did a good job to create a template for wiki pages for games, and converted some of the existing game pages to use this template. This should help the process, but we still need warm bodies to take screenshots and fill in the blanks. Even if just a few of us work on documenting one game each week, we'd make progress very quickly.
In addition to documenting what we've done, I've set up a public game server (games.kobold.org) to host some of the networkable Fedora games, currently xpilot, crossfire, cyphesis, and poker-network. Advertising the existence of this, and other potential game servers, might draw more interest from the user community.
Personally, I've almost reached my limit for the number of packages that I can maintain (~50). I'm willing to work on getting some new games packaged, but can't be the primary maintainer of any more. Instead, I've been concentrating on adding new features to existing packages, such as selinux support and logwatch scripts for game daemons.
Another topic that has been discussed on the mailing list related to Hans' #7 is adding the games sig mailing list in the InitialCC: field in the package database/owners.list for game packages. This would alert the entire sig to bugs quickly. The mailing list does not get a lot of traffic already, and I tend to see few bug reports on games now, so I don't think this should cause any real burden on everyone's inbox. If there are no objections, then I'll start by adding the mailing list as a cc: on my own packages.
Thanks for all the fun it's been this past year, and I look forward to more of the same this year. :)
--Wart
Michael Thomas wrote:
Goede, J.W.R. de wrote:
Hi All,
I don't know if any of you realise it, but this month its a year ago that Tibbs started the games SIG. Hence this "Games SIG State of the Union".
[...]
Your opinion on the future of the Games SIG is much appreciated, add your 2 cents please!
Since you asked... :)
I've been exteremely impressed with the large number of quality games that have appeared. A Games menu in the gnome panel that doesn't fit on a 1600x1200 screen is a _good_ problem to have. :) Along those lines, there are a few things to consider:
- Breaking the menu up into more manageable submenus. I think
Hans started some work on this, but it got stalled somewhere. Maybe he can update us on the status and we can find some warm bodies to help push it forward.
Good that you mention that, I actually have that nailed pretty much down I just need to finish it up and package it, I'll see if I can find some time for that soon.
- A Fedora Games spin, or live CD. I've been tossing this idea
around in my head for a few weeks, and I don't know if it's a good idea or not. On the one hand, it would be good publicity to show what we've done, and what great free games are available for both Fedora and Linux in general. On the other hand, lack of decent free 3D support for the two popular video card manufacturers will stir up the "3D sucks in Fedora/Linux" chanting again, and may turn into bad publicity. I read a review recently (I forget where) of a 'Game Edition' of some linux distro, and it got panned because of the lack of real 3D support.
I've been thinking about a Fedora Games spin too :)
Another topic that has been discussed on the mailing list related to Hans' #7 is adding the games sig mailing list in the InitialCC: field in the package database/owners.list for game packages. This would alert the entire sig to bugs quickly. The mailing list does not get a lot of traffic already, and I tend to see few bug reports on games now, so I don't think this should cause any real burden on everyone's inbox. If there are no objections, then I'll start by adding the mailing list as a cc: on my own packages.
Sounds like a great idea, but we need a CVS admin for this as we can no longer edit owners.list .
Thanks for all the fun it's been this past year, and I look forward to more of the same this year. :)
Yeah, so do I :)
Regards,
Hans
On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 23:43 +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
Goede, J.W.R. de wrote:
Hi All,
I don't know if any of you realise it, but this month its a year ago that Tibbs started the games SIG. Hence this "Games SIG State of the Union".
[...]
Your opinion on the future of the Games SIG is much appreciated, add your 2 cents please!
There are hundreds of games available for xmame. Could the legal ones be added?? So far, there are only about 3 at atrpms in one single rpm.
Plus, I'm having the dickens of a time getting gxmame to see the /usr/share/xmame/roms directory.
So, I have no clue how to find which ones are legal or not, but if someone would clue me in, I'd be more than happy to check it out. Plus, there are many assorted frontends for xmame to be included. This would certainly flesh out a games offering for the public to enjoy. Ric
On 2/23/07, Ric Moore wayward4now@gmail.com wrote:
On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 23:43 +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
Goede, J.W.R. de wrote:
Hi All,
I don't know if any of you realise it, but this month its a year ago that Tibbs started the games SIG. Hence this "Games SIG State of the Union".
[...]
Your opinion on the future of the Games SIG is much appreciated, add your 2 cents please!
There are hundreds of games available for xmame. Could the legal ones be added?? So far, there are only about 3 at atrpms in one single rpm.
Plus, I'm having the dickens of a time getting gxmame to see the /usr/share/xmame/roms directory.
So, I have no clue how to find which ones are legal or not, but if someone would clue me in, I'd be more than happy to check it out. Plus, there are many assorted frontends for xmame to be included. This would certainly flesh out a games offering for the public to enjoy. Ric
All the mame stuff is now packaged at dribble.org.uk.
I like the idea of a Games spin, do we necessarily have to make the spin totally free? That is, could we include dribble's sdlmame rpms and frontends in the games spin?
Christopher Stone wrote:
I like the idea of a Games spin, do we necessarily have to make the spin totally free?
Unless we want to replace the artwork and come up with a different name then Fedora Games, yes it has to be totally free. To be honest I wouldn't be interested working on a non free spin.
Regards,
Hans
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Christopher Stone -
Hans de Goede -
Michael Thomas -
Ric Moore