SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Linux gamers have found yet again that their ubiquitous operating system remains unwelcome in the context of mainstream entertainment.
The latest insult comes from Electronic Arts, which appears to have issued a few permanent bans to online Battlefield V players attempting to play the game on Linux systems.
Mind you, Battlefield V isn't intended for Linux; the EA game specifies that a 64-bit version of Windows 7, 8.1, or 10 is required. But those committed to Linux can get around that by using Lutris, a Linux gaming client.
Last month, a Battlefield V player claimed that attempting to play the game online using Lutris resulted in getting banned. It would seem to be the fault of EA's server-side anti-cheating system FairFight. A few others participating in the discussion thread said they too had been banned. That's not exactly a mass market catastrophe.
EA apparently considers using Linux to be cheating.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @03:36AM (12 children)
Don't use linux its will make you an outsider and hard to spy on. Use window only it is for normal conforming people.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday January 08 2020, @03:47AM (1 child)
Was just about to troll that people with the patience to fuck with modern Linux are most likely fiddling with other ways to game the system, including grinding bots and 1-click headshots.
But I do have a question: is it even legal for them to have pages like this one [lutris.net]? You don't think Capcom and Nintendo would have a problem with this no-name free-shit outfit to use their official title and box art?
Man, if there's one indication that /vr/ autism is up in the place, it's Abadox being on the Lutris front page. It had a cool commercial with a lot of slime and guts, but turned out to be a third-rate Life Force clone that came out 5 years too late. I am an expert on obscure America-only NES games. Fite me.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday January 08 2020, @08:33AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @03:55AM (9 children)
This "boycott" won't make a difference at all anyway, since the vast majority of the addicts known as "gamers" are mouth-drooling morons who will gladly slurp up the abusive, proprietary garbage that these companies produce on a regular basis, and even staunchly defend the abuses like rabid cultists.
I still remember a Steam group claiming that they would boycott some Battlefield game (which I think was because you wouldn't be able to run your own online servers, but I can't remember), but when the game actually released, many of the people in that group were found to be playing the very game they said they would boycott. This is why nothing will change in the gaming world, and why the products will only become more abusive over time. Someone like myself refusing to buy this garbage does little to change the overall industry; it only benefits me.
Unfortunately, morons handing massive amounts of money out to abusive companies gives the companies more resources and power, allowing the cancer to spread further, and, at least in some cases, making it more difficult to avoid.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Wednesday January 08 2020, @04:01AM (7 children)
Unfortunately, you're really correct. And I wouldn't call them "mouth-drooling morons"; I have coworkers like this who are otherwise smart engineers, but when it comes to games, they complain about the game companies' abusive tactics (like releasing a new game every year, even though it isn't any better, and everyone buying it because all their friends are buying it), but they still buy these games anyway. It seems to be a social phenomenon; their gaming friends have these games, so if they don't buy into them too, they'll be left out of the social club. I don't really see a way to fix this. They also talk about how they want to run Linux on their main computer, but because of those games they just can't.
Oh well, you can lead a horse to water...
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 08 2020, @11:16AM (2 children)
Sounds like you're describing mouth drooling morons....no? Even smart people can be stupid.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday January 08 2020, @02:36PM (1 child)
It might be more a matter of mental energy. Everybody only has so much on a daily basis. If you spend your day plotting the landing of the next Mars probe, do you really want to roll home at the end of it and pore over the fine print of your insurance policy? So it's easier than we might suppose for smart people to make stupid decisions.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday January 10 2020, @01:55AM
I don't think this is it. I agree about wanting to take a break from work stuff when you're at home, but this is tangential to whether you support vendors that abuse you, instead of choosing better vendors, or finding something else to do with your recreation time. I get that a SWE might not want to go home and try to figure out how to get Game X working on Linux, but he doesn't need to play Game X in the first place, especially when by using it he's tying himself to a platform (Windows 10) that he keeps complaining about and swearing he doesn't want to use. I'm tempted to say it's a case of choosing convenience over a more difficult path (or "freedom"), but the reality is that no one actually *needs* to play Madden 2020 or whatever. There's no shortage of stuff to spend your recreation time on.
As an example, suppose I have a friend who shows me some game on their iPhone. I try it out, it's kinda cool, but nothing totally mind-blowing, but this friend would like to play it with me (it's a multi-player game). I don't have an iPhone, and this game is iOS-only. Am I going to dump my Android and go buy a $800 iPhone, and change around everything else about how I deal with smartphones, just so I can play this game? Heck no.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday January 08 2020, @04:51PM (2 children)
Phoenix666 hit on a pretty insightful comment, a couple posts below. At a certain point, you just want your entertainment to be easy. Figuring out how to get random x game to run can be a chore on Linux. Now, if you confine yourself to only games that work well on Linux, that hurdle will be a lot easier to jump. You're essentially going to be relegating yourself to ancient (DOS, etc.) games and games that were designed with Linux in mind. That gaming pool is pretty small and there are few old games that stand the test of time. Before the standardized wsad for movement, you have tons of games that used the arrow keys or some other random combination of keys. With a much lower chance that the keys would be customizable.
For those interested in gaming on Linux, here's a few good places to go:
SteamOS [distrowatch.com] || Steam as your OS. Based on Debian Linux, I would recommend this, if you've already got a substantial Steam collection. You can use it as a basic Linux desktop with Steam.
PlayOnLinux [playonlinux.com] || (Also, you probably can search your favorite Linux repository to install this.)
GOG [gog.com] || Originally Good Old Games, the pirate Abandonware site. Turned legitimate commercial company that originally specialized in saving old games for modern usage. Now, they also put out new DRM free games.
WINE [winehq.org] || "Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications" -- This is what PlayOnLinux uses, but PlayOnLinux is much more user friendly.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @05:42PM (1 child)
>At a certain point, you just want your entertainment to be easy.
thats why i dig mame
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 08 2020, @06:03PM
MAME sits on that moral gray area that all Abandonware sits on, though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @06:51PM
And a similar phenomenon likely occurred 5,000 years ago when people changed around the rules of Senet such that everyone had to get new tokens. (Of course, back then one could just make one's own....)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @09:48PM
I think the subset of gamers that will staunchly defend the abuses like rabid cultists is vocal - obnoxiously vocal - but a minority.
Most gamers know the system sucks. But if your friends are playing Battlefield and you want to play a game with graphics and multiplayer like Battlefield with your friends, then your choice is either submit to the DRM and play Battlefield or else find something equally good that respects your freedom and convince all your friends to switch. That second, morally and financially better option just isn't practical. Xonotic (an open source multiplayer first person shooter) is a nice game, but it's no Battlefield - or Call of Duty, or GTAV, or whatever. You're not going to get all of your friends to switch.
And of course it's a self-perpetuating cycle. Because the makers of Battlefield collect tens of millions per month and the makers of Xonotic or any other free software alternatives to Battlefield are lucky to get $5,000 per month, then of course they'll never catch up.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @03:45AM (1 child)
No changes in odor found.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 08 2020, @04:35PM
JSON is much more gooder with no Microsoft odors.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @04:45AM (1 child)
I wonder how long before cheating is another computer, with camera / video capture hardware and "fake" mouse and keyboard, controlling the gaming computer. Because tactics wise, it seems programs are already beating human players, or will do soon. 5 years? 10?
And then what companies like EA will do about it. Oh, maybe like we did in the past: play with friends (to some degree), not random people. Of course, this goes about companies' current practices: no personal servers (or mods, skins, and anything else they can not control and make extra profit) so not certain if they will just revert to selling the game, even if we know it worked because a social problem was handled by social means, not technology.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 08 2020, @04:37PM
How about let's train an AI to do your cheating for you.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mykl on Wednesday January 08 2020, @05:17AM (11 children)
I think it's fair enough that EA bans people from their servers when they detect 'unusual environments or behaviours' around their games. It would be very difficult for them to tell the difference between legitimate use of an emulator/environment and something designed to provide an advantage to the player. Legally, their bases are covered as they explicitly state that the game is to be run under Windows. And cheating is an absolute plague across online gaming - it astounds me how many people are prepared to cheat in order to falsely soothe their bruised egos when they can't achieve through skill alone.
I would be more worried if EA banned a player from offline/local/solo play, as there's no victim if a player decides to cheat that way.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @05:51AM (8 children)
So you think that stopping cheating is more important than not falsely banning people who use non-proprietary operating systems? I don't agree with you that the ends justify the means.
No one should be buying these broken, locked-down, proprietary games in the first place, though.
An even greater plague is the very existence of proprietary software, as well as digital restrictions management and other forms of malware.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Mykl on Wednesday January 08 2020, @06:17AM (6 children)
Yes. Stopping cheating is more important that letting people use the game in a way that the designer did not intend.
I have no issue with people running games on non-proprietary operating systems. I just recognise that it would be difficult for a game developer to tell the difference between a hack that allows a game to run on a non-Windows machine, and a hack that allows someone to cheat. It's not their responsibility to invest ongoing money into identifying those differences though - EA have specifically said that you need to run this under Windows, and they do have a responsibility to minimise cheating on their platform. To ignore that would be to put themselves out of business.
And if you think that proprietary software is such a plague, then you shouldn't be playing EA games anyway - problem solved!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @10:40AM (4 children)
No, cheating is a small issue compared to freedom in computing. To mandate that people use an operating system as abusive and malware-ridden as Windows is foolish. It would be much better to ban cheaters when they are found than use shoddy anti-cheating software.
Of course, the fact that the game software itself is proprietary and abusive presents its own issues.
There are plenty of other online games that work on multiple operating systems, so I have a hard time believing a company as large as EA can't figure out how to fix their defective software.
I don't, and yet the problem is not solved. The mere existence of proprietary software threatens people's freedoms, and that alone makes it an issue. The more people that buy into proprietary software, the harder it becomes to avoid it in general.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @06:53PM
Perhaps it is more important to you. Is it important to those who actually play the games and want to win?
They are under no compulsion to change or release their software under a free license. You are under no compulsion to purchase it. So who exactly has the problem?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @11:45PM (1 child)
Does your Constitution give you the right to free games somehow? Or free computing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09 2020, @12:01AM
If I legally obtained the hammer, I consider I have right to use it any way I please, except hitting my mother-in-law with it. That would leave a bad impression on her mind.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday January 10 2020, @02:03AM
No, cheating is a small issue compared to freedom in computing.
For you, sure. For other players, no. 99% of them are using Windows/Mac, and really don't care about Linux unfortunately, and they're tired of cheaters.
To mandate that people use an operating system as abusive and malware-ridden as Windows is foolish.
There's nothing foolish about pissing off 1% of your customer base to keep the other 99% from leaving. They don't care about MS being abusive or having malware; it's what they use already.
It would be much better to ban cheaters when they are found than use shoddy anti-cheating software.
That probably takes much more work in their view, and they don't think the software is shoddy. Of course, they may be proven wrong, but this isn't being accounted for by the executives making this decision.
Of course, the fact that the game software itself is proprietary and abusive presents its own issues.
Not for the customers or the company. Free Software has come up with a lot of great stuff, but it has never been shown to be successful in making games competitive with start-of-the-art AAA games. There's a lot more to a game than programming, and artists and all those other people don't work for free usually.
The mere existence of proprietary software threatens people's freedoms, and that alone makes it an issue
You're free to not use it.
The more people that buy into proprietary software, the harder it becomes to avoid it in general.
This is valid for operating systems, but not games. No one needs to play any particular game. If you don't like the game, don't buy it; it's really that simple. I don't like AAA games either, so I don't buy them, and I suggest you do the same. But I'm not going to run around telling people they can't buy some game, because *that* is infringing their freedom of choice. Crappy proprietary games' existence doesn't keep anyone from making Free games, or anyone from playing those Free games. In fact, there's lots of Free games out there if you care to look, though they're generally not at all competitive with the latest AAA games.
(Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Wednesday January 08 2020, @10:58AM
Those cheating detection methods are very unsophisticated and hackish and can get lots of false positives for various reasons. There wasn't confirmation from EA that it was caused by linux right? Most likely it's just some flaw in anti-cheat that can manifest in windows systems too but perhaps rarely.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 08 2020, @11:53AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 08 2020, @01:07PM (1 child)
The proper response would be for EA to fix their cheat-detection system so that it gives valid results on Linux.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday January 08 2020, @05:07PM
Except, they don't support Linux.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @06:34AM
Don't worry buddy, it'll hurt!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Captival on Wednesday January 08 2020, @06:49AM (6 children)
You can't boycott them when they already preemptively boycotted you off their server first.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kazzie on Wednesday January 08 2020, @09:53AM (5 children)
Well, I can join the boycott by not buying the game that I wasn't interested in anyway.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday January 08 2020, @11:34AM (4 children)
If you were going to buy an EA game after their abysmal track record, you deserve what you get anyway.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Wednesday January 08 2020, @12:20PM
EA most definitely became decadent. Now they're solely reliant on cash cow franchises. That's because whole company is ruled by marketing. Most of enthusiastic employees have already escaped to unrelated startups. So you can't expect anything interesting from EA unless you're already hooked on one of their cash cows.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 08 2020, @12:26PM (1 child)
You don't quite get it. EA is a publisher, the game producers are individual studios. It's like saying there can't be good games on Steam because Valve flip-flopped [arstechnica.com] big time on censorship [segmentnext.com].
Apart from the big titles, EA publishes a non-trivial number of indies [google.com]. Maybe you like them, maybe not, but surely the studios don't sacrifice their ideas for the quick buck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday January 12 2020, @11:33AM
It's about how they treat their customers not the games themselves, though the games themselves tend to be more and more marketing driven as well.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @10:09AM
This! They screwed me over with 2 maps that I bought for Battlefield 2142, and when I tried to get support for my issue(s) they were literally banning people on the community boards for even daring to ask for help. That was the last time I've ever purchased anything from EA! I avoid them like the plague that they are!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 08 2020, @06:00PM
I've dabbled in Linux gaming, but never gave it a shot on my main rig. DOSBox is a great tool for playing ancient DOS games on modern hardware, including that 10 yr old laptop in the closet. There are also quite a few game specific projects like Exult and OpenRCT2 that bring great games to the reach of modern computers. The fact is that most/all? major AAA studios are still ignoring Linux. Which cuts out your Battlefield/COD fans. Until the major players pickup even cursory Linux support, it's going to be a crapshoot.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by jman on Thursday January 09 2020, @12:32PM (1 child)
This is why I mostly stick with Pacman.
Upon occasion, I actually do still play one EA title (these days, emulated on the Mac): Mule. Had it on the C64 back in the 80's. Clunky, multi-player (if your machine supported multiple joysticks).
Once they went 'net, EA lost all cool.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday January 09 2020, @03:53PM
There are lots of awesome Linux games. Give them a try sometime, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"