World of Warcraft Linux Petition

[MEDIEVALDRAGON]

An e-petition is being started invoking all Linux users to request VUGames and Blizzard Entertainment to port World of Warcraft to Linux. Blizzard has been known in the past for their support to PC and Mac users with hybrid games. The aim of the petition is to have a PC/Mac OS X/Linux hybrid. Sam Lantinga, developer of the SDL API and ex-employee of Loki, is known to be Software Engineer of World of Warcraft since 2001. Among his duties in Loki was to port Mac games to Linux.

World of Warcraft fans are hoping that the petition may encourage VUGames to fund the project. Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, Neverwinter Nights, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory are among the games that have being ported to Linux by other companies. Knowing the wide-reputation of Blizzard Entertainment, it would be a boost to the Linux community to have a MMORPG of this calibre. NVidia has Linux and FreeBSD drivers, which confirms that the Linux platform is becoming fastly a Gaming market.

The petition can be signed Here (http://www.blizzpub.net/petition/)

[XiaoKJ]

I like to play this genre, although I am quite restricted by parents.... ArGH

Nevertheless linux gamers worldwide will love this!

[Icarus]

Blizzard would never port any of their games to Linux, they are too focused on making money

They handed Freecraft a Cease and Desist (http://happypenguin.org/newsitem?id=3801) because it's name too similar
(I've heard that's not the real reason FreeCraft shutdown, mainly that the main developer removed all the CVS and files and then ditched town, or something like that)

Remember www.bnetd.org ? That use to be an open source project replicating Blizzards BattleNet so people running Linux could multiplayer StarCraft and other Blizzard games...we'll Blizzard saw it as an opportunity for people to play multiplayer with illegal copies of the game since it didn't use any authentication (not that the bnetd guys didn't ask for the ability to impliment it, Blizzard refused to let them). So Blizzard sued these guys into oblivion and took the domain name...nice eh?

I can't support Blizzard because of their draconian tactics that are similar to Microsoft's. They do not play well with others at all.
If a company can not get along with their fans, I'm not even going to hope for a Linux port unless they are forced to by legal action...ya right :rolleyes:

[MEDIEVALDRAGON]

You arent focused on the events.
Blizzard did what he did for 2 reasons.

BnetD ... emulates protocols that "bypass"(keyword) their copyrighted CDKey system. A unique CDKey is inserted in each CD. When you log into Battle.net that CDKey is sent to their server, and it grants you access to their server. This is a measure to avoid piracy. It doest work idealy, but that is what they meant to do.

BnetD was going around that CDKey check up. Alrite, they emulated the server, fine. But ... then by doing so anyone that pirates a copy of Warcraft III would be able to play in BnetD ... there is where Blizzard loses money.

Why buy the game when BnetD allows you to download it off peer-to-peer for free and play on BnetD?

That is the Blizzard concern. The FreeCraft by the other hand :
As of June 20th, Freecraft is shut down. The development team recieved a 'Cease and Desist' order due to the name 'Freecraft' causing possible confusion with the names Starcraft and Warcraft, and also some of the ideas within the engine were too similar to Warcraft 2. There will be no more updates to this game, and it is no longer available for download.

You can't bend law in USA ... if you infringe copyrights, be free or not, you get in trouble.

Those are 2 different topics. That doesnt mean Blizzard wont support the open source or Linux. But you have to play clean along. BnetD and Freecraft didnt play clean. They should have had a lawyer before spending so much time and effort.

We are sure, with the assistance of many Linux users, that World of Warcraft can be played natively in Linux. Things that do not , should not be tolerated in the Open Source and Linux community is piracy. Windows has a lot of that, Linux has stuff for free and stuff you have to pay for. No need to piracy or no need to support it. BnetD wasnt minding if the software was pirated. Thats why Blizzard blew the war-horn.

Freecraft, the engine was too similar to Warcraft's and a similar name. Not a smart move. Blizzard will support the open source, just give them time.

They released a 3DMax studio plugin that allows their developers to insert custom 3D models into the Warcraft III MPQ. Now Modding communities can use this 3dmax plugin to create their own 3D models.

Check out WC3campaigns.com forums and you will see a lot of mods and total conversions thanks to Blizzard. They released that Warcraft III Tool Here (http://www.battle.net/forums/war3/thread.aspx?FN=war3-art-tools&T=1169&P=1&ReplyCount=0#post1169)

[Lemming]

I assume someone has actually TOLD blizzard that there's a petition?

[MEDIEVALDRAGON]

You assume well.
I emailed Public Relations Fan Sites Coordinator twice about the topic. gadfly talked to him on the phone.
I have posted it at Battle.net Forums some 4 times. One which got deleted ... so I pretty much know they do know it exists.

[Goran[Croatia]]

nothing happens with online petitons. They wont give a crap even if there are 1m petitions. Blizzard is just too int the money. They like to gain every penny possible by doing anything they can. Good luck with this! Is it so hard to have win and *nix on a machine :p

[MEDIEVALDRAGON]

You go to McDonalds.
You request a Hamburger with Onions, lettuce but please no tomato.

The clerk brings you the Hamburger and he put tomatoes in it. Would you be happy?

Second customer requests a Hamburger with everything, but he doesnt like pickles. If you make the hamburger and put pickles in it, the customer will be mad.

McDonalds allows you to have a variety of hamburgers and you can customize it by removing stuff you dont like or adding stuff you wish for some xtra charge.

Variety and freedom are things you like in your computer.
But if you dont want something, you shouldnt be forced to take it. Linux users want a World of Warcraft Linux-native game. Why should you force them to have a Dual Boot taking space in their hard drive with a Windows partition?

Would you want to install Mac OS X and Windows in your hard drive if you wished to have the iPOD software? You would be pissed to be forced to install a new OS taking a lot of space only to use iPOD music software, Quicktime and other Apple video software.

Instead, Apple created Quicktime & iPOD software for Windows so that you keep having your Windows machine.

Dont try to force a Dual Boot on a Linux user. Not everyone is willing to do that. That is the petition for, so that this awesome game is available for Linux the same way Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, Americas Army and other games are available.

Hope the analogy made sense to you. You dont know how hard and uncomfortable is what you are asking. If you put yourself in the same situation, that comment you made would make you think and frown.

[bwkaz]

But MedievalDragon, McDonald's and Burger King are convinced that you'll give them the same amount of money whether or not you customize your burger (and they're right).

Blizzard is not convinced, whether or not they're right.

Blizzard is only in the game making business for the money. Anything that they believe will decrease profits will never happen. They believe (despite a ton of evidence to the contrary...) that making a Linux client will decrease their profits.

Sorry, but that's the way that corporate inertia works...

[MEDIEVALDRAGON]

They believe (despite a ton of evidence to the contrary...) that making a Linux client will decrease their profits.

That is incorrect. I dont want to talk about this because I was requested not to talk about it;and am under oath. All I will say is this, and you figure out on your own what it means.

The petition isnt necessary.
Yet, I will keep it alive to make a point.

[movEAX_444]

Since it'll have support for macOSX, shouldn't a *nix port be easy? since macOSX is very similar to Unix..

[The 27th Voice]

Not to mention Mac OS X is losing users while Linux is gaining them...