Blogs - ZekThePenguin

I hear from a number of people that are excited about Steam on Linux. (I'm one of them!) As these people gush about the fun to come, I ask "how do you figure Desura will fit?" and get answers like "Desura won't matter.... Desura is more for Indie games and will coexist.... the more the merrier...." and other opinions. Listen, folks, Desura is a very nice service that provided this sort of service while Valve was still dragging their heels about coming over to Linux. I'm going to be using Steam for sure, but if the same games are available on Desura that's where I'd go first.
Now, that said, the competition will definitely step things up. Desura, you have to make sure to tighten up this program! No more 'some games don't really work' crap! That won't hold water with Steam being right there to pick up slack. I want to see Desura continue to do awesome things, but that means this program needs to continue to BE excellent!
Personally, I'm in the 'the more game programs on Linux the better' camp. I love Desura but I'm very excited about Steam as well. As I get more games than I can finish in a year on my OS of choice, I'll be sure to give thanks for these two awesome programs and the games they make accessible.

This blog goes out to Nintendo, Konami, and all the other developers that seem to be hell-bent against emulators. Here's a radical new idea that you should listen to: you're going at this exactly the wrong way!
Let's be real here, all the legislation that's being batted around and stuff will NOT stop piracy. It won't. Yes, the box-offices have taken a hit, but that's because of the rise of the home theater. Game sales have been fine!
1. Look at The Humble Indie Bundle! Name your own price DRM-free and STILL wildly successful! How can this be, considering that it would be so easy to pirate?! Egads!
2. System of a Down's 'Steal This Album' which was released free on their site STILL sold many many copies.
3. There are still many gamers out there that love old titles and would probably still pay money for them.

Here's the thing: instead of releasing 'Collector's' discs with a few of your old games, why not create officially-sanctioned emulators and release roms for nominal fees DRM-free? If you really think you'd lose money on this, you're crazy.
*Gamers who could get their hands on safe Roms rather than from virus-plagued sites would buy them.
*Those who wish to do things the legal way (like yours-truly) would rather buy official roms.
*Developers would be able to garner further funds from games just collecting dust.
*The same developers can track what sells to get better ideas about what the general consumer wants in a game TODAY.
*Working WITH the emulator community rather than against will certainly shed a positive light on the developer. It would also allow for easy cross-platform distribution that other companies only DREAM about!
*Looking at all the above in addition to the fact of how much cheaper digital distribution is to sell, disperse, and track, it's ridiculous this hasn't been done yet.

Just food for thought guys and gals.

I posted in the forums about this, and I'll continue with a blog entry as well: Desura needs to be portable!
As things are, there really isn't a service like this on-the-go. Yes, I know On-Live is available on the IPad now, but that's not exactly the same thing, is it?
The main reason we haven't seen Steam or Desura go portable is because of the resources necessary in terms of processing power, but really I think there are ways to slim things down to help with this. (Things like simpler design with fewer graphics, optimized settings for smaller screens, etc.)
My hope for Desura is that in the near future I'll be able to put this great service (and the great games I have through it) on my Dingoo! I also would love to see Desura go portable on a TON of platforms before Steam does. Not that I hate Steam, but I do prefer the way Desura does things.
If you're reading this and you would also like to see Desura go portable SPEAK UP NOW! Find my thread in the forums and post to make sure Desura knows there are a lot of people interested in this! If you know how, maybe take advantage of the open nature of the program and see if you can make it work! (I'm just starting to learn programming in C... after I know more this is definitely something I'll be working on.)

Till then, I'll keep the dream alive as best as I can.
ZtP

I love zombies! There, I said it! I enjoy how many games delve into the various aspects of terror caused by reanimated corpses. Wanted to start there so people understand where I'm coming from.
Now, that being said/typed, I'm so tired of seeing zombies in games! Don't get me wrong, some games are fine, and zombies are much cooler now than when they were D&D fodder. However, the prevalence of zombies in games is really getting old and stale!
I can't believe they made an expansion to Red Dead Redemption based solely on the game being zombified! Doesn't that seem gimmicky to anybody else?! I like zombie games, but only the games ABOUT zombies! I don't want zombies added in to try to trick me into buying a game I like that has nothing to do with the undead! On top of that is the numerous horrible games that weren't really thought out and people are expected to buy them just because you're killing zombies. Gimme a break!
I think it's high-time that we as comsumers recognize that zombies are at a point where they deserve to be taken beyond hype and given solid games only. Personally, I'm tired of seeing cheap zombie games everywhere just because zombies are selling right now.

That's it for now. Zombie rant over. Thanks for reading.

I'm very glad to see Desura offering a true cross-platform gaming service! Honestly, I believe that cross-platform is the way of the future for gaming. As a Linux user, I enjoy having options, and it's nice to see more games popping up. For the longest time, the stigma about Linux was that it was great for daily use, but not for games. Such an idea was perpetuated by both sides: the game developers didn't make games because there were no Linux-using gamers, and few gamers seriously looked at Linux because there were no games to be had.
Enter the future: Desura, Indie development, and cross-platform development. Perhaps with Desura as a competitor that is already cross-platform Steam will stop dragging its heels about making a Linux-native version of Steam too. Indie developers took a chance and made commercial games for Linux and the starved community validated the notion that there really are Linux users that would love more games!
When I look at what's happening with computer gaming, it's exciting because it seems that I may not have very long to wait before I get my own Linux-native versions of games that now are exclusively Windows-based. My brother, a Mac user, is also excited about the possibilities. (BTW, he can't wait for the Mac version of Desura.)
Important things that need to happen soon would be: Anyone and everyone that uses Linux, BSD, etc, contact NVidia and ATI and let them know that driver support for your OS is appreciated. Do the same for Adobe Air, as it is being used for some of today's popular online titles, such as League of Legends. Silverlight would also be a good thing to have. Basically, as users of these fine OSes, we need to do our part to facilitate and foster the budding game market that we hope to enjoy, and that includes making sure it has as many tools as possible to do its work.