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Idea #20991: Game browser

Written by Gaz Davidson the 10 Aug 09 at 09:39. Related project: Add/Remove program dialog. Status: New
Rationale
Ubuntu comes with a huge selection of games in Add/Remove Applications, but there they are all just dumped into the games category and can only be sorted by popularity.

The icons are incredibly small and there's no way to get a preview to know which ones are the most graphically advanced, browsing by genre is currently done by searching and then sifting through the results one at a time.

Gamer kids don't see Ubuntu as a gaming platform because the few modern games are buried amongst the hundreds of retro and casual games.
Tags: games

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Solution #1: Dedicated games browser
Written by Gaz Davidson the 10 Aug 09 at 09:39.
Have a separate, dedicated games browser to either replace or compliment the games section in Add/Remove Applications.

It could allow browsing and filtering by genre, download size and system requirements. It should provide screenshots and possibly even gameplay video in a way similar to Steam.

Over time it could be extended to include reviews and ratings, community forums, chat rooms, friends lists and instant messaging.
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Solution #2: Improve user experience for ALL applications
Written by Darwin Survivor the 10 Aug 09 at 18:16.
The Add/Remove application's GUI itself is not very impressive. It is functional for task required, but does not offer screenshots, user comments or even the ability to filter out libraries that no regular user would ever install individually.

If we are going to improve the interface for browsing/installing games, why only do it for games?
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Solution #3: Create a specific section within the new AppCenter
Written by Rodrigo the 10 Aug 09 at 22:08.
I think the UBUTU community is already working in something:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AppCenter
it could be nice to have a specific section for games with, as Gaz said, some more data, that is more game related:
- requirements,
- type of game
- number of players
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Solution #4: separated media browser, in which to incude games
Written by gianni_casagrande the 30 Aug 09 at 15:18.
A separate media browser could be added, with Games, Movies, Songs and other free media content. There media content could be evaluated by user votes in different aspects. A game for example could be graded in gameplay, graphics, number of players, originality ecc.. and similary for video and audio
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Solution #5: Make categories for games
Written by ayllu the 7 Sep 09 at 01:33.
News app can have some categories to find games, for example action, sports, wiimote integration, emulators, adventure etc..
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Solution #6: Improve solution #3
Written by Djhg2000 the 8 Sep 09 at 19:47.
Also implement performance ratings compatible with those of Windows Vista/7, i.e. if a computer gets a performance rating of 5.0 in Windows, make sure it gets 5.0 in Ubuntu.

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gianni_casagrande wrote on the 30 Aug 09 at 15:14
About Solution #2: From the developer point of wiev it seems reasonable to deal with games installation procedure as it's done with all the other programs, and i agree that the whole Add/Remove application GUI could be enriched.
On the other side from a user point of view games are something much closer to media content (movies, songs..) than to computer programs.

While different applications have the main goal of performing a task, and the particular task performed can be enough as a scratch of the description of the application, the whole games category shares the same goal which is to entertain, and users aren't able to guess if they will find the game entertaining or not without a proper description.

I would so say, good for solution 2 if the improvements on the Add/Remove GIU can be made deep enough, if not go for 4.

Dr_Willis wrote on the 5 Sep 09 at 12:04
An example of a Dedicated Game Browser (think of it as a GPL Steam) is at

http://en.djl-linux.org

This nifty tool lets a user browse and install a select set of games with information/screen shots and so forth.

One neat feature is that the games install on a 'per user basis' so the non-admin users can install games for their own usage.

The tool does not use the ubuntu repos, or package manager. So that may be a good or bad thing. Depending on your point of view.


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