Order of the Butterfly
Posts: 167 from 2009/11/26
I had always been planning to release (approximate) results for eGame registrations, since I though it would be useful for other developers who were considering creating a program or game for all Amiga flavours...
... but since I got the results, I've been hesitant to publish them, because frankly I'm worried they might cause a flamewar. So that (and the fact I've been busy with real life) is why I haven't done so until now. But as these results will affect whether I consider creating any new programs for MorphOS & AROS, I felt it was unfair to keep quiet about them. Plus I'm bound to have to explain myself anyway, if I stop making new stuff for MorphOS or AROS, so I might as well be up-front about why.
I hope that by publishing the results here (first anyway), rather than AmigaWorld, will give people an opportunity to suggest explanations other than the obvious (but hopefully wrong) negative ones, without feeling they are under attack. And so hopefully I will get intelligent suggestions, rather than knee-jerk responses & snarky replies. (But if you do still feel the need to make a nasty reply - please know that I will simply ignore it, although it might slightly reduce my opinion of this forum, just like the stupidity on AmigaWorld has reduced my opinion of it.)
OK, enough beating about the bush. The end result of eGame registrations (for which I only asked a paltry 2 Pounds = 2.3 Euros) was 80% were from AmigaOS4 users, 10% from MorphOS users, 9% from unknown OS users, and 1% from AROS users. (Some people used multiple OSes, so I split their OS 'votes' as best I could.)
eGame should be equally useful for users of all OSes, since not only will it run any native game, but it supports running emulated games for almost every system I could think of (which had emulators available). So we cannot argue that eGame is only useful to AmigaOS4 users.
You COULD argue that AmigaOS4 users play games much more than MorphOS or AROS users, but I don't find that explanation very satisfying, since there is no good reason to expect this result. (Especially when MorphOS has some great game ports that OS4 users would die for.)
You might argue that MorphOS or AROS already has a free equivalent to eGame... but I am not aware of anything remotely similar. The closest thing I have seen is the 68k-only "iGame", but it is rather crashy, it doesn't easily handle non-WHDLoad games (while WHDLoad games won't work easily or at all on MorphOS), and it certainly doesn't support emulated games.
Regarding the most recent release of eGame, I have not received ANY negative feedback about it not working well on MorphOS or AROS, so I believe it works almost as well as on OS4.
This leaves me stumped at explaining the results (which is where you come in), without me resorting to some easy (but seemingly unlikely) negative explanations like: (1) OS4 users are much more willing to pay for something than MorphOS users. (2) There are many more OS4 users than MorphOS users.
Note: Whatever the conclusions (or not) of this thread, I still plan to release at least one more OS4+MOS+AROS program (which requires registration), in the hope that the eGame results were an aberration.
Please be gentle!
Author of the
PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...
