You're right; all of this 'rely on online, not yourself' I don't think is a good direction ... if people don't even get the chance to steadily read, learn and fix things, that's not fair, or even natural. There'll just be far more frustrated people, playing a lot smaller range of games.

And things are far too online/corporate increasingly, as well as the accompanying privacy/data issues. Almost makes me wonder if companies taking on all this extra script-writing etc may plan to charge soon eg for support. Anything getting locked into online is more at risk of that happening, and nobody who cares about privacy/data etc is going to be able to pay in or join in ... only active option left then is to vote with feet. If only more did that, eg more people getting involved here/with POL4. The impression I've got of the wine wizards is that they aren't your sharing type, lol, which made finding your site even better! Otherwise, there's reams of videos showing a game working but with zero clear instructions.

A wedge getting bigger, I think, where there'll be the game-focussed, regardless of anyone else, and those who go to wine/winetricks and succeed, or try to, lol, which isn't an easy option for the tech-challenged, or those new to Linux and who came across for privacy/to get away from corporate ... could put people off Linux, which MS would enjoy.

Surreal that Lutris, Steamplay and POL are all focussing on these scripts ... 'easier' isn't easier when all people end up with is waiting for outer fixes, that may never happen ... and non-AAA games are even more unlikely to get scripts. As you say, being able to choose the right wine per game makes perfect sense, and has worked for years and years successfully!

I agree; seems a heck of a faff and it's a shame that many won't be able to have confidence about whether or not a game will run or continue to run in the future. Many bug reports/issues, about what you describe. I can't imagine all those games being tested, so fingers crossed it wasn't more of a PR move. All I can think is to keep what's stable and independent close, and hopefully more will realise how great it is to use and support Wine/HQ and POL4; when I came to Linux I didn't know gaming would even be possible, so have always valued these things, including your guides. Grateful to have choices.

I just want stable independent play on Linux to not be impacted adversely by anything. Very bad health, and simplicity/privacy help with that. I left windows to get away from corporate/privacy issues, and, with respect, don't really want to get into Proton stuff. I just appreciated your simple guides and wanted to do a donation; am actually hardly ever online, and in the process of removing any remaining accounts, so please don't be offended when I do that. A lot of google/facebook/twitter links I noticed on each page, via https everywhere. Again, not trying to offend.

If POL5 brings in the very important POL4 features, that'd be a really great and unique step. I just thought! ... is the POL5 developer also employing anyone at any point?

Dxvk changes are causing problems, and 4.18 kernel included graphics regression. Reading that LTS 4.19 fixes things. Without those things right, bigger games don't run, so it's good news about 4.19.

Thanks, Booman!