Hey what’s up?
Today, I wanted to share my experiences with gaming on Linux. I’ve using Linux for about a month now, more specifically Linux Mint Debian Edition and since video games are important to me, I figure that I’d share about them.
So if you’re thinking about switching to Linux or if you’re curious about Linux gaming, then this video could be for you.
That being said, I’m only going to talk about video games that I actually play and love. Most of them are MMORPGs, smaller indie games and Blizzard games.
So let’s go right in.
1 – GW2
The first game that I wanted to talk about is GW2. GW2 is one of my favourite MMORPGs, and it is subscription free, so once in a while, I find myself replaying again. GW2 was initially designer for Windows and probably still is. The good thing is that a few years ago, GW2 launched the game on Steam and since it is now on Steam, that means that we can play the game on Linux because Proton is supporting it.
The only thing to keep in mind is that Steam account are different from normal ArenaNet accounts. So if you already have a ArenaNet account like me, then there’s a little trick that you need to do to make it work. You must add a little command in the game’s properties that the game shows you the right login.
I’ve been able to play a little bit, and it seems to be working for me.
2 – OSRS
The second game that I wanted to talk about is Old School RuneScape. I grew up playing this game and playing it always gives me a feeling of nostalgia. If you’re a OSRS player, you probably know about RuneLite which is the most awesome game client to use. Fortunately, it is available on Linux.
The only problem is that Jagex recently made some changes to the account structures. To log in and play, you now need to have a Jagex account that includes all your characters. Because of that, Jagex created a new launcher, which as of right now is only available on Windows.
In order to play, I found this free and open source project on GitHub that allows you to run Jagex launcher and RuneLite on Linux. It’s a bit heavy because you have to download and use a bunch of compatibility layers like Wine and Proton, but I managed to make it work on Linux.
3 – INDIE GAMES
The next thing on the list isn’t really a specific game. I wanted to talk about a few smaller indie games that I’ve been enjoying lately. Mostly Hades, Dome Keeper, Vampire Survivors, Starbound, and other games like that.
These aren’t big popular games, but I’ve had a lot of fun with them. These games are available on Steam and are supported by Proton and didn’t really have any problem running those games.
Also, most of these games are supporting my Xbox controller without any problem. So I could simply plug and play using my controller.
4 – WARCRAFT RUMBLE
The next game on the list is Warcraft Rumble made by Blizzard. Now technically, this is a phone game so you don’t need to play it on your computer. In my case, I like recording my games so when I was on Windows, I was using an emulator in order to play on my PC so that I can record the game.
On Linux, you can probably find an emulator and make it work as well, but I found a better alternative to emulators for this game. It is a free and open source software called Scrcpy.
Instead of being an emulator, Scrcpy mirrors your phone screen on the computer so that you record the game on the computer. The only thing is that you need to enable the developer mode on your phone to make this work.
The cool thing about this is that it is not showing any ads, and you can keep playing on your phone. When I was playing with Bluestack, I always had ads that were distracting me, and playing a mobile phone on a PC isn’t always a good idea.
Scrcpy fixes all these problems.
5 – BATTLE.NET
0when I was younger. Especially World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, as of right now, Battle.Net isn’t officially supported on Linux, but I managed a way to install Battle.Net to make it work. That being said, I haven’t tried any games yet.
If you want to install Battle.Net on Linux, I think the best way to do that is through Lutris and Wine.
To do so, install the Lutris software on your computer then go to lutris.net and search for battle.net. Then simply add to your library and install it.
Now, a few years ago, I used to play World of Warcraft not using Lutris, but I was using Wine. Even though I managed to make it work, it still wasn’t the best experience. From my experience, I think Wine works great for smaller games, but it might not the best if you’re looking to play bigger games like World of Warcraft.
6 – GAME LAUNCHERS (BONUS)
The last point that I wanted to talk about is the game launchers that are available on Linux and that you can use to play video games.
–Steam – The first one is Steam, if you don’t know Steam, I don’t know what to tell you. The cool thing about Steam is that they are developing Proton, which allows you to play Windows games on Linux. They are supporting more and more games every day.
–Lutris – Lutris allows you to connect gaming different gaming accounts like GOG, Origin, Epic Games Store, Steam, Ubisoft and even on the Lutris website. It is then able to find the right compatibility software to launch the games.
–Heroic Game Launcher – Heroic Game Launcher is similar to Lutris which allows you to connect gaming account. Heroic Game Launcher works with Epic Games Store, GOG and Amazon Prime Gaming.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I think it is currently very possible to play video games on Linux with compatibility layers like Proton, Wine, flatpak, etc. It is definitely better than it was a few years ago when I tried Linux. And for me personally, it’s good enough for me. I have a few of my favourite games available on Linux, and they seem to run well. That being said, I think Linux gaming still has a lot of improvement to do to compete with Windows. I mean, if you’re a heavy gamer, you’re definitely better off using Windows to have all your games available without any trouble. But if you’re thinking about switching to Linux and you want to play video games, I’d recommend that you first check that the games that you play or want to play are actually supported and check the experience of other people.
If you don’t want to game on Linux, you can still dual-boot Linux and Windows or use VMs.
So that’s pretty much it, I hope this was helpful to you. If this blog was valuable to you, you could consider following me on social media and if you have any thoughts or comments, you can leave them below.
I hope this helps, peace!
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