i really don't know the os of my file......
Summer & Christmas are the worst seasons for software downloads for Windows/Mac, since they are where most Android/iOS phones and tablets are used. And the amount of wrong downloads of PC/Mac games on Android/iOS devices it's almost daily.
The sessions where I have most lost faith in humanity because of this duopoly of mobile operating systems. (not to mention also the weekends)
this is mostly the fault of the developer, it should be clear to the player what each file is for them. i have a installer for windows games to help double check the correct placement like OS and files location. you cant them players for not understanding what .exe or .apk s for them because that is our job to understand.
Part of you will be right, there are many novice developers who forget to put the operating system or platform that is targeted the game (if it's for Windows, for Android, etc.). But it's also the fault of the user, that although the developer shows that platforms are targeted their games in more detailed way possible, he simply doesn't know how to read the recommendations, or doesn't care, or simply downloads it just because. And once downloaded to the wrong device, they no longer work because of their ignorance. It seems that we need more technological education for this matter, more powerful emulators and also more convergent devices.
Luckily, the Android phones they can also be used as complete computers, thanks to bases like the Samsung Dex, which would be the best way to emulate the software from Windows, Mac & Linux, but unfortunately the PC emulators for Android are still very precarious, irrelevant and limited, which is still a problem, and that's why there are still users who download erroneously PC/Mac games on the phone/tablet, not only because there are less PCs, but also for lack of quality emulators like the classic videogame consoles. And the Samsung Dex should be taken as a reference to have the possibility to use and emulate Windows/Mac software in Android/iOS completely.
For now, only part of the Windows software can be used in operating systems such as: Mac with Winebottler, Linux with Wine and ReactOS.
I finally have a proof of a user who has wrongly downloaded a Windows PC game on his Android phone! the user is called "The Benji Kawaii23", and he have wrongly downloaded on his android phone a PC game called "Sonic Boll", acknowledged the error he has made. The comment is Spanish.
that's true I thought it would work on mobile xd
The first PC Windows/Mac game downloaded in a wrong way on Android phone/tablet of 2019. Damn! the most inept, casual and ignorant people still don't learn the valuable lesson that they don't have to download software from other operating systems that aren't compatible with their. It's clear that this year, these technological illiteracy practices they will become more stupidly frequent than in 2018 If the community doesn't take action quickly. I just can't do anything.
Not only for not wanting to see, but also for not wanting to read and understand the requirements necessary to play that games, they even download the wrong way with the phone searching "PC game", without knowing what it really means a PC.
One of the most affected games, are usually the free games of itch.io, gamejolt, indieDB, etc., because don't exists a regulation of downloads for specific devices (as in Steam, Google Play, App Store, etc.), and the fangames known for the casuals are like a magnet of wrong downloads with the phone/tablet (especially from the Youtube links, where visits are mostly from Android and iOS), as in this example of someone who accidentally downloaded Super Smash Land on Android:
(the game i see it cool, but I can't run it on my Android)
There is a lot of misinformation and waste in Windows emulation for Android, so the only way to play PC/Mac games in Android/iOS phones is through on Streaming, but you need a good Internet connection, and the worst thing is that you have to pay a monthly subscription and nothing title and the experiences aren't our property.
This is the last straw, users who download in the wrong way PC Windows/Mac games in phone/tablets of Android, searching "PC game" without knowing what really means a "PC".
When will they learn these that a Smartphone doesn't work for everything? A Smartphone is not a PC without a basis for it to function as such, Android is not Windows, .exe programs aren't .apk & PC it means "Personal Computer", not "Phone Call". Every time less importance is taken on the appropriate use of technology for people who are increasingly casual, ignorant and technologically illiterate.
Yes, It's some funny to see someone with an stupid face who download in a wrong way a PC game on his phone/tablet, it happens many times in simple games of free download, in which although they take a version for Android, it also have the version for Windows, and this people that was download the Windows version in the wrong way on his Android phone/tablet, they will have confused it in an epic way to the Android version.
The big problem with Windows emulation in Android, is that there is a lot of fakes and misinformation about this theme (Wine for Android wasn't updated since January 2018), but there is another way to be able to play PC/Mac games on Android/iOS, the Streaming, but it's not worth it, because you need to pay a monthly subscription, a very good Internet signal and mandatory, the screen is filled with so many buttons that your fingers will cover almost everything, and nothing game will be your property.
First you say that listing all the options is a nonsense a embarassing and then you say you have users that use the wrong architecture to download? That is a double moral, if you have friends that wrongly download PC/Mac games on Android/iOS for example and it doesn't work, you should teach them in which devices with their respective platform works correctly for that software.
And yes, the analytics of itch.io in downloads should be updated and shown as in IndieDB / ModDB, because there are even people who look for a PC game without really knowing what is a "PC".
There is no bad in putting a one-button option to download an all-in-one gaming folder for various platforms, it's affordable, but that isn't the way to detect in which platform the game has been downloaded, it's detected from the analytics (as I showed you in the previous comment), and the best way to avoid wrong downloads from the wrong operating systems, is are using Google Play model platforms for Android, App Store for iOS or Steam for PC.
P.D: I don't know what you mean with 5 different options.
No that's not what I'm saying. You can detect the platform of the user from the browser. From this https://www.npmjs.com/package/ng2-device-detector you can already tell if it's a desktop, mobile or tablet and it even tells you the OS version. There's no need to bundle all of the options in a big zip file. Many website makes you automatically download the good thing when you click download, based on your OS and architecture.
The 5 different options I was talking about are Windows 32 bit, Windows 64 bit, Mac, Linux 64 bit and Linux 32 bit. If you add the mobile targets then you get to 7. Makes much more sense to have the website detect your platform from javascript and propose you the valid download automatically. That's all I'm saying.
It is perfectly functional for any regular website. However that's not something we can just add to our itch.io page. It's a feature the devs of itch.io could enable for everyone. Perhaps its possible to detect mobiles and tablets from media queries in CSS, but that would only rely on the size of the screen which is way less reliable than this library. Another hacky way would be to integrate an iframe in the itch.io page to replace the download options by something external, which would integrate this script.
No I haven't try yet on itch.io but I use it on my regular website to warn mobile users that my game is only for PC.
You're making fun of people who tend to live in countries so repressive that they can literally be killed by their government for accessing/downloading certain material.
Technological illiteracy there tends to be the fault of the oppressive regime that severely limits access to new information at their whim.
You should focus on more productive endeavors.
March 2021 EDIT: I refuse to censor or alter any of my posts just because you dislike what I have said. I have been polite and refrained from breaking any rules so you gotta clean up the mess you made by yourself.
No, I'm just very frustrated and disappointed with these wrong download acts (ok, it's inevitable to exaggerate a bit), I don't say that all those people are like that, it's just a minority, I just wanted them to improve on computing knowledge so that they use the software on the respective platforms correctly (.exe in Windows, .apk in Android, not the other way around).
Although if this technological illiteracy is maintained by the oppressive governments of those countries and by terrorism, is a terrible possibility that I couldn't take account at the beginning.
Edit: I sincerely apologize if those who have been offended by reading one of my deleted messages. My intention wasn't to insult but to take into account that they were making the wrong way of downloading Windows software on Android phones/tablets (although several errors come from the same place).
In case of I haven't understood the lesson well, tell me.
There's a meme oft-posted and oft-repeated but I feel it is relevant now more than ever before:
Also this article:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/pc-gaming-not-dying,39205.html
People can complain about new platforms or they can embrace the market and see it as an opportunity. If you want casual gamers then throw your hat in the mobile ring. If you want less competition then go for the console crowd. If you want to make the best games possible as amazing works of art that will live on for decades to come, go with PC. ^_^
I'm somewhat more concerned with the unregulated gambling that goes on with impunity in mobile, console, and PC games alike; whether free or paid doesn't seem to matter. If that type of bullshit can be completely squashed (likely through regulatory means) then the market will naturally contract and things may calm down a bit.
Honestly I feel there's a certain niche that the market has yet to fill. RPG games that take less than 4 hours to complete, are cross-platform on PC & mobile, and have no additional purchases beyond paying for it initially, and tell a full/complete story without any sequel-baiting bullshit or half-assed endings.
Respect the time of your target audience and you shall reap the bounties within.
March 2021 EDIT: I refuse to censor or alter any of my posts just because you dislike what I have said. I have been polite and refrained from breaking any rules so you gotta clean up the mess you made by yourself.
Yes, how much more use their phones/tablets irresponsibly, there will continue to be more cases of people downloading software without really knowing the platform where it is available to use it, and don't make urgent advances in technology education.
if I complain about the wrong downloads that come from the Middle East, It isn’t because I am racist, I know that not everyone has a great lack of knowledge, is because more and more wrong downloads of PC games in Android that are coming from that region almost daily.
But nevertheless, from the second paragraph of your comment, you are telling me very interesting things worth admiring. The wording changes & warnings in download pages, is something that I had done before you told me, I have put them in the descriptions of Youtube gameplays, in my weebly page and here in itch.io, but no matter how detailed the warning it that saying "the game is intended for Windows and not for Android", always there will be the one who ignores such requirements to be able to play such a game before downloading them, and because of him it doesn’t work because he downloaded it in the wrong way by his fault.
In the case of the wrong arab downloads, all came from IndieDB, and they already said in their profile that the game was for Windows or Mac platforms, and they didn’t want to pay attention to this detail, and they committed the same error to download it wrongly on their Android phones again and again just by changing the words in the google search engine to find the same game.
In short, this type of technological illiteracy cases obviously can’t be controlled, nor is there an official institution on how to properly download the software for each operating system in an orderly manner (which would urgently need it), you can tell me to try to be more respectful and patient, but I don’t intend to ignore this type of case in case I'm interested in showing it.
I'm not telling you to ignore it. I'm telling you to be more productive in how you go about dealing with this issue.
Personally I don't know how/why such downloads are bothering you. If those users are asking you for support then you just use an automated response that the game is meant for the Windows OS and there is no support for any other operating systems.
This may also be an opportunity for you to consider making a mobile (paid) version of your item and make some money off of it instead. Turn an annoyance into a profitable venture.
But hey what do I know? You'd rather sit here complaining about it instead of doing something more productive ;)
You're already using Unity and most of your games don't seem to have any gameplay that would exclude a (paid) mobile port. Might also help to offer a (Google Translated) arabic version of your store page/blurb so that those visitors actually understand what you're saying.
March 2021 EDIT: I refuse to censor or alter any of my posts just because you dislike what I have said. I have been polite and refrained from breaking any rules so you gotta clean up the mess you made by yourself.
I see that each once you are more sincere and that you understand me better my concern about the users that wrongly download the Windows /Mac games in Android/iOS phones.
The problem I have with this, is that now that the Smartphone already has greater dominance and popularity than the PC, the chances of a download a wrong way a Windows game to Android are very high. And what most leaves me unanswered, is that almost no one has asked me why the game he downloaded doesn’t work on his phone or tablet, to be able to answer that the game works with Windows, or Mac, or Linux, etc.
Even though I have Unity, I don’t make mobile games for 3 reasons:
1. I don’t know how to use Android SDK, and I don’t even think about doing it.
2. Excessive and automated advertising when it is free, but making payment, there is no problem.
3. The buttons on the screen, at first don’t affect your experience, but when it comes to games that require many buttons, your fingers can even cover half screen or almost all, this annoys and you can lose details easily. That is why it is better to choose to make compatible games with bluetooth connection commands for a better gaming experience.
To those who downloaded the game by wrong way in the Arab region or the rest of the world, they would have before thought about copying and translating the text they don’t understand so that they avoid downloading the software version that is not what they were really finding for, but as always, there will be those who go ignore it.
