Yep, disgraceful behavior from the petition leader(s). Is that type of Linux circle jerk rhetoric supposed to somehow convince Blizzard that our community is worth supporting? I don't see it. Blizzard deserves an apology from our community, and we need to stop acting entitled and start providing stronger arguments for why our platform deserves support.
How can he say we are under 2% when there is no concrete evidence to prove it.
The petition leader doesn't understand that the percentage doesn't really matter. Maybe its >2%, maybe it's even less! Doesn't matter. Linux desktop is a tiny market right now. You're never going to convince business men and women that Linux is a thriving and untapped market and they're make buckets of money if they port all their games over. That's the absolute wrong angle.
Rather, I'd try to appeal to Blizzard as developers, programmers, and overall geeks - don't support Linux if you care foremost about money and return on investment, support Linux because you believe in the ideology and philosophy of choice and multiplatform development. Releasing on Linux won't bring in a boatload of new revenue for Activision Blizzard and its shareholders, but I'd argue that putting their titles on as many platforms as possible aligns with the 'Blizzard Philosophy'.
They'll probably never see this, but.. I'd like to put together some arguments for why supporting Linux is the *Blizzard thing to do.*
Lead Responsibly: Our products and practices can affect not only our employees and players -- but the industry at large. As one of the world’s leading game companies, we’re committed to making ethical decisions, always keeping our players in mind, and setting a strong example of professionalism and excellence at all times. Blizzard Mission Statement
Much like Valve, when Blizzard acts, the rest of the games industry watches. In everything from the dawn of Battle.Net to the policies that turned World of Warcraft into the genre defining, transformative work that it was, the work that Blizzard does and the policies that they create often ripple through the industry. The entire 'MOBA' genre wouldn't even exist if Blizzard didn't have the forethought to create powerful creation tools in their games.
On top of that, supporting multiple platforms is part of the Blizzard D.N.A. When Blizzard made console games, they did their best to release across the Super Nintendo and Genesis/MegaDrive.
And from the early days of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans up to today Blizzard has done far out of their way to support MacOS and OSX platforms along with Windows - not because OSX was where the money was, but because they believed in getting their games to as many people as possible on the platforms that they love to use. Long before Steam came to OSX, Blizzard supported the Mac community despite its insignificant market share so that nobody would have to choose between their OS and their games.
Much in the same way that they supported MacOS and OSX, it's time to extend Blizzard's long standing philosophy of multiplatform support to Linux. Not because Linux is the biggest market (hell, mobile's the biggest market now), but because Blizzard still believes in delivering great PC games to as many gamers as possible without asking them to drop their favorite operating system.
Embrace Your Inner Geek: Everyone here is a geek at heart. Cutting-edge technology, comic books, science fiction, top-end video cards, action figures with the kung-fu grip…. Whatever it is they’re passionate about, it matters that each employee embraces it! Their unique enthusiasm helps to shape the fun, creative culture that is Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Mission Statement
Of all people, Blizzard is a company that should understand where we're coming from. We don't use Linux because we're poor, cheap, or communists - in the end of the day, we use Linux because we're geeks! We love Linux! We put our workspaces on the sides of a cube, we write ridiculous bash scripts to automate our PC, and we spend our time arguing talking about GUI vs CLI!
Sure we have access to Windows or OSX, but why should we have to choose between our passion for Linux and our love for games? Asking us to use Windows is like asking /r/pcmasterrace to play on a console or a pre-built PC with a air-cooled heatsink (and no purple glowing LED strips!?)!! We use Linux because we love computers and we're super passionate about it as an operating system. In the end of the day we're computer geeks and underdogs who put in as much effort as we can to evangelize this community-driven platform. We have to compete with Microsoft and Apple, and we don't do it because we're paid to do it, we do it because we believe in what Linux is, and what it can be!
We want Blizzard to know and understand that what we offer as a platform isn't necessarily money (although we'll gladly pay to play, as evidence by higher-than-average contributions to humble bundles and good sales on steam). Instead, Linux can be a great platform for developing and playing games, but we need all the help we can get building it - because Linux doesn't build itself, the community builds it.
Every Voice Matters: Great ideas can come from anywhere. Blizzard Entertainment is what it is today because of the voices of our players and of each member of the company. Every employee is encouraged to speak up, listen, be respectful of other opinions, and embrace criticism as just another avenue for great ideas. Blizzard Mission Statement
The more sane members of our community are sorry for the entitled and spoiled way that some others have acted. We understand that games are an art and a business! We're all mega disappointed that Blizzard doesn't want their games on our platform, especially when Unity3D games like Hearthstone are trivial to port! But we can't give up hope! We think that you guys will eventually see that Linux is awesome and worth supporting because we're all about community.
We're a small group of fanatic zealots (uhg...), but we have to speak up on the behalf of Linux because nobody else will! Our community is small, but we think our opinions matter and we want to see your games, running natively, on our Linux desktops! If Blizzard decided to join with Valve, Epic, Unity and other to throw their weight behind Linux as a platform it could grow into something amazing for creators and players alike.
I hope that Blizzard will start supporting Linux, not because we're the most lucrative market, but because they still believe that the little guy/girl matters and that the passion that drives us to embrace Linux is not unlike the geeky passion that drove them to make games in the first place!