Game data directory

[Per Inge Mathisen]

Hello games list,

I'm with the Warzone2100 project, and we've received bug reports by
way of Debian and Ubuntu concerning the location of "Program
configuration settings", ie user configurable game data. This includes
game settings (not all of which can be set in-game), screenshots,
savegames, high-scores, and user-installed music, maps and mods.

The idea of storing application configuration settings in ~/.config/
relies I think on the assumption that the ordinary user should never
have to touch this data. At least for some games, this assumption does
not hold. In order to install new mods and maps, you have to place
them in the user's game directory. Similarly, if you want to remove
them, you have to use the file system. Also to access screenshots or
add new music you have to use this directory. In our case, the
directory is ~/.warzone-2.2/ which is already rather inaccessible,
being hidden and all. We are not all very happy with the idea of
making it even more inaccessible to users.

On Windows, the path is eg C:\Documents and Settings\user\My
Documents\Warzone 2100 which is not hidden and easily accessibly to
the user. Much better. The ideal would be to have something for Linux,
akin to ~/Documents, but appropriate for user configurable game data.

Anyone else touched upon such an issue before?

For those interested in the background, the relevant ticket is
http://developer.wz2100.net/ticket/659

Your opinions are most welcome :-)

  - Per