Here we are - one year since the launch of ProtonDB. Oh how the time has flown and oh how the gaming landscape on Linux has changed!

When Valve released Proton, it was for a small hand-selected list of sanctioned games, but with a wink to the possibility of more they allowed users to set a flag to try any game they wished. So began the crowdsourced journey for hundreds of contributors to write over 60,000 reports. ProtonDB has become an invaluable go-to resource for Linux gamers, and also a helpful community to help guide those whose final remaining barrier to switching to Linux was their gaming library.

Not only does today mark the one year anniversary of the site, but a release day! With the goal of improving the quality and authority of reports as well as building the community further, the report contribution system has been renovated.

What's changed? The short version is that reports are now responses to a series of questions and are one of two types:

• 'Out-of-the-box' SteamPlay reports
• Tinker reports which use tweaks to make the game run at its best.

Subsequently, games will receive distinct ratings for these two types. And in this way, visitors will get a better idea of how well a game performs with or without making customizations.

Contributors will also now be able to select a game from a dropdown of their library as well as write text in Markdown.

In addition, contributions will now require logging in via a Steam account. Each report will have a visible contributor along with information about how many hours they've logged in play. This brings both renown and accountability for the author, and opens up future feature development on the site such as editing of reports.

So what does it look like? Below is a sample, or you can visit this page for other variations.

These changes have come after a great deal of community discussion starting almost a year ago and unfortunately took much longer than anticipated. Keep in mind this is only the beginning. In the weeks ahead, further releases will introduce new rating tiers as we move beyond a medal-based system.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated! There will undoubtedly be ongoing revisions. Do the questions sufficiently cover what you would like to report? Are there missing options to describe common hangups? Please let us know on Discord!

Thank you everyone!

migelius (@buck)

P.S. As has been frequently requested, it's time for me to pass the hat around and create a Patreon page. The site's growth means there are now modest server fees, and your support helps fund these as well as further development on the site. Up to now this has been a passion project and anything you can chip in would be greatly appreciated.