I strongly disagree with you. Recommending a Linux newbie to install a Windows layer to launch a bunch of adult games written in Python or Java is over the top and nothing as a dirty workaround. The aim should not be to run an .exe file, but to run a game/application natively in its Linux environment without the need of a Windows layer such as Wine. Means, Wine & Co. might be a temporal solution, but at the same time it is nothing than an illusion that pretends that you can run any Windows game through Wine & Co. just by clicking on .exe file - which isn't true either.
Your solution starts to crumble as soon as a user use a computer/laptop with old hardware. For a Ren'Py game they might not experience much performance issues (resource consumption), but as soon as it comes to RPG Maker MV or Unity games it is a total different story. In case of RPG MV Maker games the Windows build version often runs unstable through Wine and might crash frequently, which often isn't the case via a native Linux build. Further, most Unity games to not run out-of-the-box through Wine & Co as suggested in your first post. Either a newer Wine build is needed or extra Windows libraries (.dll) are required to see dialogues, animation etc. which you need to install through Winetricks and configure through Wine itself.
I also don't understand why you think that installing Wine & Co. is a "simple, faster and straight forward way" to play a Ren'Py or RPG Maker MV game? The last time that I checked how to install Wine, Lutris etc. I had to follow multiple steps starting from open Terminal, adding a new repository (to get the last stable version and not he old one shipped through distro-rpository), adding a new repository key, downloading the program, (clicking through an UI and enable or disable functions (in Lutris)). I really don't see how this is newbie-friendly and easy to do for a novice? While to run a Ren'Py game they only have to download the windows build (because 99% of all Ren'Py games have the Linux libraries included) and to give permission to execute the .sh file. In case that the game has missing Linux libraries - which doesn't happen very often (1%) - you either copy and paste them from another game or by using Ren'Py SDK.
Even installing Ren'Py SDK is more newbie-friendly then your Wine & Co. solution, because if you think a newbie is able to install Wine (even through the distro-repository) then you can expect that they can extract a tarball with a standard application like File Roller (often already installed).
The same goes for RPG MV Maker games. All they have to do is to copy over "www" folder from the Windows build into the native RPM MV Linux Launcher (available here on F95 - and it comes as .zip or .rar file) and launch the game. Nothing more.
I really fail to see why your Windows layer solution is a "simple, faster and straight forward" way to play adult games compare to giving permission to a .sh file and/or copy and paste a folder? No installation required, no additional repositories, no performance issue on older hardware.
Your solution might help to launch and play simple Ren'Py and RPG Maker games, but it isn't the efficient and newbie-friendlies way and fails as soon as it comes to play games using "advance" engines.
Let's say that we both agree that we disagree with each other.
Take care.
I can certainly agree to disagree on this, after all, I'm not after any kind of acrimony here, though I do love spirited, (but civil), debate.
Personally, I, like many linux users, use multiple machines for different purposes. I have my main desktop, I have 1 machine just for games like this, I have 1 dedicated specifically for tinkering with other OSs in VMware, I have 1 specifically for running Kali for pen testing, etc... & many of these devices are older hardware, for example, I have an old Compaq laptop from the Vista era that I got on Craigslist for $20 5 years ago, that's got a low end AMD Sempron & 2 GB of Ram. That's significantly underpowered even by comparison to modern smartphones. Obviously it's running a super lightweight linux distro because there's no way windows would run even half decent on them. Likewise, the machine I'm using right now, (the one I presently play these games on), is a Broadwell era I7 Dell with 16 GB of DDR3 ram. Significantly more robust, but all still running different distros of Linux. With the old Compaq, I used Lubuntu 16.04 & on this current machine I'm running xUbunbtu Voyager 18.04.
With both, as part of the typical post installation / set up process for the machines, aside from doing the usual updates, installing & configuring hardware drivers & plugins, installing flash plugin installer, etc... One of the first things I did was install all of the software & packages I might need or want to use, (not just wine, but other tools I like using. I'm still partial to browsers like dillo, Konqueror, etc...). So that is part of the machine set up stage & should be done anyway after a fresh OS installation. I think we can both agree on that. So the presumption is that all these universal baselines are set in place by the time they are seeking out games to download & play.
So, let me take you through my methodology so that it might be more clear. When I'm doing the initial post install setup, I'm already aware that I'm inevitably going to encounter games or programs that I may want to play that don't have a Linux native build, nor a Linux port. So, I make it a point to check to see if Wine Compatibility layer is already installed at that time. Since most linux distros already come with it pre-installed, (for example, Ubuntu), that step doesn't even need to be taken, it's already done. However, in the case of xubuntu voyager, that was not the case.
Now you argue that in order to download wine, I have to go through a convoluted process of going into terminal, downloading repositories & repository keys, tinkering with Lutris, etc... & sure, that's ONE way of getting wine, though, like your methodology seems so far, it would be a needlessly convoluted & arduous way of doing so.
The better way of getting it would be to Simply open your distro's software "store", (which again, most distros these days have in addition to their package manager), search for wine & click install on Wine compatibility layer or WWPL, (whichever is present for your distro). That's it. No terminal, repositories, keys or Lutris needed. Your understanding of Linux seems to be based on older distros from 10 to 15 years ago where you had to do a lot of work in terminal just to get Mplayer running to watch a youtube video. Linux has come a long way since then. Keep in mind, Everything I've covered in this post thus far is already pre-installed in most linux distros already by default, so the "arduous" task of opening the software store, searching for wine & clicking install ONLY has to be done by users of the few distros that don't already have it pre-installed.
So, at this point, the user likely already has Wine compatibility layer or WWPL, (either by default or through the simple task of downloading it through the software "store"), So they download their game file from here. Now the normal "windows" method of running the game is to open the folder, click the .exe & play. The only additional step the linux user takes is right clicking the .exe, ticking the box in properties. After that, they launch the game the same way they would on a Windows machine.
So to summarize, for most users, the process is, download your game, right click the .exe, tick the box in properties, launch game as normal. That's it. literally just 1 single step beyond the normal "windows" way of launching the game. For those few users that don't have wine preisntalled on their distro, they have the 1 single step of opening the software store & installing WCL or WWPL from there, which only has to be done ONCE only on their machine. How is anything you presented more straightforward, simple or user friendly than that?
I think where the disconnect lies is in your presumption that this method doesn't work. Here is where your argument falls apart because the fact is, I'm not arguing from a theoretical perspective, but rather actual hands on experience. I've used that same method for every single game I've played on here. It's reliable worked on every Renpy, RPGM, Unity, WolfRPG maker, Unreal Engine & HTML game that I've attempted to play without issues. Now granted, with Twine & QSP games, sure. Additional steps may need to be taken, but those are considerable outliers as they are 2 of the least used platforms for games on here, so far as I've found. So my experience has been that almost all of the games that I've attempted to play using that method have worked without issue on both my old compaq & this current machine. The only reason why I switched machines is because Unity games lagged terribly on the old one, but that was due to the older hardware not being able to meet the resource demands of the game. So I'm speaking from actual user experience on this one with a very high rate of success on this.
Now you could argue that "well if you go with the pre installed wine build, or the one from the software store, that's possibly out of date & you have to go the long way to make sure that your wine is up to date". Why? If the older pre installed wine libraries still get the game to run perfectly fine right out of the box, why would I need to update it? The only reason using out of date wine would be a concern is if it affects the functionality of the game, which so far in my experience, it hasn't, so it hasn't become a necessity thus far, & I've played a fuck ton of games from here & other sites.
