I play WoW on a private server via Steam and Proton. It’s worked perfectly so far. I haven’t played for about two weeks, and suddenly WoW isn’t working via Steam anymore. It won’t even start. On some compatibility modes, particularly older ones, the game does at least launch, but all i get is a black screen. Not even the intro sequence starts.

Here’s what I’ve already tried:

• Downloaded WoW again and set it up on Steam
• Tried all the compatibility modes available on Steam
• Tried to get WoW to run via Lutris/Wine – again, using all available compatibility modes
• Updated Kubuntu to the latest version
• Tested different graphics drivers

Unfortunately, none of this works. What also puzzles me is that some games (Diablo 3, Warcraft 3) no longer work properly either; with these, I either get stuck at a frozen start screen or (in the case of Warcraft 3) they only run at around 20 FPS.

Other games, such as CS2, on the other hand, work absolutely fine, with high graphics settings and ~250 FPS.

It almost seems as though the other games are somehow being run via the onboard graphics card. That would at least be my attempt to explain why significantly older games like Warcraft 3 run at only 20 FPS, whilst modern games like CS2 have significantly better performance.

I also have a dual-boot system, so I’ve got Windows installed as well. And on Windows, all these games run smoothly with high FPS. I’d therefore tend to rule out a hardware issue.