http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18221
--- Comment #19 from Dave Thompson davethompson@olympicsoftworks.org 2010-06-22 15:44:53 --- There is other win software in which this 'bug' has appeared. It is not a bug, not really and I have found that it only appears in software that has been hastily compiled using VisBasic or VisC#. So would tend to now lead me to believe that it is not the devs from CCCP or Blizzard that are taking short cuts but the developers of the compilers, ie. Microsoft. Hense, this 'bug' will likely never be fixed on their end.
The overall solution is to have WINE attempt to locate the fonts and sym-link to them in the pseudo c:\windows\system folder it maintains for compatibility's sake. This is because WINE is in effect our GNU/Linux system's best attempt to bend to the ways win software are designed to run, and this is just another accommodation of their software's peculiar needs.
I am not a WINE dev, not yet anyway. So I don't know at what point the detection should best be done, but this seems to be a small and one-shot solution. Another alternative is to put the same thing into WINE-Tricks when the mscorefonts are downloaded and installed. Especially since the directory where they are being put is known as a matter of course. As I said, I don't know where this function should be put but this is the cure for most of this foolishness.
WINE runs these games and other attractions so well now it's a shame something is trivial as this is preventing some non-technical people from enjoying GNU/Linux more.
Dave