Is this a good thing?
Microsoft’s intiative, Games for Windows, aims to standardize PC gaming to the same level that consoles are. There are certain minimum criteria to receive the Games for Windows stamp which include restrictions on hardware, widescreen capability, and a mandate for easy installation. On top of this, Microsoft has announced Games for Windows Live, which will provide an interface similar to Xbox Live for the PC. The silver membership (which is free), grants the users certain privileges within the already-established Live network. The gold membership (which costs $49 per year) allows PC players to play games that overlap between the PC and the Xbox 360.
I’m not normally a Microsoft alarmist. I may not like their tactics, but Windows XP, Live Messenger, Excel, and Internet Explorer 7 are essential tools that I use every day. But this whole new gaming initiative seems to be going a little far.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for standardization. I think it will be great when I don’t have to open ports on my router to play the newest RTS. I don’t even mind the notion of the “Games Explorer” packaged in Vista, and I’m certainly drooling over the Direct X 10 effects that this current generation of cutting edge video cards produce. What I’m concerned about is Microsoft laying a middle-ware service over the top of something that I already experience unobtrusively and for free. I don’t need Games for Windows Live to interface with my friends. I have Xfire. I don’t need it for voice communication, because I have a higher quality voice program in Ventrilo. I don’t need to track my on-line accomplishments in some database so I can compare my e-penis size with someone else. What I do want is a way to talk to my on-line friends and a way to join the games they’re playing. I already have that for free, with applications that I understand, with established networks of friends already built in. My incentive for changing over, even to the free portion of their service, is vanishingly small.
There is no incentive for me to play console players. I already know that the mouse/keyboard combination is superior to a gamepad. I’ve played in both environments, and I really feel for the console players when they think they can hang with shooter clans in the PC world. The entry-level is much lower for consoles, so I cringe at the new influx of immaturity (already at an all time high in any given Counter-Strike server) that consoles will bring to the gaming world.
My last concern is that Microsoft is the gatekeeper for your PC via the OS. A royalty system, similar to what consoles have, may coming for the PC. Is it realistic for Microsoft to charge developers for the privilege of developing under Windows Vista? The conspiracy theorist in me thinks so. Their new initiative is designed to make the experience more console-like, which makes the development environment less challenging. When I see that Microsoft is not releasing Direct X 10 for Windows XP (despite the widespread reluctance to go to Vista from the user community) and when I see that Microsoft’s flagship game will only work in Vista (the lack-luster and unappealing Halo 2, *yawn*), then I begin to worry. Is Microsoft up to its old tricks again?
There will have to be something incredibly awesome about Games for Windows Live that gets me to adopt it. That’s all I’m saying.
![Let’s Kill Hitler [HD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hESmStH-L._SL160_.jpg)
Coming from the UNIX world as an administrator in the far distant past, LINUX starts to float its siren call to me and those of us who are disenchanted with Mircoshaft and their big-brotherism. I had the dubious pleasure of installing and testing a couple of boxes running the beta version of vista. The problems we encountered with established software platforms within our server farm made us back away from deploying vista for the foreseeable future. As an administrator, I resent being locked out of a major part of the decision making tree that we have seen as part of our administrative function. As Microsoft becomes more and more intrusive, (and exclusive) I will be making the swing back to LINUX and the open source packages that are available. Microsoft is the king at present. Their applications are mature and comprise the majority of the embedded base, but they may lose that position as they alienate more of their user base. Just my opinion.. Blitz
I just finished building my PC for the next 3 years, and I bought a Vista OEM pack with it. Other than the installer being horrid, it’s not so bad. Granted, I killed the UAC that asks you if you’re sure you want to do something ANYTIME something runs, and I tweaked a few things here and there, but overall it looks like a pretty version of XP. Yes, I know there is more to it under the hood such as all file level transactions being encrypted which causes a 5 to 10% slowdown, but it’s livable. As for gaming, the only game I have loaded is BF2142 and I had no problems with it. I don’t see it as the devil that everyone thinks it is, but I’ve never been one to hop on the Windows bashing train i guess.
With all of that being said, you make a good point Pete. I can easily see a future where Windows is your “one stop shop” for everything needed and they make you pay for it. We must remember that Bill Gates likes to make a profit like all businesses, and if people will pay for something, why would they give it away for free? So, what we should really be looking at here is this. How long will it take before people start turning towards Linux and it’s variants for their cheap gaming fix? I already know that Ubuntu is a big hit among people who have never tried a Linux distro, and that’s just the first step. Get people used to the idea of using different OS, and soon they will question why they can’t play their PC games on it. That will be the beginning of the market shift, where game makers start to focus on compatibility and installers for Linux distros.
As for XP getting DX 10, don’t hold your breath. Everything I have read indicates that it’s not in Microsoft’s best interest to do so, and I think I read somewhere that it’s not possible due to core programming, someone please correct me if I’m wrong. In fact DX 10 is why I went with Vista, as there’s not much point in having a graphics card that can use it with an OS that can’t.
Windows may be the big dog on the block for now, but it will change someday. Take a moderately average person who just uses email and web based programs, and show them Ubuntu. After they admit it does what they need, ask them if they would rather pay $400 for Vista or use Ubuntu for free, and see what they say. Remember, there was a time when people said that horses would always be the best way to travel from point A to point B, and that Henry Ford was doomed to failure.
Pete, you have another post regarding Ubuntu. You predict the world will eventually be divided into two classes of computer users. Those unfamiliar with users will be shackled to a single software system and forced to endure all the costs and limitations (like DRM). More skilled users will enjoy the freedom of owning their data in more flexible formats. You ought to dig it up and post a link to it. Me? Psh, I’m too lazy.
MS has been the king since as early as 1998. People have prophesied the demise of MS for more than a decade. The big money question isn’t “do you think Big Bill will fall?” It is “when and why do you think Big Bill will fall?” Ubuntu carries on what Red Hat started over a decade ago. This is what I have learned from that 10 year effort: people don’t want cheaper. They want simpler. I long to break my chains to MS and Apple, but my friends that have made the leap still spend days wrestling with driver conflicts and incomparable software libraries. Time is money. Linux will always be an OS for hobbyists.
I secretly wish I had the time and courage to be a LINUX power-user.
Here is that post I mentioned earlier. The last paragraph is the one that left a lasting impression on me.
I use the Ubuntu distro on my mail/web design/surfing computer. I really like it; it has taken some of the guesswork out of making Linux work properly. The only real problem I had with it are that I had to wrestle with my wireless NIC (a Linksys, no less) to get it to work properly. I’m not a fan of the boot loader that comes with the Ubuntu distro I’m using (I’d have to look to see what it is), but that’s a minor quibble.
I would certainly no longer consider myself a linux power user. Linux skills, like a foreign language, atrophy over time if you don’t use them. I can still troubleshoot problems and navigate from the command line efficiently to all of the “nuts and bolts” of the system, but Ubuntu removes most of the need to do so. Most of the configuration files are serviced by GUIs in nested menus. The placement of these actually makes sense, so you can be test-driving the OS in no time.
I agree with Damian. DX10 is the biggest incentive for me to go to Vista–Quake Wars: Enemy Territory, Crysis, and Hellgate: London all have enormous potential for incredible graphics. My upgrade path will follow a similar course. When I build a new computer, I intend to do the Vista OEM as a dual boot and only play the games that require DX10 under Vista.
That still doesn’t mean I’m going to use Games for Windows Live, though.
Hellgate: London has my interest more than anything else at this point. Incidentally, you’ll be proud to know that I’ve quit WoW. Not from any overbearing sense of “OMG the game is stealing my life points. I mean, the real one.. with the.. friends.. and .. wasn’t there supposed to be cake? You promised cake. Ass!’ (ok, I need sleep, minor sidetracking abounds), but rather from the fact that I just don’t have any interest in it at the moment. Oh, and also, I need to work a shitbrick of overtime, which is detrimental to my sleep. Or something. Am I making any sense here? If someone could arrange for Vampyregrrl to give her opinion on WoW being some form of tuber-ific cancer, slowly eating away the soul of single dorks everywhere, that’d just make my day. Of course, she’d probably use more bloodthirsty, and undoubtedly more graphic, terms. I’m going to stop typing now.
nothing is real except for the crimson stains of those who oppress. wow isnt a cancer for you it is a chance to enact your power and embrace the inner bloodlust.
pete you are a facist war monger
Is that your picture in the URL you provided, Vampy?
wouldnt you like to know hmm?
actually i just like their clothes. vampires should be well dressed after all
That dress is actually kinda pretty in a Halloweenish slutty sort of way.