OK, so this is a sort-of rant on my part, but I felt this fell into this category best. Obviously, most of you know that for games you get Windows, but when has it for the most part been anything else? In reality, Windows is a horrible OS, which has only been so popular up until Vista with the company's coined-term FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) and buying out all of the big OEM PC makers. The one real thing that I had hoped for in Windows 7 would be it having capabilities of playing newer games with a better OS than Vista, but even with all the great enhancements Windows 7 will never get, it's either that or stick with XP are really my only options to play newer PC games (regardless if newer games suck or not). Another thing that bugs me is, even though quite a few games are made with OpenGL, the free, open-source equivalent of DirectX, it's always overshadowed because Micro$oft is always in the spotlight with their games and what-not. The only real advantage DirectX has is it's inclusion of audio with the video to work together. That's Great and all, but I seem to remember that a game I played (Half-Life 1) had something like that, called OpenAL, which is basically the same thing as OpenGL but for audio, so that covers both the audio and video aspect of it. The only thing left is more FUD and propaganda against them to make DirectX look superior in comparison, even though OpenGL is used for both productivity AND games. So, with the new rise of open and free software in the form of OS's like Linux and the like, it should only be right that we also have that freedom in the gaming part of that as well. There should be no reason why one platform gets the best games over the rest; if it were like consoles, they'd have their own killer apps to use, while having a lot of 3rd party developers working on all platforms. Why aren't we allowed the same liberties here? Seeing as OpenGL/AL are multi-platform standards, and widely used already in things like Half-Life and the Doom series, why not just build on it for other platforms as well? Which is why I made a petition (in very fewer words), that games should be made on all computer platforms, and not with the person with the biggest budget in mind. As far as I can tell, Microsoft pretty much jumped their own shark with Vista, and it's only a matter of time before they run out of their own FUD. Here's the link to the petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/downwithdirectx I hope you guys aren't put off by my verbose, but it's important to put out why I feel the way I feel about this. It's about doing with what you want with the things you DO buy, and not having to take compromises when it comes to your end-user experience.
Like many open source users I have no interest whatsoever in buying these over priced and ridiculous pc minimum specs games. They will never be able to implement crap like securom on linux... and we wouldn't have it if they could.. I'm not installing a rootkit on my secure system.. screw that.. Can't sign because in my eyes EA and Ubi are just scumbag malware peddlars. They deserve to go bankrupt.
You make a good point varnull, but there are a whole lot of other PC games that are freeware that can be just as good as some payware, it's just they still only support DirectX for playability. There are a very small percentage of companies that don't use any sort of CD check or applying intrusion software, but don't really get support for their games. I was only hoping that maybe if this got a lot of signs, some companies might wake up to their faults and rethink some things about the casual gamer and what-not. Either way, I'm more or less finished with Windows after XP, so it was just to compensate for that side of the PC spectrum. There's always WINE, but I wanted to try and avoid something like that.
I wasn't saying others.. if they feel the need shouldn't sign. Just that in my world since getting away from M$ lock-in gaming has become a very low priority. There are superb open source games, some are free and others cost.. usually for the online servers... again no interest to me. I'll be honest.. the last PC game I really played was Simon the Sorceror. I'm not installing wine because with that comes all the hidden malware and junk that windows suffers.. in an environment which is generally considered secure so no need for 60% system resources used up in keeping the hardware that way. I want to play games I fire up my xbox or ps1.. my pc has better uses than playing games Until we get 50% at least share the coders aren't going to lift a finger.. our current 25-30% share is mainly on older machines or people who can't afford the latest greatest hardware (or the geeks of course.. I fall into all 3 categories) o meh.. C'mon people.. If it's important to you sign up and stick it to these game makers... but I really think most of them couldn't code a game to save their lives without the crutches of vbasic and all the M$ drivel they use.
