Minecraft creator attacks Microsoft's Windows 8 plan

[hunter]

From BBC 28 September 2012

Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson has become the latest developer to attack Microsoft's Windows 8 games strategy.

He claimed that the software firm risked ruining its gaming ecosystem.

His comments follow similar criticism from executives at the video games company Valve and publisher Activision Blizzard.

However, others in the industry said the new operating system could be beneficial.

...

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19760977

I find myself less and less tolerant of the "walled gardens" Apple and Microsoft are creating. I don't care how nice they are, I can't live there. I won't pay to get in, people have to pay ME if they want me to go there.

I can imagine both Microsoft and Apple devolving in the direction of the Cable or Satellite Television business model where customers buy "packages" and end up paying for a a lot of useless crap they don't want.

[Occulus]

1. Look at what they had to say about Valve in the article

"Valve runs Steam - an alternative games store marketplace - as well as developing its own titles."

Alternative? Understatement much?

[hughee99]

19. I recently bought Civilizations 5 which runs with Steam.

My first introduction to Steam, and I don't like it at all.

[Occulus]

30. What do you dislike about it?

[hughee99]

34. It seems slow to log in,

and if I'm not online, I can't start a game. I haven't yet seen an advantage to it, though, so anything "extra" is just a negative to me.

[Occulus]

40. On the main Steam page, click the Steam menu option in the extreme upper left,

and pick "go offline" from the drop-down menu. Steam will restart, and may complain that "the operation cannot be continued in offline mode" or some such, but you'll be offline and should be able to play the games you have installed on your hard drive. Obviously, online-only modes of games which have that (such as online multiplayer) will not be available, but your games will still be playable.

Being always-online does help Steam tremendously, though. Being able to play offline may be on a game-by-game basis; mine seem to work, but I have a... large Steam library, so I can't test all of them.

One very large advantage to using Steam is that you get game updates as they become available (only if you wish- you can manually update, too). Another plus is that some games, a growing number, use the Steam cloud to upload save points for the games that support that feature. Even if your hard drive fails, the games are still saved online. Not all Steam titles support this feature yet. Another advantage is that it's easy as hell to buy new games, grab demos, and install free-to-play games. Oh yes, I forgot: Steam has several free-to-play titles, some of which are pretty fun.

Personally, though, the fact that I never, ever deal with having a piece of physical media that can be scratched or otherwise damaged before I have a chance to use it is a very very big plus. I don't have to worry that my DVD drive might decide to go into the toilet somehow. I don't have to worry that, eight years down the line (Half-Life 2 was my first Steam game, and was released in 2004, on Steam as well as disc), I'll pick up a disc I bought waaaaay back when, look at it, think "oh, let's revisit this one", only to have the disc be unreadable due to simple age.

What really puts it all over-the-top is that many games, such as Skyrim and the Portal duology (my God portal and portal 2 get them get them get them), allow for the use of mods, which are published in the Steam workshop. In Portal's case, the mods are user-created puzzles using game assets; for Skyrim, it can be everything from whole new quest lines to mods that alter lighting, level of detail, add weaponry, or even entire new locations.

As a lifelong gamer, I cannot say enough good things about Steam. This platform, unlike EA's Origin system or Stardock's Impulse (which I think got bought by Gamestop), is digital distribution done right. Valve is continuing to improve it, too- for an XBox Live-ish look for Steam, go into your user settings (on or near the menu I referred to at the beginning of this post), and look for something about beta participation and enable it. When Steam restarts, there should be a "Big Picture" button in the upper right of the Steam client. Plug a game controller into a USB port, click that button, and you'll see what I mean.

[hughee99]

41. My real issue is that I'm a part time, offline player,

and all the advantages that steam brings (online mode, cloud backup and stuff like that) aren't things that I use.

[Posteritatis]

2. Definitely taking the same approach with Win8 as I did with Vista...

...Namely, pretend it doesn't exist until this disaster gets replaced by a useful replacement a few years down the road, possibly when people get it through their adamantine skulls that desktops and laptops are not tablets with onerous terms of use attached.

[Dash87]

3. Windows: Trainwreck Edition

Prediction: Windows 9 will be the finished, stable version of Windows 8.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. We JUST upgraded to win 7

Will studiously skip WIN 8 for the windows rig.

[Posteritatis]

26. I went from XP to 7 early last year

I'm ... reasonably good at making an OS last the lifetime of its hardware, despite the "new OS every other year" schtick that they seem to want me to live by instead.

Feeling pretty confident that I can drag this setup out until Windows Post-Hangover Edition comes out after 8, or failing that I'll have some time to switch to a less vile alternative.

[dionysus]

32. i used win98 until geez, 2006 or 2007...

i only went to xp when i tried to buy a game and i needed XP to run it.

[Posteritatis]

35. I had 98 up until 2005, when my computer let its magic smoke out

I can respect that kind of longevity on an OS (or hardware, honestly), and hope 7 turns out similarly.

[dionysus]

37. ah, one who knows about the magic smoke...

i've only seen magic smoke once..

[Posteritatis]

38. I've been blessed with the experience three times. Truly I live a charmed life. (nt)

[dionysus]

39. the only time i saw magic smoke.. a friend was switich out HDs on his moms 486

he left the HD on the floor while the case was open just to make sure it booted.

unfortunately, a piece of snow from the tread of his shoe had melted on the floor and he had set the HD down right on it.

tried to boot.. nothing.... nothing...

what's that smell?

look at the HD on the floor, and magic smoke is rising from it.

i laughed my ass off...



i had a video card literally explode, rupturing several capacitors.. it sounded like a gunshot, but it was smoke free...

[Occulus]

42. Cat hair got into one of my video card fans once.

Froze it right up and I didn't see until too late that the board had melted its own fan off.

I only noticed when my gaming performance dropped precipitously (it was an SLI rig). I looked at it hanging off the card for a second and was like "oh, THAT'S what's wrong".

[Initech]

5. Their gaming plan is going to bite them in the ass. Hard.

With Steam becoming available on Ubuntu this year with the full game catalog rolling out as quickly as they can, is it even worth buying Windows licenses anymore? Most gamers are going to stick with Windows 7 or move to an alternative OS like Ubuntu.

[randome]

6. Most gamers, I would guess, don't have Ubuntu.

Not being a gamer myself, I don't know that for a fact.

But I think Metro on its own will bite MS in the ass.

[Initech]

8. Most developers including Valve have already denounced it.

And you know what the first games they announced are? Angry Birds Cut The Rope, and all the other same cell phone crap we've seen ad nauseum. Just furthers the theory that it's Vista with a cell phone interface.

[eShirl]

13. more gamers would use Ubuntu if there were more games we are used to released for Linux

imo

[hunter]

7. Yep. Most common reasons I hear from people who use Windows:

1) Games

2) Work requires it.

3) I've always used Windows and I don't want to learn anything new.

4) Apple too expensive.

On my own machines I used Windows versions 3.1 through 98SE.

Before that I was using online Unix or Linux services, Atari stuff, and DRDOS PCs.

I'd been playing with Debian for a few years and switched over to Debian entirely about the same time I was cleaning up other peoples' Windows ME catastrophes. I simply couldn't stomach using Windows on my home machines anymore.

I think if Microsoft loses the gamers they will never get them back.

[Initech]

9. Unless you like playing cell phone games on your desktop.

And who would spend $2K on a gaming rig to play Angry Birds?

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Alas STEAM is not just angry birds

but you knew that.

(Civ comes to mind, not quite angry birds)

[Initech]

17. I love playing Civ V.

Last night I was the Dutch civilization and took over and eliminated Germany.

But Angry Birds and all the other cell phone crap is on the Xbox live platform.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. I know, I happen to like angry birds

on my ipad, I have no time for Civ, sadly.

[Initech]

28. I like Angry Birds but I do not want to play cell phone games on my desktop.

[Occulus]

31. A largish bit of news:

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/beta-late-than-never-3/

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. Wow, are you me? Cleaning windows made me some filthy lucre, but I it found to be

soul killing and the digital equivalent of being a heroin pusher, so I don't do it any more.

I do occasionally wish that I could partake in some of the more innovative games that have come down the pike over the last decade, but not enough to install the Windoze 7 I've had sitting here for the last year and a half.

[Initech]

18. I do read Tom's Hardware a lot.

And that task is much easier on a solid state drive than a regular drive.

[Posteritatis]

24. #3's sort of a biggie this time around

If they're redoing the OS as dramatically as things look, that one stops being an excuse to go along with the latest upgrade.

(This annoys me almost as much as the aggressive DRM stuff - I actively like Win7, and that's the first time I've said that about a Windows OS in awhile.)

[eShirl]

12. they cannot release it fast enough for me

I'm pretty much only playing WOW right now, through Codeweavers' version of WINE

[Zalatix]

10. Windows 8 is just WAY too soon.

[eShirl]

11. hey "Notch:" just release a linux version of Minecraft (preferrably for ubuntu)

[L0oniX]

22. +1 for Ubuntu.

[L0oniX]

23. www.wikihow.com/Play-Minecraft-in-Ubuntu

[eShirl]

27. yeah, I want minecraft to put out a linux version

[quinnox]

15. screw microsoft

If they think they are going to be successful trying to confine pc gaming to their newest version OS, they are going to have an unpleasant surprise. I bet most future pc games will be made allowing for compatibility with earlier versions of Windows, such as Vista for a loooong long time, and basically ignoring Windows 8.

[L0oniX]

21. It's not worth spending the xtra money for a gaming computer. Get s PS3 for games...

...and also get the advantage of the PS3 blue ray player and ...sign up for Netflix.

[Posteritatis]

25. Of course that reduces the selection to standard triple-A titles or the like

Pretty much none of the stuff I play with the exception of a couple major titles would ever be developed for a platform, to say nothing of the gamedev I do as a hobby.

[dionysus]

33. i don't know.. i personally find a mouse\kn combo superior for shooters...

i bought the ps3 for the Move games. great console, but if it was a shooter i'd buy for PC.

[Serve The Servants]

29. Minecraft

Might as well be called "Minecrack" it's that addicting.

My first taste of Minecraft was the free version on my Android phone.
I fired up the game to check it out after I went to bed. In the game I started chiseling away at the side of a giant cliff...

The next thing you know, I had created a massive 3 story cave. The cave was complete with many rooms, elaborate staircases and wood floors all lit up by torch light.

When I was done, several hours had past and the sun was coming up. Sucks that I could not save my game on the free Android version.

[Posteritatis]

36. It really is one of those "Dammit, why is the sun coming up outside?" games. (nt)