Alfonse

Reply to The existence of for-pay stuff doesn't hurt you in Personal Computing GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I.e. I respect people who buy a product or service based on the merits of that product or service. I have less respect for those who make purchasing decisions based tangential issues (like whether the CEO posts "professionally").[/quote] I don't know. Sometimes, "tangential" issues can be very important. I'm on a permanent boycott of all things EA because I don't like how they do business and I don't like how they treat their employees. And I think that's a perfectly legitimate i

Reply to Joystiq Interview with Brad Wardell & Chris Taylor in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Actualy, if you start developing games away from the RTS and TBS genre. then i wouldn't respect any of you on a busness level if you didn't even try to tap into the console market.[/quote] Quoted For Truth. This whole "console vs. PC" thing is just fundamentally stupid. You put the games where they will do well. Most traditional RTS games don't do well on consoles due to interface (though I'd love to see someone have a go with the Wii Remote's mouse-like behavior). Likew

Reply to Long-Term Development on PC games in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

The biggest difficulty in monetizing modding is this. A modder typically releases several versions of the mod. The initial versions are various incomplete or beta releases. The final version is the one that is mostly bug-free and ready to go. However, if the method of monetization is that you look on the internet and see which mods are good and then try to sell them, how do you do that? I mean, the mod's already out there. Even if you caught it before the final release, the bet

Reply to Why PC Gaming is Dying in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]DDR2 800 is DDR2 800. As long as it's not generic crap and has a decent voltage range, there's zero difference.[/quote] Actually, that's not true. Good RAM isn't just a label; the various timings of the RAM (latency, etc) can substantially improve (or limit) performance. [quote]That setup is as "top as the line" you can get without paying a retarded amount of money for components that give you a 2% performance increase.[/quote] To be fair, "top of the line" mean

Reply to Joystiq Interview with Brad Wardell & Chris Taylor in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Let me put it this way, the PC OEMs have gotten the message about "craplets". They came to us to solve the problem, not exacerbate it. You'll see what I mean soon.[/quote] Would this software happen to be something that those of us who don't buy pre-built computers would want to put on their own machines?

Reply to Joystiq Interview with Brad Wardell & Chris Taylor in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

[quote][b]What's your response to the belief that PC gaming is dying?[/b] BW - Oh absolutely. It's not just dying, it's already dead. Totally. In fact...all game developers that feel that way should quickly flee to the, um ... console market, right now. Don't worry about us, we'll guard you're back while you retreat. Nothing to see here. We'll shut the lights off when you're all gone. No, no, no need to thank us at all. We just want to make sure the developers who think PC gaming is dyi

Reply to Long-Term Development on PC games in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I, and many others, find that ridiculously overpriced - that's more than a song costs on ITUNES. That makes NO sense at all.[/quote] Actually, it makes plenty of sense. A track in a game like Rock Band or Guitar Hero isn't just an MP3 file. You have to separate the instruments, so that the instrument plays or fails to do so based on your actions. Which often means that the song must be re-recorded. That is, they have to hire a band to play the song with specialized recor

Reply to Why PC Gaming is Dying in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I own them because I wanna have access to all the good games. Console vs PC whatever. Being a console gamer does not make anyone a better/worse gamer in anyway shape or form.[/quote] Quoted For Truth. There is nothing inherent about PC games that make them arbitrarily better than console games. Some people like certain kinds of experiences that are commonly found on consoles. Other people like experiences that are commonly found on PCs. Some like [i]both[/i] or some of e

Reply to Five Reasons Windows Vista is good for gaming! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Microgay [/quote] Your willingness to use the word "Gay" as a pejorative shows that you are not a person worth listening to. Good day, sir!

Reply to Long-Term Development on PC games in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]If you can charge for mods, prepare to find every ridiculous little mod with a pricetag on it.[/quote] The problem is this: what's the difference between a "Mod" and Dark Avatar? Many of Dark Avatar's changes could have been done on the original engine. After all, the only change a few core mechanics (spying being one of them); everything else was defined by a small set of XML files. A Modder could "very easily" (easy in the sense that they had access to the same tools)

Reply to The existence of for-pay stuff doesn't hurt you in Personal Computing GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I have no problem paying for products if I have the money and feel it is worth the money.[/quote] And I think that's the most important point. Finding that spot where the feature being sold is worth that much money to the customer. [quote]This company delivers honesty, integrity and performance aimed directly at the users. How many others can say the same?[/quote] Well, Valve. And Blizzard. Though that's some pretty good company to be among ;)

Reply to "Information Overload" is unbearable - A complaint and solution in one! in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]But, there is no such thing as "objective criticism."[/quote] When I speak of objective criticism, what I mean is criticism based on a specific standard of measurement. Like I suggested, a UI should provide the information that the user wants and allow the user to change the information that the user desires to as efficiently as possible. You can argue against this standard (though I don't think you have much of a leg to stand on there, since the UI is the mechanism by

Reply to The existence of for-pay stuff doesn't hurt you in Personal Computing GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I'd love to put up a module that just changes the United Planets in GalCiv II. Or a module that adds new types of planets or new super abilities or new random events or whatever. But I'm not doing that for free. We'd have to be paid for it. I'd probably ask for $9.95 or something per module. But would we get massively flamed? Probably.[/quote] Ahh, but there's a question here: [i]Should[/i] you be "massively flamed" for it? That is, would the people flaming you be wrong for do

Reply to "Information Overload" is unbearable - A complaint and solution in one! in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]In games, everyone has their own idea of what constitutes a "good UI".[/quote] Personally, I think that's a cop-out. It basically denies the possibility of objective criticism and just says, "Well, [i]we[/i] think it's great, so there." A good UI is one that is invisible and unnoticeable. It's one that provides exactly and only the information that you want at that moment, and provides you the interface to quickly enter the commands that you would like to. I'm a

Reply to Why PC Gaming is Dying in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]In fact, here's a link you stupid ignoramuses: http://kotaku.com/351661/crysis-comeback-moves-1-million-copies[/quote] They sold a million after 4 months. Halo 3 eclipsed that on preorders alone. They both cost approximately the same to make. Which is the better return on investment? [quote]If I didn't care to learn how to type without using shorthand moron-speak like 'u', 'ur', 'ne1', 'm8', etc. that doesn't make me a 'smart person' who just didn't care enough to learn

Reply to Why PC Gaming is Dying in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Never happen for the simple reason that where there is a user base of 500million+ there will always be someone or something that will innovate to tap into it.[/quote] There may be 500+ million PCs, but that doesn't mean there are 500+ million PCs that someone will be willing to play a game on. You can't count userbase that way. You can on consoles, because people buy consoles to play games (90% of the time). But most PCs never see anything more than Minesweeper or Solitaire.

Reply to Starcraft vs. Sins of a Solar Empire in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]You don't need to go on the left of the screen to click the minimap each time you want to micromanage another squadron and you gain lot of time.[/quote] I don't need to do that now. Those units are in a selection group, and I can center on them just by double-clicking the appropriate key for that group twice. Zooming out just to zoom in somewhere else is never as fast or as efficient as simply popping over there.

Reply to Why PC Gaming is Dying in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Ultimately, games are released as a collaboration between the developer and the publisher, and neither one gets to arbitrarily decide what happens without reference to the other.[/quote] Nonsense. Game Publishers pay the bills; therefore, they decide what is and is not to be in the game. Developers who do not accede to such requests will quickly find themselves out of work. Just as game developers don't get any say as to what stores the game is available in, DRM is a pub

Reply to TA First Impressions in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I'd like to be able to play as an arms dealer, pitting sides against each other and selling them ships[/quote] Why would you expect this to work? In general, the biggest problem with this is the basic nature of the game: in a fairly even war, both sides can produce enough war material just fine. What you're trying to do requires that the AI be able to comprehend it. The AI simply can't understand that you're asking them to rely upon your production for a portion

Reply to Starcraft vs. Sins of a Solar Empire in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Completely false, on Warcraft 3 you have different resolutions and a zoom level. taht's not a valid point, Warcraft 3 has a zoom level and different resolutions.[/quote] I looked for one when I was playing it, to no avail. All the screenshots I've seen of the game use the same apparent zoom level for gameplay. I think you could zoom [i]in[/i], but I don't recall you being able to zoom out to any great degree. [quote]If you play a game like Supreme Commander at 1024x768 :

Reply to In a span of 3 months, one faction of the Digital Distribution pc segment outsells every console during that time, and all cojnsoles combined for one month. in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]In 3 months, the Steam platform of digital distribution went from 12 million to 15 million users, and had 158% growth for the holiday.[/quote] ... and? Wii has been out for about 1.4 years, and already has ~23 million world-wide installbase. Steam has been out for more than twice that, and how many does it have? It's just now crossing 15 million. Hell, PS3 is close to beating Steam, and it's last in the console race. Let me restate that: the least-selling console system

Reply to Why PC Gaming is Dying in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]I do, however, feel that ever shifting specifications of PC's has led us down a road of OS and driver bloat where a vast amount of the potential of the hardware at our fingertips is wasted just catering for all of the potential differences and trying to keep things stable.[/quote] As someone who uses those OSs and drivers, I can state with a good degree of certainty that this isn't true at all. Yes, there is some overhead for any abstraction layer, like D3D, OpenGL, etc.

Reply to "Information Overload" is unbearable - A complaint and solution in one! in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]often b/c of Visual Studio, which I understand is Stardock's dev toolset[/quote] Aside: Visual Studio is a combination of things. In this case, let us examine two of them: the C++ compiler and the APIs for writing Windows GUI code. The C++ compiler is one of the better C++ compilers out there. It's improved lots with regard to standards conformance since the VS 6.0 era. And it's great for generating performance-critical code; it even does global optimizations. T

Reply to Starcraft vs. Sins of a Solar Empire in PC Gaming GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]That's ok but it can't justify not adding new gameplay features like a decent zoom.[/quote] Zoom is not in SC2 because it's a terrible idea for any [i]competitive[/i] RTS. Remember: when you're dealing with a game that is primarily designed around human beings competing with one another, you don't want hardware to give one guy a significant advantage. It's the same reason why you want to make sure that, in an FPS, basic shadowing still work on the lowest graphical settin

Reply to Five Reasons Windows Vista is good for gaming! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

[quote]Doesn't every game still make shortcut to desktop ?[/quote] Having a centralized place for games is still a good idea. Granted, it's not particularly important, but it is a good idea. [quote]Is there really need for this. Just look what you buy for yours kid and what they buy for it too. Is it so hard to do ?[/quote] Parental controls aren't for games you buy your kid; they're for games you buy [i]yourself[/i] and that you don't want your kid to be playing. Just