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Windows XP Game Advisor Discussed
Thanks to GameSpy for their 'Biz Buzz' summary discussing the recent launch of Microsoft's web-based Windows XP Game Advisor. The Game Advisor site, "created in conjunction with Futuremark, the makers of the 3DMark 3D game benchmark utility, takes the user's answers to questions regarding age range and preferred game genre, then returns a list of recent games (along with gameplay information) that might interest the user." As for the motivation behind this service, a Microsoft spokesperson "...noted that it's not a profit center for Microsoft - it doesn't charge publishers to list their games in the Advisor database... [and] equates it to the company's DirectX API bundle, which doesn't get revenue from users nor publishers, but if, by regularly improving and enhancing and promoting it, another computer with Windows is sold, Microsoft then earns some revenue, albeit indirectly."
Or actually, if id have had any common sense, the link to use it only appears when youre using IE.
Uhm..after actually firing up the ol' IE instead of firebird and being able to see the button, i proceeded to choose the age group '17+' (which means anything from diablo to bridge), and the category 'all', now at this point i already don't like the fact that you can't specify your own 'from' and 'to' age group, what if you're a 20 year old man who likes both bloody and gruesome games and not so adult games like worms or commander keen? Also, i feel the "Sports / Racing" category should be two seperate ones, soccer fans don't want to browse through NFS/F1 titles, and racing fans don't want to browse through NBA/FIFA/NHL titles. In conclusion, i think it's a nice idea for those people who bought their first powerful computer, just got cable internet, and have never gamed before to be able to choose their first games, but for the average gamer online, or even the average internet user, it's hardly of any use.
if we're going to slam XP, we might as well do it correctly. What I think you are referring to is the refresh rate lock, which effectively limits your FPS to 60, which is a tad bit higher than the 9-15 you mention...
gamers have known about this for quite some time now, and most of us have gotten around it with little effort.
This "Advisor" takes two inputs... target age and type of game, and outputs a number of games in that category.
Categorizations are somewhat willy-nilly. "Kids" is a category, despite it also being the age group. Note, there are no games for any kids over the age of 6, nor are there games in any other categories for kids under 6. If a categorization fails, the advisor will just revert back to "all game types," though it won't tell you it did so. Categories overlap significantly, such as Sim City not being listed under "Simulation," but "Life Simulation." "Action" vs "Action Adventure." Final Fantasy XI is a featured game in Role Playing, but second in Massively Multiplayer Online. No other MMO game makes it to another category.
The recommendations are questionable at best. For example, Law and Order 2 is apparently a hot seller for the 6 year old adventuring crowd. Myst 3 is apparently so intense it makes the 6-12 Action market. FIFA, Madden, Tiger Woods, and nearly all other sports games are inappropriate for anyone over 16. Their featured family entertainment will teach your 6 to 16 year old to drink and gamble like a real vegas loser. Of course, if you are over 17 you are too old to breed, and no games exist for your family. Strategy games like Warlords are inappropriate for anyone under 13, but Combat Flight Simulator, Lock On, and Forgotten Battles are A-OK. Apparently the only strategy game so violent and lacking in morals as to be locked away until your 17th birthday is... UFO aftermath.
If you want more information about a particular game, you have to go to the publisher's website. No objective reviews, no individualized ratings, not even a paragraph describing the game. As far as "information" goes, this site is sadly lacking.
To see if you can play the game (not a high hurdle, as the site apparently only works under XP), the Active X script attempts to download a program from the aforementioned futuremark. If you choose not to install it, the application hangs. It then gives you a somewhat useless graphical representation of how well your system does as a percentage of the minimum, then tells you to check the "other requirements." These mysterious "other requirements" are apparently just the system specs it just checked, repeated, with your system next to it. Didn't we just check this? Of course it also says to check the system specs with the publisher in 3 different places, making this whole exercise somewhat moot.
Somehow I doubt this will satisfy even the casual gamer. Even when grabbed by a catchy title, the person has to turn to goggle to find out any information at all about it. What advantage does this provide above, say, a trip to videogames.com? Age ranking is something that should be painfully obvious after the first screen shot. So what then... Availability? This is buried in the back end of Microsoft.com. Reliability? Recommending Law and Order to 6 year olds?
Unless Microsoft gets serious about the site, it will fall by the wayside. +1 points for trying, but -2 points for treating a Microsoft Gaming initiative like a Microsoft Business initiative.
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