Windows Vista From A Gamer's Perspective

mybrainonfire writes "1UP has an article looking at Microsoft Vista and its implications not only as an operating system as a whole, but what it means for gaming, based on a recent visit to Microsoft. 'According to the Microsoft message: Windows games is becoming a big priority. A study done among thousands of users determined that 35% of people use the PC for Web surfing, 18% use it for games and everything else is an also-ran. The next biggest thing, email, is only 9.2%. This gave Microsoft the boot in the proverbial ass to get back to its PC gaming roots.' It's a little rambley, but it's an interesting take on what to expect whenever Microsoft stops delaying things."

Comments

Oh. Come. On.

[Otter]

A study done among thousands of users determined that 35% of people use the PC for Web surfing, 18% use it for games and everything else is an also-ran. The next biggest thing, email, is only 9.2%.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that 1) this refers to home PCs only and 2) that the question was about the most frequent use (and the numbers therefore add up to 100%). There are enough niche uses, all under 9%, that add up to 38% of people's primary computer use? This makes no sense.

Re:Grammer Check?

[Schuler]

I guess Grammer Check isn't such a big priority.

I guess Grammar checking isn't your big priority either!

//Grammar Nazi, someone was going to do it.

They just figured it out?

[JonN]

According to the Microsoft message: Windows games is becoming a big priority. I mean, Microsoft has the monopoly of games. Nearly every popular game released is for the Windows OS. So with that in mind, how can Microsoft just now be realizing how important the Windows and PC Games connection is?

"cow-towing"?

[bornyesterday]

WTF? Is that the newest rage amonst bored denizens of rural areas? They weren't happy with just tipping them over, now they're dragging them behind their pickups? That's just cruel!

...and it's not 'off-topic' you illiterate punks.

Perhaps...

[Penguin Programmer]

Perhaps what they've actually realized is that the ONLY advantage Windows has over other OSes (and the only reason why a large portion of the population is sticking with Windows) is the availability of games.

Since it's the only reason for people to use Windows these days, Microsoft ought to be capitalizing on it.

Reality

[xenocide2]

Some of the nifty new features of Vista that might not go over so well with gamers:
1. Restricted user mode. This is already available on XP, Vista just makes the transition easier. The problem is that virtually every game makes this useless. Thanks to the incredible distrust of their market, PC game makers require players to allow their games to run as Admin, and don't apologize when remote exploits in their netcode appear two days after release. So basically, this is worthless.

2. New shiny interface. The shine lasts for all of about 30 seconds while you're not playing games. After that, every game out there takes the whole screen and re-invents the entire user interface. I'd wager that a number of gamers may simply attempt to turn back the wheels of time, back to the generally familiar win98 style, as they did for XP.

3. 64bit. I hope the fundamental reason for this change is a long ways off. The largest hurdle is owning a 64 bit processor. Despite AMD having a 64bit line promoted as a gamer's system for some time, Intel's (much larger) side has only just begun. The other big hurdle is device driver support. When switching to 64bit for the performance, you need your drivers to have the extra 32 bits as well. To make matters worse, some games don't work well on a 64bit OS, or sometimes copy protection kicks in when it shouldn't.

4. DirectX 10. Not sure what extras they plan to add, but it will probably include me buying a new video card. Sucky.

While one and three are largely the fault of game makers, part of Microsoft's task here is to reign them in, however possible. Aside from increased performance for free, the one thing I think gamers everywhere could appreciate is an enforced security model that finally curbs the tide of spyware and popups. Nothing like missing a sniper shot because some dipshit program would really like to let you know about online degrees from the university of phoenix!