I don't know of these hoops. I install Windows XP, and enter my product key. Once Windows is installed, I am reminded to activate. Click the key in the system tray, and a dialog asks for my country, and the method I wish to activate (mail/phone/internet) -- I choose internet. Wait a few seconds. Done.
How is that jumping through hoops?
I've even reinstalled Windows XP 3-4 times in the past 2 years, and every time it reactivated over the internet without fail.
It's jumping through hoops when you use a 56K modem (common) or do not have a current internet connection (rare).
It's also jumping through hoops when you wish to upgrade your hardware (e.g. replace that old clunky GeForceMX with something that actually works.)
I couldn't make a backup because the original disc contained bit errors.
That would be a problem with your CD-Burning software. Nero, Alcohol 120%, Clone CD and other applications should have no trouble making backups of most applications using SafeDisc.
Even so, there are also virtual image drives that are able to emulate SafeDisc/SecuROM protection as if it is the original. You should be able to look around for them.
Better check your school. A lot of them now are teaching boys and girls that they have evil monsters between their legs that should never be touched or shown to anyone else.
Not really. All I've seen is that the schools are only now teaching the students honestly about sex - and that is even wihtin a Catholic school. The same Catholic school provided courses on personal morals and world religions after providing the standard religion courses up to Grade 10 or so (a time where faith in religion sometimes begins to fade.)
The only place where sex does not get taught in schools (at least in the American culture) would be in Bible Belt areas. From what I understand, that is the only place where monsters get told about when there is absolutly no other information about sex available (requiring people to find out from themselves).
Or whatever other lies the religious right wants them to teach this year, hoping that by keeping people stupid, they'll somehow teach them to overcome their natural reproductive urges.
Church-sanctioned lying, as demonstrated years and years ago, serves only to undermine the faith of those who already believe in the religion. The only thing it does is create fragments of the parent religion (aside from Henry VIII's Anglican Church) and stifle progress in advancing humanity from a simple despotism.
Besides, you should provide sources to actually support your theory of "lie of the year". That way, there is an actual record of which areas to avoid raising your children in order to raise them with a proper religious upbringing.
Mabye I'm being too critical, but that game still needs patches to fix the product. The most severe one I can think of offhand would be the automatic fire bug that causes enemy soldiers to fire all 32 bullets in a magazine within one frame. It's been reported on Hard difficulty, Campaign 1 Mission 4, among some other missions.
(Not sure exactly what the difficulty means - there doesn't seem to be any tangible difference aside from the bug with Hard. )
Infinite size levels are cool (I hate running into the invisible wall in UT2k4).
Tribes 2 levels are not infinitly sized: "You are leaving the mission area. Return or take damage."
While you could in theory travel as far as you want to, there are penalties for doing so. The most major one is being told repeatedly by the team leader to get back in the battle, followed by being kicked by an admin for refusing to pull your weight.
Games have become so complex: That is why developers need to work so hard, for so long, while spending so much money, to get games today finished. With so much complexity involved, many developers won't be able to keep up.
In almost every instance within the software industry (games or otherwise), an improperly planned project will end up either incomplete or behind schedule - especially if there are large groups working on the project.
While complexity does have a factor in delaying projects, it is minimal when compared to lack of planning.
If your parents are attentive at all, they'll know that you're playing GTA3 in your bedroom.
If parents don't know how to use computers as effectivly as their children, than no amount of attentiveness can detect video game playing.
The parents could install parental control software on the children's computer - however that can be bypassed by proper research. As far as I know, most such software available on the market was bypassable, some of which has no problem disabling. (I did so myself to one such application - MS-DOS prompt was password protected, but the exit command was not. In addition, I could launch WordPerfect and open a dos prompt, no password.)
There are reports from some people that they managed to keep unauthorized video games hidden on the computer without their parents knowing - probably using the "hidden" directory flag or by packing the files in a file that looked like a Windows DLL file (aside from the file size, how could an average joe tell the difference?)
The gaming industry should, as a whole, start regulating itself. Start forbidding retailers from sellings M rated games to minors.
As stated by the ESRB, the 'M" rated games is suitable for children 17 years or older. As you can tell, there is an overlap between the categories permitted by this rating and the "minors" category as defined by law. If games are not supposed to be sold to children under any circumstance, then the rating of "AO" should be applied so that the retailers will know that ID is required.
(As a side note, I noticed that there isn't much of a gap between the 'M' rating and the 'AO' rating - only one year. Probably a design flaw, but I think that the T->AO age groups should be at least 13, 16, and 18 respectivly, as it provides a more distinct method of seperating the age groups. That, and 'AO' shouldn't be restricted to only games with explicit sexual content.)
Virtual CDs only only work in most cases. depending on the one you choose, there are some applications that are still incompatable with the image in one way or another. SafeDisc 2.51 and SecuROM are good examples - most first generation imaging software can't handle them without emulation.
Homeworld: Cataclysm is one of the more interesting ones. Not only does it not work under Nero ImageDrive (should replace it, but it's the only one that's integrated with burning software), but it doesn't even give an error message - almost as if something is missing from the image/copy, which is something unusual for an unknown protection system. I'm sure that using one of the other imaging software could work, but those are usually commercial and cost money.
Also, Virtual CDs are not really considerd illegal, especially since some licences state that you can only use the original media for backup purposes while still rquiring the CD in the drive.
To me, buying a game, realizing you don't like it and returning it to EB or something is just as bad, if not worse (cd key now compromised, thus it starts to really cost companies money after a while, especially when you multiply it by millions of people)
No, it's not bad at all.
Do you see stores selling second hand books? That is completely permitted under the law - video games are no different. This does not matter with single player and multiplayer games, especially since second hand multiplayer games
There are some countries/legislative districts that explicitly allow licences of any kind to be transferred (although sometimes require a formality such as notifing the originator that it was performed). This just furthers the notion that giving away the original after its uninstallation is an act that is fully legitimate in a legal and moral sense.
I was actually looking for the full one, so I guess croteam missed out on that one.
I did a little research on that edition, and it seems that the culprit is either Take 2 Interactive, or Global Star Software.
The last post on this forum page implies that the developers wanted to release a Limited edition of the game to allow some players to see how part of the full game is like. It appears to be a case of bad wording on the box, a sign of publisher tinkering to make more sales.
BTW, the Global Star software logo appears on the special edition - I haven't known them for even touching TFE or TSE until now... it's Godgames and Croteam that associated with SS's production, rather than this unrelated company.
For example, awhile ago I blew $9.99 on the "special edition" of Deus ex, thinking it was the full version. In reality, it as a "specially labeled" demo of the game. I take it back to the store and they won't let me return it.
This can actually be very close to false advertising. Unless the outer packaging of this "special edition" states that only a portion of the game is included, then you can legally demand a refund (and make accusations of fraud without any form of legal reprisal.)
I have such a "preview edition" myself - at least it was clearly labeled on the product bundle that it only contained five missions out of the fifteen or so.
Nox was very diablo-like but it was fun because it was challenging and actually required some ability - mousing ability as you said.
That's the problem right there - Nox's only strong point was mousing (especially whan it was released.)
However, this strong point isn't really strong since the rest of that game is pretty weak as well. First off, there were plenty of instant kill attacks that take out 80-100% of your health, even when you are supposed to be resistant to the fireball. (Even if there were a tangible benefit, it isn't as noticable as it could be - there could be some hidden factor that amplified damage, such as platemail inflicting *3 shock.)
If anything, the mousing requirement for a game is just a way to delay the relization that the game really is not good. As a result, I prefer the more upfront games that allow the player to automatically engage in reasonable combat manuvers so that more attention can be paid to the quality of the game rather than its rapid clicking.
I also have two other examples of mouse games as well: Commandos I:Beyond the Call of Duty , and Sanity: Aiken's Artifact. In the first example, you have to manually click to ensure your soldier enters firing range, click on the harpoon icon (or use its hotkey), then use the harpoon. If you aren't close enough, you have to cancel the harpoon command, order another movement command, switch back to the harpoon and use it. This wouldn't be extrmely bad if it weren't for the fact there is a final mission that requires you to have a combined minimum health and game time requirements (game speed directly relates to CPU speed) met before it can be unlocked.
In the second example, Sanity, the mousing does absolutly nothing to improve what is already bad gameplay. Usually, combat appears in open spaces where everything can get sidestepped (and since there is no AI leadahead, you just travel in circles).
why not paying the games by approved hours of gameplay they provide??
The problem with that approach is that developers (or their managers) become more willing to implement timesinks - sections of the game where you have to do a tedious procedure.
However, I do agree with the theory behind your statement - games that take longer to conquer because of a greater challenge or options of greaters challenges are worth a bit more, even if the pricing doesn't fully reflect this. (e.g. RTS games allowing giving bonuses to AI players if you can already nail them even when they throw the kitchen sink at you.)
There are a few trends with most modern games: 1. They all require a full installation of game/data files. 2. They all have SafeDisc/SecuROM/custom copy protection. 3. Removing the CD after it passes the inital check has no ill effects. (Data streamed from the CD can be a problem - you need to find a way to has it come from the HD or find a way to ensure that the stream becomes a harmless option. ) 4. The NO-CD crack gets released within 24 hours of the latest patch. Unless you are playing Warcraft III, there are no ill effects for a "trusted crack".
I'm sure the developer of Dungeon Siege 2 doesn't like the current state of CD checking - however, the publisher generally makes the requirement for such checks, not the developer.
* You had little to do in the game other than tell the characters where to move - fighting was automatic.
Why exactly is that a bad thing? I have seen that feature reproduced in other games, and find it to be quite convienent since you do not have to stop fighting in order to prime one or more of your spells.
Requiring the player to keep clicking to attack is a bad thing. As an example, take Nox: you have to do some fancy movements with your mouse in order to defeat some powerful monsters -- click on monster to attack, swing mouse to other side of screen and click to retreat, swing mouse back to attack monster, etc. One wrong move, and you are either dead, or have 90% of your health taken off. Failing to have ultra-1337 mousing skills should not warrent a player's death.
* The levels were quite sprawling with many parts leaving you wondering where to go next.
Didn't notice the problem in either single or multi player. The single player campaign is considered linear enough that you can generally tell which direction is forward or backward. The multiplayer campaign has signposts scattered through the dungeons/map that you can tell which direction to head next.
* The enemies weren't very difficult so you could get through the entire game in one playing.
Are you sure? I've attempted to complete the game with one character, and ended up having to recruit NPCs because of the difficulty in single-handedly killing off the monsters. Not only that, but I've had cases where monsters actually managed to knock out (and even kill) some of my characters.
* No jump-to-town spells or potions, meaning that you had to walk huge distances to sell your stuff.
For single-player, that is a problem. However, that's why you hire packmules - you can purchase two at the first town in single player, and thus have a lot of carring capacity for magical items you can pick up.
Multiplayer, as you know, implements statically placed teleporters - if you reach a distant teleport pad, you can return to town without too much problem.
* You had to complete an entire world in one go as the save-game didn't record what you had already done.
To complete the official multiplayer campaign, all you need are the eight city stones and to ensure the primary quest triggers have been primed by talking to the priests that hand out the primary quests. The HUB system allows teleportation between cities, thus allowing you to easily tag the quests as complete with minimal problem. As a result, you don't need save the world state in multiplayer.
If you are running Windows, have you tried Ahead's DriveSpeed and Jörn Fiebelkorn's CD Bremse?
I'm trying it right now.
One thing that I noticed is that it is somewhat difficult to test for the proper speed of the CD-ROM. There appears to be some sort of cache that keeps information and uses it from memory. Looks like I need a practical test to determine the optimal speed - any suggestions there?
It's worth using anyway - I noticed that some applications aren't copying files from the CD at their optimal speed either, as if there is some form if inefficiency.
Realising what has gone wrong the grunts are sent in, find it's too difficult a task to take on, are pulled out and replaced with black ops who attempt to nuke the place as a last resort. Shepherd stops the nuke and between them, he and Gordon Freeman block the alien invasion and kill Nihilanth, thus solving the problem in a different manner from what the G-man expected, but successfully.
Actually, Shepard was involved in a completely seperate alien invasion - one that Freeman did not know about. Nihilanth and his minions (the Xen Aliens) appeared in Half-Life. Race X (some enemies shown here) start coming in at Opposing Forces - and are slightly different than the Xen counterparts. You even see Xen aliens fighting with Race X in Opposing Forces as well, indcating some form of quarrel between them (either general hatred or desire to control the facility.)
Is it just me, or was Descent simply the most disorienting game ever?
For me, Descent was fine when it was released. When it came to the high framerates of 60-80, certain quirks of the engine surfaced (e.g. motion bobbing was higher frequency, causing some dizzyness for players.)
Ever wondered why there aren't a thousand bad Descent clones?
I've seen the game cloned - Flying Heroes (ladder deathmatch/multiplayer). The game is of increadibly poor quality - in addition to unacknowledged crashes (caused by VIA+Creative SB + sound accelleration), the weapon balance appears to be equal to a Warcraft Beta. The manual also states that seekers are dodgable by skilled players, but I haven't seen a way to actually do so - your flyer moves much too slowly.
I would say that the game wasn't cloned as much as it could have been, mainly because the one-"man" army style of games is much more popular. Either that, or the game is considered to be similar to a combat flight-sim that the clones don't get noticed as much.
But I get incredibly sick and disoriented playing FPS. I've tried on several occasions thinking that my vertigo might improve but have finally given up knowing that I will just feel sick in the end.
That has happened to me as well - Hexen II. In this game, I found tht disabling autorun to make the character move slower helped but didn't prevent it.
The exact cause of motion sickness from video games is not know, meaning that it is either a hit or miss on whether a method will work. In general, it is probably caused by some movement physics within the game being too far away from realism.
There is a common tax system in use around the world, or when governments start approving free tax software implementations for filing.
Read this page. As stated on the top of the page, there is free tax software available for users. If you so desire, you can recruit a group of individuals to write an open-source free implementation of the software, and go through the certification process with CRA (not a problem, because of the non-partisan nature of the agency.)
You should also note from the nearby pages that there is a common file format that is available to the vendors of tax software. This is a simple ".tax" file which is in use by all certified tax preparation software.
Now, the one area where folks should definitely be forced to upgrade is their Internet connection. Dial-up users regularly degrade my gaming experience.
Who the fsck moderated this as Informative?
I have successfully played an internet game across a dial-up connection, and it was in a completely playable state. This game was even one of those that is not tolerant to forms of latency either. The only games that are incapable of being played on 56K are those that require excessivly large amounts of information to be tranferred (e.g. 32-player RTS game), ones that require synchronized peer-to-peer gameplay without prediction (Doom with 5+ players), or ones that have just plain bad netcode.
Online games that get broken by modems are the exception and not the rule. If you encounter such a game badly mangled by medems, then you should find another game.
To the point where I feel that quitting is the best option.
<sarcasm> Yeah, you should quit online gaming entirely. Anyone who cannot understand how the Internet works should not be on the Internet, just like those dialup users in your magical fantacy land mess up your online fun. </sarcasm>
Too true. Not only that, but I've seen applications fail becaue you do not have a sound card active. (Bad programming, anyone?)
The requirements for sound cards in games caused certain sites such as Deaf Gamers to appear - I actually agree as there are sometimes critical conversations that are barely audible in some specific situations.
Joystick ports.
I'm not sure, but I haven't seen too many games that requrire a joystick to be used. In fact, Keyboarding or Keyboard+Mouse seems to be just as effective for a properly designed game.
I'm not stating that joysticks are useless - they are effective for flight sims and anything similar.
What did a CD Rom drive do before Myst?
Help read *huge* shareware collections of games...:)
Seriously, though, CDs help cut down on the amount of disk swapping that was beginning to be required around 1995 or so. It would be entirely insane to distribute Win95 on disks, as it would require swapping through at least 20 disks and therefore increase the points of failure.
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It's also jumping through hoops when you wish to upgrade your hardware (e.g. replace that old clunky GeForceMX with something that actually works.)
Even so, there are also virtual image drives that are able to emulate SafeDisc/SecuROM protection as if it is the original. You should be able to look around for them.
The only place where sex does not get taught in schools (at least in the American culture) would be in Bible Belt areas. From what I understand, that is the only place where monsters get told about when there is absolutly no other information about sex available (requiring people to find out from themselves).
Church-sanctioned lying, as demonstrated years and years ago, serves only to undermine the faith of those who already believe in the religion. The only thing it does is create fragments of the parent religion (aside from Henry VIII's Anglican Church) and stifle progress in advancing humanity from a simple despotism.
Besides, you should provide sources to actually support your theory of "lie of the year". That way, there is an actual record of which areas to avoid raising your children in order to raise them with a proper religious upbringing.
(Not sure exactly what the difficulty means - there doesn't seem to be any tangible difference aside from the bug with Hard. )
While you could in theory travel as far as you want to, there are penalties for doing so. The most major one is being told repeatedly by the team leader to get back in the battle, followed by being kicked by an admin for refusing to pull your weight.
While complexity does have a factor in delaying projects, it is minimal when compared to lack of planning.
The parents could install parental control software on the children's computer - however that can be bypassed by proper research. As far as I know, most such software available on the market was bypassable, some of which has no problem disabling. (I did so myself to one such application - MS-DOS prompt was password protected, but the exit command was not. In addition, I could launch WordPerfect and open a dos prompt, no password.)
There are reports from some people that they managed to keep unauthorized video games hidden on the computer without their parents knowing - probably using the "hidden" directory flag or by packing the files in a file that looked like a Windows DLL file (aside from the file size, how could an average joe tell the difference?)
(As a side note, I noticed that there isn't much of a gap between the 'M' rating and the 'AO' rating - only one year. Probably a design flaw, but I think that the T->AO age groups should be at least 13, 16, and 18 respectivly, as it provides a more distinct method of seperating the age groups. That, and 'AO' shouldn't be restricted to only games with explicit sexual content.)
Virtual CDs only only work in most cases. depending on the one you choose, there are some applications that are still incompatable with the image in one way or another. SafeDisc 2.51 and SecuROM are good examples - most first generation imaging software can't handle them without emulation.
Homeworld: Cataclysm is one of the more interesting ones. Not only does it not work under Nero ImageDrive (should replace it, but it's the only one that's integrated with burning software), but it doesn't even give an error message - almost as if something is missing from the image/copy, which is something unusual for an unknown protection system. I'm sure that using one of the other imaging software could work, but those are usually commercial and cost money.
Also, Virtual CDs are not really considerd illegal, especially since some licences state that you can only use the original media for backup purposes while still rquiring the CD in the drive.
Do you see stores selling second hand books? That is completely permitted under the law - video games are no different. This does not matter with single player and multiplayer games, especially since second hand multiplayer games
There are some countries/legislative districts that explicitly allow licences of any kind to be transferred (although sometimes require a formality such as notifing the originator that it was performed). This just furthers the notion that giving away the original after its uninstallation is an act that is fully legitimate in a legal and moral sense.
The last post on this forum page implies that the developers wanted to release a Limited edition of the game to allow some players to see how part of the full game is like. It appears to be a case of bad wording on the box, a sign of publisher tinkering to make more sales.
BTW, the Global Star software logo appears on the special edition - I haven't known them for even touching TFE or TSE until now... it's Godgames and Croteam that associated with SS's production, rather than this unrelated company.
I have such a "preview edition" myself - at least it was clearly labeled on the product bundle that it only contained five missions out of the fifteen or so.
However, this strong point isn't really strong since the rest of that game is pretty weak as well. First off, there were plenty of instant kill attacks that take out 80-100% of your health, even when you are supposed to be resistant to the fireball. (Even if there were a tangible benefit, it isn't as noticable as it could be - there could be some hidden factor that amplified damage, such as platemail inflicting *3 shock.)
If anything, the mousing requirement for a game is just a way to delay the relization that the game really is not good. As a result, I prefer the more upfront games that allow the player to automatically engage in reasonable combat manuvers so that more attention can be paid to the quality of the game rather than its rapid clicking.
I also have two other examples of mouse games as well: Commandos I:Beyond the Call of Duty , and Sanity: Aiken's Artifact. In the first example, you have to manually click to ensure your soldier enters firing range, click on the harpoon icon (or use its hotkey), then use the harpoon. If you aren't close enough, you have to cancel the harpoon command, order another movement command, switch back to the harpoon and use it. This wouldn't be extrmely bad if it weren't for the fact there is a final mission that requires you to have a combined minimum health and game time requirements (game speed directly relates to CPU speed) met before it can be unlocked.
In the second example, Sanity, the mousing does absolutly nothing to improve what is already bad gameplay. Usually, combat appears in open spaces where everything can get sidestepped (and since there is no AI leadahead, you just travel in circles).
However, I do agree with the theory behind your statement - games that take longer to conquer because of a greater challenge or options of greaters challenges are worth a bit more, even if the pricing doesn't fully reflect this. (e.g. RTS games allowing giving bonuses to AI players if you can already nail them even when they throw the kitchen sink at you.)
There are a few trends with most modern games:
1. They all require a full installation of game/data files.
2. They all have SafeDisc/SecuROM/custom copy protection.
3. Removing the CD after it passes the inital check has no ill effects. (Data streamed from the CD can be a problem - you need to find a way to has it come from the HD or find a way to ensure that the stream becomes a harmless option. )
4. The NO-CD crack gets released within 24 hours of the latest patch. Unless you are playing Warcraft III, there are no ill effects for a "trusted crack".
I'm sure the developer of Dungeon Siege 2 doesn't like the current state of CD checking - however, the publisher generally makes the requirement for such checks, not the developer.
TA used 3D units but the terrain was a 2D tiled map with a height attribute. Most players would consider this to be close enough to 2D.
Requiring the player to keep clicking to attack is a bad thing. As an example, take Nox: you have to do some fancy movements with your mouse in order to defeat some powerful monsters -- click on monster to attack, swing mouse to other side of screen and click to retreat, swing mouse back to attack monster, etc. One wrong move, and you are either dead, or have 90% of your health taken off. Failing to have ultra-1337 mousing skills should not warrent a player's death.
Didn't notice the problem in either single or multi player. The single player campaign is considered linear enough that you can generally tell which direction is forward or backward. The multiplayer campaign has signposts scattered through the dungeons/map that you can tell which direction to head next.
Are you sure? I've attempted to complete the game with one character, and ended up having to recruit NPCs because of the difficulty in single-handedly killing off the monsters. Not only that, but I've had cases where monsters actually managed to knock out (and even kill) some of my characters.
For single-player, that is a problem. However, that's why you hire packmules - you can purchase two at the first town in single player, and thus have a lot of carring capacity for magical items you can pick up.
Multiplayer, as you know, implements statically placed teleporters - if you reach a distant teleport pad, you can return to town without too much problem.
To complete the official multiplayer campaign, all you need are the eight city stones and to ensure the primary quest triggers have been primed by talking to the priests that hand out the primary quests. The HUB system allows teleportation between cities, thus allowing you to easily tag the quests as complete with minimal problem. As a result, you don't need save the world state in multiplayer.
Damn! Forgot about the link!
The link was for Monster Screenshots showing the "Race X" aliens.
One thing that I noticed is that it is somewhat difficult to test for the proper speed of the CD-ROM. There appears to be some sort of cache that keeps information and uses it from memory. Looks like I need a practical test to determine the optimal speed - any suggestions there?
It's worth using anyway - I noticed that some applications aren't copying files from the CD at their optimal speed either, as if there is some form if inefficiency.
Actually, Shepard was involved in a completely seperate alien invasion - one that Freeman did not know about. Nihilanth and his minions (the Xen Aliens) appeared in Half-Life. Race X (some enemies shown here) start coming in at Opposing Forces - and are slightly different than the Xen counterparts. You even see Xen aliens fighting with Race X in Opposing Forces as well, indcating some form of quarrel between them (either general hatred or desire to control the facility.)
I've seen the game cloned - Flying Heroes (ladder deathmatch/multiplayer). The game is of increadibly poor quality - in addition to unacknowledged crashes (caused by VIA+Creative SB + sound accelleration), the weapon balance appears to be equal to a Warcraft Beta. The manual also states that seekers are dodgable by skilled players, but I haven't seen a way to actually do so - your flyer moves much too slowly.
I would say that the game wasn't cloned as much as it could have been, mainly because the one-"man" army style of games is much more popular. Either that, or the game is considered to be similar to a combat flight-sim that the clones don't get noticed as much.
The exact cause of motion sickness from video games is not know, meaning that it is either a hit or miss on whether a method will work. In general, it is probably caused by some movement physics within the game being too far away from realism.
You should also note from the nearby pages that there is a common file format that is available to the vendors of tax software. This is a simple ".tax" file which is in use by all certified tax preparation software.
I have successfully played an internet game across a dial-up connection, and it was in a completely playable state. This game was even one of those that is not tolerant to forms of latency either. The only games that are incapable of being played on 56K are those that require excessivly large amounts of information to be tranferred (e.g. 32-player RTS game), ones that require synchronized peer-to-peer gameplay without prediction (Doom with 5+ players), or ones that have just plain bad netcode.
Online games that get broken by modems are the exception and not the rule. If you encounter such a game badly mangled by medems, then you should find another game.
<sarcasm>
Yeah, you should quit online gaming entirely. Anyone who cannot understand how the Internet works should not be on the Internet, just like those dialup users in your magical fantacy land mess up your online fun.
</sarcasm>
The requirements for sound cards in games caused certain sites such as Deaf Gamers to appear - I actually agree as there are sometimes critical conversations that are barely audible in some specific situations.
I'm not sure, but I haven't seen too many games that requrire a joystick to be used. In fact, Keyboarding or Keyboard+Mouse seems to be just as effective for a properly designed game.
I'm not stating that joysticks are useless - they are effective for flight sims and anything similar.
Help read *huge* shareware collections of games...
Seriously, though, CDs help cut down on the amount of disk swapping that was beginning to be required around 1995 or so. It would be entirely insane to distribute Win95 on disks, as it would require swapping through at least 20 disks and therefore increase the points of failure.