Well, this article is focused mainly toward businesses and business users not “GAMERS??!!”. I don’t really see how it’s hard to notice this point, but since it’s been mentioned I do have a few thing to say. Now, I’m not smack talking against people who like to play games. I like to play games. I have been doing so on a PC since 1984. I remember the thrill of trying to make it safely to Oregon with my wife, kids, oxen, covered wagon, a couple of boxes of bullets, and some other guy who was along for the ride. I remember the sense of awe and wonder I got when playing “Wolfenstein 3D” and then “DOOM”. Then there was Raven Software’s “Heretic”. Then id released “DOOM 2” which paved the way for one of the greatest games ever created, Raven’s “Hexen”. This was pretty much the first “3D” shooter to introduce some functional RPG style elements to a game by allowing the player to choose between different character classes. Now I know that there was no real meaningful character development, but it was a great step in the right direction, and you could play multiplayer with your friends who were different characters/classes with different uses/abilities. Later there was a game that did this very well, albeit single player only. It would become known as “Dagger Fall”, a great game by any standards. Look what’s happened. I got caught up in the nostalgia and started babbling. Now, let’s get back to the important stuff.
What is this myth that games don’t work with Windows Vista? I have a large book shelf that I’m looking at right now that has over 130 games on it (there’s a lot more I just got tired of counting). All of the games that worked on XP that I’ve tried on Vista (about 55+) worked (except for 3) without needing anything more than a simple update patch file if they needed one at all. I even tried some of the games that wouldn’t even work on XP and some of them did work on Vista, a few did not. All of the successfully tried games also worked with Vista 64-bit, except for 2, which were old enough for me not to remember how old they were without reading the copyright info on the box. Now that that’s been said, I’ll repeat what I’ve said many times before. Now, some of you are too young to remember what the OS scene was like almost 8 years ago, I guess that counts for something, so you get an “uninformed consumer” pass. For you, most (if not all) of your entire “PC GAMING LIFE” was consumed by Windows XP. All you know is XP. You feel safe and secure in the bosom of your comfort zone, which is XP. You would have shit all over yourselves if you were to deal with the original gaming OS, DOS, although most of you WERE still shitting yourselves when DOS was in its heyday, heheheh. No “GUI”, no “icons”, no “plugNplay”, no “pointNclick”, little to no “mouse user interface”, very little “mouse controls support”. What would you do?
Most of the people that call themselves “GAMERS” these days have barely installed more than “World of Warcraft” in the past few years. Even those who mainly stick to FPS titles have barely completed a “plugNplay” install of a graphics card using the default OS drivers or the ones that came with the supplied CD, much less a complete and PROPER install of any OS. Imagine if “plugNplay” was still just a pipe dream?
I know the differences between Windows XP and windows Vista/ 7 do not really seem all that apparent because the frontend GUI is still familiar looking. But that is where the similarities end. What’s under the hood is completely different. You may have some good old games that may not work. That’s the natural order of progression. You cannot keep looking back to move forward. It’s good to have memories. That’s what allows us to make better decisions as we move forward. It’s ok to want to relive exciting experiences. Remember, just because we keep looking forward does not necessarily mean we are forgetting anything. Don’t feel bad about not wanting change, it must be natural. After all, it happens every time something new is released. Picture this, or remember if you’re old enough; “8-tracks” become “cassette tapes”, “cassette tapes” become “CD’s”, “CD’s” becomes “MP3’s”. Here’s another; “reel-to-reel” becomes “VHS”, “VHS” becomes “DVD’s”, “DVD’s” become “BluRay”, “BluRay” becomes “Video-On-Demand”. And just in case you still don’t get it, one more; “walking/running” becomes “a horse”, “a horse” becomes “horse carriage”, “horse carriage” becomes “sailboats”, “sailboats” become “train/steam boats”, “train/steam boats” become “cars/trucks/diesel trains/ airplanes”, etc. Now, hypothetically speaking, you may have some tires/wheels left over from the old Ford Model-T days, but you wouldn’t get upset if they didn’t fit your shiny new ’09 Mustang. Even if you had good tread left on your 1974 Camaro, somehow I don’t think Bumblebee would have looked or performed the same if he hadn’t updated his tires along with the rest of himself in Transformers the Movie.
The long winded point to this is that we all have trouble leaving some things behind. But it is a necessary step toward improving anything. Those that do not except this will get left behind.