Author: Jorge
Date: 11:34:23 08/16/02
Go up one level in this thread
On August 15, 2002 at 13:52:50, John Merlino wrote: >On August 15, 2002 at 04:51:15, José Carlos wrote: > >>On August 14, 2002 at 18:15:01, John Merlino wrote: >> >>>On August 14, 2002 at 17:57:25, Sean Mintz wrote: >>> >>>>Any idea why a decision was made to not officially support 2000? >>> >>>A couple of reasons: >>> >>>1) It is extremely costly to fully test Chessmaster so that it supports a >>>particular version of Windows. It was decided to only support those three based >>>on the estimates of testing costs and tester availability. >>> >>>2) Vaguely speaking, Windows 2000 and NT are "business" operating systems, and >>>not exactly designed for "the general public". Many Ubi Soft (and other >>>companies) do not support Windows 2000/NT for many of their games, based on this >>>assumption. >>> >>>3) Perhaps (I'm not really sure) it was determined that, taking 1) into account, >>>the extra cost of testing would not justify the number of units sold to people >>>with Windows 2000/NT. >>> >>>4) Finally, there is the good possibility that the program will work fine on >>>those systems anyway. If it does, we can say so on the website (with the >>>appropriate caveats, of course). >>> >>>jm >> >> I know it wasn't your decision, but still I want to stongly disagree with the >>reasons given. >> >>1) and 4) Many people here (I'm almost sure) would be happy to receive a free >>beta and run it for several days under win2k. That way your company would know >>(instead of "having a good possibility") whether it works fine on win2k or not. >> >>2) Win2k professional is largely used by non-business users because it's very >>stable and works, in general, much better than win98/ME. >> >>3) Zero cost for a particular tester and many people using wink2k prof out >>there. >> >> In my opinion it's a big mistake. I use win2k prof, and I'm not gonna buy a >>program which is not tested under my OS. Most users will think the same way, so >>if you get some comments of CM working on win2k, it won't come from people who >>has bought it, but from pirates, which I don't trust. >> >> José C. > >You make good arguments. However, you would be quite surprised at how many >people who had Windows 2000/NT/XP STILL bought Chessmaster 8000. Admittedly, >this is probably because 99% of folks do not read the system requirements. > >Additionally, Ubi Soft generally does not use "external" beta testers. The only >exception I know of is the MM-RPG "Shadowbane". > >jm Yes, that may be true John, since I am one of those people, even though I was aware that it may not be compatible under under Win2000. My CM8000 is running fine under W2K pro, however I installed it with caution, making sure I have a system backup procedure (such as an OS imager that we use often here at work). I would be much more confortable knowing of course that CM9K has been tested under W2K pro. As for Beta testers, the best kind are the "external" ones. I am disappointed that Ubisoft did not make time for Beta testers. It may be costly, but they could have chosen a group and made some sort of a deal of retail price. I know I would have taken the deal :). jorge
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