Author: John Merlino
Date: 12:42:15 08/16/02
Go up one level in this thread
On August 16, 2002 at 14:34:23, Jorge wrote: >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 I'm sure you (and many other people) would have. And it certainly would have helped the testing process. However, Ubi Soft (and most other companies) are quite wary of external testers, as it obviously creates MANY opportunities for piracy. A solid Beta version has strong black-market value. Perhaps if we had only used a half-dozen testers or so, the chances of that sort of thing happening would be minimized. But the lawyers tend to rule over all in these kinds of cases (and in one VERY OBVIOUS case that anybody who buys CM9000 is going to notice very soon -- I'm too embarrassed to mention it here, and I can't wait for someone to post about it.... :-( ) jm
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