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Ok folks, I'm announcing the creation of a new site.
As you all know, lately I've been "captain bad software" - going through dozens of programs at the speed of ... well, roughly 48x to be honest.
And I've discovered that clear across the board, there's some spectacularly BAD software out there right now, masquerading as "industry leading".
I imagine there's lots of bad hardware as well.
So... an idea that JW, Damian (Claymonkey), Jammrock and I had a year ago has re-surfaced.
I'm opening up the following site:
There's nothing there now, don't bother looking. But here's what we intend to have (I've already recruited a couple people - dZeus and Technoid to start):
1. Game reviews - with a twist.
Let's face it. Many games are released nowadays that get GLOWING reviews - both from magazines and so-called "gamer sites". And they suck. Or they MIGHT be good - if they ran. You all know the games I'm talking about. The "why God why did they release this 3 months before it was done" games. The ones that they OUGHT to send you a new free CD of the REAL game when it's finally done, only they don't. The ones that erase your hard drive when you try to uninstall them (Pool of Radiance, anyone?). THOSE games. We're going to review from a usability/playability/compatibility/bugginess standpoint. Pool of Radiance might have been the best game in the world, but it got an F-- out of the box due to wiping your hard drive. On the other hand, there are GREAT games, that run right out of the box quite perfectly. They're few and far between, but they do exist.
2. Bad Game Tracking List.
Neverwinter Nights, around patch 1.21, introduced a new "feature". It was the "if you have a cd burner or any cd burning software installed on your machine, your legal purchased copy of NWN won't run any more, you damn dirty pirate!" feature. It made a lot of people mad. There was a coverup. We want to EXPOSE said problems. We're gonna maintain a growing list of games that have show-stopping bugs or compatibility problems. Maybe some publicity will cause these companies to FIX these problems. It took 1.5 MONTHS for Bioware to decide to drop SecuROM like a hot rock due to pressure on their own PRIVATE forum. Publicity could do that in a week flat. And of course we'll provide recognition to companies that are dedicated to fixing these problems - by giving them the glowing review they DO deserve, once the bugs are fixed!
3. Shootouts.
You've all read my shortened Virus Scanner shootout. Well, I've done this for every major category of software in the past couple months - tried 'em, hated most of 'em, kept one. We're gonna write it all up, and keep it up to date.
4. Hardware reviews - again, the twist.
How many times have you seen HP scanners topping the list of scanners? Nobody mentions that their scanning software essentially renders them unusable. Well, we're going to. And when a piece of hardware comes out that is GREAT, with GREAT drivers - we're gonna mention THAT, too. This is a two-edged sword, folks. Cuts both ways.
5. More stuff I've forgotten.
I can't remember everything we wanted to have in there, but ... there will be a lot of it. And we're always open to suggestions.
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Ok, so why am I telling all of you this? Well, my plate is pretty full. Between software/web development, taking care of Logan, looking for a full-time job, and being MURC's resident curmudgeon, I won't be able to do all of this alone. Plus we'll need a lot of people to actually test hardware, since at first we won't be getting any sent to us - might NEVER get any sent to us, we're not going to be popular with manufacturers and vendors, methinks.
So if you want to help, think this is a good idea, and can contribute anything at all - even just a little bit of time to sort through stuff on occasion... lemme know.
You know how to reach me.
- Gurm
As you all know, lately I've been "captain bad software" - going through dozens of programs at the speed of ... well, roughly 48x to be honest.
And I've discovered that clear across the board, there's some spectacularly BAD software out there right now, masquerading as "industry leading".
I imagine there's lots of bad hardware as well.
So... an idea that JW, Damian (Claymonkey), Jammrock and I had a year ago has re-surfaced.
I'm opening up the following site:
There's nothing there now, don't bother looking. But here's what we intend to have (I've already recruited a couple people - dZeus and Technoid to start):
1. Game reviews - with a twist.
Let's face it. Many games are released nowadays that get GLOWING reviews - both from magazines and so-called "gamer sites". And they suck. Or they MIGHT be good - if they ran. You all know the games I'm talking about. The "why God why did they release this 3 months before it was done" games. The ones that they OUGHT to send you a new free CD of the REAL game when it's finally done, only they don't. The ones that erase your hard drive when you try to uninstall them (Pool of Radiance, anyone?). THOSE games. We're going to review from a usability/playability/compatibility/bugginess standpoint. Pool of Radiance might have been the best game in the world, but it got an F-- out of the box due to wiping your hard drive. On the other hand, there are GREAT games, that run right out of the box quite perfectly. They're few and far between, but they do exist.
2. Bad Game Tracking List.
Neverwinter Nights, around patch 1.21, introduced a new "feature". It was the "if you have a cd burner or any cd burning software installed on your machine, your legal purchased copy of NWN won't run any more, you damn dirty pirate!" feature. It made a lot of people mad. There was a coverup. We want to EXPOSE said problems. We're gonna maintain a growing list of games that have show-stopping bugs or compatibility problems. Maybe some publicity will cause these companies to FIX these problems. It took 1.5 MONTHS for Bioware to decide to drop SecuROM like a hot rock due to pressure on their own PRIVATE forum. Publicity could do that in a week flat. And of course we'll provide recognition to companies that are dedicated to fixing these problems - by giving them the glowing review they DO deserve, once the bugs are fixed!
3. Shootouts.
You've all read my shortened Virus Scanner shootout. Well, I've done this for every major category of software in the past couple months - tried 'em, hated most of 'em, kept one. We're gonna write it all up, and keep it up to date.
4. Hardware reviews - again, the twist.
How many times have you seen HP scanners topping the list of scanners? Nobody mentions that their scanning software essentially renders them unusable. Well, we're going to. And when a piece of hardware comes out that is GREAT, with GREAT drivers - we're gonna mention THAT, too. This is a two-edged sword, folks. Cuts both ways.
5. More stuff I've forgotten.
I can't remember everything we wanted to have in there, but ... there will be a lot of it. And we're always open to suggestions.
----------------------------
Ok, so why am I telling all of you this? Well, my plate is pretty full. Between software/web development, taking care of Logan, looking for a full-time job, and being MURC's resident curmudgeon, I won't be able to do all of this alone. Plus we'll need a lot of people to actually test hardware, since at first we won't be getting any sent to us - might NEVER get any sent to us, we're not going to be popular with manufacturers and vendors, methinks.
So if you want to help, think this is a good idea, and can contribute anything at all - even just a little bit of time to sort through stuff on occasion... lemme know.
You know how to reach me.
- Gurm
....
)
Don't think that just because I like it I think it is perfect :P
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