Shout-Out

  • Blizzards new desktop application - useless or useless?

    I remember the first day. Well, not the first first day, but those days you'd toss a floppy in and run the game. Simple as that. Of course, as the industry (read: underground communities) grew, so did their needs. Next step was to install games. Now, back then, many people thought "What the hell, it's 2 extra clicks, might as well do it". But this step enabled game publishers to push any type of terribleware they wanted on your PC. From useless stuff, like changing your homepage or adding a "Try X 30 days for free" to your desktop, to GameSpy Arcade which was required for online play. Back then, online play was Holy Grail, not many people had internet and not many people would pay for bandwidth to game online, we had LAN for that. After installations came launchers. Now, we're still in the clear here, it's just 1 extra step on top of other 20 you have to do, in order to install the game, and well it checks for updates and all the good stuff. Useless, sure, many people liked simply clicking the exe and running the game, but what the hell, it's a new trend. And then they killed it.

    Enter platforms. Steam, Origin, Raptr, NCSoft Launcher.. You name it, they made it. These types of software introduced a whole new level of uselessness, especially Steam. It wasn't working quite right for a long period of time, it wasn't optimized, it wasn't stable, but you had no choice. Wanna play Counter Strike? You have to run Steam. Not sure at which point all the other companies decided they should make their own too, so for each game you install now, you have to install the uselessware required to run it. You end up with 10 programs you don't want, but you have to have them. Loading times are terrible on these things, and even though they incorporate a lot of stuff, such as a browser, like you're gonna browse while you play, they are still pretty bad.

    Of course, Blizzard would like to enter this world too and make their own platform. Why? Nobody knows. There's no point in reviewing it, as it's the same as any other: it runs and updates your games, puts some nice adds on your screen and that's it. However, this might not be the only thing Blizzard wants to achieve. The text ahead is pure speculation, so if you don't care about it, there's a pretty picture at the end of the article. Having a platform gives ultimately more control. Not many of us still remember what Lineage 2 (NCSoft) did when they introduced Bake Ice. For months, it was impossible to bypass it with any bot software. Simply, attaching anything or running any client emulators would crash the game, or your login would be declined. You had to call a relative abroad on a landline, take your clothes off, and run around the building to bypass this. So maybe Blizzard wants to stop us from running bots. Or injecting all the funny stuff. One way or another, make sure to read the terms of use for that new thing, because knowing Blizzard, they might ask for permission to use your webcam and take random snapshots while you play, just to give them that edge of discovering who is running a bot.

    The pretty picture promised

    Do you like platforms? Does it not bother you do install all that garbageware just so you could play a game?
    Make sure to let us know in the comments bellow!
    Comments 11 Comments
    1. Dante's Avatar
      Dante -
      I don't think it's so bad
    1. Harambeqt's Avatar
      Harambeqt -
      Useless junk is useless.
    1. Deathshiver's Avatar
      Deathshiver -
      Making a lot of assumptions before we know anything about it. From blue posts, it appears as though you don't actually have to use the launcher if you don't want to, games can be run without starting it.
    1. xsx's Avatar
      xsx -
      Origin v2 right?
    1. wowsc4p3's Avatar
      wowsc4p3 -
      Garbageware?
      Consider a public library.
      If you want to borrow a book, you'd go into the library. Just because you only want ONE book, it doesn't mean that the fact the library is there it's bad.
      I mean, yes, if it was just a pedestal with the one book you wanted to borrow on, that'd be fine, but in my opinion, These launcher platforms are a convenient way of managing games. It's hellishly more easy than finding the floppy, ejecting the last one and putting it in.
      Desperate attempt at an article, imo.
    1. sovoki's Avatar
      sovoki -
      i like it =) mate
    1. Fisher's Avatar
      Fisher -
      Quote Originally Posted by wowsc4p3 View Post
      Garbageware?
      Consider a public library.
      If you want to borrow a book, you'd go into the library. Just because you only want ONE book, it doesn't mean that the fact the library is there it's bad.
      I mean, yes, if it was just a pedestal with the one book you wanted to borrow on, that'd be fine, but in my opinion, These launcher platforms are a convenient way of managing games. It's hellishly more easy than finding the floppy, ejecting the last one and putting it in.
      Desperate attempt at an article, imo.
      True, but I can go to a bookstore and buy a book, or borrow it from a friend, removing the library out of the equation. I don't have that choice when it comes to Steam games. Libraries aren't forced, as there are other ways to obtain a book (noted in the beginning of this comment), however, if you wanna play Dota 2, you have to run Steam and that's it. They don't manage games, you press play instead of using the .exe and that's it, but the software itself will continue to use your resources. When Origin was released it simply didn't work, a very vast group of consumers was complaining and it took time to get it done right. Might be the same with this. I'm simply showing you what's coming, discussing what I've seen done with these things before and speculating on what Blizzard may or may not do. I've no idea why is that desperate.
    1. Maisteri's Avatar
      Maisteri -
      Does it not bother you do install all that garbageware just so you could play a game?
      Not really. It's not like it will hog all my CPU and RAM. And anyways, there is still plenty of games that don't require platforms]

      I can go to a bookstore and buy a book, or borrow it from a friend, removing the library out of the equation. I don't have that choice when it comes to Steam games.


      Seriously? There are plenty steam games that you can buy from elsewhere and they won't require you to run steam (Arma 2 as an example) Valve games will obviously always be in Steam because it's Valves own software and it makes them money.

      software itself will continue to use your resources.


      Big deal? If you're playing games on the computer, a program eating few megabytes of your RAM won't hinder your performance at all.

      When Origin was released it simply didn't work, a very vast group of consumers was complaining and it took time to get it done right.


      Newsflash! New software might be buggy and it might take time to get it working properly under heavy consumer usage.

      All in all I think platforms are good for managing and buying games but they kind of lose their meaning if every company pushes out their own platform for their own games only.

    1. Jaerin's Avatar
      Jaerin -
      I actually really like Steam. It has compelled me to purchase more games than I can count. I hated having boxes and disks of software that were useless 10 minutes after loading up the game.

      The launchers don't bother me, the auto updaters that adobe, Itunes, and so many other applications install piss me off though. Scan for updates when I load the software, but don't go running tasks all the time just to check for stupid updates.

      Launchers give them the ability to highlight deals and sales when you enter the game. I'd very much rather have the ads there than in game itself.
    1. xiongyunqiang's Avatar
      xiongyunqiang -
      if the platform is govenered and related, I would choose it;if not I regard it as garbageware
    1. TehVoyager's Avatar
      TehVoyager -
      My main concern is the desktop app will start being used to detect things like PQR or Turbohud..
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