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TFA says: "Windows 8 isn't great for Blizzard". Can someone explain why? Can't a game be run in full-screen mode anymore? Would there be technical issues dur

TFA says: "Windows 8 isn't great for Blizzard". Can someone explain why? Can't a game be run in full-screen mode anymore? Would there be technical issues during the installation of the game? Privileges issues? No more Direct X?

mailarchis 14y ago
Am guessing this is something to do with windows store. "The belief in the development community is that Microsoft will make Windows 8 a closed system, an operating system that seeks to more stringently control, much in the way that Apple does with Mac OS X and the iOS platform. This would allow Microsoft to better monitor the quality of applications running on its platform, but it will also wall off the most widely used operating system in the world from myriad developers. PC game makers use Windows because of the openness of the platform and its ubiquity. If Microsoft takes that openness away, what will developers do?" Ref http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/blizzard-agrees-with-valve-windows-8-is-bad-for-video-games/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/blizzard-agrees-with-...
- itomek 14y ago
  I see it as an over reaction with people spreading bad news like the Mayans are changing world ending dates. Now everyone agrees that its popular to talk about how bad Windows 8 is and what the next End of World date is, but those people have not experienced at least one of those and more likely neither. Windows RT is store apps and Pro is store apps plus traditional apps. Naysayers... pffst! I'll stick to my nice Windows 8 Pro install because its pretty bad ass!
jat850 14y ago
I'm going to speculate (and nothing more) just based on a few discussions a friend and I have had. It seems as though with Windows 8 and the trend towards unification with the mobile experience, Microsoft is headed in the path of a walled-garden style environment. It may become more difficult (or just less convenient) for the consumer to select software that falls outside of the "Windows App Store" (whatever it may be termed). This type of distribution model (Steam being another example) would be counter to Blizzard's apparent philosophy on the matter. So I don't know that "Windows 8", the operating system, is bad for Blizzard. But maybe "Windows 8", the direction, is. Again, 100% speculation. No necessary basis in fact, just ideas bounced around.
- minibus 14y ago
  This is why I went back to Snow Leopard from Mountain Lion. Download file, install dmg (or exe), use software... "app store" irrelevant.
  - jpxxx 14y ago
    Point well received, but just to be dead sure: System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Allow Applications downloaded from: [X] Anywhere will restore previous behavior.
  - eropple 14y ago
    With respect, I think you're misled. The App Store is completely optional in Mountain Lion. Gatekeeper can be turned completely off if you so choose.
    - jspthrowaway2 14y ago
      To be fair, Apple isn't doing a lot to undo that misleading. His anecdote isn't the first I've heard.
      - eropple 14y ago
        Honestly? It's the first I've heard from someone with interests that would lead them to Hacker News. Gatekeeper was talked about at length well before it was rolled out and it is super, super easy to find out how to disable it. There's a sort of minimum awareness beneath which I'd certainly expect to hear of people having trouble, but I'm a little surprised that they're here.
    - georgemcbay 14y ago
      Don't you think this might be a case of "boiling the frog slowly"? That's the impression I get from both Apple and Microsoft's recent OS/App Store directions. A few years from now the apologists for each will be saying "Well hardly anyone but super techies ever used those options to disable verification anyway, so I understand why they turned them off".
illuminate 14y ago
As with Valve, it has nothing to do with the OS which works for the most part as Windows 7 for these desktop apps and everything to do with Microsoft's App Store.

mailarchis 14y ago

Am guessing this is something to do with windows store. "The belief in the development community is that Microsoft will make Windows 8 a closed system, an operating system that seeks to more stringently control, much in the way that Apple does with Mac OS X and the iOS platform. This would allow Microsoft to better monitor the quality of applications running on its platform, but it will also wall off the most widely used operating system in the world from myriad developers. PC game makers use Windows because of the openness of the platform and its ubiquity. If Microsoft takes that openness away, what will developers do?" Ref http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/blizzard-agrees-with-valve-windows-8-is-bad-for-video-games/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/blizzard-agrees-with-...

itomek 14y ago
I see it as an over reaction with people spreading bad news like the Mayans are changing world ending dates. Now everyone agrees that its popular to talk about how bad Windows 8 is and what the next End of World date is, but those people have not experienced at least one of those and more likely neither. Windows RT is store apps and Pro is store apps plus traditional apps. Naysayers... pffst! I'll stick to my nice Windows 8 Pro install because its pretty bad ass!

jat850 14y ago

I'm going to speculate (and nothing more) just based on a few discussions a friend and I have had. It seems as though with Windows 8 and the trend towards unification with the mobile experience, Microsoft is headed in the path of a walled-garden style environment. It may become more difficult (or just less convenient) for the consumer to select software that falls outside of the "Windows App Store" (whatever it may be termed). This type of distribution model (Steam being another example) would be counter to Blizzard's apparent philosophy on the matter. So I don't know that "Windows 8", the operating system, is bad for Blizzard. But maybe "Windows 8", the direction, is. Again, 100% speculation. No necessary basis in fact, just ideas bounced around.

minibus 14y ago
This is why I went back to Snow Leopard from Mountain Lion. Download file, install dmg (or exe), use software... "app store" irrelevant.
- jpxxx 14y ago
  Point well received, but just to be dead sure: System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Allow Applications downloaded from: [X] Anywhere will restore previous behavior.
- eropple 14y ago
  With respect, I think you're misled. The App Store is completely optional in Mountain Lion. Gatekeeper can be turned completely off if you so choose.
  - jspthrowaway2 14y ago
    To be fair, Apple isn't doing a lot to undo that misleading. His anecdote isn't the first I've heard.
    - eropple 14y ago
      Honestly? It's the first I've heard from someone with interests that would lead them to Hacker News. Gatekeeper was talked about at length well before it was rolled out and it is super, super easy to find out how to disable it. There's a sort of minimum awareness beneath which I'd certainly expect to hear of people having trouble, but I'm a little surprised that they're here.
  - georgemcbay 14y ago
    Don't you think this might be a case of "boiling the frog slowly"? That's the impression I get from both Apple and Microsoft's recent OS/App Store directions. A few years from now the apologists for each will be saying "Well hardly anyone but super techies ever used those options to disable verification anyway, so I understand why they turned them off".

illuminate 14y ago

As with Valve, it has nothing to do with the OS which works for the most part as Windows 7 for these desktop apps and everything to do with Microsoft's App Store.