Guys, I find pathetic that age3 shouldn't run on win2000. But more pathetic are the silly "cost" excuse brought by ES staff. Yes, of course, testing and customer support would have some extra cost, but I doubt they can't afford it - especially when a considerably large number of machines run win2000.
Oh, of course, people nowdays use winxp, because that's what they find on their machine when they buy it. But the average user is lame, and he's very likely to download a pirate copy of the game. So I wuouldn't count EVERY winxp user as a possible customer... Yeah, there are pirates among win2000 users too, but I fear the percentage is not the same.
Btw, this takes nowhere... Time goes on, technology evolves. Sooner or later, Microsoft will stop developing DirectX for win2000, and then for xp, and then for longhorn and so on.
Alas, I can't but agree with the main chorus: GET THAT BLOCKING MESSAGE AWAY.
If you guys read EULA, it says that "if you lose data because of a program fault, it's not their responsability". It means that, if you're writing your testament, you die before saving and Word crashes, they don't care. It means that if Windows freezes while you're showing your product to your customer, they don't care. It means that if your server gets damaged because of the os, 5 minutes before the scheduled backup, and you lose everything, they don't care.
Thus, it looks like they can handle all those possible serious damages, but not the risk to let you run a single game.
Are you guys trying to make us believe Microsoft lawyers can't find a clause to let the user run a game with no risk for the company? This is pathetic.
And last, stop whining about all this "optimization problem". A game is developed in C++ and asm. Unless you have a lame compiler, optimizations are CPU related, and NOT os related. That means that age3 can probably show problems on an AMD, rather than on an Intel CPU. And probably it won't work on certain video cards. But - as long as the CPU instruction set is respected - the game runs.
On to external functions. A Windows' game needs to create a window and to process the message pump. I guess needed API are the same since the advent of 32 bit systems.
Moreover, DirectX API is still the same, both in win2000 and winxp. So, why should win2000 be unsupported? The only guess I may think of, is that Microsoft is planning to abandon DX support for win2000, and kept the thing secret to get an advantage over other gaming companies. Still, I don't see why age3 shouldn't run, since it uses DX9, which actually exists for win2000. Just a gues...
Or more probably, you developed the game with managed C++, or even worse, C#. Altough Microsoft created a virtual machine for win2000, they're prolly experiencing difficulties. But that's none of your concern... Developing a game within a manged environment makes me feel so sad I could faint.
But even assuming that winxp is crucial for your new lovely optimized algorithms (hidden surface removal xp? ha!), I keep blaming the fact I can't even install the game! Tomb Raider installs fine, and so does Final Fantasy VII. The same is true for Tequila & Boom Boom, King's Quest VII and another ton of games. They all don't run on win2000 without proper patches, tricks or emulators, but damn, they install. When I go to a shop and pay 50€ for a game, I buy the right to use it ON THE PLATFORM I LIKE MOST. If I install it on Game Boy and doesn't run, it's MY problem, but damn, I wanna be free to install it on a ****ing game boy cartridge.
I downloaded the demo, I tried it on a friend's pc, I managed to install it on mine with the /a parameter. The game rocks, but this is not enough to make me switch OS. Installing winxp will probably make age3's installer (not even the game!!) run fine, but willl mess up a dozen other apps/games I use. Needless to say, I'm not formatting, reinstalling everything and lose 2 nights of sleep just to run age3. Not to speak of the price of getting winxp... It looks like you can't spend your money to support us, but we MUST spend our money to support you. So lame...
Remember: game programming is art. Don't turn it into a financial manouvre.
King_DuckZ
[This message has been edited by King_DuckZ (edited 10-18-2005 @ 10:32 AM).]