How does this make me feel about Microsoft? The real question is how does this make you feel about Chris Roberts? Well, I feel like he's a bit of a sell out but if stupid money gets waved at you, you have to take it. Now Chris can start a new company, hire new talent and wait for MS to come calling again....
So far as MS goes -- most people that knock MS have no business doing so. It made the PC accessible and simple, standardizing a look and feel across a number of applications as well as creating a unified driver database to bring all of the hardware manufacturers in line. Win 95 was a huge leap forward back in the day and helped make the internet accessible in every single household. It has been a positive leader in the industry when all is said and done. This easily could have been Apple, IBM, DEC or someone picking up a flavor of *nix but they were all alargely stickign to their proprietary nature in order to make a profit. Yes, MS makes a profit too, that's what they're in business for but they were there at the right time, at the right place and capable of DELIVERING.
IS MS absolved of all guilt? Hardly, considering some of its monopolistic practices of bundling software and knocking down netscape. Althought the damage has been done there, which is unfortunate, they've paid/are paying the price and now are under constant surveillance. Unlessyou were specifically wronged under those circumstances, I really can't see how you can knock MS because if you were building/supporting/using PCs before 1995, you'd know better.
I am scared of Windows Vista because of all the Live hype about it... I dont want people knowing what Im doing.. I dont want a live connection with anyone besides my DSL provider.
Everything in Windows is becoming a Buy on Demand service, just look at the latest Windows Media Player.
I share information with others, on my current system I don't have one peice of bought software. Even my WinXP is from a friend; and I have Dreamweaver, Photoshop CS, and many others... I guess the only bought software would be the games I play.
With Vista, I do not want them checking to see if my junk is registered, I don't want it to scan my Registry and report back to HQ. Those Indians can stay out of my computer thanks.
I have never liked Microsoft. Anyone who does is a fool.
They got big by smart business deals – not because of quality products. Back when windows 3.1 was around, there were many better OS’s. I could name about 5 at least. But because of business deals it became the most popular. Once it became the most popular – that became the reason to use it, not the quality.
Guess I'm a fool.
You can name 5 better OS's or just 5 others? Not that Windows is perfect, far from it, but others have tried to make better OS's and for the most part have failed. ,,,
I was talking about windows 3.1
ok, these are 5 operating systems I believe were superior to windows 3.1 in 1992
Amiga OS 3.0
Macintosh OS (System 7)
BeOS
Atari TOS (this os kicked butt - and don't say it didn't if you never used it - it was like mac ans dos rolled into one).
Linux
First off, 3 of those operating systems are not for the PC. It's a little hard to compare operating systems from different platforms because the hardware is different. It could be those systems were just better and not necessarily the OS. Remember we're talking about 286/386 PC's here and the Amiga and Atari were mainly gaming or graphics oriented systems so it's a bit hard to compare them with DOS or Windows.
Secondly, I owned both an Amiga and an Atari and neither OS got me real excited. They had some nice features, mainly because they were designed from the get go to be graphical in nature, but nothing all that great. They had some problems as well. And I don't think they had anything on Windows 95 which came out a few years later and was the first Windows platform to really get away from DOS. I liked the Amiga OS better than Atari's by the way although there were a lot of similarities and similarities with the Mac as well.
I don't know why you would think that Linux had a better operating system in 1992. I guess a lot would depend on what you planned to do with that operating system. If you handed a PC with Linux to the average person in 1992 they wouldn't have had a clue what to do with it. Not that Windows was completely intuitive, but better than Linux by a long shot. And yes I realize that ease of use is only one facet of an OS, but it's a pretty big one in my humble opinion. The only people with Linux back in 1992 were geeks who wanted to be able to control everything themselves or were on servers or something that were not meant to be interacted with by the average joe.
I'm not familiar with BeOS. I'll have to look into that one.
I'll give you credit though, you did come up with 5 OS's that *could* be considered better than 3.1 But since 2 of those systems don't even exist anymore and 1 is for a different platform, that really only leaves Linux and BeOS to compete with Windows for the PC and at least for me, Linux wasn't superior than Windows in 1992. And I'm not sure it's better than Vista today.
I still think that OS/2 had the best shot at taking down Microsoft, especially since it was jointly created by them. The company I worked for back then even went so far as to replace all of our Windows PC's with OS/2 and were convinced it would be the way of the future. I gave it a shot and used it for a good year or more, but found myself dual-booting my PC into Windows 3.1 after awhile. Since the shop had been initially Windows, all the key applications like Word and Excel were still around and I found that the Windows versions of Word and Excel and lotus notes were faster, less prone to crashes and had more features running on Windows 3.1 than their OS/2 counterparts. On top of that, running Windows applications (which we had a few) under OS/2 was downright painful. Windows would frequently crash along with all your applications that were running on it under OS/2. And OS/2's way of putting extended data in it's folders was downright stupid as well. I one time saw this huge nest of folders on my harddrive with no files in it and couldn't figure out what it was for, so I decided to delete it. BAD IDEA!!!. As each folder dissappeared, so did my whole GUI. WTF? Took me several hours to get my GUI fixed. Perhaps these folders should have been hidden? And I definately shouldn't have been able to delete them!!!
For all of Windows problems, it's still the best PC OS I've used. Granted, there haven't been many choices.
You can cry all you want, but if Microsoft own it they can do what ever they want with it. There is nothing wrong with that.
Nice, thanks for the mature attitude and flamer approach to responding. Forums are for discussion, its a shame you feel dicussion equals "crying".
Ok "..if microsoft own it they can do whatever they want with it."?
So if you have to move and your new landlord wont let you keep your dog "Mr. Tootlesworth", and you have to sell/giveaway your dog. Would your attitude be the same if that person you sold/gave your dog to immediately snaps its neck and chops its up because their extended family is visiting from cambodia, you would keep your same attitude? What if they started making butt love to the pet you had to get rid of?
Obviously your logic isnt as black and white as you want it to seem.
Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is. So Microsoft bought a competetor, made changes to what they were doing and then disolved them. It happens all the time. Atleast the people were offered jobs.
And if you are complaining about games like Brute Force being made a console only game then in the coming years you are going to be very upset. I myself am a PC gamer(I do have consoles and I love them, but I would much rather play a game on my PC). Havn't you noticed that fewer and fewer games are coming out for the PC, while at the same time more and more titles are being released for consoles? This is because there is much more money to be had in the console market. PC gaming is slowly dieing because gaming on a PC is much more expensive. Having a rig that can run the latest and greatest games and still have them looking fantastic isn't exactly cheap. Mean while you can go pick up a 360 for $400 and be set for quite a while.
With PCs to keep the technology current you have to upgrade them, new processors, new video cards, more ram. Sometimes replacing one part on your PC can be as(if not more) expensive than buying a console.
The initial cost of the console is MUCH lower than a PC gaming rig and the upkeep is just a fraction of what the PCs is.
For those of you who don't like to play games on consoles, you are going to be very disappointed in the next few years.
This being said, would most of your problems with console gaming go away if they made mice and keyboards for them?
- - "What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?" - -
You can cry all you want, but if Microsoft own it they can do what ever they want with it. There is nothing wrong with that.
Nice, thanks for the mature attitude and flamer approach to responding. Forums are for discussion, its a shame you feel dicussion equals "crying".
Ok "..if microsoft own it they can do whatever they want with it."?
So if you have to move and your new landlord wont let you keep your dog "Mr. Tootlesworth", and you have to sell/giveaway your dog. Would your attitude be the same if that person you sold/gave your dog to immediately snaps its neck and chops its up because their extended family is visiting from cambodia, you would keep your same attitude? What if they started making butt love to the pet you had to get rid of?
Obviously your logic isnt as black and white as you want it to seem. Apparently my logic isn't as good as whining and crying when anyone doesn't agree with me. My only point was that if Microsoft own it, then they have the rights to do whatever they want with it.
As for you analogy, it was stupid. If I had a dog and I was moving I would make sure I moved somewhere that took dogs. Even if I did what you said, I would either have had an idea they would do something like that or I wouldn't sell to them. If I didn't know I would likely be long gone and never knew that they did anything like that unless I was stalking them like a psycho.
You make it sound like fact that this guy was going to make an amazing game. Sorry no gauantees that would happen. I never even heard of the guy before this thread. I'm sorry I can't kiss you ass and automatically agree with you. Feel free to cry as much as you like.
First of all, PC gaming is growing. I have no idea where this myth started that it's dying, but it's totally false.
Second, why would Microsoft support their XBOX360, but not the XP and Vista with PC games? That's idiotic. They are also spending a lot of money branding 'Games for Windows'.
Third, this kind of restructuring happens all the time in business, including the gaming industry. There is absolutely no way you have all the facts to make a proper conclusion about what happened.
In 1996, game designer Chris Roberts founded an all-new studio, Digital Anvil. Already renowned for his creation of the then-popular Wing Commander series, Roberts had grown restless after his employer, Origin Systems, grew in size. He told the press that Digital Anvil would be a return to the smaller studio system which he felt produced better games.
Dude got in, made a name for himself, and like so many others parleyed that (keeping the initial costs down by selling his own personal vision instead of the vision of Origin systems who would be expected to pay top dollar for R&D) into his own studio (probably in the exact hopes of what was to follow).
However, it wasn't until four years later that Starlancer (PC, Dreamcast), the first game to bear the Digital Anvil imprimatur, was released. Around the same time, the small shop was bought by one of the biggest companies around--Microsoft, which folded it into its internal Microsoft Game Studios system. Chris Roberts promptly exited the company, but would consult on several games in development.
He then built a piece of software that he could use as a portfolio for the rest of his intellectual property and upon approval sold the entire company lock, stock, and barrel to microsoft, got his money and got out as has been the industry standard since I can remember.
Microsoft's first move after buying Digital Anvil was to sell off two of its projects--Frontier Wars and Loose Cannon--to Ubisoft. It also took the previously PC-only Brute Force and turned it into an Xbox exclusive, released in 2003. That year also saw the release of the most acclaimed Digital Anvil game, Freelancer, for the PC.
Microsoft then went to work on getting a rebate for their initial investment by selling off intellectual properties that were either sub-standard or too costly to develop to other companies and developing some of the more portable properties in order to push their XBox division and releasing what they considered to be the appropriate game for the PC market. Talk about disposable, the way it reads it's almost as if it couldn't have worked out any better than it did.
Now, it appears Brute Force will have the distinction of being Digital Anvil's last game. Today, Microsoft confirmed to GameSpot that it has shut down the shop and is organizing a "redeployment" of its staff to studios at Microsoft Game Studios headquarters.
Now that the initial purchase has been "cleaned" of all it's intellectual property the only thing left to do is clean it of all it's talented personell by intergrating them into the Microsoft family in places where they can be of most use. I'm sure that the guys with skills and talent aren't complaining about that paycheck and as for those without, well they should have known better because this is business 101 happening right before your eyes.
"Microsoft Game Studios has undergone a redeploying of resources in its Austin, Texas-based Digital Anvil studio and will centralize the studio's resources in Redmond, Washington," the company said in a statement. "We are working closely with current Digital Anvil employees to place each team member in a position on the Microsoft Game Studios team in Redmond if they so choose. This redeployment of resources will be finalized on January 31, 2006."
And finally this is how they weed out the poor or uninspired who are not willing to uproot their lives to work for the beast (no offense to Microsoft because I mean the basic corporation when I say it). In the totally Nazi way that most US businesses are run they do away with all Non-Essential employee's and cherry pick only the most dedicated of the best and brightest (who to most companies are the only truly essential employee's that exist) and keep on rolling.
If anyone should be held accountable for any percieved wrong-doing I would put that on Chris Roberts who (most likely) intentionally did what he did to get what he got and even then only if he intentionally led his employee's to believe otherwise.
Now imagine an XP... or Vista... that would let me NOT install MSN, or IE, or Windows Media Player...
Why?
I never use that garbage anyway! If I IM, it is Yahoo. I use FireFox, and VLC player.
And my gaming machine has NONE of those installed. ALL I want it to do is RUN GAMES.
MicroSoft is still all about ramming it's grabage down our throats until we choke on it. And Vista chokes PCs. Useless. Garbage.
Hmmm ahahah ok...let me get it....you prefer win98 to winXP?? hmmmm ok !!! HAHA xD
Win98 is like a hellhole...and your obviously not a real gamer cuz if you were you wouldnt say that cuz with the win98 you play for some time and suddenly the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH appears lol CTRL+ALT+DEL!!!!! oh no my PC restarted.....alright
Theres no doubt winXP is better than win98 or any of the previous............................................thats why they do new ones you know?
And the rest of your post i won't comment because in my opinion your a fanboy flammer so...ur vote doesnt really counts....dont be offended but thats the truth....if you call gargabe to all that microsoft does ur definetely a flammer .......Of course microsoft has its bad things and products but its not everything....
And don't forget that without those "microsoft garbages" our software technology wouldn't be so advanced and multi-choosable...
I was speaking of the ability to install only the parts you wanted.
I never said 98 was a better OS, I never said it was a gaming OS... I said I missed the fact you could take what you wanted and leave the rest.
You should really learn to read what someone says before flaming them. You should really think before you type. And honestly, you should prolly just learn to shut the hell up before you try to attack me, because attacks like this only prove your own failure to read, understand, and make valid posts.
My point still stands. Vista... Bloated... XTinTioN .... a moron that does not read.
In 1996, game designer Chris Roberts founded an all-new studio, Digital Anvil. Already renowned for his creation of the then-popular Wing Commander series, Roberts had grown restless after his employer, Origin Systems, grew in size. He told the press that Digital Anvil would be a return to the smaller studio system which he felt produced better games. Dude got in, made a name for himself, and like so many others parleyed that (keeping the initial costs down by selling his own personal vision instead of the vision of Origin systems who would be expected to pay top dollar for R&D) into his own studio (probably in the exact hopes of what was to follow). However, it wasn't until four years later that Starlancer (PC, Dreamcast), the first game to bear the Digital Anvil imprimatur, was released. Around the same time, the small shop was bought by one of the biggest companies around--Microsoft, which folded it into its internal Microsoft Game Studios system. Chris Roberts promptly exited the company, but would consult on several games in development. He then built a piece of software that he could use as a portfolio for the rest of his intellectual property and upon approval sold the entire company lock, stock, and barrel to microsoft, got his money and got out as has been the industry standard since I can remember. Microsoft's first move after buying Digital Anvil was to sell off two of its projects--Frontier Wars and Loose Cannon--to Ubisoft. It also took the previously PC-only Brute Force and turned it into an Xbox exclusive, released in 2003. That year also saw the release of the most acclaimed Digital Anvil game, Freelancer, for the PC. Microsoft then went to work on getting a rebate for their initial investment by selling off intellectual properties that were either sub-standard or too costly to develop to other companies and developing some of the more portable properties in order to push their XBox division and releasing what they considered to be the appropriate game for the PC market. Talk about disposable, the way it reads it's almost as if it couldn't have worked out any better than it did. Now, it appears Brute Force will have the distinction of being Digital Anvil's last game. Today, Microsoft confirmed to GameSpot that it has shut down the shop and is organizing a "redeployment" of its staff to studios at Microsoft Game Studios headquarters. Now that the initial purchase has been "cleaned" of all it's intellectual property the only thing left to do is clean it of all it's talented personell by intergrating them into the Microsoft family in places where they can be of most use. I'm sure that the guys with skills and talent aren't complaining about that paycheck and as for those without, well they should have known better because this is business 101 happening right before your eyes. "Microsoft Game Studios has undergone a redeploying of resources in its Austin, Texas-based Digital Anvil studio and will centralize the studio's resources in Redmond, Washington," the company said in a statement. "We are working closely with current Digital Anvil employees to place each team member in a position on the Microsoft Game Studios team in Redmond if they so choose. This redeployment of resources will be finalized on January 31, 2006." And finally this is how they weed out the poor or uninspired who are not willing to uproot their lives to work for the beast (no offense to Microsoft because I mean the basic corporation when I say it). In the totally Nazi way that most US businesses are run they do away with all Non-Essential employee's and cherry pick only the most dedicated of the best and brightest (who to most companies are the only truly essential employee's that exist) and keep on rolling.
If anyone should be held accountable for any percieved wrong-doing I would put that on Chris Roberts who (most likely) intentionally did what he did to get what he got and even then only if he intentionally led his employee's to believe otherwise.
I know this isnt the best source of information (wikipedia) but read this to shed some light on Christ Roberts (he was already established, but only wanted Microsoft as publishers, where Microsoft was able to aquire the company instead. Once that happend Roberts left, it was his company and microsoft took it from him.)
Roberts returned to the United States in 1986. He soon found a job at Origin Systems, where he created Times of Lore, published in 1988. The game's interface had a strong influence on other Origin products such as the popular Ultima series. A similar game system was used in Roberts' next release for Origin, Bad Blood (1990). Wing Commander was published later in 1990 and was highly acclaimed. Wing Commander (and the franchise it spawned) soon became Origin's most successful product, eclipsing even the Ultima series. Roberts wasn't as heavily involved in the sequel Wing Commander II, which he only produced. He instead concentrated on Strike Commander. First shown to the public at Summer CES 1991, the project suffered from numerous delays and wasn't released until 1993. Roberts returned to Wing Commander soon after, devising the original concept for the spin-off Wing Commander: Privateer (which his brother, Erin Roberts, produced) and being more deeply involved in Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV. For these sequels, Roberts directed the live-action cinematic scenes.
Following the traditions of Origin Systems, Chris Roberts' residence at the outskirts of Austin, Texas was aptly named "Commander's Ranch", a reference to the Wing Commander series he created.
Digital Anvil
Roberts left Origin in 1996 and founded Digital Anvil along with Marten Reginald Davies EA National Sales Manager PC, Origin producer Tony Zurovec and his brother Erin Roberts. The fledgling studio set up shop in Austin and for several years worked quietly, inking a publishing deal with Microsoft in 1997.
Roberts had stated that he desired to produce films as well as games with Digital Anvil. The 1999 feature film release of Wing Commander directed by Roberts himself, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and featuring visual effects from Digital Anvil failed to attract either critical praise or financial success.
Digital Anvil's first finished game was Starlancer, released to a somewhat lukewarm reception in 2000. Developed externally at Warthog, the game was produced by the Roberts brothers, and featured only some contributions by Digital Anvil. The company was acquired by Microsoft soon after, who sold two of Digital Anvil's projects to Ubi Soft. Roberts left the company after the acquisition, abandoning the director position of his extremely ambitious project Freelancer, even though he remained with the game in a consulting role for a while. The game was commonly regarded as vaporware due to its promised release date of 2001. The game was eventually released in 2003 with a markedly different feature set than the initial plans, but was received fairly favorably.
Point of No Return Entertainment/Ascendant Pictures
After leaving Digital Anvil, Roberts founded Point of No Return Entertainment, planning to produce films, television and games. However, no projects materialized from Point of No Return. Roberts founded Ascendant Pictures in 2002 and served as a producer for a number of major Hollywood productions including the 2004 adaptation of The Punisher, The Jacket and Lord of War.
Now imagine an XP... or Vista... that would let me NOT install MSN, or IE, or Windows Media Player...
Why?
I never use that garbage anyway! If I IM, it is Yahoo. I use FireFox, and VLC player.
And my gaming machine has NONE of those installed. ALL I want it to do is RUN GAMES.
MicroSoft is still all about ramming it's grabage down our throats until we choke on it. And Vista chokes PCs. Useless. Garbage.
Hmmm ahahah ok...let me get it....you prefer win98 to winXP?? hmmmm ok !!! HAHA xD
Win98 is like a hellhole...and your obviously not a real gamer cuz if you were you wouldnt say that cuz with the win98 you play for some time and suddenly the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH appears lol CTRL+ALT+DEL!!!!! oh no my PC restarted.....alright
Theres no doubt winXP is better than win98 or any of the previous............................................thats why they do new ones you know?
And the rest of your post i won't comment because in my opinion your a fanboy flammer so...ur vote doesnt really counts....dont be offended but thats the truth....if you call gargabe to all that microsoft does ur definetely a flammer .......Of course microsoft has its bad things and products but its not everything....
And don't forget that without those "microsoft garbages" our software technology wouldn't be so advanced and multi-choosable...
I was speaking of the ability to install only the parts you wanted.
I never said 98 was a better OS, I never said it was a gaming OS... I said I missed the fact you could take what you wanted and leave the rest.
You should really learn to read what someone says before flaming them. You should really think before you type. And honestly, you should prolly just learn to shut the hell up before you try to attack me, because attacks like this only prove your own failure to read, understand, and make valid posts.
My point still stands. Vista... Bloated... XTinTioN .... a moron that does not read.
Totally and utterly agree with you there, XTinTioN seems to be a kiddy let on their daddies computer.
Let me put it in language he understand: I PWN U
I hope that helps :P Its fun being a troll sometimes.
On the point of vista vs xp/other os's, I would say that I never had problems with 98 and have had more problems with XP. Everyone I know that has installed Vista has had something they need or use that is important to the way they play, break or not work and reinstalled XP. Until everyone has caught up with the Vista standards then that will always be the case, same with 95, 98, and XP.
Anyway, there isn't any good vista only games anyway...Shadowruns a joke!
Yeah... Shadowrun is pretty weak... and Halo 2 was a sad joke on X-Box... pushing it as "Vista Only" gives me a reason to NOT get Vista more than anything else. I want nothing to do with that p00p.
Back ON TOPIC...
Does anyone know what Chris Roberts actually DID about any of this?
Well, for starters he DID NOT work for MicroSoft.
He bailed. As soon as the "sale" (more like a hostile takeover) occurred, he got out. Since then he has been more into making films than games. What films?
See Rabenwolf's post above.
So, nobody can be mad at him for being a "Sell Out"...
In 1996, game designer Chris Roberts founded an all-new studio, Digital Anvil. Already renowned for his creation of the then-popular Wing Commander series, Roberts had grown restless after his employer, Origin Systems, grew in size. He told the press that Digital Anvil would be a return to the smaller studio system which he felt produced better games. Dude got in, made a name for himself, and like so many others parleyed that (keeping the initial costs down by selling his own personal vision instead of the vision of Origin systems who would be expected to pay top dollar for R&D) into his own studio (probably in the exact hopes of what was to follow). However, it wasn't until four years later that Starlancer (PC, Dreamcast), the first game to bear the Digital Anvil imprimatur, was released. Around the same time, the small shop was bought by one of the biggest companies around--Microsoft, which folded it into its internal Microsoft Game Studios system. Chris Roberts promptly exited the company, but would consult on several games in development. He then built a piece of software that he could use as a portfolio for the rest of his intellectual property and upon approval sold the entire company lock, stock, and barrel to microsoft, got his money and got out as has been the industry standard since I can remember. Microsoft's first move after buying Digital Anvil was to sell off two of its projects--Frontier Wars and Loose Cannon--to Ubisoft. It also took the previously PC-only Brute Force and turned it into an Xbox exclusive, released in 2003. That year also saw the release of the most acclaimed Digital Anvil game, Freelancer, for the PC. Microsoft then went to work on getting a rebate for their initial investment by selling off intellectual properties that were either sub-standard or too costly to develop to other companies and developing some of the more portable properties in order to push their XBox division and releasing what they considered to be the appropriate game for the PC market. Talk about disposable, the way it reads it's almost as if it couldn't have worked out any better than it did. Now, it appears Brute Force will have the distinction of being Digital Anvil's last game. Today, Microsoft confirmed to GameSpot that it has shut down the shop and is organizing a "redeployment" of its staff to studios at Microsoft Game Studios headquarters. Now that the initial purchase has been "cleaned" of all it's intellectual property the only thing left to do is clean it of all it's talented personell by intergrating them into the Microsoft family in places where they can be of most use. I'm sure that the guys with skills and talent aren't complaining about that paycheck and as for those without, well they should have known better because this is business 101 happening right before your eyes. "Microsoft Game Studios has undergone a redeploying of resources in its Austin, Texas-based Digital Anvil studio and will centralize the studio's resources in Redmond, Washington," the company said in a statement. "We are working closely with current Digital Anvil employees to place each team member in a position on the Microsoft Game Studios team in Redmond if they so choose. This redeployment of resources will be finalized on January 31, 2006." And finally this is how they weed out the poor or uninspired who are not willing to uproot their lives to work for the beast (no offense to Microsoft because I mean the basic corporation when I say it). In the totally Nazi way that most US businesses are run they do away with all Non-Essential employee's and cherry pick only the most dedicated of the best and brightest (who to most companies are the only truly essential employee's that exist) and keep on rolling.
If anyone should be held accountable for any percieved wrong-doing I would put that on Chris Roberts who (most likely) intentionally did what he did to get what he got and even then only if he intentionally led his employee's to believe otherwise.
I know this isnt the best source of information (wikipedia) but read this to shed some light on Christ Roberts (he was already established, but only wanted Microsoft as publishers, where Microsoft was able to aquire the company instead. Once that happend Roberts left, it was his company and microsoft took it from him.)
Roberts returned to the United States in 1986. He soon found a job at Origin Systems, where he created Times of Lore, published in 1988. The game's interface had a strong influence on other Origin products such as the popular Ultima series. A similar game system was used in Roberts' next release for Origin, Bad Blood (1990). Wing Commander was published later in 1990 and was highly acclaimed. Wing Commander (and the franchise it spawned) soon became Origin's most successful product, eclipsing even the Ultima series. Roberts wasn't as heavily involved in the sequel Wing Commander II, which he only produced. He instead concentrated on Strike Commander. First shown to the public at Summer CES 1991, the project suffered from numerous delays and wasn't released until 1993. Roberts returned to Wing Commander soon after, devising the original concept for the spin-off Wing Commander: Privateer (which his brother, Erin Roberts, produced) and being more deeply involved in Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV. For these sequels, Roberts directed the live-action cinematic scenes.
Following the traditions of Origin Systems, Chris Roberts' residence at the outskirts of Austin, Texas was aptly named "Commander's Ranch", a reference to the Wing Commander series he created.
Digital Anvil
Roberts left Origin in 1996 and founded Digital Anvil along with Marten Reginald Davies EA National Sales Manager PC, Origin producer Tony Zurovec and his brother Erin Roberts. The fledgling studio set up shop in Austin and for several years worked quietly, inking a publishing deal with Microsoft in 1997.
Roberts had stated that he desired to produce films as well as games with Digital Anvil. The 1999 feature film release of Wing Commander directed by Roberts himself, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and featuring visual effects from Digital Anvil failed to attract either critical praise or financial success.
Digital Anvil's first finished game was Starlancer, released to a somewhat lukewarm reception in 2000. Developed externally at Warthog, the game was produced by the Roberts brothers, and featured only some contributions by Digital Anvil. The company was acquired by Microsoft soon after, who sold two of Digital Anvil's projects to Ubi Soft. Roberts left the company after the acquisition, abandoning the director position of his extremely ambitious project Freelancer, even though he remained with the game in a consulting role for a while. The game was commonly regarded as vaporware due to its promised release date of 2001. The game was eventually released in 2003 with a markedly different feature set than the initial plans, but was received fairly favorably.
Point of No Return Entertainment/Ascendant Pictures
After leaving Digital Anvil, Roberts founded Point of No Return Entertainment, planning to produce films, television and games. However, no projects materialized from Point of No Return. Roberts founded Ascendant Pictures in 2002 and served as a producer for a number of major Hollywood productions including the 2004 adaptation of The Punisher, The Jacket and Lord of War.
So from this can I assume then that somewhere between working for Origin and creating Digtal Anvil that he got the directors bug and saw stars in his eyes? If so that would explain creating a company that he in turn sell to fund his directing career.
I know that everything I am saying is speculation and that I truly have no idea what really happened there, but were I a cop and if the entire ordeal were looked at as a crime, I could only say that the extra information only serves to give him motive.
Saying that he only wanted Microsoft as publishers and that they managed to buy the company is like saying that you only wanted your cousin to put gas in your car and instead he stole it. I don't think that is what happened.
True enough, however, if you were a COP, you would have to weigh other factors. While looking hard at Chris Roberts for motive and such, you would ALSO have to pull your criminal file on MicroSoft and read through it completely. 47 YEARS later, when you had read through the 400,000 incident file completely, I think mayhap you would be looking at MicroSoft's business practices, and maybe give Mr Roberts a little more benefit of the doubt than you are today.
Yep I know my friend has vista and it uses way to many rescources its just not worth it, even win xp had useless crap and some of the background stuff that comes with it is a security issue, people need to open there eyes its pretty sad seeing people in here defending microsloft, you honestly think bill gates would design a windows good enough to last you a long time without having to buy another one? There is a reason why you can only install windows xp 3 times and purchase another win xp disc for 100 dollars.
Please stop defending microsoft because it makes you look like a major twit there obvious facts in front of you. You dont even need to read in between the lines people come on. They have the ability to design a secure windows without half as many issues as xp or vista.
Just keep in mind friend you can always get vista and dual windows to get your media stuff or whatever microsoft is trying to charge you for, also keep in mind that cnet will always have free downloads they dont always have everything but they have alot for free.
And your anology was stupid as well by assuming its crying and obviously cannot have a mature and civilized discussion without insulting someones opinion or facts about what they experienced and observe you seem to be lacking in both so why dont you get a real education in how to debate then come to mmorpg.com or go back to the wow forums.
Makes me feel great .... if that small studio had something to offer then it would.... got bought out ? I don't think so. Was the company publicaly traded? I doubt that it was and if it was they asked to be bought out if they drop over 51% of their shares on the market. What really happened ? They SOLD out, who is evil or bad now? Microsoft who was willing to buy the company or the owner of the company who sold out for money?
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
What's all this about "buying" Vista? You're not buying it, you're renting it. When you buy something, it's yours to do with until it wears out or you had enough. When you rent, you're limited in what you can do with it and how long you can use it for. It's a temporary item at best. Vista re-checks itself with MS on a regular basis and MS has to approve the copy each time. When the next big OS comes that they want to "sell" you, the just have to stop approving legitimate purchases. Suddenly the expensive OS you bought is worthless because it can't be activated any more. So you have a choice, spend more money on MS or go to another system and risk having your files not work anymore. Nice isn't it? Say what you will about Win98 or even WinMe, I can still build a computer and install them successfully.
Oh, and saying "it's just business" to justify actions doesn't mean it's moral. A business that does anything to make money is one small step away from organized crime.
True enough, however, if you were a COP, you would have to weigh other factors. While looking hard at Chris Roberts for motive and such, you would ALSO have to pull your criminal file on MicroSoft and read through it completely. 47 YEARS later, when you had read through the 400,000 incident file completely, I think mayhap you would be looking at MicroSoft's business practices, and maybe give Mr Roberts a little more benefit of the doubt than you are today.
AHHH! But Microsoft's M.O. (modus operandi - way of doing things) is to just reverse engineer what they want isn't it?
What's all this about "buying" Vista? You're not buying it, you're renting it. When you buy something, it's yours to do with until it wears out or you had enough. When you rent, you're limited in what you can do with it and how long you can use it for. It's a temporary item at best. Vista re-checks itself with MS on a regular basis and MS has to approve the copy each time. When the next big OS comes that they want to "sell" you, the just have to stop approving legitimate purchases. Suddenly the expensive OS you bought is worthless because it can't be activated any more. So you have a choice, spend more money on MS or go to another system and risk having your files not work anymore. Nice isn't it? Say what you will about Win98 or even WinMe, I can still build a computer and install them successfully.
Oh, and saying "it's just business" to justify actions doesn't mean it's moral. A business that does anything to make money is one small step away from organized crime.
Yes Alverant, Microsoft misbehaved in a major way 10 years ago. Guess what - they've had their wardrobe malfunction moment and now many, many eyes are upon them - not just the feds but the European Union and even small-town ambulance chasing attorneys looking for the next big consumer class action lawsuit (see recent Iowa versus Microsoft case).
In theory Microsoft could use Vista to hijack your computer or make sure your rig blows up as soon as a new operating system comes out. But they would absolutely get slaughtered in the press, in the federal court, and in the court of public opinion. Fortunately, Microsoft is one of the behemoth corporations that's actually afraid enough of federal oversight to not pull some of the stunts they've done in the past. Yes I understand Microsoft has a monopoly on an important product for global trade and productivity, but so does big oil. And guess which industry is more likely to get slapped for unfair trade practices or abusing their monopoly?
@ OP - I hope this doesn't come off as a flame, but Microsoft buying out indie studios is a far cry from the truly immoral things MS did in squeezing out Netscape. The two subjects are apples and oranges, and so are discussions about how Microsoft scrapping a game is even in the same league as someone buying and then murdering your beloved family pet. Games are forms of entertainment, and unfortunately hundreds of titles that did well in the past will never get a remake. Ones that do spawn constant sequels often either did extremely well or were the babies of really big movers and shakers of the gaming industry. Unfortunately, Freelancer wasn't designed by Sid Meiers or published by Blizzard. Back in the day Chris Roberts could have been considered a mover and shaker for Wing Commander, but as others have pointed out he's in the film industry now.
I have several friends who work for Microsoft Game Studios, and believe it or not they're all decent human beings who are out to make quality games because they too are gamers. But as you might expect, Halo, Gears Of War, and Age Of Empires all get priority over a 7-year-old niche game that made decent but not terrific sales. Also, Microsoft has its share of ego-driven projects where a determined project manager can ensure a game's or product's success - too bad Roberts didn't stick around to champion his baby.
The good news is Freelancer had a fascinating backstory and IP, and I'd be highly surprised if Microsoft didn't have some ideas for using the Freelancer universe for a future game.
Yep I know my friend has vista and it uses way to many rescources its just not worth it, even win xp had useless crap and some of the background stuff that comes with it is a security issue, people need to open there eyes its pretty sad seeing people in here defending microsloft, you honestly think bill gates would design a windows good enough to last you a long time without having to buy another one? There is a reason why you can only install windows xp 3 times and purchase another win xp disc for 100 dollars.
First off, that's not true, you don't have to purchase another disc. If you ever receive that message all you have to do is call Microsoft's support line and have them reset it for you. I've done it. Took 5 mins. They only asked why I was having to reinstall so often.
And yes there is a reason, the reason is prevent you from installing XP on multiple computers. In my case I was installing to the same PC multiple times because my hard drive was going bad and it kept messing up my windows installation. When I explained why I was having to reinstall, they just reset it back to 0 for me. The tech was very polite, courteous and had me going again 5 mins after I called.
And for the other person who claimed Microsoft put Netscape out of business, you need to go back and review the case because first of all Microsoft won the case (on appeal) and 2nd of all, it had little to nothing to do with Netscape. That was the original claim but when Microsoft totally blew that argument out of the water, the goverment switched their tactics and claimed that Microsoft was breaking their agreement they signed from an earlier lawsuit about bundling Windows with Word that they wouldn't bundle products. However the governments case fell apart when Microsoft showed where they had put into that agreement that although they wouldn't bundle products, the government could not tell them what they could include as part of their operating system, so adding internet technology to their OS was completely legal. The judge was even so biased against Microsoft that he ruled in favor of the government and Microsoft won on appeal with the appelate court saying the judge ignored the evidence of the case when he made his ruling. I've read most of the court case documents and the decision was so obvious that a 2nd grader could see that Microsoft did nothing wrong in this case. Now earlier Microsoft did try some pretty sneaky tactics, but that was regarding Microsoft Word, not internet explorer and like I said led to Microsoft signing an agreement not to bundle products. The case against Microsoft and internet explorer was extremely weak evidenced by the fact that the government kept changing it's case.
I have never liked Microsoft. Anyone who does is a fool.
They got big by smart business deals – not because of quality products. Back when windows 3.1 was around, there were many better OS’s. I could name about 5 at least. But because of business deals it became the most popular. Once it became the most popular – that became the reason to use it, not the quality.
Comments
How does this make me feel about Microsoft? The real question is how does this make you feel about Chris Roberts? Well, I feel like he's a bit of a sell out but if stupid money gets waved at you, you have to take it. Now Chris can start a new company, hire new talent and wait for MS to come calling again....
So far as MS goes -- most people that knock MS have no business doing so. It made the PC accessible and simple, standardizing a look and feel across a number of applications as well as creating a unified driver database to bring all of the hardware manufacturers in line. Win 95 was a huge leap forward back in the day and helped make the internet accessible in every single household. It has been a positive leader in the industry when all is said and done. This easily could have been Apple, IBM, DEC or someone picking up a flavor of *nix but they were all alargely stickign to their proprietary nature in order to make a profit. Yes, MS makes a profit too, that's what they're in business for but they were there at the right time, at the right place and capable of DELIVERING.
IS MS absolved of all guilt? Hardly, considering some of its monopolistic practices of bundling software and knocking down netscape. Althought the damage has been done there, which is unfortunate, they've paid/are paying the price and now are under constant surveillance. Unlessyou were specifically wronged under those circumstances, I really can't see how you can knock MS because if you were building/supporting/using PCs before 1995, you'd know better.
Everything in Windows is becoming a Buy on Demand service, just look at the latest Windows Media Player.
I share information with others, on my current system I don't have one peice of bought software. Even my WinXP is from a friend; and I have Dreamweaver, Photoshop CS, and many others... I guess the only bought software would be the games I play.
With Vista, I do not want them checking to see if my junk is registered, I don't want it to scan my Registry and report back to HQ. Those Indians can stay out of my computer thanks.
Guess I'm a fool.
You can name 5 better OS's or just 5 others? Not that Windows is perfect, far from it, but others have tried to make better OS's and for the most part have failed. ,,,
I was talking about windows 3.1
ok, these are 5 operating systems I believe were superior to windows 3.1 in 1992
Amiga OS 3.0Macintosh OS (System 7)
BeOS
Atari TOS (this os kicked butt - and don't say it didn't if you never used it - it was like mac ans dos rolled into one).
Linux
First off, 3 of those operating systems are not for the PC. It's a little hard to compare operating systems from different platforms because the hardware is different. It could be those systems were just better and not necessarily the OS. Remember we're talking about 286/386 PC's here and the Amiga and Atari were mainly gaming or graphics oriented systems so it's a bit hard to compare them with DOS or Windows.
Secondly, I owned both an Amiga and an Atari and neither OS got me real excited. They had some nice features, mainly because they were designed from the get go to be graphical in nature, but nothing all that great. They had some problems as well. And I don't think they had anything on Windows 95 which came out a few years later and was the first Windows platform to really get away from DOS. I liked the Amiga OS better than Atari's by the way although there were a lot of similarities and similarities with the Mac as well.
I don't know why you would think that Linux had a better operating system in 1992. I guess a lot would depend on what you planned to do with that operating system. If you handed a PC with Linux to the average person in 1992 they wouldn't have had a clue what to do with it. Not that Windows was completely intuitive, but better than Linux by a long shot. And yes I realize that ease of use is only one facet of an OS, but it's a pretty big one in my humble opinion. The only people with Linux back in 1992 were geeks who wanted to be able to control everything themselves or were on servers or something that were not meant to be interacted with by the average joe.
I'm not familiar with BeOS. I'll have to look into that one.
I'll give you credit though, you did come up with 5 OS's that *could* be considered better than 3.1 But since 2 of those systems don't even exist anymore and 1 is for a different platform, that really only leaves Linux and BeOS to compete with Windows for the PC and at least for me, Linux wasn't superior than Windows in 1992. And I'm not sure it's better than Vista today.
I still think that OS/2 had the best shot at taking down Microsoft, especially since it was jointly created by them. The company I worked for back then even went so far as to replace all of our Windows PC's with OS/2 and were convinced it would be the way of the future. I gave it a shot and used it for a good year or more, but found myself dual-booting my PC into Windows 3.1 after awhile. Since the shop had been initially Windows, all the key applications like Word and Excel were still around and I found that the Windows versions of Word and Excel and lotus notes were faster, less prone to crashes and had more features running on Windows 3.1 than their OS/2 counterparts. On top of that, running Windows applications (which we had a few) under OS/2 was downright painful. Windows would frequently crash along with all your applications that were running on it under OS/2. And OS/2's way of putting extended data in it's folders was downright stupid as well. I one time saw this huge nest of folders on my harddrive with no files in it and couldn't figure out what it was for, so I decided to delete it. BAD IDEA!!!. As each folder dissappeared, so did my whole GUI. WTF? Took me several hours to get my GUI fixed. Perhaps these folders should have been hidden? And I definately shouldn't have been able to delete them!!!
For all of Windows problems, it's still the best PC OS I've used. Granted, there haven't been many choices.
Nice, thanks for the mature attitude and flamer approach to responding. Forums are for discussion, its a shame you feel dicussion equals "crying".
Ok "..if microsoft own it they can do whatever they want with it."?
So if you have to move and your new landlord wont let you keep your dog "Mr. Tootlesworth", and you have to sell/giveaway your dog. Would your attitude be the same if that person you sold/gave your dog to immediately snaps its neck and chops its up because their extended family is visiting from cambodia, you would keep your same attitude? What if they started making butt love to the pet you had to get rid of?
Obviously your logic isnt as black and white as you want it to seem.
And if you are complaining about games like Brute Force being made a console only game then in the coming years you are going to be very upset. I myself am a PC gamer(I do have consoles and I love them, but I would much rather play a game on my PC). Havn't you noticed that fewer and fewer games are coming out for the PC, while at the same time more and more titles are being released for consoles? This is because there is much more money to be had in the console market. PC gaming is slowly dieing because gaming on a PC is much more expensive. Having a rig that can run the latest and greatest games and still have them looking fantastic isn't exactly cheap. Mean while you can go pick up a 360 for $400 and be set for quite a while.
With PCs to keep the technology current you have to upgrade them, new processors, new video cards, more ram. Sometimes replacing one part on your PC can be as(if not more) expensive than buying a console.
The initial cost of the console is MUCH lower than a PC gaming rig and the upkeep is just a fraction of what the PCs is.
For those of you who don't like to play games on consoles, you are going to be very disappointed in the next few years.
This being said, would most of your problems with console gaming go away if they made mice and keyboards for them?
- - "What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?" - -
Nice, thanks for the mature attitude and flamer approach to responding. Forums are for discussion, its a shame you feel dicussion equals "crying".
Ok "..if microsoft own it they can do whatever they want with it."?
So if you have to move and your new landlord wont let you keep your dog "Mr. Tootlesworth", and you have to sell/giveaway your dog. Would your attitude be the same if that person you sold/gave your dog to immediately snaps its neck and chops its up because their extended family is visiting from cambodia, you would keep your same attitude? What if they started making butt love to the pet you had to get rid of?
Obviously your logic isnt as black and white as you want it to seem. Apparently my logic isn't as good as whining and crying when anyone doesn't agree with me. My only point was that if Microsoft own it, then they have the rights to do whatever they want with it.
As for you analogy, it was stupid. If I had a dog and I was moving I would make sure I moved somewhere that took dogs. Even if I did what you said, I would either have had an idea they would do something like that or I wouldn't sell to them. If I didn't know I would likely be long gone and never knew that they did anything like that unless I was stalking them like a psycho.
You make it sound like fact that this guy was going to make an amazing game. Sorry no gauantees that would happen. I never even heard of the guy before this thread. I'm sorry I can't kiss you ass and automatically agree with you. Feel free to cry as much as you like.
member of imminst.org
First of all, PC gaming is growing. I have no idea where this myth started that it's dying, but it's totally false.
Second, why would Microsoft support their XBOX360, but not the XP and Vista with PC games? That's idiotic. They are also spending a lot of money branding 'Games for Windows'.
Third, this kind of restructuring happens all the time in business, including the gaming industry. There is absolutely no way you have all the facts to make a proper conclusion about what happened.
If anyone should be held accountable for any percieved wrong-doing I would put that on Chris Roberts who (most likely) intentionally did what he did to get what he got and even then only if he intentionally led his employee's to believe otherwise.
Hmmm ahahah ok...let me get it....you prefer win98 to winXP?? hmmmm ok !!! HAHA xD
Win98 is like a hellhole...and your obviously not a real gamer cuz if you were you wouldnt say that cuz with the win98 you play for some time and suddenly the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH appears lol CTRL+ALT+DEL!!!!! oh no my PC restarted.....alright
Theres no doubt winXP is better than win98 or any of the previous............................................thats why they do new ones you know?
And the rest of your post i won't comment because in my opinion your a fanboy flammer so...ur vote doesnt really counts....dont be offended but thats the truth....if you call gargabe to all that microsoft does ur definetely a flammer .......Of course microsoft has its bad things and products but its not everything....
And don't forget that without those "microsoft garbages" our software technology wouldn't be so advanced and multi-choosable...
Whatever....
Cheers
YOU are a moron. Seriously, a TOTAL jackass.
Did you even read my post? Even one word?
I was speaking of the ability to install only the parts you wanted.
I never said 98 was a better OS, I never said it was a gaming OS... I said I missed the fact you could take what you wanted and leave the rest.
You should really learn to read what someone says before flaming them. You should really think before you type. And honestly, you should prolly just learn to shut the hell up before you try to attack me, because attacks like this only prove your own failure to read, understand, and make valid posts.
My point still stands. Vista... Bloated... XTinTioN .... a moron that does not read.
If anyone should be held accountable for any percieved wrong-doing I would put that on Chris Roberts who (most likely) intentionally did what he did to get what he got and even then only if he intentionally led his employee's to believe otherwise.
I know this isnt the best source of information (wikipedia) but read this to shed some light on Christ Roberts (he was already established, but only wanted Microsoft as publishers, where Microsoft was able to aquire the company instead. Once that happend Roberts left, it was his company and microsoft took it from him.)
________________________________________________________________
Roberts returned to the United States in 1986. He soon found a job at Origin Systems, where he created Times of Lore, published in 1988. The game's interface had a strong influence on other Origin products such as the popular Ultima series. A similar game system was used in Roberts' next release for Origin, Bad Blood (1990). Wing Commander was published later in 1990 and was highly acclaimed. Wing Commander (and the franchise it spawned) soon became Origin's most successful product, eclipsing even the Ultima series. Roberts wasn't as heavily involved in the sequel Wing Commander II, which he only produced. He instead concentrated on Strike Commander. First shown to the public at Summer CES 1991, the project suffered from numerous delays and wasn't released until 1993. Roberts returned to Wing Commander soon after, devising the original concept for the spin-off Wing Commander: Privateer (which his brother, Erin Roberts, produced) and being more deeply involved in Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV. For these sequels, Roberts directed the live-action cinematic scenes.
Following the traditions of Origin Systems, Chris Roberts' residence at the outskirts of Austin, Texas was aptly named "Commander's Ranch", a reference to the Wing Commander series he created.
Digital Anvil
Roberts left Origin in 1996 and founded Digital Anvil along with Marten Reginald Davies EA National Sales Manager PC, Origin producer Tony Zurovec and his brother Erin Roberts. The fledgling studio set up shop in Austin and for several years worked quietly, inking a publishing deal with Microsoft in 1997.
Roberts had stated that he desired to produce films as well as games with Digital Anvil. The 1999 feature film release of Wing Commander directed by Roberts himself, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and featuring visual effects from Digital Anvil failed to attract either critical praise or financial success.
Digital Anvil's first finished game was Starlancer, released to a somewhat lukewarm reception in 2000. Developed externally at Warthog, the game was produced by the Roberts brothers, and featured only some contributions by Digital Anvil. The company was acquired by Microsoft soon after, who sold two of Digital Anvil's projects to Ubi Soft. Roberts left the company after the acquisition, abandoning the director position of his extremely ambitious project Freelancer, even though he remained with the game in a consulting role for a while. The game was commonly regarded as vaporware due to its promised release date of 2001. The game was eventually released in 2003 with a markedly different feature set than the initial plans, but was received fairly favorably.
Point of No Return Entertainment/Ascendant Pictures
After leaving Digital Anvil, Roberts founded Point of No Return Entertainment, planning to produce films, television and games. However, no projects materialized from Point of No Return. Roberts founded Ascendant Pictures in 2002 and served as a producer for a number of major Hollywood productions including the 2004 adaptation of The Punisher, The Jacket and Lord of War.
Hmmm ahahah ok...let me get it....you prefer win98 to winXP?? hmmmm ok !!! HAHA xD
Win98 is like a hellhole...and your obviously not a real gamer cuz if you were you wouldnt say that cuz with the win98 you play for some time and suddenly the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH appears lol CTRL+ALT+DEL!!!!! oh no my PC restarted.....alright
Theres no doubt winXP is better than win98 or any of the previous............................................thats why they do new ones you know?
And the rest of your post i won't comment because in my opinion your a fanboy flammer so...ur vote doesnt really counts....dont be offended but thats the truth....if you call gargabe to all that microsoft does ur definetely a flammer .......Of course microsoft has its bad things and products but its not everything....
And don't forget that without those "microsoft garbages" our software technology wouldn't be so advanced and multi-choosable...
Whatever....
Cheers
YOU are a moron. Seriously, a TOTAL jackass.
Did you even read my post? Even one word?
I was speaking of the ability to install only the parts you wanted.
I never said 98 was a better OS, I never said it was a gaming OS... I said I missed the fact you could take what you wanted and leave the rest.
You should really learn to read what someone says before flaming them. You should really think before you type. And honestly, you should prolly just learn to shut the hell up before you try to attack me, because attacks like this only prove your own failure to read, understand, and make valid posts.
My point still stands. Vista... Bloated... XTinTioN .... a moron that does not read.
Totally and utterly agree with you there, XTinTioN seems to be a kiddy let on their daddies computer.
Let me put it in language he understand: I PWN U
I hope that helps :P Its fun being a troll sometimes.
On the point of vista vs xp/other os's, I would say that I never had problems with 98 and have had more problems with XP. Everyone I know that has installed Vista has had something they need or use that is important to the way they play, break or not work and reinstalled XP. Until everyone has caught up with the Vista standards then that will always be the case, same with 95, 98, and XP.
Anyway, there isn't any good vista only games anyway...Shadowruns a joke!
Yeah... Shadowrun is pretty weak... and Halo 2 was a sad joke on X-Box... pushing it as "Vista Only" gives me a reason to NOT get Vista more than anything else. I want nothing to do with that p00p.
Back ON TOPIC...
Does anyone know what Chris Roberts actually DID about any of this?
Well, for starters he DID NOT work for MicroSoft.
He bailed. As soon as the "sale" (more like a hostile takeover) occurred, he got out. Since then he has been more into making films than games. What films?
See Rabenwolf's post above.
So, nobody can be mad at him for being a "Sell Out"...
If anyone should be held accountable for any percieved wrong-doing I would put that on Chris Roberts who (most likely) intentionally did what he did to get what he got and even then only if he intentionally led his employee's to believe otherwise.
I know this isnt the best source of information (wikipedia) but read this to shed some light on Christ Roberts (he was already established, but only wanted Microsoft as publishers, where Microsoft was able to aquire the company instead. Once that happend Roberts left, it was his company and microsoft took it from him.)
________________________________________________________________
Roberts returned to the United States in 1986. He soon found a job at Origin Systems, where he created Times of Lore, published in 1988. The game's interface had a strong influence on other Origin products such as the popular Ultima series. A similar game system was used in Roberts' next release for Origin, Bad Blood (1990). Wing Commander was published later in 1990 and was highly acclaimed. Wing Commander (and the franchise it spawned) soon became Origin's most successful product, eclipsing even the Ultima series. Roberts wasn't as heavily involved in the sequel Wing Commander II, which he only produced. He instead concentrated on Strike Commander. First shown to the public at Summer CES 1991, the project suffered from numerous delays and wasn't released until 1993. Roberts returned to Wing Commander soon after, devising the original concept for the spin-off Wing Commander: Privateer (which his brother, Erin Roberts, produced) and being more deeply involved in Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV. For these sequels, Roberts directed the live-action cinematic scenes.
Following the traditions of Origin Systems, Chris Roberts' residence at the outskirts of Austin, Texas was aptly named "Commander's Ranch", a reference to the Wing Commander series he created.
Digital Anvil
Roberts left Origin in 1996 and founded Digital Anvil along with Marten Reginald Davies EA National Sales Manager PC, Origin producer Tony Zurovec and his brother Erin Roberts. The fledgling studio set up shop in Austin and for several years worked quietly, inking a publishing deal with Microsoft in 1997.
Roberts had stated that he desired to produce films as well as games with Digital Anvil. The 1999 feature film release of Wing Commander directed by Roberts himself, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and featuring visual effects from Digital Anvil failed to attract either critical praise or financial success.
Digital Anvil's first finished game was Starlancer, released to a somewhat lukewarm reception in 2000. Developed externally at Warthog, the game was produced by the Roberts brothers, and featured only some contributions by Digital Anvil. The company was acquired by Microsoft soon after, who sold two of Digital Anvil's projects to Ubi Soft. Roberts left the company after the acquisition, abandoning the director position of his extremely ambitious project Freelancer, even though he remained with the game in a consulting role for a while. The game was commonly regarded as vaporware due to its promised release date of 2001. The game was eventually released in 2003 with a markedly different feature set than the initial plans, but was received fairly favorably.
Point of No Return Entertainment/Ascendant Pictures
After leaving Digital Anvil, Roberts founded Point of No Return Entertainment, planning to produce films, television and games. However, no projects materialized from Point of No Return. Roberts founded Ascendant Pictures in 2002 and served as a producer for a number of major Hollywood productions including the 2004 adaptation of The Punisher, The Jacket and Lord of War.
So from this can I assume then that somewhere between working for Origin and creating Digtal Anvil that he got the directors bug and saw stars in his eyes? If so that would explain creating a company that he in turn sell to fund his directing career.
I know that everything I am saying is speculation and that I truly have no idea what really happened there, but were I a cop and if the entire ordeal were looked at as a crime, I could only say that the extra information only serves to give him motive.
Saying that he only wanted Microsoft as publishers and that they managed to buy the company is like saying that you only wanted your cousin to put gas in your car and instead he stole it. I don't think that is what happened.
True enough, however, if you were a COP, you would have to weigh other factors. While looking hard at Chris Roberts for motive and such, you would ALSO have to pull your criminal file on MicroSoft and read through it completely. 47 YEARS later, when you had read through the 400,000 incident file completely, I think mayhap you would be looking at MicroSoft's business practices, and maybe give Mr Roberts a little more benefit of the doubt than you are today.
Yep I know my friend has vista and it uses way to many rescources its just not worth it, even win xp had useless crap and some of the background stuff that comes with it is a security issue, people need to open there eyes its pretty sad seeing people in here defending microsloft, you honestly think bill gates would design a windows good enough to last you a long time without having to buy another one? There is a reason why you can only install windows xp 3 times and purchase another win xp disc for 100 dollars.
Please stop defending microsoft because it makes you look like a major twit there obvious facts in front of you. You dont even need to read in between the lines people come on. They have the ability to design a secure windows without half as many issues as xp or vista.
And your anology was stupid as well by assuming its crying and obviously cannot have a mature and civilized discussion without insulting someones opinion or facts about what they experienced and observe you seem to be lacking in both so why dont you get a real education in how to debate then come to mmorpg.com or go back to the wow forums.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
Oh, and saying "it's just business" to justify actions doesn't mean it's moral. A business that does anything to make money is one small step away from organized crime.
AHHH! But Microsoft's M.O. (modus operandi - way of doing things) is to just reverse engineer what they want isn't it?
I'm grasping at straws
Yes Alverant, Microsoft misbehaved in a major way 10 years ago. Guess what - they've had their wardrobe malfunction moment and now many, many eyes are upon them - not just the feds but the European Union and even small-town ambulance chasing attorneys looking for the next big consumer class action lawsuit (see recent Iowa versus Microsoft case).
In theory Microsoft could use Vista to hijack your computer or make sure your rig blows up as soon as a new operating system comes out. But they would absolutely get slaughtered in the press, in the federal court, and in the court of public opinion. Fortunately, Microsoft is one of the behemoth corporations that's actually afraid enough of federal oversight to not pull some of the stunts they've done in the past. Yes I understand Microsoft has a monopoly on an important product for global trade and productivity, but so does big oil. And guess which industry is more likely to get slapped for unfair trade practices or abusing their monopoly?
@ OP - I hope this doesn't come off as a flame, but Microsoft buying out indie studios is a far cry from the truly immoral things MS did in squeezing out Netscape. The two subjects are apples and oranges, and so are discussions about how Microsoft scrapping a game is even in the same league as someone buying and then murdering your beloved family pet. Games are forms of entertainment, and unfortunately hundreds of titles that did well in the past will never get a remake. Ones that do spawn constant sequels often either did extremely well or were the babies of really big movers and shakers of the gaming industry. Unfortunately, Freelancer wasn't designed by Sid Meiers or published by Blizzard. Back in the day Chris Roberts could have been considered a mover and shaker for Wing Commander, but as others have pointed out he's in the film industry now.
I have several friends who work for Microsoft Game Studios, and believe it or not they're all decent human beings who are out to make quality games because they too are gamers. But as you might expect, Halo, Gears Of War, and Age Of Empires all get priority over a 7-year-old niche game that made decent but not terrific sales. Also, Microsoft has its share of ego-driven projects where a determined project manager can ensure a game's or product's success - too bad Roberts didn't stick around to champion his baby.
The good news is Freelancer had a fascinating backstory and IP, and I'd be highly surprised if Microsoft didn't have some ideas for using the Freelancer universe for a future game.
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First off, that's not true, you don't have to purchase another disc. If you ever receive that message all you have to do is call Microsoft's support line and have them reset it for you. I've done it. Took 5 mins. They only asked why I was having to reinstall so often.
And yes there is a reason, the reason is prevent you from installing XP on multiple computers. In my case I was installing to the same PC multiple times because my hard drive was going bad and it kept messing up my windows installation. When I explained why I was having to reinstall, they just reset it back to 0 for me. The tech was very polite, courteous and had me going again 5 mins after I called.
And for the other person who claimed Microsoft put Netscape out of business, you need to go back and review the case because first of all Microsoft won the case (on appeal) and 2nd of all, it had little to nothing to do with Netscape. That was the original claim but when Microsoft totally blew that argument out of the water, the goverment switched their tactics and claimed that Microsoft was breaking their agreement they signed from an earlier lawsuit about bundling Windows with Word that they wouldn't bundle products. However the governments case fell apart when Microsoft showed where they had put into that agreement that although they wouldn't bundle products, the government could not tell them what they could include as part of their operating system, so adding internet technology to their OS was completely legal. The judge was even so biased against Microsoft that he ruled in favor of the government and Microsoft won on appeal with the appelate court saying the judge ignored the evidence of the case when he made his ruling. I've read most of the court case documents and the decision was so obvious that a 2nd grader could see that Microsoft did nothing wrong in this case. Now earlier Microsoft did try some pretty sneaky tactics, but that was regarding Microsoft Word, not internet explorer and like I said led to Microsoft signing an agreement not to bundle products. The case against Microsoft and internet explorer was extremely weak evidenced by the fact that the government kept changing it's case.
What is your physical limit?