Newsgroups: rec.autos.simulators
Path: news.jprc.com!dca1-feed2.news.digex.net!digex!news1.radix.net!nac!newspeer.monmouth.com!newsfeed.enteract.com!ix.netcom.com!not-for-mail
From: dripton@netcom.com (David Ripton)
Subject: Re: Thanks for confirming official requirements are a bald-faced lie
Message-ID: <driptonF0DAoH.Cwy@netcom.com>
Sender: dripton@netcom5.netcom.com
Reply-To: dripton@netcom.com
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test67 (15 July 1998)
References: <SyxQ1.108$QC.679206@storm.twcol.com> <3614a1f8.1069633@news.rz.uni-sb.de> <6v2r9v$264$1@kali.ziplink.net> <6v3ikf$ide$1@news.interlog.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 18:43:29 GMT
Lines: 35
Xref: news.jprc.com rec.autos.simulators:46653

In article <6v3ikf$ide$1@news.interlog.com>,
Marc Collins <collinsm@interlog.com> wrote:
>The bottom of the box does not tell anyone what is required to race as
>opposed to drive in training mode.  Everyone assumes that graphics options
>will affect framerate and will need to be adjusted accordingly.  They may
>not be aware how little effect that has in GPL.  I can set my graphics to
>look worse than ICR2 and it's the still the Ai that kills the framerate.
>
>Astonishingly, Steve Smith is bluntly honest about this and many other
>aspects of the game in the included Strategy Guide (I just got my official
>copy of the game today, so I had not yet seen this).  All I am saying, and I
>won't keep repeating it, is that a precis of his hardware requirements
>should be on the outside of the box--where people can see it before they buy
>(usually unreturnable software).

I agree completely that companies need to be honest about hardware 
requirements.  And that Steve Smith did a better job than Sierra's
box at defining what GPL needs.

However, good software stores in the US do allow returns.  (Friends 
don't let friends shop at Best Buy.)  And Sierra does have a 30-day 
direct return policy in the US.

90% of computer games are utter crap.  Buy only after seeing 
favorable end-user reviews and/or playing a demo.  Even then, buy 
only where you can return the game if it doesn't work.  Semantics 
as to the distinction between what "minimum" and "recommended" 
requirements give you in an incredibly great product like GPL are 
a pretty minor problem, in an industry where outright fraud 
(features listed on the box but not in the product, rebates that
are never honored) is rampant.

-- 
David Ripton    dripton@netcom.com
spamgard(tm): To email me, put "geek" in your Subject line.
