Will Windows 8 be the death of PC gaming?

[Niode]

This is already possible. It's been literally months since I even looked at the metro/Start screen.

This water thin argument about Windows 8 annoys me to no end, I bought it not long after it came out and NEVER use Metro. Ever.

It is so easy to disable and replace with a Start Menu (or without one if you don't want one), Windows 8 feels and operates like Windows 7, just more streamlined (don't need to waste any resources on on Aero) and with a lot of very functional features added. Not to mention it is by far the cheapest OS I have ever purchased, even when I was a full time student.

Niode has pointed out most of my feelings on the OS already.

I work in IT now and it infuriates me at work, so many IT savvy guys just spouting shit about how W8 is bollocks. I'm just like "whaaaat? You've clearly never used it properly..." Windows 8 is powerful as fuck compared to Windows 7. So many things I wish Windows did as good or better than OS X has finally happened.

[emwearz]

"You've clearly never used it properly..."

I feel this is the biggest issue.

It happens with games often I feel, like Duke Nukem Forever, people heard it was shit, took it as shit without ever really playing it, when around telling everyone how shit it is, when they have never actually owned the game, I fire it up, play it through and quite enjoy the flipping thing. Windows 8 feeling.

[Niode]

"You've clearly never used it properly..."

I feel this is the biggest issue.

It happens with games often I feel, like Duke Nukem Forever, people heard it was shit, took it as shit without ever really playing it, when around telling everyone how shit it is, when they have never actually owned the game, I fire it up, play it through and quite enjoy the flipping thing. Windows 8 feeling.

Yep. I completed DNF on the day of release. Do not regret it one bit. Hell, I waited long enough for the fucking thing. Cashing in that pre-order (from nearly 10 years ago) felt so good. I even enjoyed the DLC. 13 hours out of an FPS? Good value for money if you ask me.

What can I say? People love a bandwagon. I simply have to give anything a try at least once before I'll form an opinion on it. It seems these days people are just too keen to go with the herd mentality. Drives me crazy. The most powerful question to ask these people is "Why?" and watch their brains work as they realise they have no fucking idea why they don't like it. They 'just don't'. Crazy.

[Hobie-wan]

FWIW, I played all of DNF. It was over very meh but the misogynistic bits were awful.

I tried W8 out and I've had to deal with it on customer's PCs. Yes there underlying bits are are good. However saying that you should just accept it and replace the Metro bits is like saying that the new model Fnord Crustang is brilliant.

The body, engine, and suspension are faboo. The interior is a bit crap though with the gas pedal on the passenger side, the steering wheel being mounted on the ceiling above your head, and the seat springs that fuck you in the ass any time you take a left turn at anything more than 6 miles per hour. So you might want to throw all those interface bits out and replace them.

That kind of throws a damper on the excitement over the new good bits.

(nothing against Mustangs)

[Jmustang1968]

FWIW, I played all of DNF. It was over very meh but the misogynistic bits were awful.

I tried W8 out and I've had to deal with it on customer's PCs. Yes there underlying bits are are good. However saying that you should just accept it and replace the Metro bits is like saying that the new model Fnord Crustang is brilliant.

The body, engine, and suspension are faboo. The interior is a bit crap though with the gas pedal on the passenger side, the steering wheel being mounted on the ceiling above your head, and the seat springs that fuck you in the ass any time you take a left turn at anything more than 6 miles per hour. So you might want to throw all those interface bits out and replace them.

That kind of throws a damper on the excitement over the new good bits.

(nothing against Mustangs)

[MrPopo]

I'm going to have to ask why you have so much trouble with the Start Screen. I understand not liking it from an aesthetic sense, but from a functionality standpoint I do not understand the level of bile you have for it.

[Hobie-wan]

I posted about it before. Large ugly waste of space. Randomly hide and shuffle things around. Inability to organize things the way I want. Hovering is annoying. I dislike hover menus too as I don't want them to activate simply because I stopped my mouse there.

[MrPopo]

Randomly hide and shuffle things around.

It does neither of those things. Things pinned to Start stay there. If you drag stuff around yourself then stuff moves around, but I'd think someone would expect that.

Inability to organize things the way I want.

There's tile groups and the ability to name the groups. Is it just that you want a nested directory structure?

Hovering is annoying. I dislike hover menus too as I don't want them to activate simply because I stopped my mouse there.

You're talking about the charms bar and the backstack? Considering you have to go all the way into the corner of your monitor to even get them to show up I'm going to have to assume that you just have a frothing hatred of the concept of stuff that happens when you hover.

Really, all your complaints are "they changed it, now it sucks". None of them speak of reduced functionality, just you not taking any time to learn the OS.

[Hobie-wan]

It does neither of those things. Things pinned to Start stay there. If you drag stuff around yourself then stuff moves around, but I'd think someone would expect that.

Stuff on the Start screen moves depending on what you last used. Now maybe you can pin stuff there, but the tiles are a huge waste of space, so you have to use that extra list. I didn't mess enough to see if you could do something useful with that, but yes, I didn't like the change. With a real Start menu I can arrange things neatly and they take minimal space. I don't like pinning stuff to the start bar in earlier Windows, so I don't like pinning stuff to that bar in 8 either. I can't fit everything so it's just annoying to me and I'd rather not have it take stuff away from taskbar boxes for all the programs I normaly have open.

There's tile groups and the ability to name the groups. Is it just that you want a nested directory structure?

Again, hate tiles and their ugly look and inefficient use of space.

You're talking about the charms bar and the backstack? Considering you have to go all the way into the corner of your monitor to even get them to show up I'm going to have to assume that you just have a frothing hatred of the concept of stuff that happens when you hover.

I often shove my pointer off in a corner or edge to move it out of the way. I don't need some crap popping up that I didn't ask for. But yes, I hate just about all hovering. I hate random stuff happening just because my mouse ends up somewhere for half a second in the normal use of my PC. If I want something to happen, I want it to be because I clicked on something or hit a button. Likewise I hate programs stealing focus from me. Flash on the taskbar, make a noise, whatever. But do not jump somewhere so that my clicking or typing is suddenly activating something in a window that I was not just in working on something else. Hovering generally steals focus if my mouse happens to get near a hotspot.

If this is 'frothing hatred', so be it.

Really, all your complaints are "they changed it, now it sucks". None of them speak of reduced functionality, just you not taking any time to learn the OS.

The changes don't seem like ones that are efficient for someone who is used to using computers. One change I did like was when renaming files, if you had extensions showing, that it would just highlight the name bit for you. That's brilliant.

[MrPopo]

Really, all your complaints are "they changed it, now it sucks". None of them speak of reduced functionality, just you not taking any time to learn the OS.

The changes don't seem like ones that are efficient for someone who is used to using computers.

They said the same thing with the GUI debuted; keyboard was much faster than this newfangled graphical thing. And one thing you aren't concious of is that you, like many people on this site, are of an above-average level of proficiency among regular computer users. I think the statistic is that ~90% of Windows licenses are sold to OEMs - computer manufacturers. The majority of computer users will have used a computer all their life but not approach the level of proficiency that you or I have. So, just as point and click menus are less efficient when you're used to keyboard shortcuts, this is less efficient than the system you had created for yourself. But it ends up being a net win when you include all consumers. If Microsoft only targets the enthusiast audience then it will alienate the general consumer that makes up the vast majority of their business.