Star force protection and Vista

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the-locksmith Posted: 11-21-2008 9:28 AM

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Call me curious, but am I the only one who is irritated that we cannot identify Vista problems before getting a trade?  Why can't a box be added to the search parameters to show games with Star force protection to avoid getting a game that will not load on a Vista machine.  I realize that Vista is relatively new, but it has been around for a while and accepting that some games will NOT load is a fact of life that should not be hidden in the closet to avoid reality.  It is a waste of time and money, not to mention aggravating.

the-locksmith

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naytk replied on 11-21-2008 9:42 AM

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Although I run XP, I can see how this could definately get frustrating. 

At the moment, Goozex is setup so that it is your responsibility to make sure a game will run on your system.  No system requirements are posted at all(as far as I can see).  To help you out though, depending on your browser, you might try installing the google toolbar and doing a web search before adding an item to your queue.

Also, systemlabs 'Can You Run It' is a great tool for seeing if your computer is up to spec for any game released.

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the-locksmith replied on 11-21-2008 12:17 PM

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Thanks for the reply,

My problem is that my machine is so tricked out that it is overqualified for starforce protection games.  You would however, think that Microsoft should have made a little more backward compatibility.

the-locksmith

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ElfShotTheFood replied on 11-21-2008 12:26 PM

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Or you could just do a Google search.

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txa1265 replied on 11-21-2008 1:07 PM

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The amount of potential system compatibility issues is overwhelming - consider games that won't run with integrated graphics, or those that have major issues with ATi cards, or Mac games that won't load on OS X, or PC games from the Win95 / 98 era that won't work on XP, and on and on ...

That is why it is left to the user to identify their own potential capability issues on PC, just as it is for PS2->PS3 and XBOX ->X360 compatiblity.

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the-locksmith replied on 11-21-2008 1:39 PM

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I buy into the responsibility issue on my part, what I question is:

1-If you know that you have a game that has compatibility issues IE: Star Force Protection there should be a way to convey that to potential new owners

2- How difficult would it be to add some boxes to the advanced search page to address this issue?

3- The Goozex arena should be a friendly site, not buyer beware.

the-locksmith

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txa1265 replied on 11-21-2008 3:44 PM

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1.  I may be mistaken, but 'StarForce is incompatible with Vista' is not an absolute.  Certain games need StarForce driver updates, and others do not.  It just isn't so clear.

2.  Think about it - the Goozex team would have to hire someone to look at *every* game in their database, from PC to Mac to PS1 to PS2 to XBOX to GameCube to GBA and so on ... and determine the potential cross-compatibility issues.  Easy example - X360 backwards compatibility: someone would have to put in a 'compatible', 'incompatible', or 'some issues' flag on *every* game in the XBOX library.  So how much work is it ... TONS!

3.  I completely agree - but these issues are not a Goozex problem ... as I mention above, the scope of compatibility across all of the games and systems represented here is way too massive to be seen as a 'requirement of business'.  Heck, can you even get that info going into GameStop / BestBuy / Walmart / etc?

Not trying to be argumentative, but while I try to help people I am trading with if I know potential issues, it is impossible to know all of the potential problems that might occur.

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Decrypded replied on 11-28-2008 11:48 AM

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Its not that you have a bad idea, it is just that the Goozex team is a small group, and what you're asking is tons of work.

What could be more do-able is a warning next to computer games for users to check compatibility, and maybe right underneath that warning a search bar for google.  This way it is more user-friendly, less mistakes could happen, and it would encourage user responsibility.

Even that might be too much work though, especially for something users could do on their own with a few clicks and keystrokes. I think the warning might  be a good idea though.

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the-locksmith replied on 11-28-2008 12:44 PM

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Thanks for the reply.  I agree that involving the Goozex staff is unreasonable, however, an alert area after someone has had a problem IE: Starforce,  would give the next user an opportunity to check the game out first, and then the onus is on him/her to continue with the trade or not.

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sahmed3 replied on 12-04-2008 12:28 PM

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I agree with the above posts that the work involved would be too much for the goozex team to take care of. But maybe there's another way to solve this (aside from the comments above to just do a google search).

What if users could add tags (keywords) to the bottom of the description of games, like they do on youtube? They could add them to help out in searches, as well as say things like, "starforce" or "secuROM" so people would know what they are getting. If this was implemented in the search (which is one of the main reasons for this) people could do a search of, say, "zombie" to find a zombie shooter, and get Resident Evil's and Left 4 Dead, or search for those above protections, and find all the tagged games with those. Of course, this is based on the users inputting correct info, etc. but it's an idea. Let me know if this is a bad idea.

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the-locksmith replied on 12-05-2008 8:56 AM

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I agree that every solution will eventually come back to either adding a parameter to the search criteria or a tag to the game description, both of which could be done simply without adding to the workload of the Goozex staff.  Obviously, adding to the description page is a project that starts just like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.  It could be implemented by adding a note on the trade game page or rating page to include any pertinent info, and one by one, as games come up for trade every game would come into the fold regardless of what platform they are being traded in.

the-locksmith

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txa1265 replied on 12-05-2008 10:15 AM

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I think the idea of adding notes is a decent one ... even if no one is ever likely to use them.

For example, as I discovered, you can get Gothic II Gold - which includes the Night of the Raven expansion - for 100 points, or the NotR expansion alone for 300 points.  A note that describes that would help those looking for the expansion realize they would be better served getting the Gold version.