Re: MS do something right...
Certainly in the area of games Linux could go some steps further- but this depends on games developers and bigger still brands such as EA and Acclaim, UbiSoft etc porting their games (or writing them from the start) to Linux. Personally I don't see this happening real soon--although the recent partnership (?) Mandrake have beggered with EA and Transgaming will help. This is also my opinion--but games on Windows 98 suck! Crashes, driver updates, the need for the latest and greatest hardware, faster chips etc etc all point to a lock in that gamers really feed by their incessant need to get the latest 6GB game! (Now- where's my copy of Commandos 2?) On the other hand, gamers have been the target audience and to some extent the movers for making sure that technology does develop faster and better products...so there are advantages. Linux perhaps needs to be on that slide show, but for me that wouldn't be much of an incentive to buy Linux on the desktop anyway--stability is my main concern. If I want to play games, I move to my games console (PS2..soon to be GC). Nothing *wrong* with games though :-) As for games in schools--when I worked in a local technical college as a technician we held network gaming clubs playing things like Command and Conquer (Red Alert) across the LAN. However, we made the kids set up the small LAN first!! This meant they had to learn the basics of cabling, installing NICs and some TCP/IP fundamentals att he same time. It worked a charm! Games with educational value? Absolutely! Paul :-)
This is also my opinion--but games on Windows 98 suck! Crashes, driver updates, the need for the latest and greatest hardware, faster chips etc etc all point to a lock in that gamers really feed by their incessant need to get the latest 6GB game! (Now- where's my copy of Commandos 2?)
As with software constant upgrading of hardware is a game (pun intended) which schools cannot afford to try and play.
On the other hand, gamers have been the target audience and to some extent the movers for making sure that technology does develop faster and better products...so there are advantages. Linux perhaps needs to be on that slide show, but for me that wouldn't be much of an incentive to buy Linux on the desktop anyway--stability is my main concern. If I want to play games, I move to my games console (PS2..soon to be GC). Nothing *wrong* with games though :-)
As for games in schools--when I worked in a local technical college as a technician we held network gaming clubs playing things like Command and Conquer (Red Alert) across the LAN. However, we made the kids set up the
Red Alert is something like 5 years old though...
small LAN first!! This meant they had to learn the basics of cabling, installing NICs and some TCP/IP fundamentals att he same time. It worked a charm! Games with educational value? Absolutely!
Not all games have educational value, nor does an educationally valuable game require fancy graphics on a high spec machine. Problem is fancy graphics (and cinemagraphic inserts) do not in themselves imply a good game or that that game is "educational". Indeed one thing I discussed with wargamers several years back was that a computer would allow players to *not* have any kind of "gods eye view" -- Mark Evans St. Peter's CofE High School Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 Fax: +44 1392 204763
participants (2)
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Mark Evans
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Paul Munro