Seems like it was only yesterday that we were discussing Longhorn/Windows Vista.  And now here we are talking about Windows 7. There's been some great coverage about Windows 7 on our partner site, Neowin.net which you can get to here:

• Windows 7 GUI
• PDC Round-Up
• Windows 7 Usability
• Windows 7 Demos

I personally wish Microsoft would make Windows 7 64-bit only.  It would make everyone's lives better.  Oh well, another N years of dealing with two different versions of Windows it appears.

One thing I am excited about is the "Super taskbar" in Windows 7:

First, be aware it's super configurable.  But what's a big deal about this is the skinning possibilities for this are substantial. With the extra space, a lot of cool stuff becomes possible to do that we couldn't really do with the existing taskbar.

Object Desktop News

Meanwhile, things are going very well with the upcoming Object Desktop 2009.  Hard to believe it's only 16 days away (November 19). 

Check out these screenshots:

The completely rewritten Theme Manager 3.0 should bring a smile to people's faces.  The .suite format gets revitalized and MyColors support is integrated in as well. 

One of the reasons Theme Manager 3.0 is so important is that it will allow Stardock to release a .suite version of MyColors themes that don't use licensed IP so that skinners can more easily make use of them.  Right now, it's extremely difficult for us to do that which has caused some consternation in the skinning community.

Of course, the other big updates to Object Desktop 2009 include a Vista version of BootSkin and an XP version of DeskScapes.

Mega Games Week

This week there will be a ton of big announcements on the game front.  First, Demigod is heading towards Beta 2 which will introduce a bunch of new elements to the game (the details will show up on Gamespot, IGN, GameSpy, XPlay, GamesRadar, 1Up, and beyond).

The second big announcement happens tomorrow with the much anticipated announcement of Stardock's next major PC title after Demigod, the fantasy strategy game that has been described as a spiritual successor to Master of Magic. 

GUI Champs

The GUI Championships have continued in earnest. There's been some great entries already. This year we've gotten a ton of prizes for the contest (over $15k). If you're an artist or skinner, you should definitely check it out. 

The current deadline to get stuff is still weeks away so there's time to create some cool stuff. It'll be interesting to see how much gets made.  It's always exciting to see skinners from around the world create this stuff.

Sinning...

I don't know about you but I'm waiting on pins and needles for Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1 and the micro-expansion pack, Entrenchment.  I hope to have some news on that shortly.

Working on the final play balancing for the upcoming release of GalCiv II v2.0 (November 5!).

We've made tourism bring in more money and military ships cost less to upkeep along with significant changes to how much research costs, especially late game.

My class 30 planet.  Don't hate the player. Don't hate the game....on second thought, don't hate the game either..

Ah, love those updated textures.

Impulse continues to progress.  Here I'm going to put together my wish list for changes in Impulse. Feel free to add your own.

#1 Impulse is too big.

Impulse is currently 846x708 minimum in screen size.

Instead, it should be 640x480.

If people want to resize it larger, that's fine.

#2 Fast load should be OFF by default.

#3 Load time needs to be incredibly fast.

#4 The dock should be a free option, it shouldn't be bundled.

#5 Fewer tabs when possible

#6 Less space when possible

#7 Make the "Store" have more cool free stuff

Note: I'm not sold on calling it "store" as it implies that people have to buy everything when the long-term goal is to have most of the content on it be free.

Windows 7 is introducing the biggest change to the Windows taskbar ever...

Learn more about it.

On Tuesday Stardock will be announcing the fantasy strategy game it's been working on.  (November 4).

My son's claymation...

Well I ran into a big bummer with Live Mesh today.  It apparently doesn't allow Windows search to index Live mesh folders which greatly reduces its utility.

As seen in the latest iteration of the Gamer's Bill of Rights Stardock has been working with trusted partners to come up with a framework that would give PC gamers a better experience while still having a realistic chance of being adopted by publishers.

One of the issues that keeps coming up is IP protection.  What we keep being told privately is that "Sure, your games don't need copy protection because your demographic is less likely to pirate but even if we agreed with your philosophy, we will never be able to sell DRM-free games to management".

This eventually leads to the issue that the alternatives for intellectual property protection are limited. 

So what alternatives do developers have today?

SecuROM. This is what has been used by Electronic Arts in Spore, Mass Effect, and most other titles. Ubisoft uses it as well such as in Far Cry 2.

Pros: Makes developers feel their IP is well protected.  It is quite effective at slowing down cracking of games, especially to on-line features (Spore was leaked day 1 but only the unprotected versions of it, you couldn't make use of on-line features).

Cons: Apparently installs a device driver that stays behind. Developers have used it to hard-code a limited number of life-time activations (3 in Spore initially raised to 5 more recently).

Steamworks. Valve protects its games and offers to third parties the ability to protect their titles and gain the feature benefits of Steam.

Pros: Proven 0-day protection by installing the last bit of the game upon installation. Includes a ton of other features such as hardware tracking, updates via the Steam client, and more.

Cons: Requires Steam (the client) to be installed with the game. Requires the user to create a Steam account.

 

Starforce. Starforce is pretty well known in the industry.

Pros: Quite secure at making games harder to crack.

Cons: Installs drivers on the user's system. Reported compatibility issues.

There are a number of others but those seem to be the most prevalent right now. 

My opinion on the matter, reflected in Stardock's position on copy protection is that anything the inconveniences legitimate customers is unacceptable.  The goal should be to increase sales, not stop piracy. Focus on the people who buy games and make them want to buy your game. Don't make them feel like chumps for buying your game (such as having them jump through hoops to get it to work while a pirate can just get a torrent).

One of the major philosophies of Impulse has been to try to change the way licensing works.  Today, licensing tends to focus on the PC rather than the user. This makes the user feel like they're renting a game.  If I buy a game, it's MINE. I paid for it. I should be able to use it on my machines as much as I want as long as only 1 copy is being used at once (unless it's a Stardock game where we allow multiple people on a LAN to play from a single copy).

So what could we make that might help gamers but still be acceptable to publishers?

I think, for starters, is that any IP protection should correspond with some user benefit. 

Here are some examples:

a) Publisher wants Internet activation in their game.  Okay, label that you require that but give the user the ability to re-download it.

Publisher wants to provide 0-day protection to their game.  Okay, but be clear about that but also make sure you're giving the user the latest/greatest version so I don't have to hunt for patches on day 1.

In many respects, Steamworks takes care of a lot of this.  But it requires the Steam client.  A game that uses Steamworks can't be on Impulse or be sold in other channels where the website/store/distributor doesn't want to be distributing a competitor's store to people or having their customers create a Steam account. I have a Steam account and I like Steam but I don't think it would be a great thing if there was only 1 vendor. Particularly if the one vendor could potentially (and likely) be acquired by one of the major publishers down the line.

Impulse has the Impulse Reactor platform.  The Political Machine, Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1, and Demigod use Impulse Reactor for multiplayer match-making and a variety of additional game and software functionality. Impulse Reactor has the benefit that it's free and is simply a DLL that users include with their game.

We could integrate IP protection features for developers who want to protect their IP and do it in such a way that is just as effective as other methods but a lot less intrusive. Because while Stardock itself can and will continue to release its retail games with no CD copy protection, other publishers have different needs and as a practical matter, they are going to use something. The question is whether they should have more alternatives?

What do you think?

The more cool stuff I see coming from the team, the more confident I feel that Object Desktop 2009 will be a real milestone.

First, the all new Theme Manager is going to make a LOT of Object Desktop users very very happy. It has that great combination of polish and power that is so often lacking these days from software.

Another new feature for Object Desktop 2009 is a Vista version of BootSkin.  This will be a nice feature for users.

And the third new feature we're hoping will make it in time for release is the XP version of DeskScapes. Animated wallpapers for XP users should make a lot of Object Desktop users happy.

I should also mention that our documentation has gotten a lot better too. Lots of cool stuff in the pipeline. Stay tuned.

Right now GPG is in the process of implementing generals.  Before I spoil it and tell you how they work it would be cool to hear HOW you guys think they should work?

Now, bear in mind, there's balancing and scope involved here. While on paper having assassins play like they do now and have generals play like a Supreme Commander style RTS might sound good, that would be impossible to balance and probably not very fun in practice.

So what would you guys like to see? After enough comments, we'll talk about how we're doing it and then see what tweaks we can make based on your feedback.