Stardock Magazine: October 2016 feedback

Not at the moment Brad.  We're just worried that the master skins are not coming up the way they are supposed to. (up to 5 days in moderation)

Some skins have been waiting since the 22nd of September.

Everyone is losing money, including you Brad, and we are really depending on that money.

Hope you can look into it.

Thankyou

Kitty

We are looking at changing the Master Skin split to be 70-30 in favor of the skinners btw.  But it's a tough job (moderating) on so many different versions of Windows now.

Thanks for writing back Brad.  We thought that the split was already 70 - 30 per the announcement you made a year ago? lol

-Yeah we understand that its tough moderating all the different versions of windows.... but we hope they come up soon ! 

Yes, it already is 70-30 right now, for over a year. Ends of being about 65-35 though after bandwidth fees and such.

I've been an OD user since it first came out for OS/2.  I'm not heavy into all the apps but my all time favorite and the one I miss the most is the Control Center.

Yea, the closest active app we have to Control Center is Tiles.

Please, please update Desktop X to Windows 10. I have one laptop with Windows 10 which look forlorn without the apps and widgets on it. Having to go to 'Start' every time you want to see information is a real bore. All my other machines have remained on Windows 7 in expectation of an update before I 'upgrade'. I'll have to pay for that now but hey. ho.

Colin

Desktop x has been laid off a looong time ago. 

Hi Brad

I have never written to a publication like this before, just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading this latest issue of Stardock. As you mention towards the end of the issue, many, many things thud onto the (virtual) doormat, and the vast majority make a very swift journey from there to the trash folder.

I was prompted to stop and read this issue, frankly because it looked like a real piece of writing, form a real person.

It did not deceive...I really enjoyed reading all the articles, and the insights you gave into the world of the game developer were very interesting. I've been playing computer games since the 'eighties, starting on a Commodore and one of the very early Apples, Star Trek and Dungeon Quest and the like. Still play regularly and consider this one of my more enjoyable activities. Learning more about the interwoven threads that lead from original creative spark to action on the screen is fascinating, especially to one who grew up chatting late into the night with friends tearing their hair out while debugging Cobol, Fortran and Pascal code!

Anyway, lest I digress, thank you for this very enjoyable issue and I look forward to may more

Yours sincerely

Kim

Just finished reading the October newsletter and thought it was great.  I love the tech information and insights provided concerning engines and such.  Reading about your struggle with memory fragmentation brought me back to the days in DOS where I had to write my own memory management system and to deal with fragmentation had to have a "garbage collection" routine which traversed and reorganized the MCB (memory control blocks) to get larger contiguous blocks of memory.  I found it all very fun.

Anyway, good stuff.  I eagerly await GalCiv3 updates (my favorite game series). 

Thanks again

I live and die by Keyboard Launchpad.  

• I use it to start music players to specific streams.
• I use it to open and close emails with specific messages
• I use it to run commands
• I use it to navigate to different network locations
• I use it for "canned" sales responses
• Opening applications from the keyboard is AWESOME
• The Support team lives by it for responses that occur repeatedly

This is my first time really writing in a blog of any kind but I feel so strongly about this subject that I had to create something to speak my opinion. 

I have many ideas for the future of stardock games. This company I believe, can possibly be the headlight of any type of space related game on the market. 

The time of bulky computers and operating systems are ending. Computer games are dying along with the hardware to create personal PCs. 

Tablets, game systems (PS4/Xbox), and phones are what the average person uses even to play games.

My point being, create Galactic Civilians (the 1st one) for the consoles! Why? What other game besides the ancient (and amazing) Alpha Centauri 

has brought space imagination and wonder to the world? Don't believe that it would be a great idea? Do a kickstart to raise money for the creation of it.

Then advertise the heck out of the creation of it! I know I'd donate a lot of money honestly.

Alpha Centuari was an amazing game but don't follow in it's footsteps. Don't let a great idea die because inability to adapt to current technologies. 

To further prove my point about how computers are becoming obsolete, I used my iPhone to write this. 

Thank you for Galactic Civilizations! I must have spent thousands of hours playing it! 

Hello! I actually just wanted to give thanks to Brad for the informational email and apparently new format. I, for one, like the simple format and appreciate the streamlined nature of the non-PR email. Thank you! That is all.

Excellent email - thanks for putting it together. In the past I've skimmed (~10 seconds max) and deleted the visually slick marketing emails I've received from Stardock. However this one hooked me due to the content, and I read it from start to finish. Kudos for taking the time to put it together, and I'm looking forward to the next one!

I haven't been around here for a good while, but had to visit the forums to say that this was terrific. For the first time in a long while, I read every word of a Stardock Magazine...and I'm looking forward to Part 2. It is so nice to hear directly from Brad, speaking to us as if we're as much old friends and acquaintances as customers.

My wife still runs some old MyColors themes (Winter Wonderland and a dragon one particularly) on our Windows 7 computer at home. It's old and unsupported and wonky, and sometimes makes a window or menu bar or button look or act funny, but it's worth it to her. And neither of us could live without Fences.

Other than that, we haven't done a whole lot with Object Desktop type things--the time and mental energy and enthusiasm needed to play around with new tech seems harder to come by with each passing year, even though we're not that old yet!--but we've been ever so glad for the bits and bobs that we have gotten to know and love. If things are updated and consolidated for Windows 10, that could make the transition a lot less unpleasant for us, when we finally have to replace our current machines and thus are compelled to make the move.

The engine discussion was interesting...and made me want to go fire up Game Dev Tycoon again.

Anyhow, thanks again for the solid newsletter, and keep up the good work.

Wow! Thank you so much! We are very excited to get to part 2.  There's a big chunk on Object Desktop in the next one along with Escalation, some hardware and even a bit on Tesla.

Well, I am a little old for games now, but the other areas read pretty good Brad. Love to hear the Tesla stuff, I am all for gas powered vehicles disappearing from the Earth! 

Desktop works wonderfully on Windows 10, sans UAC. That is, the unreleased beta does.  I still use DX on 10 and it works just fine.  Just saying.

I'd love to see it back in action.

Yes to Newsletter (I just got it today ~ shrug).  And... yes to a DesktopX for Windows 10. 

Totally agree on the format, it looks more like a personal email rather than yet another promo. Well done!

Really enjoyed the email. I echo the stuff that everybody else said, it reads like it was written by a real person, and it has interesting stuff I wouldn't know about otherwise. The Nitrous Engine stuff sounds very cool, for example. It may be a bit geeky, but I love that stuff. I'm a geek. And there is definitely something to be said for standing out from the crowd and giving people what a slick marketing campaign could never give them. What I like about Stardock is that independent ethos. More power to you.

I echo this.

When is Part 2 of the newsletter coming out Brad?

Quoting RedneckDude, reply 19

Quoting collywolly,

reply 8

Please, please update Desktop X to Windows 10. I have one laptop with Windows 10 which look forlorn without the apps and widgets on it. Having to go to 'Start' every time you want to see information is a real bore. All my other machines have remained on Windows 7 in expectation of an update before I 'upgrade'. I'll have to pay for that now but hey. ho.

 

Colin

Quoting neone6,

reply 9

Quoting collywolly,

reply 8

Please, please update Desktop X to Windows 10

Desktop x has been laid off a looong time ago. 

 

Desktop works wonderfully on Windows 10, sans UAC. That is, the unreleased beta does.  I still use DX on 10 and it works just fine.  Just saying.

 

I'd love to see it back in action.

Thanks