"This Game Runs Best With A 3Dfx-Chip"

I'd also like to mention another thing I came across when looking for 'benchmarkable' 3D-games. I know that this is a pretty old story, but it was never slapped into my face as much as in the last days when I bought numerous games and spend major time in Fry's and the likes. It is incredible as well as ridiculous how many 3D-game boxes are displaying the 3Dfx-logo and even saying that this game would only run properly with a 3Dfx chip. As much as I could congratulate 3Dfx for a beautiful and merciless marketing strategy as much am I disgusted about the amount of wrong information that is given to the potential buyers of those products. In the most cases it is simply FALSE that a game would require a 3Dfx-chip to provide full 3D-gaming pleasure, it's just the same as if a car maker would tell you that your car would only drive with one special set of tires. Whilst some seriously envious people are guessing how much NVIDIA pays me for the display of their 'approved'-logo on my front page, which I never received and never would have taken even one penny for, am I wondering how much money those game developers receive from 3Dfx for displaying this competition-twisting logo. Maybe it's about time that we start asking this question loudly. The same is actually valid for 'readme'-files coming with 3D-card drivers, which demand an Intel Pentium II for flawless behavior. Hundreds of thousands of those 3D-cards run just fine in systems that are powered by a CPU from AMD, IDT, IBM or Cyrix. Maybe we should ask the 3D-chip and card makers what Intel gave or promised them for these nice little sentences in their driver documentation.

Soaps, Politics And Why Customers Are The Butt

This whole story reminds me of politics or soap operas (which actually have a whole lot in common). "I will cheat on this one since he was cheating on me before and we altogether cheat on another one." The weakest role in this world spanning game plays of course the customer, but this idiot is even paying money for it!! Ain't that nice? So let's continue watching our favorite TV-soap but let's not forget that we are in the midst of one and the number one target for those nasty little intrigues that we smile about when displayed on the TV-screen, as soon as we try and buy soft or hardware for computers.