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Gaming on Netbooks

Cambios · 2009-02-02T18:58:50

With 14 million netbooks sold last year, I think the topic of gaming on netbooks is definitely one we should all think about. I wrote an article recently about Netbooks vs. Laptops, but unfortunately I was not able to specifically address the issue of gaming on Netbooks. I hope to write something about that in the future. The article I wrote is here: Netbooks vs. Laptops I think web games, MUDs, and that type of lower-tech game can really benefit from the Netbook crazy. If your game can run in a browser, it can most likely run on a Netbook. That is a huge chunk of customers that cannot play games like WoW, for example. Since people are not likely to play a game for 4 hours on their netbook, I think games designed to cater to the netbook market would tend towards slightly more casual as a result. What do you all think? [Edited by - Cambios on January 27, 2009 8:51:40 PM]

Hardware Discussion Technical

Started by Cambios January 27, 2009 03:56 PM

17 comments, last by swiftcoder 15 years, 5 months ago

Moe

1,256

January 30, 2009 01:13 PM

Quote: Original post by hplus0603
Who are using these netbooks for anything real?

They're too small to do any real work on, but they're too large to carry around as a phone. For true portability, the iPhone and Blackberry form factors are pretty good. For actual work, something less than a 13" laptop really isn't cost effective, even in an airplane coach seat...

My guess: the Teenie-boppers. I think it would be the teenagers who would use them for MSN/facebook/email/quick web related things (updating myspace, playing flash games, and that sort of thing). Parents buy them for the kids because they are cheaper than a regular laptop, but still aren't quite a toy.

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Bregma

9,461

January 30, 2009 01:17 PM

Quote: Original post by hplus0603
Who are using these netbooks for anything real?

My (middle-aged) wife.

My teenage daughters.

My daughters female teenage friends.

Weird that it's not males 18-24. Who knew there was another demographic?

As someone who makes a living putting games on netbooks, I may have a bit of a biased view. On the other hand, it's based on practice and not theory, so it may not match other people's expectations.

Stephen M. Webb
Professional Free Software Developer

Luckless

3,283

January 30, 2009 01:21 PM

Quote: Original post by Moe
Quote: Original post by hplus0603
Who are using these netbooks for anything real?

They're too small to do any real work on, but they're too large to carry around as a phone. For true portability, the iPhone and Blackberry form factors are pretty good. For actual work, something less than a 13" laptop really isn't cost effective, even in an airplane coach seat...

My guess: the Teenie-boppers. I think it would be the teenagers who would use them for MSN/facebook/email/quick web related things (updating myspace, playing flash games, and that sort of thing). Parents buy them for the kids because they are cheaper than a regular laptop, but still aren't quite a toy.

Actually they're not that bad. I personally use mine for writing far more than actual code, but I still often use it for small python projects. Yes it is a far cry from a workstation with triple displays, but it is still a great platform to carry around with you. Far lighter than most laptops, and a far nicer price for something to take to university.

I don't see why people say they're "too small to work on", they have bigger screens than what most of my professors learned to program on, and far more power than even my first computer.

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Cambios

103

Author

January 30, 2009 04:46 PM

Quote: Original post by Bregma

As someone who makes a living putting games on netbooks, I may have a bit of a biased view. On the other hand, it's based on practice and not theory, so it may not match other people's expectations.

Can you elaborate on that?

What kind of games?

What company?

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lmelior

325

January 30, 2009 05:13 PM

Quote: Original post by Bregma
Quote: Original post by hplus0603
Who are using these netbooks for anything real?

My (middle-aged) wife.

My teenage daughters.

My daughters female teenage friends.

Weird that it's not males 18-24. Who knew there was another demographic?

As someone who makes a living putting games on netbooks, I may have a bit of a biased view. On the other hand, it's based on practice and not theory, so it may not match other people's expectations.

I guess it depends on the definition of real as well. My wife loves her Aspire One (with Ubuntu!), because she is the stereotypical email/internet/casual gaming user. She's pretty small though (5'4"), so the keyboard size is not an issue. The screen size has not been too big an issue, she just has to full-screen Firefox and she's okay for just about every site. I'm a foot taller and my hands are much larger, so when I try to type for an extended period of time it starts to hurt, so I wouldn't want to do any real development on it.

Anyway, regarding the netbook as a gaming platform, I think it's a very interesting niche. Especially right now because there is a much, much smaller cross-section of hardware than the traditional PC. I've thought about this as well. I figure it combines the benefit of gaming console development (if your game runs well on one, it should also run well on the rest) with the flexibility of PC gaming controls.

shadowcomplex

445

January 30, 2009 05:27 PM

Quote: Original post by hplus0603
Who are using these netbooks for anything real?

They're too small to do any real work on, but they're too large to carry around as a phone. For true portability, the iPhone and Blackberry form factors are pretty good. For actual work, something less than a 13" laptop really isn't cost effective, even in an airplane coach seat...

I use mine for casual game development...and have no problems. Not for long periods of time (it's definitely only an on-the-go dev solution), although I did use it for 4 hours straight this weekend while visiting my brother.

Of course, I'm not a huge guy, but I'm 6'3 and a couple hundred pounds. I might *look* totally ridiculous while coding on it, but it doesn't hamper my productivity at all.

In a weird sense, it actually helps productivity as I have very little installed on it other than Firefox and Visual Studio :)

And admittedly, everyone has certain preferences, and I'm sure there are several people who couldn't stand to dev on one.

[Edited by - shadowcomplex on January 30, 2009 10:27:57 PM]

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Bregma

9,461

January 31, 2009 06:24 PM

Quote: Original post by shadowcomplex
And admittedly, everyone has certain preferences, and I'm sure there are several people who couldn't stand to dev on one.

Absolutely. Developing for a netbook and developing on a netbook are two different things.

My development setup at work includes a quad-core 64-bit x86 system with 4 gigs of memory and a collection of 22" monitors. For testing I have an array of netbooks (and proto netbooks -- by the time they're available at Best Buy or whatever they've been long gone from my desk).

I wouldn't develop on a netbook. They keyboards all suck pickles through a straw and my arms are not nearly long enough for me to see the display let alone have more than 2 gvim windows open at a time.

Stephen M. Webb
Professional Free Software Developer

hplus0603

11,920

February 02, 2009 06:46 PM

Quote: Weird that it's not males 18-24. Who knew there was another demographic?

I'm married and have three kids, so yeah, I know :-)

That being the case, my wife complains about my son's computer when she helps him and he has it at 800x600 after having played Spore or something. I don't think she'd want to run Quicken (or even Word Challenge) on that resolution. That's the sample I use for a "different" demographic. (Well, that and the fact that I'm past the "18-35" demographic myself, too)

enum Bool { True, False, FileNotFound };

swiftcoder

18,997

February 02, 2009 06:58 PM

These reason I am debating moving to one is precisely the size and weight. I carried a 15" MacBook Pro to Uni every day for two years, at which point I said screw it, and traded down to the 13" MacBook. Now that I have a desktop at home for the high-end graphics stuff, it is only a matter of time till that MacBook is traded down for a 10" netbook.

In a way, though, I am probably an odd case. I prefer to do most of my development in Python, and sans IDE, so all I need on screen is a terminal window and a text editor - and having to alt-tab between them is not a problem. Plus I still have the 20/20 eyesight necessary to use a 10" screen [smile]

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Gaming on Netbooks

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