Post by CrasH on Mar 7, 2012 18:31:01 GMT -8
The simplest solution I can come up with is to do the following:
We don't automate this part. A CD-Key we can capture before the installation begins and insert automatically at the proper point in the installation. But online activation where one has to fill out personal details, I do not want to even try capturing that and then inserting it properly later. Additionally, users may already have Games For Windows accounts or they may not. We have no way of detecting this right now and have not yet written scripts that branch to deal with already having an account versus not.
So for now, while we are shooting for the closest to console [drop and play] experience as we can, there are some things the game producers are simply going to leave us to do manually.
Now, if the online activation comes in the middle of the install, then what we can do is have the script do a "WinWait - Installation Continuing" or something like that to pick up where it left off after the user handles the online activation portion of the install.
We script what we can. We can't script everything (actually, we probably could, but would we want to?). Hell, the Xbox 360 requires an Xbox Live GamerTag to play pretty much any game. It can be a free Silver Account and you only have to set it up once, but it still must be done. And occasionally, my Xbox 360 doesn't sign me in automatically upon boot, requiring a little more interaction on my part than simply drop and play.
I suppose for detecting whether the user already has a GFW account, we could simply ask with a MsgBox. But what would we do with that information? A LOT of extra scripting, that's what. So for now, games requiring Steam, GTA IV, GTA:Episodes from Liberty City, et al, will be scripted as far as is reasonable. The rest will be on the player. Sorry. Feel free to tweak these installation scripts. Feel free to add the MsgBox asking if the user already has an account and then fork the installer script to handle a "yes" or "no" answer. In fact, I hope some of you do actually do this. But for now, I'm focusing on the simple install games.
We don't automate this part. A CD-Key we can capture before the installation begins and insert automatically at the proper point in the installation. But online activation where one has to fill out personal details, I do not want to even try capturing that and then inserting it properly later. Additionally, users may already have Games For Windows accounts or they may not. We have no way of detecting this right now and have not yet written scripts that branch to deal with already having an account versus not.
So for now, while we are shooting for the closest to console [drop and play] experience as we can, there are some things the game producers are simply going to leave us to do manually.
Now, if the online activation comes in the middle of the install, then what we can do is have the script do a "WinWait - Installation Continuing" or something like that to pick up where it left off after the user handles the online activation portion of the install.
We script what we can. We can't script everything (actually, we probably could, but would we want to?). Hell, the Xbox 360 requires an Xbox Live GamerTag to play pretty much any game. It can be a free Silver Account and you only have to set it up once, but it still must be done. And occasionally, my Xbox 360 doesn't sign me in automatically upon boot, requiring a little more interaction on my part than simply drop and play.
I suppose for detecting whether the user already has a GFW account, we could simply ask with a MsgBox. But what would we do with that information? A LOT of extra scripting, that's what. So for now, games requiring Steam, GTA IV, GTA:Episodes from Liberty City, et al, will be scripted as far as is reasonable. The rest will be on the player. Sorry. Feel free to tweak these installation scripts. Feel free to add the MsgBox asking if the user already has an account and then fork the installer script to handle a "yes" or "no" answer. In fact, I hope some of you do actually do this. But for now, I'm focusing on the simple install games.