I bought Rise of Legends last week. It's a good game. Not as good as GalCiv II due to a few strange design decisions but still very good.

Like most strategy games with multiplayer, the single player games computer players are only challenging when they get massive bonuses. The computer players can create units so much faster than humans can. I can amazingly be overwhelmed by the computer players on "tougher" even though I will have 9 unit factories. Upon revealing the map, the AI will only have half that many factories and yet swarmed me with units even though I was creating mine as fast as I could.

No problem, I'll just play people on the Internet right? The most people I've seen on their GameSpy lobby is about a dozen people. I have only managed to get one game to actually start due to lack of people to play and that game crashed. The forums that ttalk about the game are having a riot about connectivity problems, crashing, performance during multiplayer.

This is a game from Microsoft Studios and Big Huge Games. The credits in the manual list 18 programmers. That is what? Twice as many people as total that worked on GalCiv II? If they have problems doing multiplayer "right" I can only imagine what pain Stardock would have gone through. The pain would be for what is observably a very small number of people. Rise of Legends probably has already sold 100,000 copies and my biggest problem is just finding people to play. 1 on 1? Good luck. I might find a couple of 2 on 2 games if I go on during prime time. Games that almost certainly end with someone quitting or crashing out.

That is why multiplayer should not be the focus of a strategy game. The single player game of Rise of Legends could have saved it for me. But having computer players that are so thoroughly cheating to be challenging takes the fun. I could have lived with resource bonuses even to the computer players. But knowing they just produce them much faster from fewer factories warps things out of proportion.

As a result, I am left with a game where the time put in for a multiplayer that is barely used and doesn't currently work took resources away from the single player game that makes it unsatisfying after a couple of days.

On IRC Brad (aka Frogboy) was talking about how frustrating he gets when he sees people treat WinCustomize as if it were some company service of Stardock rather than as a community. So I decided to write this up. I love WinCustomize. I've been a user for a few years now. And in that time I've also become a fan of Stardock. I play their games, I use their apps, it's a company that really is about doing good things.

WinCustomize is a place I can go to and not just download a great wallpaper or a totally cool skin. It is also a place I can talk to people from all over the world. Nice people....Good people...People who are my friends.

I've been fiddling with DesktopX since the very first beta over 5 years ago. I've been stalking Stardock since their OS/2 days and I have a confession, I didn't like DesktopX very much when it came out. I was hoping DesktopX was going to be the Workplace shell from OS/2 but on Windows. It's not.

It's restricted to just the desktop and most people seem to either use it to put a bunch of useless crap on their desktop. I mean really, do we need something to tell us what the weather is? Do I need another clock? Alternatively, other people seem to use it to make whacky looking desktops.

Not me. I use DesktopX to have a better Explorer experience than Explorer. I replace my common desktop icons with DesktopX objects. I've been using DesktopX regularly since the mid 1.x versions when it really started to solidify. I've never made a widget with it. I've stuck to enhancing my desktop objects with some Javascript to do things like tell me how much disk space is free or display the last time a site was updated as part of a website object's label. Nothing too fancy but USEFUL.

I wish Stardock could properly convey just how incredible DesktopX is. It is probably the single best desktop extender utility on the market today and has been for awhile if it's used properly. It pains me seeing Stardock chasing after the over-hyped, under-powered, over-blown Konfabulator cult when there's no evidence that people want widgets on any large scale. I think their "gadget" strategy is sound and maybe that'll start getting them to focus on what makes DesktopX special and that's eXtending the Desktop of Windows to have new functionality that behaves as if it's native.

Since Longhorn doesn't look to be doing mcuh for the Windows desktop, DesktopX is really our last best hope for users who want to have something more than just a bunch of useless icons on their desktops. Something other than a bunch of 'mini-applications' as well. DesktopX isn't a toy. It's the most productive enhancing tool out there when used correctly. Stardock, spread that message.

I have no art skill. Any doubt that I had any was dispersed when I tried to follow Mormegil's tutorial. I can repeat what he does but I cannot create new things with them.

When I first got into skinning, the skins were great but the skinning software was iffy at best. My first experience with WindowBlinds was on a Windows 95 box and while it worked, it didn't skin very much and my computer got flakey. And while IconPackager worked great, there was no such thing as alpha blended icons back then.

But back then, it seemed like there was a ton of new skins. Many of which were really good. There were always a bunch of icon packs being uploaded too.

BUT. lately it seems like things have slowed down. This month there are only TWO new icon packages for IconPackager in the library. There have been 38 new skins this month, not bad but there is no Dangeruss or Alexandrie or Treetog of this generation. I find myself waiting on pins and needls for what Apocalypse_67 is going to create next or what Snowman is going to bring over or hope that Essorant will hit another home run. Once in awhile greats like Gabriel, Z71, Hippy, and Adni will deliver something. But what about the NEW greats?

How do we, as a skinning community, attract, motivate, encourage people with art and technical talent to create the next generation of great skins and icons?

You know what I'd like to see? A DesktopX contest. With awards for best widgets, best animated objects, and best themes? Anyone else think that would be cool? And if so, who would want to participate?

I was looking at this site called Big Boards and doesn't WinCustomize have like 2 million members? How many posts does WinCustomize have total? What about JoeUser?

So there me was, surfing the web. I came across this neat program, http://www.pioneercode.com/ called Puredesktop. It can replace your wallpaper at different times and hide your icons. Price? $24.95. Sounds like a very lite version of DesktopX.

Then I went and checked out the new Winzip. It's $29.95. It has a lot of features I won't use but then there's ObjectZIP also part of Object Desktop.

A lot of people will rave about Style XP. But they forget that it costs $19.95 and only for 1 year. After 1 year, it may stop working. If a new versoin of XP comes out; see: a service pack; and your year is up no more style xp. WindowBlinds has a lot more features and if you really like .msstyles types of visual styles the new SkinStudio will convert them to WindowBlinds skins.

Then I found Clipmate. A program that will save items you put into your clipboard. Sounds like a less functional version of Keyboard LaunchPad. Clipmate costs $24.95.

Object Desktop seems like a pretty good deal to me!

I want to know the results but I don't usually spend any hours skinning. how can I see the results?

When I first discovered winamp skins I went to a site called customize.org. Then I went to skinz when cust dissapeared. But since cust has come back its become a haven for l33ts. What's the deal there? Whose in charge of the zoo there? Its just wallpapers and screenshots and they constantly attack Stardock's stuff. I read on deskmod the wb3 announcement and the cust admins were on attacking it there. Then on cust itself they attack it some more. What kind of skin site has admins that bad mouth new releases of the software they support on their site?

With a wry bit of amusement I've seen Shogot's latest self destruction and the reactions from it about his imagined problems with the skin contest --aka gui olympics --.

There is a silver lining. All successful communities have these problems. They are a natural result of human politics. It doesn't matter if your community is the PTA or church group or in the cyberworld. There are those who are leaders and create things for others. And there are those who are envious, petty and jealous who try to destroy those things. Leadership in community comes from building something or tearing something else down.

From what i gather this shogot person was once a person of some importance. He used to be a builder of things and amassed political capital as a result. Time seems not to have been kind to him. It is far easier for a small petty person to regain their former stature by trying to tear down those they perceive as leaders and movers. By tearing their opponents down they see themselves as rising up.

It never ends well for the tearer down. In time they expend all of their stored political capital. The end results in either ejected from the community or isolation.

The bickering of this skin contest -- gui olympics -- demonstrates that the community has reached critical mass. it is big enough that people care enough to build it up and nurture it. The dark side is that it is also big enough for the petty and envious to do ugly things.