It's no secret that more and more game developers have shifted their focus to consoles. And the ones who have yet to succumb are bitching about the currentstateofPCgaming.
The game developers want us to believe that consumers are the problem. Piracy, they say. It's those dirty pirates. Every game pirated is a sale lost! Every person who pirated the game would have bought it legitimately if he hadn't had the opportunity to pirate it! Now, I'm not here to say that piracy isn't a problem. I'm here to say that the real "problem," if you want to call it that, is so common as to be practically mundane: the market is changing, and the industry isn't changing with it.
Total laptop sales are expected to eclipse total desktop sales for the first year ever in 2008, and by 2011, it's expected that 71% of all consumer PCs sold will be laptops. But you probably knew that. All your friends own laptops or are in the market to buy laptops. Young people today, the chief gaming demographic, buy laptops. You don't need a statistic to tell you that.
I'll give you a moment, though, to think about the implications of this change. The vast majority of new PCs in the United States—we're talking about PC owners who, with their brand new machines, used to be the primary target for game developers—are going to be running integrated Intel graphics. A new PC used to mean a new graphics card capable of running any game currently on store shelves. That's just not the case today. The X3100 graphics solution used in most laptops today can barely run Half-Life 2, a three-year-old game. But it can run World of Warcraft and The Sims, which, together, comprised six of the ten best-selling PC titles of 2007. Command and Conquer 3 specifically mentions in its system requirements that it will run on Intel GMA 900 graphics. Age of Empires III will run on a lesser system, and SimCity 4's requirements are almost laughable in this day and age. The only game in the top ten sales list that will not run on the typical, modern laptop is Call of Duty 4, which is so mind-bogglingly awesome that it bucked the sales trend.
Then there's the console side of things. A PC graphics card can cost anywhere from $150-500, and there's no guarantee that the new card will play every game released in the next three years. The PlayStation 2, on the other hand, was on the market for seven years before its successor appeared. Even the original Xbox, which was thought to have an extraordinarily short lifespan, was on the market for four years. And the prices? Both debuted at $300, about the cost of a top-notch graphics card. Even the newest consoles, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, cost less than an 8800GTX, and that's just one part of a PC. Yes, I know you can make a capable gaming PC for $500 with your l33t overclocking skillz and some savvy shopping, but you're not the market. Joe Consumer is.
Consoles are able to sell at these lower price-points because companies have a vested interest in the success of their platform. Console sales mean game sales, and game sales mean royalties for hardware manufacturers. Despite their intrinsic link to PC gaming, PC hardware manufacturers cannot generate revenue without hardware sales. They are forced to sell their products at a profit, something that console manufacturers, with their proprietary platform and potential for future software royalties, are not bound to do. They can sell at a loss and expect to make up the difference later.
What does this have to do with TeamLiquid.net or professional gaming? Well, not a whole lot. But it has everything to do with StarCraft 2, Warcraft 4, Diablo 3, World of Warcraft 2, Supreme Commander 2, Command and Conquer 4, Spore, Spore Evolved, SimMultiverse, Leisure Suit Larry 18, and every other PC game that's going to come out within the next ten years. PC game developers need to identify their market and cater to it. They need to design their games around the lowest common denominator. Otherwise, they are isolating a massive number of potential customers in favor of a clientèle that is more willing and able to steal from them. Michael Capps of Epic Games addressed this very point when he said, “the market that would buy a $600 video card knows how BitTorrent works.” Developers who produce graphically-intensive games aren’t in the dark on this matter. They realize that the very market they serve is the one most likely to rip them off.
Rather than change, developers seem content to complain. They are affected with the dogmatic belief that the PC is the location in which to push the technical envelope, the place where next-generation graphics come to fruition today. While this might be true due to the ever-evolving nature of PC hardware, it is false in that mainstream graphics technology has actually taken a step backwards in recent years. Nowadays, consoles are the place to flex graphical muscle; by virtue of owning the console, consumers automatically meet the recommended system requirements.
The simple fact is that piracy cannot be stopped on any platform. The key is to expand your market to the point that piracy is a non-issue. You don’t see Blizzard and Maxis decrying the impact of pirates upon their business, and there’s a reason: if you have a market of 500 million potential customers, does it matter if two million people pirate your game? Even if they hadn’t pirated it, would they have bought it? Giving your game mass-market appeal through low system requirements makes the number of dedicated pirates out there nothing more than an asterisk next to the number of real consumers who are willing to legitimately purchase your product—if it’s any good, of course.
It's really a bummer that my computer doesn't run jack shit. Otherwise I'd actually buy something. I thought I was in the minority on this [despite my computer being a fairly new [2007] and fairly decent VAIO] but apparently the masses use similar computers.
I do have a PC that can run more stuff, but eh. What's the point. I'm not going to buy a crap game with fancy graphics if it plays like crap and I get bored of it that fast. This is why people should focus less on graphics and more on gameplay.
On February 28 2008 09:43 Last Romantic wrote: I do have a PC that can run more stuff, but eh. What's the point. I'm not going to buy a crap game with fancy graphics if it plays like crap and I get bored of it that fast. This is why people should focus less on graphics and more on gameplay.
Consoles starting to own us PC users Just recently, with no relevance to this whatsoever, a friend of mine went "Well, I won't buy a new PC... When I'm seeing all the features that the PS3 and Wii have, why would I need a PC? I'm going to get myself a good console and have fun with it. And you'll see, in 5-10 years consoles will take over PC-gaming". I obv said "naw, dont talk bull$h1t" and now I'm reading this :S
ORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, we all start buying pirated console games, eh ;D. In fact, all but 4 games for my X-Box are pirated, (around 40ish games, havent counted). Do your duty to defend the honor of the PC :D
On February 28 2008 09:33 DJEtterStyle wrote:StarCraft 2, Warcraft 4, Diablo 3, World of Warcraft 2,
Sorry for being off topic but something just occurred to me. Do you think the reason they are gonna announce the zerg in korea in march is because they have a different announcement planned for the world wide invitational? ah, nevermind
Michael Capps of Epic Games addressed this very point when he said, “the market that would buy a $600 video card knows how BitTorrent works.”
I think this is why Multiplayer games are better on PC, because they can't be pirated most of the time (and even when they can there isn't a mean to play online w/o a legitimate cd key).
This is a real dilemma. It's true that the market that knows how to []D [] []V[] []D their PC also know very well how to pirate games. I think companies like Valve know what's up because they set up a system to sell mods and give away freebies to legitimate license holders. Genres like RTS, MMORPG will probably stick around on PC a while longer, or any game that needs a mouse or keyboard.
I agree with your assessment, and I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing a large growth of the console market, causing the PC gaming market to shrink. I do, however, think there might be two factors that can save our asses.
Firstly, we're kind of seeing the Firefox Syndrom (yeah i just made that up now) in the console market, in that piracy isn't much of an issue because nobody cares yet. Remember how Firefox used to be soooo secure? It was because nobody cared enough to actually find holes in it. As the console market grows, so will console piracy. People will start putting in more of an effort to get games for free when the supply increases dramatically - us youngsters don't like shelling out fifty or sixty bucks for a game that might be good. This is when developers will really see that instead of whining and escaping to a different market, they simply need to produce high quality games.
Secondly, porting. If you've got a really good console game on your hands and it's making you a fortune, what would make it just that tad sweeter? That's right, an even bigger fortune. The time and cost of porting a game from console to PC isn't much compared to the actual production of the game, and you know there's still an eager market out there for quality games. It's just bidniz.
On February 28 2008 09:43 Last Romantic wrote: I do have a PC that can run more stuff, but eh. What's the point. I'm not going to buy a crap game with fancy graphics if it plays like crap and I get bored of it that fast. This is why people should focus less on graphics and more on gameplay.
Im going to upgrade my computer when SC2 comes out. My computer is so shitty it barely runs Wc3. No game was worth the investment of upgrading. I wont buy a bleh game because it has pretty lights in it. There were to many games visually stunning at the time of release with absolutely retarded AI. Battlezone2 lol. Gamedeveloppers adapt or roll over and die plz. If they have high end graphics in the game they think its ok to slack of on the other aspects that make up the other 90% of the game.
I think that pc games are going to be just fine, although they're going to need to focus on the gameplay and not the graphics as stated before. There are way more computers than consoles, and there have been many more hours spent by people in front of their computers. For gaming on the computer, the developers need to start writing games that everyone wants to play and that run on everything. Example: Jetman on facebook. It's in the top 10 installed fb applications (i think, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong) and has an amazing number of hours put into it by various people. But it's one of the simplest games in the world.
Games like crysis might be dying, but only becuase the market for it isn't that large. What this means for sc2? make it run on intel integrated graphics so that everyone can play it. Focus on the matchmaking, so that people can play with their friends and you get exponential growth. Let there be room in the game universe for both the hardcore players that want to play python and lt and be at 250-400 apm, and make room for the fastest player to meet other fastest players who play at 30-60 apm.
The gaming industry needs to learn how to master the networking effect and use it to push game sales. Give the market a game that most computers can run and be able to compete online on a simple to use multiplayer interface.
Single player games with short play time are bound to be pirated. Consumers know its not worth the time to purchase a game that will hold their attention for only a few days. Sadly, most games on the market, both console and PC, are developed in this fashion.
On February 28 2008 10:55 Proposal wrote: wait, sc2 is still coming out though right!?!?
Last I heard, they're scraping what they had of SCII, and selling what can be salvaged of it to Westwood Corp. to make Tiberian Sun Wars & Conquerors III - The Return of Kane. Blizzard on the other hand will now focus on Diablo III - The Diabolic Desktop Adventures from Hell.
Djetter, a FANTASTIC essay. You are absolutely right when it comes to purchasing laptops nowdays. I bought my most recent one last summer and it is good enough to play something up to WOW/Lineage 2/Worcraft 3, but anything beyond that is pointless. Hell, i dont even bother to play half life 2 because of the fact that the trade off in performace for the graphics upgrade IS NOT WORTH IT. I hope to god sc2 keeps on track with the idea that sc2 wwont be so graphic intesnive, and can be played by the masses without owning a super computer or forced to buy a desktop...(i will never buy one again ^_^)
On February 28 2008 09:43 Last Romantic wrote: I do have a PC that can run more stuff, but eh. What's the point. I'm not going to buy a crap game with fancy graphics if it plays like crap and I get bored of it that fast. This is why people should focus less on graphics and more on gameplay.
and last romantic... your posts are freaking awesome. I KEEP PREACHING THE SAME THING TO MY FRIENDS~ FUCK THE GRAPHICS, MAKE THE GAMEPLAY WORTH IT~~!!!!!! it seems like the focus nowdays tend to be, "OH LOOK AT TEHSE VISUAL IMAGES, HOW REALISTIC THEYARE~~ NEVERMIND THAT TEH GAME SUCKS ASS, BUT THESE GRAPHICS ARE SO AWESOME U SHOULD BUY IT~~~ TOP OF THE LINE!~!!!!"
for those visually stunning games, we do what we do best, TORRENTS >_< but a good game like sc or warcraft 3 : dota, we will end up buying the game for a legitimate cd key to play via online with others~~~~~ blizzard has it right with d2, sc, war3 where people were forced to buy it to partake in the most enjoyable aspect of the game, playing against other people... i hope to god blizzard alwasy sticks to this. they have always made fun to play games no matter what the genre...
On February 28 2008 10:24 omgbnetsux wrote: I say it all the time - why buy a $300 video card when I have a $300 Xbox that can play it? If it won't work on my laptop, fuck it.
nooooooooo i want my SC2,3,4 and my eternity worth of Warcrack. what we need is Aktion T5 and eliminate all the consoles out there!!
but seriously, i dont see how PC game can be doomed. i think console has a lead and will maintain it for a while, but the point is PC itself is a very versatile platform and the possibilities are limitless. it may not be the preferable platform since revenue generation is limited but viable and flexible nonetheless.
I'm not screwed, i have a ps3 that i enjoy greatly but pc wont die as long as there are online games that require cd keys. developers will just have to *gasp* focus on gameplay!
The fact is there are no good pc games these days. My computer sucks hard but even if it didn't, the only game I've seen recently that interested me somewhat was The Witcher. I'm certainly not going to shell out upwards of 1000$ in upgrades to play one damn game. When sc2 comes out I won't have a choice, but till then I'll keep waving my wiimote around (and playing some random micro arena of course.)
Laptops anyway are more for work/education by their function alone; they offer much less in gaming experience. I'd never dream of gaming on a laptop for anything other than card games or chess unless I had no choice. Someone forgot to measure the WoW factor anyway; a pc game. It made many game developing companies raise their eye brows and ponder a little deeper about the possibilities of the pc gaming market.
The way I see it consoles are getting more and more functions, i.e. they are becoming more and more like a PC's anyway.
Thats why I opted to pay another 100 for a dedicated graphics card in my laptop. Im not much of a gamer, so I dont mind running the more recent games on low settings.
I is ignorant, but it seems like hardware designers, software designers, and operating system designers for PC are very irresponsible.
Comparing the technical specifications of an XBox360 and the shittiest new Dell Desktop you can buy, the Dell looks far superior. But it can't even come close to the gaming power.
Would it be far fetched to say that games could be optimized more, have more scalability, and operating systems could have less overhead? Vista uses and INSANE amount of system resources. It seems like it would make more sense to run all games from a command line interface, but that won't happen.
It's ridiculous how powerful your hardware needs to be to compete with the capabilities of a console made specifically for gaming. The prices are the main barrier, things should run more efficiently, and waste fewer resources (including what the operating system uses).
Online gaming is still and will be superior than on consoles, as long as PCs exist (everyone will end up owning laptops..) there will be a market.
Dont talk shit about laptops tho, the performance of them the last 2 years has gone up craploads and they expect that graphics (just like cpus) will close in on desktop graphics by alot.
And currently competition in the laptop industry is HUGE, we'll get balla laptops, I cant wait for new Zepto computers, i'm getting one. the 8600gt is a bit to weak on the current ones.
To everyone complaining about "1000 PC upgrade" you can build a badass computer for half that if you use your existing case, DVD etc. And also your not just buying all those parts for just an xbox, you are buying a word processor, internet hub, porn, games, jukebox, email, and for some a workspace to make a living.
Instead of surfing Myspace all day and clicking on that starcraft icon, try programing a game or downloading some porn. I'd like to see your Xbox do that!
The fact is there are no good pc games these days. My computer sucks hard but even if it didn't, the only game I've seen recently that interested me somewhat was The Witcher. I'm certainly not going to shell out upwards of 1000$ in upgrades to play one damn game. When sc2 comes out I won't have a choice, but till then I'll keep waving my wiimote around (and playing some random micro arena of course.)
The Witcher was the first game that I actually went to the store to purchase (Went to Carrefour Angrignon for the first time in like, 4 years) after having pirated it. The entire game, the forum, the everything just screams at you with quality. Its like a developer actually took their time and created a world, something we used to take for granted. Gaming doesn't feel like it did when we played commander keen shareware, or got a floppy disc with zeliard on it for Christmas. Even console gaming just doesn't have the proper flair anymore.
The only game i've played in the past 6 months and really enjoyed myself while doing so was "I Wanna Be The Guy", and that's sad.
Interesting argument. I agree with your point. I like older games because they're well, so easy to run. Starcraft takes almost no time to load and never lags. COD4 or Supreme Commander, on the other hand (which I can run on my laptop with its Mobility Radeon X1400, albeit just barely) take forever to load and lag like hell.
On February 28 2008 12:57 Physician wrote: Someone forgot to measure the WoW factor anyway; a pc game. It made many game developing companies raise their eye brows and ponder a little deeper about the possibilities of the pc gaming market.
World of Warcraft is definitely a point to consider. It's a game type that can't be easily adapted to a game console, given the need for a full keyboard. But my basic point still holds true, I think. Even though MMOGs can't be pirated, I have to wonder whether WoW would have even half its subscribers if it had the system requirements of, say, Call of Duty 4.
I agree wholeheartedly. That's why Microsoft doesn't care if they take a $100 hit for every Xbox console sold... because they make their millions through the actual games.
On February 28 2008 17:13 TheosEx wrote: I agree wholeheartedly. That's why Microsoft doesn't care if they take a $100 hit for every Xbox console sold... because they make their millions through the actual games.
Isn't that short term? I remember hearing after the first few initial shipments they make sick profit as they should.
I'll say it before and I will say it again games like WoW are killing PC gaming. Most people who play MMORPG's don't play anything no need and most MMOs aren't graphically demanding (WoW), I also think the PC is getting that image wear its just for MMOS and if you want to play anything else or watch movies you could just use your console. You can also see it with developers most games that are coming out for PC sooner or later make there way to console because there just not selling on PC (ala Crysis, they built a new engine just to run it on PS3 and 360), it's also happening to are beloved RTS. Many of them are making there way to console (like it or not) hopefully though games like SC2 show that the PC isn't in danger and is just in need of some good games... If not it will probably make its way to console sometime 2009...assuming it will come out this year
Why would people go buy a shitty game when they're (They = the entire demograph... 10 million subscribers to wow + every other MMO out there is a fuckload of PC gamers not buying many games) already playing 15/month to play a mediocre game?
PC games are pretty sour. The games are shitty and that's why the sales are shitty. The industry isn't changing or trying to adapt. Blizzard figured out how to get around piracy years ago. It's called multiplay and cdkey (and ect). Get over it industry, wipe your ass, blow your nose, and grow up.
Seriously... If you're a PC gamer and you either A) Don't play/enjoy MMORPGs or B) Don't care for graphics drivin FPS games
You're out in the cold if you're looking for actual quality. Odds are you're playing a 4+ yr old game. (Especially since modern MMO's are usually worse than the game they're mimicing)
Interesting. I always wondered why consoles are gaining ground so quickly these days. I grew up with the PC as the golden standard for everything, including gaming. I still tend to think that consoles are second class, but it looks like that's about to change, and the PC is going into that position. Several new, promising titles appear first on console and then MAYBE on PC later...
Very well and comprehensively written DJetterStyle and I think you address the main (management) problems nowadays in the companies although I think there are more causes to this problem than the switch to laptops.
However, it seems as if the companies try to defend their old markets while ignoring that these evolve and change. Given the vast possibilities of market research, it is astonishing that these mistakes do happen.
They are idiots, if games transfer from pc to console the only thing that will happen is more flashed consoles, not increased income. Piracy on a console is even easier once you got the equpiment you need for you're console (flashed).
Consoles is casual while pc is both casual and hardcore.
Great OP I like this topic very much. I think consoles have alot of advantages over the pc like piracy is no that high, they are only for gaming and they are cheap.
But wait.. If I want to play on a Ps3 or Xbox 360 I want the graphics too be as good as the console can possibly give me.. so its not enough to have just the console.. You will need a full HD-TV or monitor.. which are very expensive.. !
I think the main mistake of game development nowadays is that they focus too much on eye candy.. not too much on story. Watch how awesome Half Life / 2 / Diablo / Diablo 2 / Starcraft just for example are in points of story.. and watch games nowadays:
FEAR, UT3, Crysis.. whatever..
I know Blizzard will focus on Gameplay more, not too much on graphics! The machines that actually run Starcraft 2 are not even high-end (8600-8800GTS with 2GB ram) which means Starcraft will run on much lower machines (the code is not jet optimized)..
I think we are not screwed, but we need a wind of change.
This is why I just bought Sins of a Solar Empire and not Supreme Commaner: Forged Alliance. Companies, take note. I bought my 17'' laptop in late '05 (with a real video card) and I simply can't afford to upgrade my computer for at least another year if not more.
The reason why consoles are so strong these days is because they took over a place that was meant to be for other systems. The entertainment system. There was a time where microsoft and co tried to take that market with some strange devices where you could do the fun stuff on it like internet, dvd, recording and stuff.
But with the development of the new console generation (xbox) there was no need to buy a dvd player anymore. You are able to play mp3s on it (replaces the hifi system), look at photos or play your own movies. And now with the next generation we have blueray, HD, and internet browsers in a console. And on top of that, the architecture is similar to a pc. Wich makes it a ton easier to port games to a console.
Laptops When it comes to laptops we saw a dramatic change in pricing, weight and usability. There were times were you bought laptops for $3500+ and all you basicaly got was portable word/excel, a very heavy word/excel. In fact, the only people that used laptops were buissnessmen and the laptop itself was made for that segment. But with better cpus and proper energymanagment the market started to change to multimedia. Even $900 laptops are as up-to-date as they can be. From W-LAN, USB, Firewire, DVD burners, optical sound, cameras, microphones, modems, and whatnot, you have basicaly everything you need ready to use in an instant.
Internet
But let's not forget how the world itself changed! You can charge your laptop nearly everywhere in the world. The internet is accessible from all over the world too. You could climb the everest and chat with a guy from france about cheese and whine.
See the internet changed everything. Everyone who joined the internet in it's early and slow state knows that you basicaly take a bath in comfort these days. The change was like a bigass wave rolling over everything and everyone. Social networks, online shopping, tons of informations, music, movies, hell you can look up cooking recipes and people give you tips and reports for that menue. We have tons of internet companys, millions and billions of money in bits and bytes. The internet is even able to make you famous, tough for a short time, but it's still stunning. If you have a problem, be it with your printer, your dryer, your hip, ask the internet.
It's huge. And that's no exaggeration. It can take direct influence nomatter who you are. But what does that all mean? Especialy for the gaming market?
Gaming See i played games on my C64, Nintendo, Gameboy, Megadrive, Gamegear, up until to the ps3, wii and xbox360. Back in the day, the japanese guys would produce games on a weekly basis. One game after another, you could buy a hundred games and still buy new games all the time. You would sit down with your friends and hit the A and B button like a crazy person. Your sister, and parents would need about 10 seconds to understand what the heck this little guy on the screen is supposed to do and how it's controlled. You could walk into an asset management company, guys in suits and you'd see a gameboy with tetris somewhere.
Gaming was not geeky. It was entertainment. You'd consider these games as fairly simple these days, but they did exactly what they had to do. Everyone would at some point pick up a gameboy and try it out. On, Off. No strings attached.
See my megaman was fairly simple. Shoot button, jump button, run, duck, slide. That's it. If you play a game today, even if it's "just" a shooter, you press 8 keys minimum. Plus you're in a 3d room. Wich means the mouse and it's buttons. The extra space made everything a ton more complicated. While you ran from left to right, or something fell from the top on your screen down to your little plane/block you move around in a world now with actual physics. You might know instantly what to do if you see a knob, and walk to it and press it. But there are people that would sit down and walk to that knob like a drunk person in todays games.
Industry Things changed. The industry changed. A game is a huge project now and development costs are in the millions! Designers take trips to military bases and capture soldiers movement. Fly to locations to take pictures of streets and buildings. Record the background noises and hire composers that work for hollywood, just so they can enhance the gaming expirience. Storywriters sit down like they write a movie.
Halo is so hyped it pushes hollywood to the background. Super Mario can challenge star wars merchandise. You can watch a movie and then play the hero on your computer. Or even play the hero and later watch the hollywood movie to it!
PC Your computer. While you'd put down some serious cash for 100MB, 500MB, 1GB back in the day you can have 1TB now easely. There where times where only universitys would have that much capacity! You have your SLI system, your watercooled CPUs, your LCD displays, 4GB Ram, and a ton of devices to plug in.
Your system is multifunctional. And here lays your computer's biggest strenght and weakness today. You have everything, but "everything" has it's price and durability. You have the option to replace modules and that makes it the perfect money magnet. Like a car where you wan't new tires, a cool sound, spoilers and whatnot.
And for years you ran with the market. You bought new stuff all the time to keep your shit up to date. Especialy for keygames like Half-Life and co. See your CPU allways stood for power, but your graphic card was more of a diva. If you wanted to play a certain game, you had to pic the new cards because they used shit that was appereantly needed. DirectX, Shader Model whatsover, minimum RAM, oh the pain for the piggybank.
Piracy And everything comes togheter. Your computer got faster, you had more space, access to the internet and that very connection to the outside world got faster every year. Yay! Updates glory updates for your games! New Maps! Mods for your beloved game! Endless joy. And down in the dark alley of the internet there were people uploading and downloading stuff to servers all over the world. Sharing their stuff only to a handfull of users. You'd had to go trough that IRC routine or ask on a forum to be taken in that queue list for the ftp server. Oh what a hassle. Slowely the ftp scene died out, it was harder and harder to find space. For a minute it collapsed only to explode to a new level. Stronger, bigger, and easy. Oh how easy it was. Search, klick, download.
People would download anything. Your friend suddenly had more movies on his computer than you bought over the years on vhs and dvd. The consumer gained something ridiculously. A power he never had before.
CONTROL.
Oh-my-gawd. It had to come. Your "machine for everything" just waited for it's glory moment where it could suck the world out, hosting and sharing at the same time. And in case you don't realise it. The industry don't wan't you to have any kind of control over their stuff. They wan't you to buy, and the more you buy the better. They switch standards all the time so you buy the same stuff twice. They simply outdate something and then fight chickenwars about standards, hype the one or the other until you finaly buy one device only to realise you just bought the wrong standard. If you were lucky you picked the right one. All the tapes, Vinyl, the CDs, the DVDs, the MP3s, the MiniDisks, the VHS, BlueRays. When it comes to pure consumation, piracy kills standards, like *snap*.
Reaction When it comes to music, the digital carrier was the devil. It was ok to use it for music production, but in their perfect world you'd buy a hardcopy of everything. They cried and cried about how their sales droped and they fought desperate wars against the absolut digital distribution. Because now they were unable to switch standards to get more money out of your pocket.
But then shops like itunes came along, promoted the digital format, reduced the prices and let you keep your control for an acceptable price. And it worked!
Music in general changed tough. Music is just a form to promote the major artist. With free album downloads and special offerings it's not the track that defines the artist anymore. It's just a method to give the person, the product, the trademark, more value. Major artists are acting and singing commercials who use their status to promote other products. That's why you can expect to see more and more free music on the internet. The more value you have, the more people will watch your movie, come to your concert. Just your appearance in a show gives you hard dowlas.
The gaming industry fights a different war tough. Nothing in your game excists. It's all digital. And since it's considered geeky, your market is limited. The power you gained with piracy kills a great segment of their products. Only the online gaming market blew up like crazy.
They are in a huge dilemma now. On one side the costs to develop a game have gone up, but the sales gone down because of piracy. But they can't lower the costs because you got to maintain a certain standard to even please the masses. We strictly talk about PC games here. The Wii turned everything upside down.
What they should do The understandable solution is to produce games for consoles. And in my eyes, if i could plug in my keyboard and my mouse and play starcraft perfectly on a console, i would not hesitate. If i could play 3d shooters on console with my mouse and keyboard i would start buying these games in an instant. Because the console is the best idea for gaming. Plug it in, play it, no problems. Everyone has the same machine, everything is perfect. The rules are the same for everyone.
See, if the console want's to take over the computer, and i'd be happy if they do that, they should start looking closely to what we have. And i was dissapointed as fuck when they came up with xbox360 and the ps3. They have the resolutions now, you can plug them to your lcd display, the sound is perfect but they still don't support the keyboard and mouse completly. They somehow refuse to take over the gaming part of the pc.
And i don't understand, why with the possibilitys we have now, they still don't do it the proper way. Maybe they wake up soon...maybe...but wait.
Imagine Imagine this for one second. You come to a LAN party, and all you take with you is your screen, your ps3, your keyboard & mouse and your games. All in your backpack easy. You sit down, plug your shizznit in, and since everyone has the same standard, you put your starcraft2 ps3 dvd in and play with your keyboard and mouse JUST LIKE YOU PLAY ON YOUR COMPUTER. You take a break, surf the internet, watch youtube videos, chat with your friends. Guy asks you if you have Unreal Tournament. You say "shure", put the dvd in there and you play. You don't even need to install anything. Your sounddrive will never fuck up. Your graphiccard will never show you some wierd effect. Guy comes over and asks if you wan't to play a fighting game, you say "shure", pick up your controller and play the fighting game with your controller.
You just play.
Less Freedom For More Compatibility Here's the problem. When everyone has the same, you don't have the power of choice. That's the only thing that you had to give up. Of course, you had to buy the next generation console for the next generation game. But if you think about it, that's what you're doing now.
The problem is that the industry has a habit of fucking you over. And as a reaction, we consumer start cracking things up. For instance. They would lie about a certain feature only running on their newest console. And one week after release some guys would discover that the very same software runs on the old machines too.
It's a complicated path. The more freedom a console has, the more it forms itself to a pc. The less it has the more problematic it get's with mods and user content. Something we pc users don't wan't to miss. The industrys target is to take away that very freedom, but we all now that this is not as easy as it sound.
So as long as i and modders don't have a good amount of freedom on consoles, i can't switch completly. I would love to believe me. But the years have prooven to us that the right community can give a game much more than it had in it's original state. My wish for microsoft and sony is to think about an intelligent concept that satisfies console gamers like pc gamers and look at be big picture and not just the money.
Maybe then they will see, that we have the technology, we just have to use it right.
Would the piracy problem be erased completly? No! But think about I-Tunes and how the right alternative gave everyone a piece of the pie.
Great post DJ. I couldn't agree more: I love how companies always play the blame game on something they cannot control. Instead of making excuses they should smarten up.
On February 28 2008 09:57 vGl-CoW wrote: I agree with your assessment, and I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing a large growth of the console market, causing the PC gaming market to shrink. I do, however, think there might be two factors that can save our asses.
Firstly, we're kind of seeing the Firefox Syndrom (yeah i just made that up now) in the console market, in that piracy isn't much of an issue because nobody cares yet. Remember how Firefox used to be soooo secure? It was because nobody cared enough to actually find holes in it. As the console market grows, so will console piracy. People will start putting in more of an effort to get games for free when the supply increases dramatically - us youngsters don't like shelling out fifty or sixty bucks for a game that might be good. This is when developers will really see that instead of whining and escaping to a different market, they simply need to produce high quality games.
Secondly, porting. If you've got a really good console game on your hands and it's making you a fortune, what would make it just that tad sweeter? That's right, an even bigger fortune. The time and cost of porting a game from console to PC isn't much compared to the actual production of the game, and you know there's still an eager market out there for quality games. It's just bidniz.
Yeah no shit, Firefox had more security hole patches than IE 7 over the past months -.-;;;;
Jayson X is right, If I could plug in my keyboard and mouse to a console, i would not play games on my PC ever. Why should I worry about system requirements etc? With consoles, you don't need to worry about those silly requirements. Less stressful life lol.
Console controllers suck generally. I have big hands and even the Xbox controller is way too small. And a keyboard/mouse is just way, way better than a controller with 10 buttons and a couple joysticks unless you're playing Mario. Nothing worse than playing an FPS with a joystick. The console FPSs I've seen lately seem to be taking the emphasis off of aiming and putting it onto hiding behind walls.
On February 29 2008 01:33 inkblot wrote: Console controllers suck generally. I have big hands and even the Xbox controller is way too small. And a keyboard/mouse is just way, way better than a controller with 10 buttons and a couple joysticks unless you're playing Mario. Nothing worse than playing an FPS with a joystick. The console FPSs I've seen lately seem to be taking the emphasis off of aiming and putting it onto hiding behind walls.
Well I think it's because they've done away with the Health Bar, and you need to hide behind cover constantly to stay healthy and alive.
I think controllers work fine for FPS's once you get used to them. Keyboards and mice won't work on most current console FPS's anyways since they're analog controlled. That is, pushing gently on your movement stick makes you walk, while full press ahead is a run.
On February 28 2008 22:50 Jayson X wrote: Imagine Imagine this for one second. You come to a LAN party, and all you take with you is your screen, your ps3, your keyboard & mouse and your games. All in your backpack easy. You sit down, plug your shizznit in, and since everyone has the same standard, you put your starcraft2 ps3 dvd in and play with your keyboard and mouse JUST LIKE YOU PLAY ON YOUR COMPUTER. You take a break, surf the internet, watch youtube videos, chat with your friends. Guy asks you if you have Unreal Tournament. You say "shure", put the dvd in there and you play. You don't even need to install anything. Your sounddrive will never fuck up. Your graphiccard will never show you some wierd effect. Guy comes over and asks if you wan't to play a fighting game, you say "shure", pick up your controller and play the fighting game with your controller.
You just play.
Image this. You come to a LAN party, and all you take with you is your laptop and a mouse. Oh wait, you don't really have to imagine because it's already possible.
On February 28 2008 09:57 vGl-CoW wrote: Firstly, we're kind of seeing the Firefox Syndrom (yeah i just made that up now) in the console market, in that piracy isn't much of an issue because nobody cares yet. Remember how Firefox used to be soooo secure? It was because nobody cared enough to actually find holes in it. As the console market grows, so will console piracy. People will start putting in more of an effort to get games for free when the supply increases dramatically - us youngsters don't like shelling out fifty or sixty bucks for a game that might be good. This is when developers will really see that instead of whining and escaping to a different market, they simply need to produce high quality games.
When you look at the console titles that are selling in the millions, it makes it hard to say that console gaming, in terms of size, is still in its infancy.
Instead, what saves consoles from large-scale piracy is the amount of control they are able to exercise with the medium. Don't want people making illegal copies of games - make the console unable to read DVD-Rs. Don't want people modding their consoles with a drive that can read their illegally copied games - brick modded consoles during an auto-update. Don't want people avoiding updates - then don't allow non-updated consoles to play online or run the newest games.
And the list goes on.
When you have proprietary hardware that must be the same in every instance, you have a lot of control over how that hardware gets used.
Large numbers of gamers is not what makes PC piracy common. PC piracy is common because it's easy. The uber-geek can probably still find a way to pirate games on the current-gen consoles, but it's going to be a lot of work and way too much effort for the average Joe. It's like putting a 20 dollar lock on your 1500 dollar bike - sure, someone can still come and cut the lock, but it keeps the honest thieves away.
--------
Another thing that has been huge in the console surge is good multiplayer features. That used to be the number one reason to play a game on a PC vs. a console. I'd say with the current-generation of consoles, they finally got it right.
On February 28 2008 22:50 Jayson X wrote: Imagine Imagine this for one second. You come to a LAN party, and all you take with you is your screen, your ps3, your keyboard & mouse and your games. All in your backpack easy. You sit down, plug your shizznit in, and since everyone has the same standard, you put your starcraft2 ps3 dvd in and play with your keyboard and mouse JUST LIKE YOU PLAY ON YOUR COMPUTER. You take a break, surf the internet, watch youtube videos, chat with your friends. Guy asks you if you have Unreal Tournament. You say "shure", put the dvd in there and you play. You don't even need to install anything. Your sounddrive will never fuck up. Your graphiccard will never show you some wierd effect. Guy comes over and asks if you wan't to play a fighting game, you say "shure", pick up your controller and play the fighting game with your controller.
You just play.
Image this. You come to a LAN party, and all you take with you is your laptop and a mouse. Oh wait, you don't really have to imagine because it's already possible.
your point?
don't talk trash about great posts like that, his point is still valid. on consoles you press power, insert a disk and are ready to go. no driver updates, no viruses, no adware, no hassle. you won't have to buy more ram, a new graphics card or anything like that.
the one reason I didn't buy a xbox360 is because I don't have a high definition tv.
I havent used a cracked game in years. Mostly since I just dont find any games that are even worth stealing, less pay for them. I have however played some games that my cousin bought and then got bored with. Original games that I would not have bought in the first place. I prefer to buy my games for the convinience of it and since I dont buy or play many games at all.
Imagine Imagine this for one second. You come to a LAN party, and all you take with you is your screen, your ps3, your keyboard & mouse and your games. All in your backpack easy. You sit down, plug your shizznit in, and since everyone has the same standard, you put your starcraft2 ps3 dvd in and play with your keyboard and mouse JUST LIKE YOU PLAY ON YOUR COMPUTER. You take a break, surf the internet, watch youtube videos, chat with your friends. Guy asks you if you have Unreal Tournament. You say "shure", put the dvd in there and you play. You don't even need to install anything. Your sounddrive will never fuck up. Your graphiccard will never show you some wierd effect. Guy comes over and asks if you wan't to play a fighting game, you say "shure", pick up your controller and play the fighting game with your controller.
You just play.
Basically a standardized gaming centered computer.
I have bought a lot of games and never gotten around to actually play them. I used to grab a lot of cheap gamecube games on ebay each for about 10€.
I'm willing to pay for my games, but they better be good, because I'm never going to buy a game again because the developers have a good reputation. I'll never get over the 50 € I basically threw away when I bought Hellgate London on the day of its release. I played it for like 4 days and then never ran it again. Hellgate London is the epitome of why games on the PC suck nowadays. The graphics are great (the games doesn't run smoothly on my comp tough) the gameplay is run of the mill and the way you don't get any of the cool features if you don't subscribe is just Also, the game was barely playable when it was released. Three or four months after the release they finally put up a patch that's gets you the 1.0 version. Just wow. And the game still doesn't have some of the most basic features that WoW had on the date of its release.
im not worried, PC is aiming for high quality, long lasting games, i believe we will see a lot of subscription based games in the future, since it fits a lot with the "one super game with tons of support" model that people want and love.
SC2 wont have it, but all mmos have it, and its a matter of time until they realize its more worth to make a kickass game with immersive multiplayer that you can play for a long time, than a single player you DL and finish in 5 days, and most ppl dont even care that much to buy the real thing even if it was good, because the standards are higher.
On February 28 2008 17:13 TheosEx wrote: I agree wholeheartedly. That's why Microsoft doesn't care if they take a $100 hit for every Xbox console sold... because they make their millions through the actual games.
Isn't that short term? I remember hearing after the first few initial shipments they make sick profit as they should.
I've been keeping track of just about every aspect of Microsoft's finances in the last few months due to a senior project. Last I checked (late January), they still haven't entirely narrowed the production cost-sales price gap. It used to be that it cost Microsoft some $700 to produce each Xbox, and they finally had it down to $400-500ish, but the sales prices dropped some too (Xbox Arcade @ $280; Xbox Premium @ $350; and Xbox Elite @ $450).
Microsoft is dumping millions of dollars into the Xbox pit, but they're turning up HUGE profits from the games. i.e. Halo 3 selling more than $300 million in the first week, which beat out Spiderman 3's first week performance.
I mean seriously though... take a look at the Xbox 360 Specs and tell me they aren't sick for a measely $300-400. I'm actually planning on buying one sometime soon, modding it, and putting it in my car just because of how crazy it is. If only I could find a way to make it shock-absorbant :-/
As much as I hate anything Microsoft... I have to admit it. This is one area I wouldn't mind if Microsoft monopolized.
We are not screwed; the industry must learn, or die.
Computers are underrammed, and underteched, and under specs on graphics.
The industry must change.
The console, TV, monitor, and PC need to be fused into one, share ram, and therefore be more powerful, and start being more compact also, and they better add more ram and graphics too.
On February 28 2008 09:43 Last Romantic wrote: Bravo.
It's really a bummer that my computer doesn't run jack shit. Otherwise I'd actually buy something. I thought I was in the minority on this [despite my computer being a fairly new [2007] and fairly decent VAIO] but apparently the masses use similar computers.
I do have a PC that can run more stuff, but eh. What's the point. I'm not going to buy a crap game with fancy graphics if it plays like crap and I get bored of it that fast. This is why people should focus less on graphics and more on gameplay.
LR, I was going to type this post word for word. Thanks for doing it for me. Seriously, I have a mid range computer (now moving to low end this year, with the advent of GPUs that will soon have more RAM than my system), and I can't play many of the new games that come out. On the other hand, whenever I play most of them, I find that they are terribly boring. In fact, so far nothing feels as good as Starcraft, especially speed and timing wise. I think it's really important that game companies, and especially RTS makers, take a step back and look at how to improve gameplay, because that's what is really important.
On February 28 2008 22:50 Jayson X wrote: Imagine Imagine this for one second. You come to a LAN party, and all you take with you is your screen, your ps3, your keyboard & mouse and your games. All in your backpack easy. You sit down, plug your shizznit in, and since everyone has the same standard, you put your starcraft2 ps3 dvd in and play with your keyboard and mouse JUST LIKE YOU PLAY ON YOUR COMPUTER. You take a break, surf the internet, watch youtube videos, chat with your friends. Guy asks you if you have Unreal Tournament. You say "shure", put the dvd in there and you play. You don't even need to install anything. Your sounddrive will never fuck up. Your graphiccard will never show you some wierd effect. Guy comes over and asks if you wan't to play a fighting game, you say "shure", pick up your controller and play the fighting game with your controller.
You just play.
Image this. You come to a LAN party, and all you take with you is your laptop and a mouse. Oh wait, you don't really have to imagine because it's already possible.
your point?
don't talk trash about great posts like that, his point is still valid. on consoles you press power, insert a disk and are ready to go. no driver updates, no viruses, no adware, no hassle. you won't have to download more ram, a new graphics card or anything like that.
the one reason I didn't buy a xbox360 is because I don't have a high definition tv.
I am still waiting for that day when all the Xbox360's on the internet get a virus that fucks them over. I know they can update their firmware over the internet, what is protecting them against a virus?
As far as I know they are open to the internet without a firewall etc.
It would suck to have that happen and no way to "format reinstall"
On February 28 2008 09:43 Last Romantic wrote: I do have a PC that can run more stuff, but eh. What's the point. I'm not going to buy a crap game with fancy graphics if it plays like crap and I get bored of it that fast. This is why people should focus less on graphics and more on gameplay.
PC gaming will never die.. shrink? maybe.. but just look how wonderful it is right now without the whiners and 10 years old since x-box has taken care of em. I play COD 4 on my PC and 99.9% of the time end up playing with wonderful people... you go play a round of COD 4 on the x-box and I can guarantee you'll end up with retarded kids swearing over mic for hours without end. The reason? annoying kids dont have high-end PCs, even if they have rich parents it wont matter since I dont think any 10 year old would know what a C2D 3.0ghz 2 gigs of DDR2, and a 8800gt is.
So yeah, PC gaming is slightly dying, but it wont die.. im pretty sure. The only reason why most game companies support the consoles is because it has a larger market, piracy is just an excuse... how hard it is to burn a damn ISO onto a disc compared to mounting an image on your virtual drive, finding and installing the right crack patches and finding the serial key? Both are pretty easy for most of us, but seriously its so obvious how console piracy is much easier to perform.
On February 28 2008 09:43 RtS)Night[Mare wrote: Thats an interesting essay DJEtter
On February 28 2008 09:43 Last Romantic wrote: I do have a PC that can run more stuff, but eh. What's the point. I'm not going to buy a crap game with fancy graphics if it plays like crap and I get bored of it that fast. This is why people should focus less on graphics and more on gameplay.
We are screwed, yeah. We being hardcore gamers. Because I think TL members are guys who do more than a couple of minutes on the Sims per day on their computer, and who want to make the most of their games. We want demanding games, not ones that you just wrap in 10 hours by abusing your left mouse button. We don't really give a shit about eye candy (Starcraft was almost laughable back in 1998), but we want a deep gameplay and if possible, a good scenario. Thing is, producing such a game is very time consuming, whereas investors want their money to yield 20% a year. Every other shitty FPS that would make NASA's computers choke is very fast to produce. It takes huge amounts of money because you need more animations than a Hollywood movie (plus the cost of huge advertising campaings). Yet millions of 13yr-old retarded morons will buy that 60$ piece of crap because they think it must be great to feel like you are in Baghdad headshoting terrorists. On the other hand, if you take 4 years or more to make a game that will be bashed by magazines because it is too hard, has incomprehensible scenario for the average 2-neuroned idiot, whose explosions don't make you shit in your pants, and hence will sell few copies, the investor will basically have wasted his money. This is why almos nobody still want to take that risk. The real problem is, the best deal for investors (and so, studios, producers, etc...) is the casual gamer. Because he reacts well to advertisement, big names, eye candy, etc. He is easily controlable. How many games today are licensed games from a motion picture? Those games are usually even shittier than the movie they come from, but sell millions of copies. I own a Nintendo DS. I bought the hacking card and have tried like 20 games for free. I stayed more than a week on about 3 of those (New Super Mario, FF3, FFXII:Revenant wings), which I bought in the end. 90% of NDS games barely keep me awake in the doctor's waiting room or in a train or plane. But the NDS is a huge success and those games are very profitable. Computer games are turning just like motion pictures and music : standardised goods, made by idiots for idiots. Every now and then, some random company will dare to innovate and create a diamond that will shine for years. Like BW. Yes, we are screwed, but PC gamers not more than console gamers. Just gamers who want a 3 star haute cuisine game they will savour on the long term, and not a Big Mac without pickles game that does barely feeds your needs for a week.
Yes we are screwed, but I don't think I am screwed! Valve/ Blizzard will never really leave PC gaming and games from these two companies is enough to keep me occupied for however long I want. Team Fortress 2/Half life 2/Left 4 Dead/ Starcraft 2. These games are enough to keep me occupied. The fact is that single player PC gaming is dying but multiplayer PC gaming still lives on!
And even then we are not screwed because we still get ports of some great console games (Assassins Creed and Mass Effect come to mind)
I guess PC releases will be safe from all that 3rd party shit found in consoles. Since PC gaming is a diminishing market, only the best/high value products will even dare to step into the PC ring, so more power for the already powerful and I have no problem with valve/blizzard etc because they make excellent games that pleases the hardcore gamer.
So yeah, PC gaming is slightly dying, but it wont die.. im pretty sure. The only reason why most game companies support the consoles is because it has a larger market, piracy is just an excuse... how hard it is to burn a damn ISO onto a disc compared to mounting an image on your virtual drive, finding and installing the right crack patches and finding the serial key? Both are pretty easy for most of us, but seriously its so obvious how console piracy is much easier to perform.
I sure as hell don't have the hardware or software to pirate games for my ps3 (
On May 28 2008 04:54 dinmsab wrote: PC gaming will never die.. shrink? maybe.. but just look how wonderful it is right now without the whiners and 10 years old since x-box has taken care of em. I play COD 4 on my PC and 99.9% of the time end up playing with wonderful people... you go play a round of COD 4 on the x-box and I can guarantee you'll end up with retarded kids swearing over mic for hours without end. The reason? annoying kids dont have high-end PCs, even if they have rich parents it wont matter since I dont think any 10 year old would know what a C2D 3.0ghz 2 gigs of DDR2, and a 8800gt is.
So yeah, PC gaming is slightly dying, but it wont die.. im pretty sure. The only reason why most game companies support the consoles is because it has a larger market, piracy is just an excuse... how hard it is to burn a damn ISO onto a disc compared to mounting an image on your virtual drive, finding and installing the right crack patches and finding the serial key? Both are pretty easy for most of us, but seriously its so obvious how console piracy is much easier to perform.
If the kids are all on consoles, they will stay on consoles. The same can not be said for the aging gamer market, we only decline, they only rise. We need the Children 'they are the future'.
On May 28 2008 04:54 dinmsab wrote: PC gaming will never die.. shrink? maybe.. but just look how wonderful it is right now without the whiners and 10 years old since x-box has taken care of em. I play COD 4 on my PC and 99.9% of the time end up playing with wonderful people... you go play a round of COD 4 on the x-box and I can guarantee you'll end up with retarded kids swearing over mic for hours without end. The reason? annoying kids dont have high-end PCs, even if they have rich parents it wont matter since I dont think any 10 year old would know what a C2D 3.0ghz 2 gigs of DDR2, and a 8800gt is.
So yeah, PC gaming is slightly dying, but it wont die.. im pretty sure. The only reason why most game companies support the consoles is because it has a larger market, piracy is just an excuse... how hard it is to burn a damn ISO onto a disc compared to mounting an image on your virtual drive, finding and installing the right crack patches and finding the serial key? Both are pretty easy for most of us, but seriously its so obvious how console piracy is much easier to perform.
If the kids are all on consoles, they will stay on consoles. The same can not be said for the aging gamer market, we only decline, they only rise. We need the Children 'they are the future'.
If the kids of XBL are the future...then I want out! lol, but seriously, the XBL community is pretty terrible, try playing Halo 3 competitively, it's awwwwful.
And you're right that PC gaming is dying. It won't completely die as some people are just very die-hard, but eventually even the biggest PC games will have only a few thousand people playing worldwide (note - not counting MMOs, those will go on for quite a while...).
On May 28 2008 04:54 dinmsab wrote: PC gaming will never die.. shrink? maybe.. but just look how wonderful it is right now without the whiners and 10 years old since x-box has taken care of em. I play COD 4 on my PC and 99.9% of the time end up playing with wonderful people... you go play a round of COD 4 on the x-box and I can guarantee you'll end up with retarded kids swearing over mic for hours without end. The reason? annoying kids dont have high-end PCs, even if they have rich parents it wont matter since I dont think any 10 year old would know what a C2D 3.0ghz 2 gigs of DDR2, and a 8800gt is.
So yeah, PC gaming is slightly dying, but it wont die.. im pretty sure. The only reason why most game companies support the consoles is because it has a larger market, piracy is just an excuse... how hard it is to burn a damn ISO onto a disc compared to mounting an image on your virtual drive, finding and installing the right crack patches and finding the serial key? Both are pretty easy for most of us, but seriously its so obvious how console piracy is much easier to perform.
If the kids are all on consoles, they will stay on consoles. The same can not be said for the aging gamer market, we only decline, they only rise. We need the Children 'they are the future'.
If the kids of XBL are the future...then I want out! lol, but seriously, the XBL community is pretty terrible, try playing Halo 3 competitively, it's awwwwful.
I still contend that voice chat is one of the worst things to ever become standardized in the gaming industry.
On May 28 2008 04:54 dinmsab wrote: PC gaming will never die.. shrink? maybe.. but just look how wonderful it is right now without the whiners and 10 years old since x-box has taken care of em. I play COD 4 on my PC and 99.9% of the time end up playing with wonderful people... you go play a round of COD 4 on the x-box and I can guarantee you'll end up with retarded kids swearing over mic for hours without end. The reason? annoying kids dont have high-end PCs, even if they have rich parents it wont matter since I dont think any 10 year old would know what a C2D 3.0ghz 2 gigs of DDR2, and a 8800gt is.
So yeah, PC gaming is slightly dying, but it wont die.. im pretty sure. The only reason why most game companies support the consoles is because it has a larger market, piracy is just an excuse... how hard it is to burn a damn ISO onto a disc compared to mounting an image on your virtual drive, finding and installing the right crack patches and finding the serial key? Both are pretty easy for most of us, but seriously its so obvious how console piracy is much easier to perform.
If the kids are all on consoles, they will stay on consoles. The same can not be said for the aging gamer market, we only decline, they only rise. We need the Children 'they are the future'.
If the kids of XBL are the future...then I want out! lol, but seriously, the XBL community is pretty terrible, try playing Halo 3 competitively, it's awwwwful.
I still contend that voice chat is one of the worst things to ever become standardized in the gaming industry.
When absued, yes. But when it's used for it's intended purposes, it's fuckin awesome. Iunno if you're into fps and such, but it's pretty damn cool having a group with mics who knows what they are doing in Battlefield
On May 28 2008 04:54 dinmsab wrote: PC gaming will never die.. shrink? maybe.. but just look how wonderful it is right now without the whiners and 10 years old since x-box has taken care of em. I play COD 4 on my PC and 99.9% of the time end up playing with wonderful people... you go play a round of COD 4 on the x-box and I can guarantee you'll end up with retarded kids swearing over mic for hours without end. The reason? annoying kids dont have high-end PCs, even if they have rich parents it wont matter since I dont think any 10 year old would know what a C2D 3.0ghz 2 gigs of DDR2, and a 8800gt is.
So yeah, PC gaming is slightly dying, but it wont die.. im pretty sure. The only reason why most game companies support the consoles is because it has a larger market, piracy is just an excuse... how hard it is to burn a damn ISO onto a disc compared to mounting an image on your virtual drive, finding and installing the right crack patches and finding the serial key? Both are pretty easy for most of us, but seriously its so obvious how console piracy is much easier to perform.
If the kids are all on consoles, they will stay on consoles. The same can not be said for the aging gamer market, we only decline, they only rise. We need the Children 'they are the future'.
If the kids of XBL are the future...then I want out! lol, but seriously, the XBL community is pretty terrible, try playing Halo 3 competitively, it's awwwwful.
I still contend that voice chat is one of the worst things to ever become standardized in the gaming industry.
When absued, yes. But when it's used for it's intended purposes, it's fuckin awesome. Iunno if you're into fps and such, but it's pretty damn cool having a group with mics who knows what they are doing in Battlefield
e: all the more reason for mute!
I miss the good old days of having to type to my team in UT CTF... No mass teenager mutes then...
On May 27 2008 16:50 Klogon wrote: How the hell did I miss this topic? I know I'm bumping this topic, but damn that makes a lot of sense. Haha gj Etter.
Best bump in the history of TeamLiquid.net, if I do say so myself.
On May 27 2008 16:50 Klogon wrote: How the hell did I miss this topic? I know I'm bumping this topic, but damn that makes a lot of sense. Haha gj Etter.
Best bump in the history of TeamLiquid.net, if I do say so myself.
I don't think it is going to affect PC games that much. Laptops are getting cheaper and cheaper, later on people will have cheap laptops that support reasonable graphics. I own a laptop to play Video games, it is not that bad, I can still play games like company of heroes.
Kids may like PC games, as consoles are only for gaming. But kids may say they want a computer for homework/projectbut then use it as gaming. Lots of parents in my country discourage children from owning consoels....They can also use project as decoys, i used to alt-tab a lot when playing starcraft, and when i came back i got shitload of minerals...
I enjoyed reading your essay and can agree on the point that PC developers have not changed to an adapting market, but i think you reduce how dificult that is much too sharply.
Do you know how many games have failed, despite having regard to your sentiments? Or maybe not fail - but certainly come nowhere close to their console counterparts. Let's take a look at Armies of Exigo, Pox Nora, Shattered Galaxy, and Battle Realms.
Do you know how many people i've directed to play the CCG Pox Nora - http://www.poxnora.com - and will not even bother with it because the graphics suck? And some of these people are hardcore players who don't give a fuck about graphics. I'm not going to attribute this game's lack of success specifically to just its graphics, but personal experience tells me that some players (most even!) won't even experience the game long enough to be aware of every other reason not to play it.
This isn't just a piracy issue (though Piracy is a large part). It's the lack of hassle for a console game. You buy the game and you plug it in and it works. It doesn't have dodgy patching processes. It doesn't have system malfunctions (because the manufacturer happened to not test your specific hardware setup), it doesn't deal with install processes (at least not like a PC), they're cheaper, etc.
You also mentioned that console games are flexing their graphics muscles - this is absolutely true. It poses an even bigger threat to PC developers.
I agree that the industry needs to adapt to its consumers. But if the answer was as simple as "better gameplay, less graphics", the industry would have adapted right away. Some companies do follow that cocktail, simply because they don't have the kind of budget to support top-graphics. All they have going for them is great gameplay (again, see pox nora), since they have nothing else to base their game on.
Name me 5 (PC) games that came out in the past 2 years that had shitty graphics, pathetic online-support (since that is as expensive as graphics), were made by companies that have not been around for more than 5 years, and sold in the millions.
Blizzard has the luxury to sit on their ass and get games right. They have an inexhaustable budget. They have such a huge fan base that their games are going to sell in the millions regardless of how shitty they are (though they'll never be shitty). They have the prestige to attract the greatest talent in the industry. They have Rob fucking Pardo.
The future? Monopolized PC Developers who make awesome, beautiful games, while all the other companies die out. These developers will adapt to the consumer market. These companies will also have further creative freedom because of such monopolies. I hope they exercise that freedom. I want something better than WoW.
I go over to Fry's now in Anaheim and get depressed. It's pretty much the last haven for gamers like us, and the kids who grew up playing Prince of Persia on DOS. Unlike Best Buy, Gamestop, etc. they have 4 ROWS of PC games in stock, including titles like Tomb Raider still in the triangle shaped box. That place makes me happy, but it's the only place left, and probably on it's way into decline. Frick, PC gaming has to stay alive.....!
On May 28 2008 13:39 Quesadilla wrote: I go over to Fry's now in Anaheim and get depressed. It's pretty much the last haven for gamers like us, and the kids who grew up playing Prince of Persia on DOS. Unlike Best Buy, Gamestop, etc. they have 4 ROWS of PC games in stock, including titles like Tomb Raider still in the triangle shaped box. That place makes me happy, but it's the only place left, and probably on it's way into decline. Frick, PC gaming has to stay alive.....!
I can't even remember the last time I bought a PC game from a brick and mortar store... probably when I bought jewel cases of Mafia and Jedi Academy for 10 bucks at Walmart. Actually, that's a lie. I bought Dawn of War and Winter Conquest a few years after that (and those came out on Steam not too long ago). Every other computer game I've bought in the past 5 years has been on Steam. Come to think of it, Starcraft 2 is probably going to be my last foreseeable boxed game purchase.
Remember when they had the gigantic boxes? I kind of miss those. These days we get the tiny little boxes that are hard to get excited about at all.
doesn't really bother me i'm happy with starcraft along with winamp and mozilla i don't really need any more games and if pc developers want to develop for consoles instead it's no biggie imo
On May 28 2008 13:56 zer0das wrote: Remember when they had the gigantic boxes? I kind of miss those. These days we get the tiny little boxes that are hard to get excited about at all.
haha yeah the box for starcraft was great! had that fold out page with all the graphics and info they make em smaller now so they can pack more on the shelves gotta give credit to blizzard though , they always pack a GOOD sized manual in and not one with 10 pages or worse - a digital manual!
On February 28 2008 09:33 DJEtterStyle wrote: What does this have to do with TeamLiquid.net or professional gaming? Well, not a whole lot. But it has everything to do with StarCraft 2, Warcraft 4, Diablo 3, World of Warcraft 2, Supreme Commander 2, Command and Conquer 4, Spore, Spore Evolved, SimMultiverse, Leisure Suit Larry 18,
Notice how all of these games are either RTS or simulators, not action intensive. To be honest, I never saw when the PC gaming industry was the primary market, the consoles is where all the money is AND where the bigger variety of games, that have gameplay astounding only at the hands of a joystick, are. It's a natural evolution that happens with every revolution. The time has come, and some things are forced to change, whether they want to or not.
edit: Although Mora and others have pointed out some causes to this shift, it'd take an eternity(or maybe i'm just lazy) to list them all out. One main reason that comes to my mind is the fact that back then, people were more calm and peaceful but now that we have all of these hexic and frantic images in the television(1 factor that is influencing factors responsible for the behavior of gamers) that sub-consciously(sometimes consciously) influenced individuals to act like if they had ADHD. Which contributes to what Mora said, that in consoles you just pop in the cd and your ready to roll, but to game in a comp, you first must wait for it to load, and if you have 714GB of porn, you know that takes a long time.
Wait. I read the entire thread and the thing that jumped at me the most was... they're gonna port Mass Effect ? And someone said that they don't even think about piracy anymore because 98% of all new games are mouse-abusing snoozefests. I wholeheartedly agree. EA can kiss my ass and like it.
New game from Blizzard ? I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
On May 28 2008 13:56 zer0das wrote: Remember when they had the gigantic boxes? I kind of miss those. These days we get the tiny little boxes that are hard to get excited about at all.
haha yeah the box for starcraft was great! had that fold out page with all the graphics and info they make em smaller now so they can pack more on the shelves gotta give credit to blizzard though , they always pack a GOOD sized manual in and not one with 10 pages or worse - a digital manual!
I have a feeling that the next Blizzard games after SC2 will all be multiplatform for sure (probably Diablo III). There's just no reason not to focus on a much larger market. All major RTS franchises and even TBS games will become multiplatform or console exclusive as well... just look at C&C, Supreme Commander, Civ, etc. Blizzard sure as hell likes money just as much as any other company... or else they wouldn't have made WoW.
On May 28 2008 17:31 teamsolid wrote: I have a feeling that the next Blizzard games after SC2 will all be multiplatform for sure (probably Diablo III). There's just no reason not to focus on a much larger market. All major RTS franchises and even TBS games will become multiplatform or console exclusive as well... just look at C&C, Supreme Commander, Civ, etc. Blizzard sure as hell likes money just as much as any other company... or else they wouldn't have made WoW.
They made WoW because it's the best f***ing mmorpg of all time. Not saying you should play it. Don't.
On May 28 2008 17:31 teamsolid wrote: I have a feeling that the next Blizzard games after SC2 will all be multiplatform for sure (probably Diablo III). There's just no reason not to focus on a much larger market. All major RTS franchises and even TBS games will become multiplatform or console exclusive as well... just look at C&C, Supreme Commander, Civ, etc. Blizzard sure as hell likes money just as much as any other company... or else they wouldn't have made WoW.
They made WoW because it's the best f***ing mmorpg of all time. Not saying you should play it. Don't.
Its not the best, its just the easiest to learn.
It used to be the best though, but now they've killed the community and the game is stuck in a downward spiral.
This is ofcourse from a hardcore point of view, any moron with crappy computer that plays for 2 hours a week will still enjoy the game.
On May 28 2008 17:31 teamsolid wrote: I have a feeling that the next Blizzard games after SC2 will all be multiplatform for sure (probably Diablo III). There's just no reason not to focus on a much larger market. All major RTS franchises and even TBS games will become multiplatform or console exclusive as well... just look at C&C, Supreme Commander, Civ, etc. Blizzard sure as hell likes money just as much as any other company... or else they wouldn't have made WoW.
They made WoW because it's the best f***ing mmorpg of all time. Not saying you should play it. Don't.
Its not the best, its just the easiest to learn.
It used to be the best though, but now they've killed the community and the game is stuck in a downward spiral.
This is ofcourse from a hardcore point of view, any moron with crappy computer that plays for 2 hours a week will still enjoy the game.
How did they kill the community? I have no information about the current situation, I only know WoW destroyed my sc friends list when it was released, so addicting was it to them.
On May 28 2008 17:31 teamsolid wrote: I have a feeling that the next Blizzard games after SC2 will all be multiplatform for sure (probably Diablo III). There's just no reason not to focus on a much larger market. All major RTS franchises and even TBS games will become multiplatform or console exclusive as well... just look at C&C, Supreme Commander, Civ, etc. Blizzard sure as hell likes money just as much as any other company... or else they wouldn't have made WoW.
They made WoW because it's the best f***ing mmorpg of all time. Not saying you should play it. Don't.
Its not the best, its just the easiest to learn.
It used to be the best though, but now they've killed the community and the game is stuck in a downward spiral.
This is ofcourse from a hardcore point of view, any moron with crappy computer that plays for 2 hours a week will still enjoy the game.
EPT
Just recently, with no relevance to this whatsoever, a friend of mine went "Well, I won't buy a new PC... When I'm seeing all the features that the PS3 and Wii have, why would I need a PC? I'm going to get myself a good console and have fun with it. And you'll see, in 5-10 years consoles will take over PC-gaming". I obv said "naw, dont talk bull$h1t" and now I'm reading this :S
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