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The Melancholy Death of PC Gaming


bambini

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Oh yes, capitalism is extremely good for the world in general, provides excellent products and services at competitively cheap prices. Now, over-commercialization is something I sometimes get concerned about, with ads EVERYWHERE, but it shouldn't be equated with capitalism per se

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But isn´t Brazil suffering because of capitalism in the rest of the world?

Oh well, I could start an argument about this, but I won´t because I don´t know of a better system the people would be able to live in and all my thoughts would be an easy way to find out who wants to flame me. ;)

I just don´t like the all-mighty of money and the suffer it causes... Looking around assures me that the big bang is on the way. Hmm, could be my change for gaining world-leadership that I dreamed about as a child, though. (it was a fever-dream where I destroyed the world and it looked like the screen of Tetris glowing and blowing up in a supernova (with lots of borders and rectangles), damn impressive it was, can still remember it... But I didn´t play Tetris a lot, I just had a version for my C64 that obviously had some impact on me, ashaming, isn´t it)

 

Hoo, this leads far out this topic, so I better add something to my original post about the topic: I forget to mention the game-series that brought me to the console! I´ll never be able to forgive myself for forgetting it because sometimes I loved it even more than Thief. I´m talking about the LEGACY OF KAIN Series with Soul Reaver, Blood Omen (love the first game for PSone) and finally the weak Defiance. (Another game was planned but shutdown by Eidos, who else)

These games were really hard to play comfortably on a Keyboard with Mouse and a Gamepad couldn´t provide Analog Movement (for SR1 at least) so I got me a cheap PS2 slim. With a setting SR1 looked on the PS2 like with 3D-acceleration on PC.

 

But there is on thing I don´t understand on consoles! They don´t seem to have Anti-aliasing! Metal Gear Solid 4 has it they say, but there are still a lot of stair-effects. (How do you call these things again?) They pretend to be *what is the opposite of 'inferior'?* but don´t provide FSAA! Don´t get it. At least because of this I could try the PC-versions but as I think about it, I read somewhere that most PC-games today are released with so many bugs that it really is worth it to wait for the cheap edition in one/two years, when enough patches are released. Speaking of it, Consoles are getting near it with their new ability for Downloading stuff: As I just recently bought 'Heavy Rain' and put it in my console, what was the first thing that appeared? 'The game needs an update to be downloaded, oh and by the way, your PS3-system too!' Alarming, that is!

-> Crisis of Capitalism

-> 9/11 Truth

->

(hard stuff), more
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I enjoy reading things like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Theft-Auto-IV-Pc/product-reviews/B001BNFQKO/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar

 

I was actually going to buy this game for the PC when it came out. The money was better spent on Pizza though. I didn't have to activate the slices or register before I was allowed to eat them. :)

--- War does not decide who is right, war decides who is left.

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Rockstar, shame on you.

 

To anyone considering this game, I highly suggest you pick it up for the 360 or PS3 instead - and that is the very first time I've ever made that recommendation about any game before.

 

So the guy still, in effect, excuses Rockstar and only suggests you buy their miserable shit by aiding and abetting -- helping them compound the situation by guiding you straight to the console-culprits that are peddling those god-damned idiot boxes?

 

GTA player/"critic", shame on you.

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents.

Some of you brought up the good old days of games how its changed so much since.

 

I don't think PC gaming is dying.

 

A big part of me still loves the old games I grew up playing. Every now and than I'll load up Doom, Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Thief, Red Alert 2, Quest for Glory (any), Descent, etc.

 

But I also like a lot of newer games that have come out. I played Team Fortress 2 when it came out and still play it. And I absolutely love Mass Effect 2.

 

Video games have shifted from a nerdy thing to a more mainstream approach (like some others in this thread have already stated). Video game companies have been going bankrupt or bought out by other companies and having their old titles be radically changed (Thief: Deadly Shadows, Heroes of Might and Magic 5, Might and Magic: Dark Messiah, Command and Conquer 3), which frustrates some of the older fans. Some companies change the old series but try not to rape the original series... too hard (Fallout 3).

 

So what am I saying? Games may not be the way they used to be, but theres still hope :)

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happycheeze.deviantart.com

 

Moddb

 

Gamers Outreach, a nonprofit that uses videogames to raise money for chairty.

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I just might mention this, don't know if someone already did previously but what the heck.

 

As far as it goes as to whether it's dying or not, it's *probably* not. As long as there are game genres that can't be played better on consoles like RTS games for one.

 

After thinking about this you really have to take the game developer's side to it also. It's often cheaper and less complex to develop a game on a platform that doesn't have massive differences in hardware.

And then there's of course the piracy thing, which was mentioned earlier in this thread.

 

But I can imagine it's the hardware bit that hits where it hurts when developing a game, and if there's option to just ignore them and develop a game, it's likely some developers will go that way. And it's also easier to patch thing when the target platform doesn't change.

 

Fun topic though, just thought I'd mention is all... ;)

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Yeah as someone who actually works in the games industry, I'd say you'd have to be an idiot to make a game exclusively for the PC (note the word "exclusive"), for all the trouble it has with hardware variety, and such a small user base, compared with making it for a console or the iPhone. It's just a fact of life.

 

The only exception is if you're Valve or Blizzard, because you've already got a foot hold and are a massive company, or you're an indie developer just doing it for fun and a bit of money on the side.

 

Otherwise, you make it for your popular platforms, and then do a port to PC, that is if you can prove it's viable.

 

It pretty much ended with Crysis I think. Right after that came out, Crytek announced they wouldn't be making any PC exclusive games any longer.

Then we see teaser trailer and pics for Crysis 2. It doesn't continue on from where Crysis left off. The cliffhanger ending is ignored completely - instead it takes place 4 years later. Why? So they can move it the hell out of the complicated vegetation scenery and into a different location, i.e. a city, with nice flat surfaces and short view distances, much easier to render. In other words, more suited to the consoles. And yes it's a multi-platform release.

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We just had a ton of games released for the PC, like BF3: Bad Company, MW2, Starcraft 2, Dark Athena, Metro 2033, Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Prince of Persia, and T4 is coming out, but i guess if those aren't your kinds of games then thats different of course. Even liking generic shooters, i've always had periods of up to 7 months or so where nothing interesting is on the horizon, going all the way back to Quake. Seems about the same to me these days.

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Those are all multi-platform releases (with the exception of Blizzard and Valve, like I said)

 

You won't see any PC EXCLUSIVE games anymore, but you will see multi-platform releases.

 

You develop for the popular platforms, then port to PC as an afterthought.

 

This means - Crysis takes place in a city instead of a jungle.

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You won't see any PC EXCLUSIVE games anymore, but you will see multi-platform releases.

 

I don't believe that for a moment. It's patently untrue.

 

You develop for the popular platforms, then port to PC as an afterthought.

 

That would suck and those who do it suck.

 

This means - Crysis takes place in a city instead of a jungle

 

See above; twice.

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bit of a thread necromancy here, but . . . this issue is near and dear to my heart. I game exclusively on my PC now.

 

You won't see any PC EXCLUSIVE games anymore, but you will see multi-platform releases.

I don't believe that for a moment. There will still be PC exclusives, and they won't all be RPGs, RTSes, or crap like Facebook games. Maybe not as many as there used to be. Certainly not many (if at all) so-called "AAA" releases. But they will still be made.

 

You develop for the popular platforms, then port to PC as an afterthought.

But the thing is, it doesn't need to be this way. There are more gaming-capable PCs out there, that meet or exceed the console specs, than all the consoles put together. Hundreds of millions. Even if only a fraction of those people actually choose to play games, that's still an audience at least equal in size to one of the consoles, in a worst case scenario. The issue is getting those people to pay for those games. Piracy is a problem, no doubt.

 

But in all honesty, I feel the industry is creating its own self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to releasing and supporting PC titles. They release PC versions with overbearing DRM, poor performance, a multitude of bugs, lack of PC customization (GUI and controls), and then when people complain they point the finger and say "see, the PC isn't worth bothering with!" when sales don't meet expectations. When it's their own damn fault.

 

The problem is that consoles are easy street, the gravy train. They make so much money there already, publishers get lazy and don't want to put in the effort on the PC because expectations are different and the work is harder.

 

I'm absolutely positive that a AAA PC exclusive released on Steam (because it's the most reasonable compromise on DRM, and grants the best exposure) could sell in the millions, if somebody would just give it a try instead of always taking the easy route. Yes, it's more work and PC gamers are more fickle and harder to please. But I think that if you gain their loyalty, they are also much more likely to stick by you and support you on your future titles. Because they have more of an investment in their hobby, and they know what they want.

 

As opposed to a lot of people who game on consoles, who just want to kick back and don't really care what game they play this week. For example, when Black Ops comes out or any other future Call of Duty titles arrive, I doubt many people playing on consoles are going to care about what happened to Infinity Ward or who is making the latest iteration of the series.

 

Meanwhile, take The Dark Mod and what it represents . . . a group of PC gamers who wanted a more modern Thief game so much, but because their beloved Looking Glass Studios is gone, they made their own. If that isn't loyalty, I don't know what is. :) (Of course, now someone is going to quote me that the small number of Thief fans doesn't really matter to today's industry . . .)

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