Treblaine said:
Why would you need to even open your PC? Google a local PC repair shop. They'll build it for you for a decent price.
My angle was designed to make cost as trivial as possible. Your approach can easily add
hundreds to the price.
Treblaine said:
you also get to deal with the delightful world of compatibility issues!
No you don't.
Yes, you do.
Treblaine said:
Only on games so old on PC that it's not a fair comparison with console as the console equivalent doesn't play them AT ALL. And I mean OLD OLD, like 1998 old.
I've run into compatibility issues on games like Invisible War (I wanted to give it a fair shake after hating it at launch) a few months ago or any of a dozen other games made for XP that require at least
some modification to allow them to run. Yes, in many cases the fix is as simple as a few clicks in the right spot but in others it takes some digging.
This isn't an
impossible task by any stretch and google plus some effort can get most people around most problems that can be circumvented in short order.
Treblaine said:
Anyway, for a new PC gamer, they wouldn't get old games on disk, they get them of GoG.com where they have zero incompatibility problems.
A foolish brag considering that guarantee is largely
impossible given variations in hardware in current use but, yes, generally they have resolved the major problems. You wouldn't, for example, need to go through the effort it would otherwise take to get an Infinity Engine Game to work - the applicable patches and workarounds have already been applied.
This is of course assuming the game exists on GOG - and their catalog is, sadly, incomplete.
Treblaine said:
You are going to come into a lot of roadblocks trying to live in the 21st century without a PC. Too many things depend on programs you can only get in any workable form on PC.
They really don't. The average user of a PC uses it as a communications device (e-mail, instant messaging, social media) - a role the smart phone or tablet is perfectly capable of filling. They use it for consumption of web content and again, the smart phone and tablet do this perfectly well. And they
might use it to manage their personal finances which the device is
better suited for than a PC.
Yes,
work might still require something that resembles a PC for quite a bit longer but for the average home user, there exist viable and
attractive options to replace the device which, handily enough, tend to be good at doing stuff their computer isn't (making a phone call outside of the home, navigation, all aspects of image acquisition, etc).
Treblaine said:
One myth I must counter is supposed "falling PC sales" and "rising tablet sales" as proof PC is dying. No. Replacement component sales have been steadily rising, people are doing the smart thing of upgrading their PCs, not buying new ones.
The average PC user is not upgrading their home system - hobbyists and professionals do that. Home users tend to replace, largely because they tend to wait so long that upgrading is no longer a viable option. And, simply put, the trend is that the average home user
is making the transition to the tablet or phone.
That does not mean the platform is
dying but rather that the market is
changing. The home user no longer
needs a dedicated computer box lying around when they have other more attractive options. The hobbyist, a group that includes the PC gamer, need not clutch so tightly to the concept that they ignore that these people are leaving - hell, they never liked being part of that group anyhow.
Treblaine said:
However tablet users are extremely frivolous with money and tablets only a few years old being considered obsolete and impossible to upgrade are pretty much discarded. The actual number of PCs being replaced by tablets, very low.
All evidence I've seen suggests otherwise. For example, HP has all but given up the home user market focusing largely on enterprise activities (servers and large desktop orders).
Treblaine said:
I'm saying they Should NOT do that and then be forced to get a console because they got such an under-spec PC, when they could have spent a little bit more and had one fully capable.
You see, that's the problem. You're debating what they should have done
in the past. That's not of much use. If you want to convert people, you need to convince them
now that they should go and spend a pile of money on a computer that can play games and also has a viable upgrade path.
That is the hard sell.
Treblaine said:
It's very trivial when you go to a computer repair shop and ask them to build it. They'll do it usually for their flat fee.
The fee is non-trivial since. Depending upon the company they will either charge an hourly rate or a flat fee. In either case, only the most desperate operation would charge
less than one hundred dollars. If they offer anything resembling a warranty, it might be quite a bit more.
Treblaine said:
Or you can grow some nuts and do it yourself, and not whine constantly about how you can't follow a simple instructions manual. Millions of people can assemble ikea furniture, it's not that hard.
Again, we are not discussing things that are
impossible. My entire argument is about the problems that someone wanting to make the jump to PC has to overcome. They are all
perfectly solvable; not everyone is
willing to solve them.
Treblaine said:
You just ignored what I said. Everyone cannot wait. This is not a workable model.
Why can they not wait? How is this different than waiting for the the equivalent AAA PC game to come down in price or waiting on a Steam sale?
Yes, Steam and it's ilk offer advantages - there is no denying that obvious point. But their edge is not so very great as you might think. Considering the rather egregious DRM, and downright
terrifying clauses you agree to (beyond the ones that exist for any game purchase), you are effectively exchanging convenience with even further rights to your purchases.
Treblaine said:
How about well under $15 in Steam sales.
Depends on the game. Again, Steam offers bargains if
and only if you are willing to wait for that sale. In exchange for that incredible price, you have enormous uncertainty as to when you'll get the object in question.
Treblaine said:
Why would you buy a new call of duty... on any platform?
I wouldn't; however, when a franchise makes a billion dollars in a fortnight, I can safely assume
lots of people do.
Treblaine said:
You can cherry pick the few games that have stubbornly high prices and ignore games like Deus Ex HR, that entered at $50, was $30 within a few months, and discounts as low as $7.50 within the year. Similar with Sleeping Dogs, within a year it had a sale down to $4.50
Yes, I picked the high profile games. Those games that appeal to huge audiences and manage enormous sales. Yes, other kinds of games, nich games, indie games, etc, may (or may not) drop in price more quickly.
Treblaine said:
You have, thus far, attempted to refute compatibility issues, price points, convenience etc by pointing to
services like GOG or Steam.
Treblaine said:
But thanks for admitting to the problem with consoles, where you ARE locked into a single service on one console!
Here's the thing - somehow, you have the impression that I am arguing that the PC is a non-viable or inferior platform. You need not be so defensive; I play PC games more often than anything else. I
love the platform.
That said, you initially asked a
simple question - why wouldn't console gamers want to switch. I gave you lots of reasons. Yes, those are solvable problems - if they were not solvable, neither of us would be PC gamers! But, they are hurdles that they do not face as a console gamer. If you want to know why they don't all jump ship, look at
our little debate and you'll see why.
To boil it down, you basically have two problems: a high initial investment cost (We need not argue long term theories about how this is defrayed, I simply mean getting a computer for gaming requires someone drop hundreds of dollars), and a much larger investment of time and energy (essentially, some amount of troubleshooting is often required whereas the general user experience for a console is zero troubleshooting). In exchange, they get a whole slew of games they otherwise would not have access too and, in some cases, improvements in graphical and audio presentation.
For someone to make the switch, they have to be able to overcome those two problems in exchange for that relatively short list of advantages. Hell, that's why I still play PC games - because they have lots of stuff I can't get elsewhere. That I can play Skyrim with dozens of mods and all video settings at max is just icing on the cake. But not everyone
cares about that sort of thing. And thus, not
everyone is going to want to make the switch.
