PC Gamers needed to help with university paper

[djtim_3000]

Hi PC Gamers,

I'm currently finishing off the last paper for my degree. The paper is based around entrepreneurial studies and I've chosen to investigate my biggest hobby; PC Games. While industry sources and the web in general is reasonably helpful, primary sources of information are going to make the biggest difference to the quality of my research. I'm hoping to 'crowdsource' as much info as possible from three different online gaming communities.

If you have time, please read through the questions below. If you'd like to have a go at any of the questions, please feel free to reply with as little or as much detail as you'd like. Any insight you can give will be very much appreciated. Flick me a PM if you've anything else to add or have any other questions.

Thanks,
Tim Do (Massey University, Wellington, NZ).

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

 

[Folji]

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

First impression matters, but I've got preferences. Some genres I play a lot, some I rarely ever touch.

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

Gameplay, graphics, then maybe replay-ability. Multiplayer doesn't really matter much since it tends to just sit there unless it suddenly turns out I've got friends with the same game, and replaying a game is something I come back for at a point where the replay-ability doesn't really matter that much.

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

I'm pretty positive about developers who interact with their community, it builds a whole lot stronger bond between them and the person playing if there's some kind of interaction going on there. Even if it's just a person who's pretty much hired to interact with the community, like the community managers on an MMO forum. I once sent a mail to Valve back when Left 4 Dead 2 came out and got a personal response to it, which was pretty cool since it made me feel like I had been directly in touch with the people who make something I like.

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

The user interfaces in the Elder Scrolls series have honestly never been that user-friendly. Morrowind made things incredibly clunky and hard to navigate (but at least the most PC friendly in a "click-crazy dashboard" kind of way), Oblivion found an okay compromise but made everything too blocky and crammed together (not much of an inventory when you've got dozens of items and can only see five at a time) and Skyrim just went all the way to console town with a design that wouldn't even respond properly on a PC. But at least the community offered plenty of UI redesigns all around.

For good designs, World of Warcraft is a personal favourite. They took the established conventions for an MMORPG interface, stylized it in a way that fit their game and then cleaned everything up to be sleek, compact and not showing more information than what was necessary. At least that's what it is bare bones; throw in every third party mod you'd "need" for endgame content and it's a cluttered bastard. TF2 is a great interface design as well, for the same reasons.

My biggest gripe with console ported interfaces, because let's merrily go there, is when the interface is cluttered with navigation button cues. The "Press X to accept, press B to go back, press Y to dance like an idiot" affair, with all the console icons replaced with keyboard and mouse icons. It just looks out of place and it's in the way on a PC interface.

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

Just cheaply buying games in general. Got several indie bundles, but there's always one or two games I don't touch until way after I've finished the rest.

 

[LetalisK]

1) No, any type of game is acceptable. It does have to have a box though. What's the point of buying it if I can't flaunt the little PC logo at the bottom of it?

2) Being a member of the PC gaming master race.

3) Of course. Any developer that has the foresight to seek our knowledge is a man worth speaking to.

4) All the time. In fact, it's a very important part of being a member of the PC gaming master race. We are able to shift reality to suit us better. Bad UI: WoW, TOR, Oblivion, Morrowind. Good UI: Modded WoW and Oblivion.

5) Of course, any self-respecting member of the PC Gaming elite would have. Otherwise it's a bit harder to look down on the plebs so righteously.

Spoiler: Actual answers

1) I play a little of everything with a slight bias towards shooters. But yes, I'll play almost anything if its good. Though not puzzlers or racing games. They just don't interest me.

2) Same order: Gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer(specifically co-op), replay-ability, . I know, I'm a horrible person for having graphics second. But after trying to play some retro games recently, I've realized just how painful it can be if you're used to so much better.

3) Probably wouldn't care.

4) Only when the UI is horrible. Like with WoW, TOR, Oblivion, Morrowind, and others. I don't recall a time where I thought "Wow, this stock UI is awesome!" If it's functional, it's fine.

5) Nope. Any game I was interested in I probably already owned.

 

[Bostur]

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

I usually prefer strategic or economic games, but I like many different genres.

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

Listed in order:
Gameplay mechanics, replayability, graphics, multiplayer.
But it depends on the type of game. For a narrative game replayability is uninmportant.

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

An active community is great but it's usually only needed if the game is broken on release. Which unfortunately happens a little too often.

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

I do think about the UI if it gets in the way, and unfortunately that happens a lot.
Most well known PC games are obvious console ports these days, and the worst examples of bad UIs are among those. So it's a little tricky to answer on the top of my head.
The Witcher 2 had a pretty bad UI. Starcraft 2 has a well designed easy to use UI.

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

I tend to pick and choose from within bundles.

 

[djtim_3000]

thanks so much for the fantastic feedback so far!!

 

[Rumpsteak]

Questions:

Spoiler

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

Answers:

1) An interesting looking games trumps any specific type of game but I purchase RPGs and Action/RPGs more than any other type of game.

2) In order of most to least important.. Gameplay, Graphics (Interpreting as art style), Replay-ability, mechanics, multiplayer.

3) Interesting question. Having a developer be active in the community isn't more likely to make me support a game. Having a developer ignore the community is more likely to make me drop support for a game.

4) I don't tend to notice how good a UI is unless it is absolutely diabolical. All UIs in this category have come from console ports.

5) I have purchased a few indie bundles. I rarely play all of the games in a bundle but I'll pplay most of them. I won't buy a bundle if the majority of the games don't appeal to me.

 

[Thoric485]

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

I'm quite partial to RPGs, but I'm willing to give any game of any genre the time of day if someone recommends it to me, or a trailer or review make it look interesting.

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

Gameplay comes first for me and especially innovations in multiplayer (DayZ, Dark Souls). In graphics I won't obsess over texture counts and DX11 doodads, but I expect a degree of technical competence so the artists' work doesn't go to waste (looking at you Dark Souls: PTD), and replay-ability is always nice, but I don't insist on it.

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

Yes, I'll buy a specific studio's game much, much sooner, and maybe even several times, if I feel they engage in honest dialogue with their community, instead of just putting up a PR wall.

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

Yes. Sluggish UIs that use too much screen space, don't utilise the mouse sufficiently or aren't customizable where needed can really bother me. I'd give The Witcher and Morrowind as good examples and The Witcher 2 and Skyrim as bad examples.

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

Nope. Most titles featured in the bundles aren't of interest to me. I pick up individual games like Minecraft, Bastion or Legend of Grimrock usually at full price.

 

[Archangel768]

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

I play many genres including, platformers, fps, third person shooter, rts, rpg, point and click adventure and racing. The only genre of which I have found none of the games appealing is MMMORPGs

Genre is not the defining reason why I will purchase a game. If the game is of high quality and fun to play then I will purchase it regardless of what genre it belongs to.

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

I find most things are equally important. The only things on that list that aren't necessary are multiplayer and replay-ability. I can find both single player and multiplayer games fun. As far as replay ability goes it doesn't matter. If I am sure that the game will satisfy me whether I finish it or not then I may purchase it. The more money I spend the more satisfaction I expect. I sometimes buy cheap games (e.g. steam sale games) even if they don't look like I'll definitely enjoy them because I am curious enough that the couple of dollars does not bother me.

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

If it seems as though the developer is working hard to make the most enjoyable game they can then I will want to support it. When it seems the developer doesn't care and just wants money then I will usually try to avoid it. Being active with the community does not necessarily indicate to me whether or not making a great game is important to them.

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

If the user interface is bad then I will definitely notice it. If it is great then there is a less yet still great chance I will take notice as well.

I find plants vs zombies to have a great interface. It has everything you need in a convenient place and it doesn't give more than is necessary keeping it simple but fun. Simple however does not necessarily equate to fun in every game.

I find the original deus ex UI to be mostly cluttered and inefficient to use. This results in the game being unplayable for me.

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

I have received an indie bundle as a gift on steam once. I found the games to be fairly low in quality and did not find satisfaction in them despite being free.

 

[Joccaren]

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

I will purchase any game if it looks interesting, however what interests me most are RPGs, RTS, 4X and non-realistic shooters [Realistic in the gameplay sense, not the graphics. I don't want 4 shot kill mechanics, that's just a whoever sees first wins scenario. I prefer shooters along the lines of the original Halo, or the Bioshock games]. I will also buy graphically straining titles so long as they look like I'll play them through at least once just to test my rig's power.

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

gameplay mechanics, graphics, replayability, multiplayer.
Gameplay mechanics will always come out on top. I would rather play BF2 than BF3 for this reason.
Graphics come in second on that list, as I like my games to look good.
Replayability is third as although I strive for games that have it, so long as I enjoyed the first playthrough I'm not too concerned if there's no reason to complete a second.
Multiplayer I leave as last rank as I tend to avoid it. Even co-op LAN multiplayer most of the time. It bores me.
Story I would place above all, however, as it adds a reason for me to play. Even the most fun game grows old without any reason behind your actions, whilst a good story I can read again and again.

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

Yes. Well, not necessarily if they're more active with their community, but so long as they appear to care about their community. I love Stardock and the games they release as they are to my taste in games, they're generally well made, and when you go on the forums to suggest something you'll generally either get a reply on it, or it will subtly appear in the next patch.
I like CD Projekt Red and Rocksteady Games because they put effort into their PC games. CD Projekt Red in particular treat us very well, with free 10.55Gb DLC, excellent graphical quality, polished gameplay and a well running engine, and Rocksteady made one of the best PC ports I've seen in ages with Arkham City.

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

Easy naming of a good and bad UI? Easy.
Non console ports? A bit harder.
Bad UI: Skyrim. Easily.
I'd also put Mass Effect 2 and 3 under here for failing to provide proper shortcuts, and forcing you to move through unnecessary menus to do everything, and generally feeling more like they were made for a controller than a mouse thanks to layout, button designations and the fact they tied about 6 or 7 actions to one button.
Battlefield 3, whilst decent in controls, has a terrible UI for a PC FPS, and I've seen many different community designed UIs that would be far better.
Games with a good UI? Pretty much all RTS generally, as they're all the same most of the time and it works well at what it does.
Crysis also had a pretty decent UI and control scheme, being easy to use but not sending you across the keyboard for everything.
The Civilization and Total War series have good UI [To be fair I've only played Medieval 2 Total War, but its good IMO].
BF2 had a good UI for its type of FPS.
Most games though don't really have so much a UI as a HUD and control scheme when you get away from RTS, 4X or RPG. Anything first person generally just has a HUD, and the menu screen or maybe a UI on the respawn screen. I've provided examples and such anyway using control schemes instead.

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

Yeah, though I generally just buy Indie games individually.
I will usually only buy when the game looks interesting, as its a pain in the ass for me to get money online to spend, but if I had more money that I was able to spend online I'd probably own every Indie bundle just to support the developers - unless there was a game that looked like absolute balls. I wouldn't pay for that.

 

[Shymer]

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

Most of the time I stick to genres I know and love. I rarely stray unless something like a personal recommendation or review prompts me to explore elsewhere.

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

Replayability, gameplay, multiplayer then graphics.

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

I don't care about larger developers supporting their products, it has no impact on my buying decision - but I am more likely to support a PC game if there's a small developer who is active with the community of players.

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

Yes - the UI sometimes forces itself into my thinking - particularly if it's awkward. Bad UI - Battlefield 3 has some clunky menu systems and on linear maps, the size of the glowing flag markers and 3d spotting can often get in the way. World of Goo's UI is beautiful.

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

Yes I have. I try every game in the bundle - even if I've not heard of it before, but sometimes they don't grab me and so they are quickly dropped. I usually buy based on the proportion of games I don't own, that I have an interest in. If a pack of five games has three that I want to try, then the other two are a nice bonus.

 

[Llil]

1) I mostly play RPGs and action-RPGs, but as long as a game does something unique or interesting, I don't really care about the genre. Anything form simulators to SHMUPs are fine. Sports games are the only ones I don't play at all.

2) Gameplay, replayability, graphics, then multiplayer. I play almost no multiplayer, so that's not important to me at all. Graphics are also not that important, probably because I'm used to playing older games. I still buy games from years ago that I've missed.

3) Doesn't matter a whole lot, but it is really nice to see. For example, Legend of Grimrock was one where the developers kept a blog and answered a lot of questions when they were making the game. They even added an alternative control system to the game because someone asked for it on the site. Things like that are great and do make me a little more willing to give them my money.

4) I only really notice the UI if there's something wrong with it, or when it's just very complex (like in simulators). I can't really think of any recent games that had bad UI and weren't just console ports or at least obviously designed for a controller. Skyrim is one that came to mind, but that's the console type.
Sins of a Solar Empire is one with good UI. It's a real time strategy game where you control a huge number of units all over the map, but it did a really good job with making it easy to keep everything under control.

5) No, I haven't bought bundles, but I have bought some of the individual games that have been a part of them. I don't like to buy games that I won't play, and there's usually at least one or two of those with the interesting games in those bundles.

 

[MammothBlade]

Hi PC Gamers,

I'm currently finishing off the last paper for my degree. The paper is based around entrepreneurial studies and I've chosen to investigate my biggest hobby; PC Games. While industry sources and the web in general is reasonably helpful, primary sources of information are going to make the biggest difference to the quality of my research. I'm hoping to 'crowdsource' as much info as possible from three different online gaming communities.

If you have time, please read through the questions below. If you'd like to have a go at any of the questions, please feel free to reply with as little or as much detail as you'd like. Any insight you can give will be very much appreciated. Flick me a PM if you've anything else to add or have any other questions.

Thanks,
Tim Do (Massey University, Wellington, NZ).

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

1. I like several genres, it would be easier to list the types of game I definitely don't enjoy.

2. In descending order: Gameplay mechanics, replay ability, multiplayer, graphics.

3. Probably not. It's not something I pay attention to. Having good support and a strong userbase is desirable though.

4. Not really. Not terribly important as I just adapt to any interface.

5. Hmm, I may have purchased one, and that wasn't out of sympathy for the developers, but because I wanted to play cthulhu saves the world. :3

 

[Yopaz]

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

I tend to buy anything that looks interesting, but I often shy away from fps games unless someone I know recommends it.

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

Gameplay, graphics, replay value multiplayer. I rarely play multiplayer unless it's a multiplayer only game or if I can do local multiplayer with my friends.

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

Of course, I have bought games based completely on the publisher and I have participated in 3 Kickstarter game fundings.

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

Yeah, it's kinda a big deal, but I don't think of excellent good, OK, bad terrible. I either like or dislike. Borderlands did a bad job with the menu system and I didn't like it. Except for that I can't come up with anything that stands out in either category at the top of my head.

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game?

I have purchased 2 indie bundles mainly because I want to support it. I never pay the minimum price, but I have played a few of the games a little, some of them was too boring for me to play more than a little.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Hi PC Gamers,
1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

Generally buy FPS, Strategy, and RPG, but willing to buy anything if it looks good.

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

first to last:
gameplay, mechanics, multiplayer (co-op specifically), replay-ability, graphics

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

I prefer buying from companies that don't have dickish DRM, other wise don't care.

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

I don't usually buy ports. The only example of a bad UI was the Resident Evil 4 port which didn't support mouse aim >_<

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

Like all of the bundles I buy, I play only a few since even without the other games it's still a great deal.

 

[NickBrahz]

Hi PC Gamers,

I'm currently finishing off the last paper for my degree. The paper is based around entrepreneurial studies and I've chosen to investigate my biggest hobby; PC Games. While industry sources and the web in general is reasonably helpful, primary sources of information are going to make the biggest difference to the quality of my research. I'm hoping to 'crowdsource' as much info as possible from three different online gaming communities.

If you have time, please read through the questions below. If you'd like to have a go at any of the questions, please feel free to reply with as little or as much detail as you'd like. Any insight you can give will be very much appreciated. Flick me a PM if you've anything else to add or have any other questions.

Thanks,
Tim Do (Massey University, Wellington, NZ).

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

1. I generally go for certain Genre's, Adventure, Fantasy, RPG, Action, but if there is an interesting racing, FPS, dungeon crawler, etc i will buy it.

2. Gameplay Mechanics, Replay-ability, multi-player/Graphics are tied, certain games i like MP, others i won't touch.

3. Yes, if i buy a game and theres an addition i would like to see added it's nice if you can tell the developer your idea and sometimes they may take from that idea and incorporated it (This applies to indie games mostly, AAA don't give a shit about what you want after you give them moeny).

4. UI is very important to games for me, i don't like to have to go through 50 things to try to find a single ability or option, a clear and easy path system is always the best.

A bad example of bad UI is when theres no sub-categories for items/options and it's just a cluster of crap.

5. Yes i have bought a few over the past few months, depending on what is in the bundle i may buy it for 1 or 2 games but the bundle is cheap so its cheaper to buy all 5 then the 2.

I don't think i have come across a bundle yet that ive wanted all the games, theres always 2 or 3 that i will never play.

 

[DoPo]

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

Mostly I go for what looks interesting and appealing. I do have some genres I am more interested in, though - RPG, strategies, tactical games mostly.

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

Replay-ability, story, gameplay, mechanics. The rest are not a deciding factor.

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

Not exactly a deciding factor, however a developer who is more active in the community will probably draw some of my attention. At least it would make me more likely to notice the game.

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

Well a bad UI that springs to mind is Skyrim's, however that is a console port, so I don't know if it really matters. But it's bad to navigate with a mouse and really annoying to use, compared to, say, Morrowind and Oblivion. And in Skyrim, I managed to find the "statistics" (how many people you killed, crimes and so on) page when I was 10-15 hours in the game. It wasn't (only) because it wasn't really obvious, I also had no desire to go through the character menus.

Good UI...well, anything that doesn't go in my way. Being helpful and informative is nice, however by definition, a good UI should not take your attention away, hence it flies under the radar. But for one fairly usable one, probably Heroes 5's. Having handy buttons in the city for each of the important buildings is really a leap forward (compared to previous Heroes titles, when you need to click on each individual building). There are handy tooltips for most important things, buttons for all the important actions you need to take [footnote]well, vanilla it didn't have a "Wait" button in combat, so you had to hit W. Only if you never played Heroes before, you wouldn't know that. Also, no button for splitting creatures, which, again, if you never played Heroes before, you wouldn't know that you can accomplish by selecting them, holding down Shift and clicking on an empty spot. Patches and expansions fixed those, though[/footnote], the information you get from a glance is nice and informative. Heroes 6 mostly continues the trend.

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

Yes, I did buy HIB 5. I already owned four of the games there (two of which I still hadn't played) but I still got it.There were several reasons - the rest of the games looked interesting, I felt the developer deserved some more money, and they gave out Linux versions as well.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

1) I find myself usually leaning towards RPGs, but I do pick up shooters and RTSs depending if they interest me. Racing is one genre I'm NEVER touching though. And I'm never buying a fighting game on a PC.

2) Gameplay, Mechanics, Graphics, Replayability, then Multiplayer.
Yeah, I don't like multiplayer that much.

3) Yeah, which is why I throw money at CD Projekt. Those guys are awesome to PC gamers.

4) Sure do. Nothing really annoys me more than a bad UI, eg. Dark Sector (press start button? ON A PC?!), Skyrim, Borderlands, Mass Effect 3 to some extent as well.

Games like Civilization and Sins have pretty good UI (Though I can't STAND playing Sins AT ALL, entirely not UI related).

5) Nope. Usually because I already have some of the games in the bundle and have noone to give the extra to, or I don't like the look of the game, or I'm saving up / spent everything something else.

 

[the doom cannon]

1)
I have recently started playing most genres equally, but I have still yet to dive into survival horror games like amnesia. I did play it, and I see that it's a good game, but it's just not my cup of tea. I'm currently obsessing over guild wars 2, will probably ease into planetside 2 once my personal super-hype over guild wars 2 runs its course, and who knows what else.

2)
replay-ability, graphics, mechanics, multiplayer. I rank graphics ahead of mechanics because I'm really good at dealing with poor mechanics, so it doesn't affect my gameplay.

3)
YES! Arenanet is a good example. The reason I was so excited about guildwars 2 (besides guildwars 1) was because they were so enthusiastic about it and integrated the community well.

4)
I will always criticize a user interface. It should fit the themes of the game, be streamlined, and responsive. If it isn't, I am often turned off of the game because of this detail.

5)
Nope, and I never will. I understand that we want to support indie companies, but I can't agree with supporting a poor game. If it's good, then I will buy it. I bought Limbo and Bastion because they're good. I didn't buy a whole lot of other indie games because they're, well, not so good.

 

[Vivi22]

1) Do you tend to purchase a particular style or genre over another? Or will any PC game do as long as it's good or at least looks interesting?

As long as it's interesting I'm there. If you looked in my games list you might find more FPS titles than anything else, but that's more of a coincidence I think since Valve has made so many and I love their games. It also happens to be a genre the PC excels at.

2) All things considered and with the price being equal, what is more important to you personally when making a PC Game purchasing decision (list in order if you like!): gameplay mechanics, graphics, multiplayer or replay-ability

Gameplay mechanics hands down. If it isn't fun then the others don't matter at all. The rest of them in order of importance: replayability/multiplayer (I'd place them as equal since one can affect the other greatly) then graphics.

3) Would you tend to find yourself more likely to support a PC game if the developer was more active with its community, or would you not care? (any further comments or experiences here would be great)

The more active the better. Both in terms of keeping the community apprised of new games and soliciting feedback and opinions, as well as updating games, continuing to support games after release with updates, and giving fans what they want.

For specific examples, I had heard the Witcher 2 was a pretty good game and thought I might buy it eventually. But then the developer was releasing new DLC for free, as well as speaking out quite strongly against the use of DRM. Since their attitudes on how to treat their customers and potential future customers were in line with how I want to see companies behaving, I bought The Witcher 2 without a moments hesitation. While I was interested before, I was putting off buying it and who knows if I would have actually purchased it or not, but their attitude towards the gaming community converted me.

4) Outside of obvious console ports; do you ever think about the user interface while playing a game? Could you easily name an example of a bad UI and a good UI off the top of your head?

For bad UI, despite my praise of CD Projekt Red above for their treatment of fans, I'll have to use The Witcher 2 as an example. I've only had the chance to play the tutorial so far so perhaps the main game does a better job of easing people in, but the menu system in that game is filled with problems. The menu layout is confusing, the available actions in the menu are poorly explained and at times unintuitive, and selecting abilities and skills is a pain as they frequently use made up names for otherwise common things. A simple fire spell for example may have some name you've never heard of. And the visual icon representing it is no less confusing making experimentation the only way to know what things are.

There are other examples as well, such as lack of buy menu pre-sets in the new Counter-Strike, pretty much every menu screen in Bethesda titles. Were it not an obvious console port I'd probably mention Mass Effect 1 as well. My favourite part was when the function of specific buttons would change depending on what menu screen I was in for no good reason.

For good UI, most Valve games get this right by keeping things simple, informative, and obvious in their function. TF2 is a great example of this with it's menu screens having clear options with large buttons/icons which are easy to understand. The functions of these buttons are almost always obvious, and their use follows standard PC design conventions like clicking something to select it.

5) Have you ever purchased an 'indie bundle'? If yes, do you actually play all the games in the bundle or are you just supporting the developers and/or cheaply buying an individual game.

Never actually. I tend to buy the games I'm interested in as they come out if they're cheap enough, which many indie titles are. By the time indie bundles have things I want I've usually already bought them.