PC Gamers needed to help with university paper

[Ickabod]

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?

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) Generally I'll pick up games of a given genre over others that simply "look cool" because I don't have a massive amount of time to play games so the time I spend playing I want to make sure that I'm going to like what I buy. But I will branch out from time to time.

2) GAMEPLAY (can I emphasize that anymore?), mechanics, the other three are really equal in my mind. It comes down to the game, for example if I'm buying a Civilization game then it becomes replayability. If I'm buying a shooter, graphics. And for an MMO multiplayer. But gameplay and mechanics are by far the most important.

3) I like an active developer.

4) Generally I don't think to much about the UI. If a UI is annoying than the game is annoying and I stop playing it and forget about it. Sorry can't think of any examples.

5) I have never purchased an indie bundle. I just don't see myself as having time to play a lot of games looking for that diamond in the rough. I want awesome and I'll pay for it if the game delivers.

 

[2clueless]

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?

Looking good and being good are very subjective terms.

I do not know if this relavent to the question, but I'll give it a shot. Rather than genre or style dictating my purchase choice, the main motivator for game buying is whether a game has a good story, or if I will have fun in it with my friends.

For example, I find Spec Ops: The Line has an excellent story. The Warcraft and Starcraft RTS games have awesome stories. Assassin's Creed has an interesting story. Bastion has a very cool story. All have gotten my money for being engaging and entertaining for my single player experience.

On the other side, I like playing with my friends. League of Legends has the barest idea of a story to support its gameplay, but it is incredibly fun, funny, and entertaing when playing with four other people you mesh well with. Also, the Warcraft MMO is not nearly as interactive or as story driven as its RTS counter-parts. However, I played it for years because I had a solid group of friends who played as well, and we had fun bashing bad guys and receiving loot. It was more a social experience than anything, like gathering around a table for a tabletop or card game. Now, if only people could remember to stay out of the bloody fire..

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

mechanics > graphics > replay ? multiplayer

If I am going to play something, I need the gameplay to be tight. I need everything to work as intended. If the mechanics and interface are slow, muddled, inconsistent, and wonky, my experience is going to suck, and I am not going to want to keep playing.

If the mechanics and interface is the window through which I see the world, graphics are the world itself, and should reflect it appropriately. The eye candy doesn;t have to be triple AAA photo realistic, but they should be original, inspired, have some character. Bastion is an excellent example: bright, colourful, engaging, appropriate. Found it a lot better than Star Wars: The Old Republic and running down the same metal corridor time after time. And no, different lighting does not make the corridor different, even if it is on a different world.

Replay.. is awesome if it happens, but I do not put any great weight on it. I figure you spend 10-15 bucks on a two hour movie. If the sixty dollar game entertains you for 15-20 hours, you've come out ahead.

Multiplayer is special. It can greatly enhance a game, it will cause me to buy and try other games if I am going to play with friends. It doesn't really fit in.

 

[Slayer_2]

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?

Yes, of course, everyone has preferences, I'd imagine. I mostly stick to FPS, RPG, TPS, Simulators, or RTS, in order of favorite to least. I own maybe 5 games total that fall outside of those genres completely, out of well over 100 games.

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, multiplayer. Again, most to least important order.

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 think most hardcore gamers prefer a developer who interacts with the community. It's generally harder to dislike a company if they aren't a giant faceless corporation.

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, often, a bad UI can really ruin a gaming experience, everything from over-clutter HUD to imprecise buttons (in menus and such) irritate me greatly.

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.

No, never have. I find that most indie games bundled tend to be flash-based or 2D, and not in my taste. I have much support for other indies, though, and I am even one myself.

 

[Inconspicuous Trenchcoat]

My being full of myself made this a long one.. sorry.

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 enjoy most genres; I won't simply buy something because of its genre. Though it will make the sell easier. I'll try anything that catches my interest, unless it's a 4X strategy, grand strategy or RTS. Even if one of those genre caught my eye, I know I'd likely grow tired of it very quickly, so I won't purchase.

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.

1) Gameplay mechanics: No video game story, graphics or other feature makes up for horrendous gameplay. Uniqueness, excellent story (very rare in videogames), fun characters, or neat graphics/locations/atmosphere will raise my tolerance for mediocre gameplay.
2) Graphics: Not the most important factor by any stretch, but I place it above multiplayer and replay-ability.
3) Multiplayer: The option to play with others is a decent incentive. But the concept and gameplay are what make me want to buy a game. I'd probably never decide against a purchase just because it didn't have multiplayer. Lack of online co-op did disappoint me in the cases of Rayman Origins and Trine, though it didn't stop me from purchasing in either case.
4) Replay-ability: Those who, for example, play through Mass Effect 10+ times or Chrono Trigger once a year I don't really understand. That is to say I don't understand people who endlessly replay single-player campaigns. I will replay stuff I REALLY love maybe once more or a couple more times over the years--I adore Super Mario RPG but still have only completed it three times over more than a decade. I consider replay-ability inherent to multiplayer games, so I weighed replay-ability's rank here on single-player.

I'd much rather consume the experience once, then move on. Variety is the spice of life and stuff. It's entirely different for multiplayer focused games. I'll play that over and over (or at least for significantly longer than the time it takes to play through an average singleplayer game), because the human element often provides endless variety. The gameplay changes constantly, even if it's only in minor increments, and story isn't a factor. However, in singleplayer, story is important and gameplay is more rigid (usually). A large factor that discourages me from replaying single player is lack of a salient story, or how thin-spread game stories can be. I've rewatched the Count of Monte Cristo about 50 times, but that's only 2 and a half hours. Most games have far less compelling or complex stories than that, but are also stretched out for ten times longer.

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 only reason I purchased The Witcher 2 on release, was because I wanted to support the dev for releasing a DRM-free AAA game--bought it off of Good Old Games. I hadn't even reached halfway through the first game, at that point. I also bought Rayman Origins full price on PC, because Ubi removed all their DRM off the game. Even though I've become jaded with League of Legends and Riot, their community team was exceptional in constantly improving their interaction and reaction to the community, so I bought Riot Points (pay-for currency) to support them, cause I liked 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?

I think most people (as represented by the 'tards on the internet ) get waaaay too bent out of shape about controls and UI. I simply shrug and then adapt to the dev's clumsy implementations as best I can. Controls have to be REALLY awful for me them to deter me; same for the UI. Binary Domain's UI was quite bad and so was the mouse acceleration, Borderland's UI was quite bad, but I got used to it pretty quickly and just enjoyed the games. Adaption is a primary tool for playing video games, so I don't understand the degree of trouble many of the internet whiners claim to have. I DO have trouble with fighting games--however, I always had trouble playing runs or holding beats on musical instruments no matter how much I seemed to practice, so my fingers might just be retarded. Almost 200 hours in Street Fighter 4, still can't do ANY combo with above 50% consistency. I still don't whine about it (too much), and it doesn't stop me from having fun (usually).

Other bad UIs: Skyrim (once again, didn't really care, still really fun, got pretty quick at using their "bad" UI too), Blur (took a good 10 minutes to figure everything out with the Friend list and multiplayer lobbies, but whatever). Fallout 3 and NV, the Pip Boy is an inefficient piece of crap, but becomes less horrible once you get faster at navigating it.
Good UI: Guess I don't notice as much when it's good.

It would seem I ignored the "Outside of obvious console ports;" part of your question. Sorry, but not rewriting all that.

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've purchased 3? of the bundles and I bought the recent music one too. If we define "play all the games" as at least getting maybe 30% of the way through each, then no. I do try them all, and usually only finish maybe one of them. I put in a minimum of $15 into the bundles, and usually give it all evenly to the devs (Child's Play is nice, but kinda dumb: money's better spent on other charities).

Last bundle (not counting the music bundle I bought):
Amnesia (already owned, never liked)
Bastion (have played 3 hours, it's still just an ARPG, but the narrator does help a lot)
Braid (already owned)
LIMBO (played and finished; first half is pretty meh, most early puzzles are based on you remembering things you recently passed by)
Lone Survivor (played for 30 minutes and didn't care anymore, like most survival horror)
Psychonauts (already owned)
Super Meat Boy (already owned)
Superbrothers: S&S EP (Don't like it's look, it's probably better on a touch device, I don't like traditional adventure games. Played for 10 minutes and couldn't stand it anymore)

Money distribution:
30% to Bastion, 30% to Lone Survivor, 30% to Psychonauts and 10% to the Humble Bundle team. Was mostly intending to play Bastion and Lone Survivor, so I gave them some. Already owned LIMBO on Xbox, so left them out. Loved Psychonauts, and felt they deserved some more of my money. Gave a tip to Humble Bundle so they can hopefully pay the server bills.

 

[Dwarfare]

1) I try to have one of most everything. One shooter, one RPG, one strategy game, one other (MOBA right now).

2) Gameplay mechanics, replay-ability, graphics, multiplayer

3) A developer that makes a clear effort to support the community likewise earns my support.

4) Not often, usually with the games I play the UI isn't so poorly designed as to get me to notice obvious flaws and the like. If it works properly, I'm happy, and I keep my mind on the gameplay and immersion without really noticing the interface.

5) Never bought one.

 

[KhaoticOne]

1. If i do purchase any, i favor RPGS, Multiplayer (primarily FPS) titles, and Sandbox games. It somewhat falls in favorism since they are my most played genres, and on average they can get lots of hours from me.

2. Gameplay Mechanics, Multiplayer, Replay-ability, Graphics. Assuming my understanding of these terms are the same as yours.

3. Yes, i can forgive more of a games faults if the Developers are still working on improving their title. Even if the game was perfect i still prefer this as it shows me they want to elevate their "child" to greater levels hence sculpting it for as long as possible. Finally more Dev support helps keep titles alive longer.

4. Unfortunately i do have to think about UI interfaces alot. Fortunately for me most of the titles i play either work fairly well with their UI settings, or has a community that fixes them to their own setting. If by rare chance the title in question has neither then i do have my USB controller to fall back on. Im no expert on this but atypically PC ports of Sandbox games have horrible UI settings and worst you cannot tweak them to at least make them manageable.

5. Friends bought them and spread them around mainly because they are cheap, i however do not buy them at all (titles dont intrigue me). Since PC is my main gaming "console" i do not play "Indie" games most of the time. I never thought of "supporting" somebody just for the sake of it. I prefer to see this as a give and take relationship, if i dont like it i wont buy it however if do i will.

 

[Desaari]

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?

Any genre of game is fine by me, as long as the game itself is good. I'd much rather buy a solid title, from a genre I've never played before, than a mediocre game from a genre I tend to enjoy.

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

Multiplayer- I play almost all of my games online with friends. Even the most poorly designed game can be made fun when in good company.

Gameplay mechanics- A well-designed game with good gameplay will keep me playing, and coming back, regardless of other replayability factors.

Replayability- A game with good mechanics and good multiplayer has high replay value intrinsically, and does not need to be further designed for replayability. Given the aforementioned attributes I could not care less about the replay value of the single player experience.

Graphics- Having re-played Doom 1&2, the Serpent Rider trilogy, Diablo II, and Starcraft, all very recently, I can honestly say that graphics are the least important quality, to me, in a game.

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 feel that the interaction between developer and player is important to provide a better experience. As such I would be more content with a game in the knowledge that the developers are listening to feedback from their players. Would I be more likely to promote a game based solely on developer activity though? Probably not.


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 tend not to think about it other than when using a bad UI or occasionally an exceptionally good one. I could give a few quick examples such as:

Good: KotOR, Battlefield 2, Total War series, Guild Wars, Diablo II, Pretty much any RTS

Bad: ARMA II/DayZ, Deus Ex 3, Final Fantasy series, Fallout series

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 bought indie bundles before, and to date I have not played any of the games in the bundle. I did so to acquire the games at lower expense, and ensured the developers got the majority of the money.

 

[StriderShinryu]

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?

While I'm open to many genrees, I definitely have favourites and ones I avoid.

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

It depends a little on the price point. For a brand new game at full price it's Gamrplay, Replay or Time Value, Graphics, Multiplayer. For a game at a notably reduced price it's Gameplay, Graphics, Replay, Multiplayer. This is not, of course, because graphics become more important but simply because if I'm paying less money, I'm less concerned about the over time value of the game. A single 6 hour play with no replay is fine.. if the price point is low enough.

As noted above, I don't always look at it as replay value. I look at it as more of how much enjoyment I'm likely to get in the long term. With something like a platformer, I want something I can replay. With something like Skyrim, however, it's very unlikely I'll replay it but as the first play takes 60+ hours, it still provides a long term value.

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)

Honestly, while having a community oriented developer is a nice perk, it doesn't matter too much to me in the end. I look at how much the game interests me first and the qualities, or lack thereof, of the developer second when I'm choosing what to spend my money on.

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 tend to notice UIs all that much as they are pretty standardized. It's often only something I'd notice if it was really bad.

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, yes. Once again, it's really about the games. I have nothing against supporting smaller developers, but I won't buy a bundle for any price if there aren't at least a couple games in the package that interest me.

 

[Duffeknol]

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 looks interesting, I'll go for 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

Story! Then (in order) gameplay, replay-ability, graphics, multiplayer.

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)

Don't care. If a game is good I'll buy it. Even if Satan himself (aka EA) made it, I still wouldn'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?

No. Don't really care about 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.

No. I usually go for the bigger titles.

 

[djtim_3000]

Hi to everyone that responded, thank you so much and I appreciate the time you took to give me your feedback - the quantity and quality came out much better than I expected.

The data will be somewhat quantified and used in an industry and marketplace analysis. The completed analysis will assist in identifying the viability and critical success factors for an independent developer attempting to develop, market and release a game in a specific genre. The 'business case' is the eventual aim of the paper, it should come out quite good will all the primary data, I'm also hoping to hear back from some independent developers as well

 

[unstabLized]

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) Any PC game will do me well as long as it looks interesting. However, I am not into JRPG's or RPG's as much as FPS's, Racing Games, etc. Still, if it looks good enough, and I find gameplay interesting, I buy it. Right now though, the industry is flooded with FPS games, and even though I absolutely love Racing games, there's not too many that catch my interest, and there are mostly simulators.

2) To me, a game's replay ability is the most important. If it can suck me in for many hours and I enjoy it, no matter what, I count it as a good game. That's why I can still play many of the classic games. Gameplay mechanics are important too, but not exactly that essential with me, as sometimes I find myself getting used to the game. Still, good gameplay mechanics can make the difference of a yay or nay. Graphics can "wow" me, but might not exactly make me want to buy the game. It definitely doesn't determine my opinion of the game completely, and if the game looks solid, even if the graphics are a bit bad, I still buy it. Multiplayer is the least that matters to me, and I prefer a great single player expereince way more then a game with good multi player. Still, if a game matches itself with a good multi player expereince, it is always a bonus.


3) I definitely would find myself supporting a developer if they paid a bit of an attention to PC gamers, instead of just porting it from a console. The more active a developer is with its community, the better. That way, players can report bugs and problems on the forums, and the game could get patched to be better and better. The more care a company gives to its audience, the closer they get with the players and fans, and the better they are in my books. I must say, however, that it's sort of rare to see this nowadays.


4) User-interface is important, but I mostly see its flaws when it doesn't seem to be in contact with the game. If it breaks the action and feel of the game, then it's not very good. An example of that is in RPG games. If you have a lot of items, and would like to use one in a fight, it's not a great idea to make an inventory list with no organization, as that will break any sort of flow the game has. In my own opinion though, as long as I recall, I've never had to complain with bad UI. Maybe I just don't notice them, or they don't matter to me.


5) I haven't purchased an indie bundle before. I have, however, received one. I have purchased indie games before. Usually I don't though, as I don't find myself being appealed to them that much. A friend of mine got me the Humble Bundle before, which came with a set of games. Frozen Synapse, TRAUMA, and Trine. I didn't really find them that appealing, mostly because they just weren't my taste. TRAUMA was unique, and was sort of a calming game, but I feel like I didn't get deep enough to understand it. Overall, I'm not too much into Indie games.

 

[GundamSentinel]

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?

- Not really. There are some genres that I absolutely don't play (mostly sports, fighting and racing games), but I don't have a particular genre that I prefer above others. If a game looks good, I'll give it a go.

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 is generally the most important. If a game isn't interesting to play, I just won't play it.

- Graphics don't really matter to me (my PC isn't that good anyway). A game has to look presentable (e.g. no weird visual glitches) but I'm not looking for the best graphics in the world.

- What's more important is art direction. A game like Shadow of the Colossus (yes, I know it's not a PC game) is a good example: graphically it looks terrible these days, but the art direction and music make it seem a lot more beautiful than game with antialiasing x20 and anisotropic filtering (whatever that may be).

- Replayability plays some small role in my purchases, but mostly I replay a game anyway, if I like it (sometimes many times). I like games with a lot to do, lots of different content. But it's not an active requirements for games I buy.

- Multiplayer generally isn't important for my gaming purchases. There are only a select few games I play multiplayer anyway and most of those I still bought for the singleplayer.

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)

- Depends on the game. Multiplayer oriented games benefit more from an active developer than singleplayer games. And since I'm mostly a singleplayer person, I don't really have an opinion one way or the other. I'll just say that a developer that cares is a good thing in general.

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'm only really aware of the UI if it's a bad UI. The less I notice, the better it is. Of games I've recently played, I'd say the UI for Star Trek Online is pretty bad. It's not intuitive (ugh, that awful compass...) and doesn't give me all the information I need. Oh, and some elements of the Skyrim UI could do with a bit of work. Good UIs would be mostly strategy games, I've noticed. Games like Warcraft/Starcraft, Total War and Age of Empires generally have good UIs.

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.

- No, I haven't. I generally don't buy bundles unless the total price is a good discount over the games in the bundle I actually want to have. So yeah, cheaply buying the individual games. I'm not a fan of 'supporting developers'. They're companies, if they have something I want to buy, I'll buy it. I'm not giving them money just because I like them. I don't do that in the super market, I don't do that for game developers. ^^

 

[DJ_DEnM]

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) Any PC game as long as it looks interesting and has good reviews.

2)Gameplay mechanics

3)Yes, such as the TF2 community and Valve

4)I can't think of a bad UI, but a good UI could be Borderlands

5)No, sorry.

 

[Valorik]

Hi PC Gamers,

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 tend to purchase more rpg'ish games, and strategy games, but I'll buy any game as long as it looks good.

2) Gameplay mechanics, replay-ability, multiplayer, graphics

3) I generally don't care with exceptions being in certain types of games, that have a more consistent online play

4) I find most UI's are fairly standardized and there isn't much difference, haven't seen a "bad ui" I am a big fan of the ui design in League of Legends

5) No, I'm afraid I have not, for the most part I own the games bundled.

 

[hutchy27]

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 normally go for strategy games.
2)Gameplay first as it needs to be fun, replayability second as I like to replay my strategy games and thirdly graphics as I like them to be at least at a good standard. ( I still play C&C Generals now, and the graphics for that aren't very impressive compared to modern counter parts)
3)Yes, I enjoy valve games and they are very supporting in my opinion, with lots of player made maps etc.
4) Not really
5) No

I would just like to say that I'm currently not a big PC gamer, however I used to be but I need a new hardware upgrade and haven't got around to it and just been using my xbox however I'll be getting a new computer some time and I'm planning on starting up again mostly with strategy games like Civ V and I'll also be buying the Valve complete collection.

I hope I helped.

 

[StashAugustine]

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 go for anything in general.

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 would say story/atmosphere/dialouge first, then interesting gameplay concepts.

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 still buy from EA and the like if they'll put out a good game, but devs being active in the community is a big plus. Valve, Eidos Montreal, Firaxis are some of the good ones.

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?

It hurts my opinon, but I'd still get it anyway if the rest was good. Good UI: Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Optimized for PC and console, had traditional grid-based inventory that auto-sorted and wasn't a pain, easy to use. Bad UI: Mass Effect 1. Poorly explained, hard to sort through, far too many problems for me to list here.

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, because I wanted Amnesia. I figured it was cheaper than buying it off Steam, and I could pick up a few others on the way. Haven't yet played any yet (already beat Bastion, started Psychonauts previously, saving A:TDD for Halloween.)

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

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?

Yes. I typically purchase RPG and FPS games, as well as hybrids of the two genres (like Deus Ex and Fallout: New Vegas). That said, I try to remain open-minded toward other genres. If something legitimately looks interesting to me, I'll give it a shot, regardless of genre. For example, I generally dislike puzzle games... but when I heard about the excellent writing and dark humor of the two Portal games I figured they'd be worth a shot, and they ended up being among my favorite games. So while I certainly have favorite genres, I don't feel like I'm locked into them.

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

None of the above? Okay, okay... fine. Of the choices, from most important to least important, I'd say... replay-ability/multiplayer, gameplay mechanics, graphics.

Personally, I think the most important part of my purchasing decision is whether or not the story and characters look interesting. I honestly find it a little disappointing that you didn't even include the game's writing as a selling point. I don't care if the game has replay-ability, solid mechanics, and beautiful graphics if it means playing a game that has an unlikable cast and a story that could have been written by a toddler.

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)

This depends pretty heavily. If, hypothetically, there are two very similar games (in terms of story, characters, and genre) being developed at the exact same time and they both look interesting to me... then yes, I'm more likely to support the game where the developer has an open relationship with its community.

However, if on the other hand we're looking at two completely different games, one with a faceless developer and the other with a developer active within its fan community... in that situation the developer involvement isn't going to matter to me whatsoever, because what matters is whether or not the game looks interesting. What does developer community involvement matter to me if it's a game I have no interest in playing?

I think the number of situations in which this would influence my spending habits are so incredibly small that they may as well not even be considered. Personally, I'd like it if all developers were open with their communities... but at the end of the day, it's the games that are going to get me to open my wallet, not the community.

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 generally only think about user interface when it in some way hinders me. Some examples of bad UI, in my opinion, would be XCOM and World of WarCraft, for two different but equally important reasons. I felt that XCOM had a bad UI because it was overly complicated and extremely vague. As a first-time player (admittedly a very long time after its release) I had to dig up the game's manual to figure out how to play the game. While there are those who would argue that this is a good thing, I would absolutely not. I think it's important that a game's interface should be intuitive and helpful, with adequate in-game "training" on how to use the more complicated aspects. I think forcing players to memorize manuals rather than actually playing the game is a big step backwards.

World of WarCraft fails in the UI department because it is simply not sufficient for what is required of the player. It either doesn't give you enough space for abilities/hotkeys, or it doesn't give you needed information, or it puts things in locations that are sometimes awkward for players. The fact that end-game content practically requires custom interfaces is fairly telling. I doubt you'll find too many hardcore raiders using stock UI.

As for good UI... that's more difficult to answer. In my opinion, good UI is UI that is so effective at what it does that you don't even realize it's there. I'm not sure I have any specific examples off-hand, because like I said... I generally only think about UI when it gets in my way. So perhaps I'll edit this later to include some examples that were well-designed.

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.

No, I have not purchased any 'indie bundles.' In some cases because I wasn't aware of their existence until after the bundle event had ended, and in other cases simply because I wasn't interested in the games.

Assuming for a moment that the games do look interesting to me, and I don't miss the event, then yes - I'd buy the bundle. How much I spend would depend on what I get for my money. If the bundle contains games that look interesting to me and have also been well-received by the gaming community, then I'll probably throw some extra money toward the developers. If I don't know much about the games but they still look at least interesting to me, I'm probably not going to spend as much since I'm taking a risk with my money.


EDIT:
Captcha: "i'm only human"

Uh... what?

 

[thesilentman]

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).

Good luck on that essay, man! Hope I helped.

Spoiler: My response...

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 buy games that just I feel would be better having a personal experience with. I'd rather be three feet away from my monitor enjoying Dark Souls or Skyrim than lounging 10 feet and not paying attention. Genre doesn't matter for me; I play everything from triple AAA titles to small flash games.

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 care about the final package and how it's presented, but it goes something like this for me:
- Gameplay
- Replay value
- Graphics[footnote]I game on a shit PC so graphics aren't that high as a priority.[/footnote]
- Muliplayer

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 support PC games if the developer was more active, but usually I 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?

The Elder Scrolls win the award for most dickish UI in my book. What I would like to see in an UI would be a mix between TF2 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

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'll try each, but I really buy them to support the developers.

That's all from me. Once again. hope I helped!

 

[Broax]

Hope this helps...

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 pretty open to most styles although I tend to favor Strategy, FPS and RPGs... I play almost anything if it's worth playing...

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

1) Solid story (!!!!);
2) gameplay mechanics;
3) Graphics
3) replay-ability;
4) Multiplayer.

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 known to stop buying from certain publishers altogether just because of shitty consumer relations. I'm willing to throw money to a developer (even if I don't have a lot of a time to play the game) if I like them and what they do...

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?

UI design is very important. I hate games that tend to remap standard keys ("f" for flashlight or "r" to reload).

One example from the top of my head of bad UI design was from a horror FPS (I won't name it 'cause it's an indie game...) where you had to manipulate the enviorment through mouse gestures (...although it's not too hard to guess which game I'm talking about). The thing is for some items to become "active" you had to have them perfectly centered with the crosshair (which, btw, didn't exist) and combat was pretty much fully broken. Thankfully since it was a PC game there was a quick fix through editing the configuration file, but still... I also loathed Diablo 1/2 map... It was a horrible thing that cluttered the screen and took your attention from the level design (which I quite enjoyed).

Good UI examples are harder to give since most of the time you take them for granted... I enjoyed the decision on later resident evil games to not pause the game while managing the inventory as it adds up to the tension... Thinking about how action oriented these games became, god knows a bit tension was needed... Another good (and more general) example is how modern FPS reduced the clutter on screen. The character portrait on doom was lovely but not having health and armor bars, bullet counters, etc. Also, since I mentioned diablo 1/2, Diablo 3's minimap was one of the most welcomed changes to the franchise I was expecting (yes... I was actually anticipating the minimap...)

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 over 200 games on my steam account (not to mention desura and xbl)... Maybe 2/3 are indie games... Maybe 3/4 where bought through bundles... I probably Played 1/5 of those games. I just want to help those guys reach their dreams. Having said that I must add that some of the best games I played where indie games. Between amnesia, penumbra, braid, bastion, limbo, super meat boy, minecraft, project zomboid (this is my pet indie love), lone survivor, bit.trip, dear esther, etc. (too many to name) I'm more then willing to risk a couple of bucks helping out an indie dev. Most of the times it's more then worth it.


I hope my replies help you! =) If you need anything else feel free to PM me...