PC gaming....could things be better?

[ph0b0s123]

I have been sitting through these console vs computer (including the PC) platform discussions since the early 80's. So lets get a couple of things straight.

Console gaming has generally, always been a bigger market than computer gaming. Sorry, but it's true. But computer gaming platforms generally always had a hardware advantage, due to having more expensive hardware. So what you used to get were games unique to computers, not exclusives, but unique, as consoles of the time were not capable of running said games. Console owners had to wait for the next gen consoles to play the titles. But devs did not mind this as they were always looking to push the envelope.

And this is what has really changed and to go back to the OP's question, what needs to be better on the PC. In the past companies would have made games purely focused on was possible on high end PC's, which meant you may get titles consoles of the time were not capable of running. This does not happen now as devs will only make something that will also be capable of running on consoles as well. This is a change.

A common point in these discussions from console owners, 'is why would I game on PC the, as the experience, as far as graphics are concerned, is hardly any different to that on a console'. And they are right. Look at most multi-platform games and there is not a huge difference between say the graphics. But this is not for the reason console owners believe. It is not because consoles are so close to PC's now, but because PC games have been coded to run on consoles as well.

Even PC unique titles like the much vaulted Witcher 2 are not much better as they have been designed with one eye on potentially being moved to consoles later, hence it only being DX 9.

This is the thing that needs to improve the most. Dev's allowing the PC to be able to run to it's strengths. But Dev's at the moment are very console focused as they have worked out they can basically put out the same games each year with out much innovation and they are guaranteed massive sales. Who can blame them when modern gamers are not as discerning any more.

 

[Vault101]

Firstly, why isn't WOW a sign of PC gaming being alive? It's addicting and the only reason anyone plays it after they're done with the story is that they want to be the best. Still the same goes for almost every game with an online aspect.

OK... PC gaming could be improved with the death of console gaming. I know I sound like a PC elitist now, but I prefer consoles on lots of points. PC games aren't made for PCs most of the time. Look at Crysis, then at Crysis 2. Why does the original have better graphics than the sequel? Because it was made for consoles.
PC games made for PC exclusively are better optimized for PCs. What they could have done is made games for PCs then ported them to consoles, but they prefer to make them (on a PC) for console then port them (on a PC) back to PC which means PCs wont get to utilize their full potential.

like I said its just about what kind of games one might be into

also thats just one massivley popular game, due to its nature it could be going along rather well while the rest of PC gaming goes pear shaped (not saying it has or will) for example Red dead gears of war 2 and such not getting released on PC

 

[cybran]

some people will say PC gaming is dying, some people say the oposite...(as far as im concerned WOW and famville dont= pc gaming being alive and well)

If WoW and FARMVILLE's growth is the beacon of PC gaming then I am mother theresa.

If PC-gaming were flourishing we would have lots of new games developed for the PC, sadly nearly all are now developed for consoles. I won't express my console feelings openly, that would get me banned for sure.
But I can reveal it involves massing all the planets consoles and their console developers and the pacific ocean...

 

[teisjm]

1. Drop the stupid DRM schemes. People are gonna pirate your game anyways, and the harder you try, the harder you end up punishing your paying costumers, for they are the ones having to jump through all the loops, to get to play the game they bought, while the pirates just wait patiently for someone to crack the game.

2. Leave steam as the game-overlay platform. I'm not saying steam is flawless, and perfect, merely that it's by far the biggest. I rarely buy games off of steam, and if i can, i choose to buy them on a disc, but i use steam as my universal friends list, all my friends are on steam, and it makes it easy to see who's online and ask them if they're up for playing.
I don't think EA origin is not gonna blow steam away, i don't think they'll functionally replace them for a lot of gamers, it'll just be an annoying thing you'll have to fire up before playing BF3.
I don't wanna end up haveing to open 7 different programs just to see who's online.
Heres what i do when playing:
A) Fire up steam to see who's online and up for playng
B) log onto ventrillo, so we can talk while playing
C) open the game.
Now when BF3 comes out, add these 2
D) Open Ea origins
E) Open battlelog (their battlefiel-facebook website, where the server list is, or so i've been told)
Thats 5 things to open, just to start playing.
I know someone is gonan be like "Herp derp, it's just a few double clicks, are you too retarded to click a button, spoiled retard" And no, i can double click without any problems, but what purpose does it really serve to have to use all the different shit? It's not there for us, the gamers, the costumers, it's there because the companies wanna conquer the market, which in itself is fine, it's what they do, but please find some way to do without unneccecerily annoying your costumers.

3. Don't ever sell power.
Micro transactions that buys you power unobtainable by normal costumers that didn't fork over the extra cash ruins your game balance.
If you sell something that could be achieved otherwise through gameplay, no problem. I don't mind the D3 real money AH, causei can still find the loot myself.
I wouldn't mind, if people was able to buy a boost in Xp-gain in WoW, cause i could still level with no problems without it.
I don't mind micro-transactions, that buys you cosmetic changes, cause they don't affect gameplay.

4. Drop day 1 dlc, and other stuff, to prevent the re-selling of games.
If you buy a book, you'll excpect it to be readable by your friends as well once you've finished, and not lack the last 10 pages.
If you buy a movie, you'll expect to be able to watch it at a friends place on his dvd player, without lacking the side-plot.
Then why on earth shouldn't i be able to borrow a game from a friend, and play it without lacking content?
This is also why i prefer discs over digital distribution, i sure as hell expect to be able to borrow the game i've bought to a friend.
As for online games, it should be like this: You connect your account to the CD key, you can have as many accounts as you wish on one CD key, allowing you to borrow the game out to friends, but you can only play with 1 account at a time. This allows people to install the game on as amny computers as they wish, but still only play from 1 at a time, just like a single player game requiring the disc.

As for the PC-gaming dying to consoles:
If say the PS4 and Xbox720 came with keyboard and mouse as a viable option for all their games, i would probably get a lot more games on the console. Right now, when i get a new game, whether i get it for PC or PS3 is meinly determined by whether i'd rather play with a controller, or M/K.
If M/K was standart, in addition to a controller on consoles, i'd probably pick console more often, cause it's a dedicated gameing machine, and the games are specifically made to run on that excact hardware.
You could also just plug a controlelr to a PC, but it still doesn't solve the problems with pc's not beeing of uniform nature hardware-wise, which often causes problems.
If games ran on console, it would also potentially easen the points made in the second paragraph, cause all the meta gameing like universal friends lists, voice chat etc. would be handled over PSn/XBL, not 5 different programs battling each other.

TLR Mad ramlbing above, move along people, nothign to see here, not even a reference to your moms smoking hot body and what i'd liek to do with it.

 

[Ickorus]

PC games tend to have all the truly brilliant indie developers, out platform isn't going anywhere and in fact it's only getting stronger.

 

[Watchmacallit]

PC gaming isn't dying. But retail sales are being savagely murdered by Steam and other DDs.

 

[Yopaz]

The thing is, it fully dying would actually be beneficial to PC gamers, for the same reason Arcade gaming dying was beneficial to arcade gamers; consoles learned from them, and gained all their benefits with only a few of their drawbacks.
Just let it happen already.

Actually there's nothing PCscan learn form consoles. There's nothing consoles can learn from PCs.

PC users like that they can use their PC to anything. From serious work to casual games (or casual work to serious games). A serious PC user loves the fact that he can improve his PC by adding more RAM, new CPU, GPU, HD and that kind of stuff. Many also love overclocking. PC users love that they can do complex things.

A console user loves the simplicity. How he can buy a new game, pop it in and relax with a session without worrying about specs. Everything marked PS3 works on his PS3. It's all optimized to some degree and that's what he likes.

The PC market and the console market are two different markets. Different target audience, different preferences. If you were to implement the things PC users like on a console you would alienate both console users and PC users because nothing would match what they both prefer.
Why do you think a PC user and a console user are unable to have a civilized chat over their favourite platform? Because they're too different.

Right now what the consoles could learn from PCs is that the technology improves quickly. Or at least quickly enough that renewing hardware once in a decade isn't enough. If they let users change the hardware that wouldn't please the console generation at all. If they started making new consoles every year that would please them even less. The wish to renew is big with PC users, but that's one of the first complaints you will see when there's a console vs PC thread on the Escapist.

 

[zehydra]

PC gaming isn't dying, but it itself is in jeopardy, because the PC is in jeopardy.

I'm not saying the PC is dying either. All the guys running around screaming "THE END OF THE PC IS NEAR" don't know what they're talking about.

However, people are pushing that message in order to further their own products, like tablets, netbooks and other related things.


If people decide to buy into everything they're told and go ahead and buy up all the tablets and cloud-based netbooks and throw away their PCs, the PC gaming industry will end up indistinguishable from the Console gaming industry.

AND THAT, is something we cannot afford to happen.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I think its good that steam has a monopoly in the pc digital distribution
service, valve actually care about pc gaming, so they know what their target market wants.

And actually pc games got loads of honourable mentions, and they were said to provide a better gaming expierence than consoles at e3.
Also, due to cloud gaming becoming very popular very quick, pcs might only be the, last true gaming platform left, because gaming only devices would become obsolete due to services like gaikai and onlive.

In short pc gaming is the future.

A monopoly is never a good thing. And no matter how hard a company tries to pretend they're my friend, the reality is that we are business partners. And, to be perfectly honest, I think valve makes for a pretty terrible partner all told. Sure, they've got perks, and they try to distract me with baubles and trinkets, but when you get right down to it, I've had endless problems with Steam. From getting booted from games regularly because Steam is "Down for Service" (even when I'm playing by myself!), to strange technical issues, to account management problems.

I'm not saying that I want to have a dozen programs from different companies running at all time on my machine of course, but I would like to have more options available to me.

 

[GeorgW]

The only thing that would be a big improvement would be to cut out stupid DRM and to force devs to stop make bad console ports. PC gaming is fine the way it is, but that would improve it.

 

[TingaWinga]

Steam just needs to take over so that we too have a gaming Achievement tracker thing
Also steam needs to update so that we can track achievements instead of just giving them to us

 

[Fujor]

well.... hardware could be cheaper.

actually it's not that expensive but by the time you build the rig it starts to become expensive.

i suppose that's the advantage of subsidized console hardware

 

[Stall]

PC gaming isn't dying. But retail sales are being savagely murdered by Steam and other DDs.

No. It's because Steam and other DDs don't tend to report their sales numbers, so it only LOOKS like sales on PC are weaker, when in reality, they are just as strong (since DD is the preferred method for PC gamers to get their games).

I'm tired of this whole PC gaming is dying crap because of the above. The only reason people started saying that is because the PC market as a whole began to switch away from retail and instead to digital distribution. So since DDs don't give information on their sales (Valve doesn't for sure... I believe the others are equally as close lipped about it), and the majority of game sales now occur on this platform instead of retail, of COURSE it appears that PC gaming is dying. I mean, imagine how it would look for console games if you stopped counting retail sales: it would look like console games are dying.

Seriously. PC gaming is fine. Anyone going on about anything else is simply ignorant and has NO about anything. DRM isn't the problem, DLC isn't the problem... NONE of these things are the problem because there is no problem. Stop accusing DRM and other crap of "killing PC gaming," since the only thing "killing" PC gaming is DDs not reporting their sales thus giving the illusion that games launched on PC sell less.

 

[Muggizz]

Nah dude, it's all good. SC2 is having loots of tournaments and competitions going on, as well as some seriously fresh and good user made maps. Bioshock Infinite looks like far more than promising. Guild Wars 2 is gonna be the shit if they manage to pull it off right.

Short answer. No. It's alive and all good.

 

[Vonnis]

PC gaming isn't dying, but it's suffering from two things: retardedly draconian DRM, and incredibly lazy ports. I understand the money is in consoles so games are programmed for those first, but when you get in-game tooltips telling you to press L2, or when you have to download an unofficial patch to make sure the game uses more than 256 MB VRAM for textures, you know the devs only ported the game as an afterthought and spent as little time on it as possible.

 

[Halceon]

Abandonware. It needs to be finally defined. What do we do with software that is officially off the market? Is it free reign for everyone? Is it considered a conscious choice of the content holder to withhold it?