The Big Picture: PC Gaming Is Dead - Long Live PC Gaming!

[Danpascooch]

I am an avid console gamer, but even I admit PC gaming is the only platform that can handle an RTS properly yet, Moviebob should have at least admitted that.

Still though, I agree with a lot of his video.

 

[Astalano]

For once Bob, couldn't agree more.

Don't get me wrong I do acknowledge there is a lot to like about PC gaming, although I'm not a PC gamer myself (that's just because I'm useless with a keyboard and mouse and have never really owned a PC than can support games properly). But lets face it, as soon as consoles can match PC's for graphic capability their will be next to no reason to play a game on your 12 inch PC screen when you have a 40 inch TV downstairs.

Only non-PC gamers say PC gaming is dying.

 

[DaBozz]

if moviebob had said "Console gaming as we know it is dead" everyone (Even console gamers) would be fine with it

You're wrong and you know you are wrong.
This thread has yet to indulge in merely throwing insults back and forward, so please take that kind of mentality out of this. The PC audience has made valid points here, and it's long been established that the matter is less GAMING as it is FUNCTION.
Maybe read past page 2...?

And bob has made valid points too but no one is listening to them.
and chill out dude...your post comes over far to angry for my liking.
I enjoy PC gaming as much as most of you, but I'll still admit the medium is evolving.

 

[Bwown]

Never forget the Dreamcast. Keep the dream alive.

 

[twm1709]

Lovely, this goes to show that just because someone has it's own show on a popular website doesn't mean they know what they're talking about. I usually like to keep it simple but I'll go all out on you for the first time, whether you ever read this or not.
If PC gaming has one problem right now it's piracy, which affects both the availability and quality of the products we get here. If anything, now that consoles have reached their graphical limit, PC will again be the go-to place for bling-seeking gamers until a new console generation takes the spotlight.

I gathered you tried raising a few flame shields during the video because some people might find some of them offensive but they're not, they're just dumb and ill-thought.
"How many people actually NEED a PC?". Are you serious? You're not even capable of making a clear point. You're dismissing x86 DESKTOP Computers and just used the term PC in the broadest, most ignorant form since the infamous "Get a mac" adds.

Every Single One of the more functionality limited devices you mentioned are gaining complexity in the name of being more like PCs, just smaller ones at that. "Tablets, Laptops, Mobiles..." they ARE PCs. Current Gen consoles? they're ONE step away from being PCs. Between firmware updates, bug fixing patches, social network functionalities. All of them slowly detracting from the simplicity and accessibility that made consoles the most viable choice for gaming. There were even rumors of adding CD-keys to PS3 games for crying out loud!

If you could install Explorer and Office in a 360, it would be a damn PC! How can you dismiss a desktop computer and highlight its relevance in the same sentence? did you read your own script? Why having a dozen smaller devices that do a small variety of tasks can be considered THE future over a single bigger one that can do everything? Trust me, knowing where to put all that crap is gonna be a bigger issue than knowing when to put a regular sized desktop computer, or hell, just a Laptop, which by the way is just a smaller PC (something that seems to be lost on you from what I've seen).

Stick to movie reviews Bob, you're WAAAAY out of your league in gaming and PC discussion. If anything the Extra Consideration articles have proven that.

 

[Danpascooch]

I repeat, consoles are pc's with limited options and unupgradeable hardware. I can play my games in a similar way as any console player with a gamepad by linking my pc to the tv with a cable.

That's true, but you're overlooking the massive advantage of consoles from a development standpoint, do you have any idea how hard it is to develop a PC game without knowing exactly what rig your customer will have? It's basically impossible, that's why they develop to a number of computers they think are close to what their customers will use. It causes all sorts of issues and presents all sorts of ridiculous challenges in development.

With consoles developers know EXACTLY what the game will be played on, so they can optimize it and push to the very brink of its capabilities without worrying about framerate issues or other glitches due to hardware incompatibility (I know some console games have framerate issues and such, but that's due to lazy development, those issues would likely have been 10x more serious had it been on PC)

 

[ZombieGenesis]

if moviebob had said "Console gaming as we know it is dead" everyone (Even console gamers) would be fine with it

You're wrong and you know you are wrong.
This thread has yet to indulge in merely throwing insults back and forward, so please take that kind of mentality out of this. The PC audience has made valid points here, and it's long been established that the matter is less GAMING as it is FUNCTION.
Maybe read past page 2...?

And bob has made valid points too but no one is listening to them.
and chill out dude...your post comes over far to angry for my liking.
I enjoy PC gaming as much as most of you, but I'll still admit the medium is evolving.

I never denied the evolution of the medium, or that Bob's (albiet badly expressed) views on PC's being reinvented (as opposed to 'dying off') has a lot of reasonable ground. You weren't saying that though were you?
You were saying how PC gamers are immature and goading many people in this thread- not to mention the statement I quoted, which is either a vast misunderstanding or you really don't understand what you're saying.

As a proof example, I put it to you to write a brief "why consoles will be dead soon" thread and see just how much everyone loves you for it.

 

[Iscin]

Bob, please don't do this again. You are to be commended for your courage here, but your have reached passed your actual grasp of the facts. Before I even finished the video I noticed the level of ignorance you began to display when you said that adventure games have had a revival on the Wii. I think you oughta take a look at TellTale Games, check where they started and where they are going, neither has ever been the Wii. They started upon the PC and are now going towards iOS devices and the PS3.

That is without even going into the power of online distribution and how poorly consoles have adapted to this, as they always have been. Consoles essentially are always one step behind so called "PC gaming" because they need to wait until their big daddy companies can say when they can do something and release the hardware/software support for it. Many game developers have pointed out how true innovation always focuses on DESKTOP GAMING (which is its proper name) and how indy developers focus upon it. Then there is the likes of VALVe and Crytek, both excellent developers who even though have both gone multi-platform are committed to PCs: Best performance of Crysis 2 on the PC, free content updates for TF2 on the PC.

Other, and smarter, people like the excellent guys just across the road at Extra Credits have already covered desktop PC gaming and pointed how it is finding strengths in areas consoles will not know for the next decade or so. Desktop PC gaming is not the same this much is simple truth, but this is only because it is continuing to evolve EXACTLY like consoles have as they are now the equivalent of PCs some 15 years ago, graphically more powerful yes but I am talking in actual FEATURES like online gameplay.

You have always been a Nintendo fanboy Bob, and have also been an 80s fanatic whilst ignoring the bad hair, clothes and shed building music. You have gone on to dissing the 90s even though it brought on the last generation of kids who had the bridge between traditional outdoor activities and new introverted computer/satellite tv/cellphone sources of entertainment. Your passive arrogance in your videos has been becoming increasingly annoying for some time now and although they seem to have stopped bashing on about Nintendo in every video, you've apparently found other ways to try and tell 'em about how much better things used to be etc. You found like an old man frankly and I am not enjoying your videos any long, so this will be the last one I will watch for some time.

Keep working on it though mate. You still bring up some interesting points, but your attitude, or at least perceived attitude, is just not working for me personally.

 

[veloper]

For once Bob, couldn't agree more.

Don't get me wrong I do acknowledge there is a lot to like about PC gaming, although I'm not a PC gamer myself (that's just because I'm useless with a keyboard and mouse and have never really owned a PC than can support games properly). But lets face it, as soon as consoles can match PC's for graphic capability their will be next to no reason to play a game on your 12 inch PC screen when you have a 40 inch TV downstairs.

Only non-PC gamers say PC gaming is dying.

Heh, you are being too nice.
Only people who can barely operate a door handle, can think a PC screen is 12 inches big.

TV, monitor, it doesn't matter. Both can be big or small and a PC can display on both.

 

[Tortoiseloz]

Bob, imma let you finish but pc gaming is the best gaming of all time! of all time!

Seriously, I get more bored playing on consoles than on pcs why, console controls are hard, I could control the camera with an analog stick or a dpad but Mouses actually let me look up as well, and also down plus Im pretty sure Pc gaming (excluding facebook ones) Is filled with less idiots than xbox live or wifi, plus Its filled with less 5 year olds.
I don't Hate you consoles its just, im in love with the Pc now
*kisses pc while zerg rushing some guy, listening to itunes, printing out a worksheet and loading some new steam games*

 

[GreigKM]

PC gaming is dying.... Just as fast as console gaming. Both soon to be memories in the age of mobility, just as standing TV and the movie theater. So I plan to enjoy it while I can.

 

[kasperbbs]

If it dies then it dies, but right now i don`t see a reason to buy a bunch of different devices to get the functionality of a single PC/laptop. Right now theres nothing to replace it, ipad is cute and all but theres no way i would trade my laptop for that gimmicky, oversized iphone.

 

[WOPR]

Oh dear.

This is going to get ugly.

All I'm going to say here is that it seems kind of... odd that he's putting this video on the Escapist, a site with an unusually high proportion of PC folks.

Also, he's probably right.

Now I'm gonna run before the knives come out.

honestly people, would you rather play game online, lag-free
or would you prefer to pay $15/month or $60/year to game for 10 minutes then wait a good 5 for host migration... and listen to small kids whining the whole time...

PS3 is free and lag is dependant on your internet connection...

in most cases it's dependant on the internet connection *glares at wii*

and yes I know the PS3 has free service, I love that about it!
I was glaring at the more popular 360 when I said that

 

[OtherSideofSky]

I will agree that the PC as a clearly differentiated platform will eventually disappear and that fanatical PC gamers who feel the need to act all high and mighty are annoying as hell.

Oh, isn't that cute?

I actually thought about that for a moment afterwards and then edited it in the original post. It might be more likely for everything that ISN'T some form of PC-like device to eventually merge into a single broad category. I still think the kind of people who use the term "PC gaming master race" completely un-ironically are total assholes, though. Very few groups can make asses of themselves on gaming forums in quite the same way. I've seen enough great exclusives for both consoles and PCs in the last couple of years to convince me that both platforms remain equally valid.

Also, the patronizing tone was hardly called for. I spoke (or typed, as the case may be) civilly and expect to be accorded the same consideration in return.

 

[Darkauthor81]

If there's anything that's killing PC gaming, it's piracy. Just for giggles I look up Dragon Age 2 on Pirate Bay. 500+ seeders 10,000+ leechers. That's 10,000 people that are getting this game for free and that's only on that one day that I looked. Even if 1/4 of those people would have bought that game if they couldn't get it for free, that's a more money than I feel like calculating that the developer is losing out on. World of Goo creator, 2D Boy, released a statement that they compared their pc sales to the number of people logging onto their World of Goo servers and determined that 95% of the people playing had stolen the game.

95%!

I was tempted to do it myself for Dragon Age 2 since I refuse to give EA a dime of my money. But then I realized I'd be boycotting the company for hurting gaming's future while doing something myself that is hurting gaming's future. That's too much hypocrisy even for a jaded angry twenty something like myself.

Piracy isn't a problem sorry. Not when we have 19% growth to 16.2 billion market worth for PC gaming.

Yes I'm sure 2D boy is going to be very eager to develop another game for the PC and watch 95% of their potential profits fly out the window when their WII version had an insignificant piracy rate.

 

[DaBozz]

if moviebob had said "Console gaming as we know it is dead" everyone (Even console gamers) would be fine with it

You're wrong and you know you are wrong.
This thread has yet to indulge in merely throwing insults back and forward, so please take that kind of mentality out of this. The PC audience has made valid points here, and it's long been established that the matter is less GAMING as it is FUNCTION.
Maybe read past page 2...?

And bob has made valid points too but no one is listening to them.
and chill out dude...your post comes over far to angry for my liking.
I enjoy PC gaming as much as most of you, but I'll still admit the medium is evolving.

I never denied the evolution of the medium, or that Bob's (albiet badly expressed) views on PC's being reinvented (as opposed to 'dying off') has a lot of reasonable ground. You weren't saying that though were you?
You were saying how PC gamers are immature and goading many people in this thread- not to mention the statement I quoted, which is either a vast misunderstanding or you really don't understand what you're saying.

As a proof example, I put it to you to write a brief "why consoles will be dead soon" thread and see just how much everyone loves you for it.

No, I was saying how some of the people on this tread need to be mature, I did not mean it at all PC gamers...I guess its my own fault for the wording, for that I am sorry.
but some of the replies I have seen make me ashamed to be a gamer, I thought we where beyond this...I been reading the Extra Credits threads and people seem to take the points they make well, but Bob gets no such nice treatment.

 

[dakorok]

I'm only on page two of this tread and all I can say is "Yay for immature PC fans"
your hardly showing yourself in any good lite with some of these responses.
yet if moviebob had said "Console gaming as we know it is dead" everyone (Even console gamers) would be fine with it, because things are changing...just look at the 3DS, the Kinect and the playstation movie. so come on pc gamers, wheres the maturity I see on the extra credits threads huh ?

You're an idiot. PC gaming has been "dying" for years now, and I, along with many other PC gamers, are getting sick of seeing it pop up at least a few times every month.

Furthermore, I doubt the console gaming community would "be fine with it" if Bob had said that the console market was dying. I can't provide any proof, since it's a hypothetical situation, so we'll just leave that alone.

Finally, in regards to your comment about the maturity of PC gamers. I'm just going to look at your horrible grammar, chuckle to myself and move on.

 

[Mosop]

I acept the point that Movie Bob makes but I disagrees on the point where we all start to use separate devices, I see a future with one device that does everything. ALso in my opinion what makes PC gaming PC ga,ming is the keyboard and mouse and the modding comunities that build up around PC games. I can download thousands maps for unreal tournament with a lot them being really fun for free where as on the concsoles I'd have to pay £10 for a map pack with only 4 or 5 maps in it (some of which I might not like).