The Big Picture: PC Gaming Is Dead - Long Live PC Gaming!
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Eh, some laptops come pretty close. Even my 15" laptop with a Radeon 5870M runs every current game on max settings.Void(null) said:
If you move up to the 17"+ laptops they compete fairly well. Of course they'll never be equal, but that just comes down to size, and the ability to displace heat. They're certainly far more expensive, though.
Alright Bobby, I think its good you opened up this discussion. You video has not failed to create a lot of talk. But Your perspective fails to understand the phycology of the Pc gamer.
So let me fill you in.
Pc gaming is about one thing. Control. and I don't just mean keyboard and mouse. We are the DIY of the gaming world. When a game is on your pc its your game. ITs not xbox game. you have control of it. Its your pC, that you built, you put the parts that you need to play your games your way. Its personal choice. if you want to crank the graphics or lower them its up to you. For me The possibilities of what gaming can be exploded with the rise of modifications made for the love of gaming not profit.
there is a massive demographic inside every middle class living room on the planet that game developers have been doing a good job attracting to games. to meet this growing demand the subject matter of games being made has to get diluted down to safe unoriginal boring tripe. Its unavailable i understand its an industry its about profit. but as intelligent consumers we don;t have to be happy about it.
In the eyes of a developer Pc gamers are not exactly the kind of people you want to attract to your games. They see pc gamers as hackers pirating there games, modifying them, I don't know why thats a problem. but I guess somehow its threatening. they see low turn around, pc gamers are old there going to die. there not 9 years old with a thousand friends with no responsibilities other than to have fun
And that mean less games are being made for veteran players. It is exactly what it looks like die hards fans clinging to the old ways in the face of a changing climate. Pc gamers are hackers that pirate developers million dollar babies. they are a relatively small demographic compared to the family living room.
BUt we are correct in saying that the quality the originality the independence spirit the control that pc games have is not something that we should be willing to lose.
Look at battlefield 1942 it was fairly generic game not much shelf life. a few years after it came out there were more mods for it downloadable for free than there were good games in stores. Galactic Conquest the star wars mod for 1942 Battle front witch came out after was not even comparable to Galactic Conquest and if was free. You sacrifice polish for originality. Yeah it had bugs, hard edges flaws but exploring and exploiting these flaws opened up the experience. I wasn't just watching somebody's else game, i was playing a game that was evolving as i played it. Hardworking people were building it slowly brick by brick as I played it. that is Digital frontier Tron shit. there was a Halo mod for command and conquer generals looked amazing but all i had was screen shots to go on because it never came out. Shut down so not to hurt sales for Bungies massive crap pile Halogen. We are not getting better game out of this system, that is what you should be concerned about.
I am saying people are right to have priorities other than obsessing about there geeky pastimes. They are right to by a Mac instead of a pc because they are not interested in the hassle of interchangeable parts. but we should at least pay some respects to the people who are willing to hack a game so we can play it for free. or mod a game so we can play something original. are we ok with letting dedicated servers die to. thats fine with everyone. you don't want to build your own little community were everyone knows your name, nick name.
So let me fill you in.
Pc gaming is about one thing. Control. and I don't just mean keyboard and mouse. We are the DIY of the gaming world. When a game is on your pc its your game. ITs not xbox game. you have control of it. Its your pC, that you built, you put the parts that you need to play your games your way. Its personal choice. if you want to crank the graphics or lower them its up to you. For me The possibilities of what gaming can be exploded with the rise of modifications made for the love of gaming not profit.
there is a massive demographic inside every middle class living room on the planet that game developers have been doing a good job attracting to games. to meet this growing demand the subject matter of games being made has to get diluted down to safe unoriginal boring tripe. Its unavailable i understand its an industry its about profit. but as intelligent consumers we don;t have to be happy about it.
In the eyes of a developer Pc gamers are not exactly the kind of people you want to attract to your games. They see pc gamers as hackers pirating there games, modifying them, I don't know why thats a problem. but I guess somehow its threatening. they see low turn around, pc gamers are old there going to die. there not 9 years old with a thousand friends with no responsibilities other than to have fun
And that mean less games are being made for veteran players. It is exactly what it looks like die hards fans clinging to the old ways in the face of a changing climate. Pc gamers are hackers that pirate developers million dollar babies. they are a relatively small demographic compared to the family living room.
BUt we are correct in saying that the quality the originality the independence spirit the control that pc games have is not something that we should be willing to lose.
Look at battlefield 1942 it was fairly generic game not much shelf life. a few years after it came out there were more mods for it downloadable for free than there were good games in stores. Galactic Conquest the star wars mod for 1942 Battle front witch came out after was not even comparable to Galactic Conquest and if was free. You sacrifice polish for originality. Yeah it had bugs, hard edges flaws but exploring and exploiting these flaws opened up the experience. I wasn't just watching somebody's else game, i was playing a game that was evolving as i played it. Hardworking people were building it slowly brick by brick as I played it. that is Digital frontier Tron shit. there was a Halo mod for command and conquer generals looked amazing but all i had was screen shots to go on because it never came out. Shut down so not to hurt sales for Bungies massive crap pile Halogen. We are not getting better game out of this system, that is what you should be concerned about.
I am saying people are right to have priorities other than obsessing about there geeky pastimes. They are right to by a Mac instead of a pc because they are not interested in the hassle of interchangeable parts. but we should at least pay some respects to the people who are willing to hack a game so we can play it for free. or mod a game so we can play something original. are we ok with letting dedicated servers die to. thats fine with everyone. you don't want to build your own little community were everyone knows your name, nick name.
Eh I think the guy's agreeing with you, leaving this post to be hellishly confusing.Vibhor said:
All I gotta say is the PC component market works like, low return at 100-400 dollars, very high return between 400-700, then the Law of Diminishing returns kicks in, hard, beyond this point.
This is just for the tower btw.
So your laptop can run Magicka? [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1739863]Atheist. said:
Laptop gaming is getting better with time, but mobile GPU's are still no where near their desktop equivalents and encounter all sorts of compatibility issues.
You can make do, you can even run some games quite well, but still a laptop is no substitute for a dedicated gaming PC.
Bob, I have to say that for the first time in my life, I completely disagree with you. Maybe I'm weird, but I'm gaming on the PC more now than ever in the past. I always used to play games on my consoles mostly because my PC was much too slow, but now that I actually have one that was built to play games, these are the things that I've upgraded to:
1) Steam and related. Cheap downloadable games are a huge improvement than those stupid carts and disks I used to have to haul around everywhere. Also, a gigantic number of cheap and free indie games are distributed like this outside of Steam, using the indie developer's own little Steam-like distribution system (like Minecraft and Amnesia).
2) Wider selection. It's much easier to distribute games on the free web, instead of going through Valve's or Apple's distribution system and having to pay for a license and get `approved' before anyone knows you exist. I can play anyone's game, because it's the internet, and therefore it isn't controlled by any one corporation (unlike the App Store, Steam, Wii Shop, XBL, PSN, or anything else)
3) Emulation. Not only do I have a huge selection of modern PC games, I also have a huge selection of old console games. When my old consoles die off and I want to continue playing the games, I use a ROM from my PC and I'm good to go. Sure, the Wii has the Virtual Console, but I can't play old Sega consoles or C64 or Apple ][ or anything like that on it. If I want to play my Amiga again, there's an emulator for it. Only on the PC.
Here's another thing to think about. You say the PC is becoming obsolete because everything is migrating to more specific platforms. Now we can do one thing on a smartphone, another thing on a tablet, yet another on a netbook, and then one more thing on a game system. I think this is backwards. From where I sit, it makes much more sense to integrate, so instead of having ten different computers with each one doing something different, we're getting closer to having just one computer that does everything at the same time. We used to need a phone and an mp3 player and a game system and a laptop, but now we can do all of that with just a smartphone. Even tablets are no different than touchscreen laptops or big smartphones, depending on what operating system you have on it.
In the end, I think everything will be integrated into one `computer' that can do absolutely everything at the same time, and the only reason for multiple different kinds to exist would be due to a tradeoff between the benefit of a bigger screen or the benefit of more portability. In this case, you would have a PC-sized one at home to game on because that's just entirely more comfortable, and then you would have a netbook- or tablet-sized one for portability, and then a smartphone-sized one, and that's it.
Maybe even farther in the future, you would just have one smartphone-sized computer, and you would do everything on it. Then, you would have a portable wireless touch screen for it if you needed a bigger screen, and an even bigger wireless screen on a mount for at-home use, and an even bigger one for streaming TV. That's not really the point though.
There are a lot of reasons to want to game on a PC rather than a portable or a console. It's a large screen, but it's still personal. You can do anything else on the same machine, at the same time, or not if you want. Your game library spans the entire internet, and not just the controlled parts. The keyboard/mouse combination is entirely more flexible than any controller could ever be, even if it was touch screen or motion controlled. I guess you could game on a laptop, but then you couldn't move the screen or keyboard in relation to each other, and you still would need an external mouse, so it's not any better in that respect. Also, you're always in the same place, the little `computer space', which to me is much better because I can focus easily like that, it's like my little place of zen. There are probably other reasons but I can't think of any right now.
The point is, I don't think PC gaming is dead, I think it's only just beginning.
1) Steam and related. Cheap downloadable games are a huge improvement than those stupid carts and disks I used to have to haul around everywhere. Also, a gigantic number of cheap and free indie games are distributed like this outside of Steam, using the indie developer's own little Steam-like distribution system (like Minecraft and Amnesia).
2) Wider selection. It's much easier to distribute games on the free web, instead of going through Valve's or Apple's distribution system and having to pay for a license and get `approved' before anyone knows you exist. I can play anyone's game, because it's the internet, and therefore it isn't controlled by any one corporation (unlike the App Store, Steam, Wii Shop, XBL, PSN, or anything else)
3) Emulation. Not only do I have a huge selection of modern PC games, I also have a huge selection of old console games. When my old consoles die off and I want to continue playing the games, I use a ROM from my PC and I'm good to go. Sure, the Wii has the Virtual Console, but I can't play old Sega consoles or C64 or Apple ][ or anything like that on it. If I want to play my Amiga again, there's an emulator for it. Only on the PC.
Here's another thing to think about. You say the PC is becoming obsolete because everything is migrating to more specific platforms. Now we can do one thing on a smartphone, another thing on a tablet, yet another on a netbook, and then one more thing on a game system. I think this is backwards. From where I sit, it makes much more sense to integrate, so instead of having ten different computers with each one doing something different, we're getting closer to having just one computer that does everything at the same time. We used to need a phone and an mp3 player and a game system and a laptop, but now we can do all of that with just a smartphone. Even tablets are no different than touchscreen laptops or big smartphones, depending on what operating system you have on it.
In the end, I think everything will be integrated into one `computer' that can do absolutely everything at the same time, and the only reason for multiple different kinds to exist would be due to a tradeoff between the benefit of a bigger screen or the benefit of more portability. In this case, you would have a PC-sized one at home to game on because that's just entirely more comfortable, and then you would have a netbook- or tablet-sized one for portability, and then a smartphone-sized one, and that's it.
Maybe even farther in the future, you would just have one smartphone-sized computer, and you would do everything on it. Then, you would have a portable wireless touch screen for it if you needed a bigger screen, and an even bigger wireless screen on a mount for at-home use, and an even bigger one for streaming TV. That's not really the point though.
There are a lot of reasons to want to game on a PC rather than a portable or a console. It's a large screen, but it's still personal. You can do anything else on the same machine, at the same time, or not if you want. Your game library spans the entire internet, and not just the controlled parts. The keyboard/mouse combination is entirely more flexible than any controller could ever be, even if it was touch screen or motion controlled. I guess you could game on a laptop, but then you couldn't move the screen or keyboard in relation to each other, and you still would need an external mouse, so it's not any better in that respect. Also, you're always in the same place, the little `computer space', which to me is much better because I can focus easily like that, it's like my little place of zen. There are probably other reasons but I can't think of any right now.
The point is, I don't think PC gaming is dead, I think it's only just beginning.
This was fantastic, rational and well presented.Alexridiculous said:
Do you do these regularly? hit me up with your youtube channel or something if you do, and if not then I suggest you should consider getting into it.
On the other hand, Bob's subjective analysises of movies and games are great, but I find myself disagreeing and unconvinced by the arguments he presents in The Big Picture quite often.
This is the first time I've done this, but if there's interest I might start making regular videosBaneat said:
PC gaming has always been on the cutting edge. I say if serious PC gaming is dead, console gaming will be dying shortly after. Looking at gaming from an economic perspective, the gaming world with its multitude of devices and platforms is zeroing in on a hypothetical economic condition known as "pure competition." This means a situation involving a business environment, that due to the multitude of suppliers, ease of entry, and the homogeny of its products, it is impossible to make a a long run profit. Everything is the same price because none of the sellers can influence the market enough. And as this happens, the game becomes more and more about the fast and easy buck. Examples of industries like this would be agriculture (in the US, the government provides subsidies and financial incentives to control the market) or pornography.
Games are practically there already. Game makers are gravitating towards FPSs because they have a strong turnover. And all of them play the same and cost the same. Casual gaming is the future, kids. One day we'll all look back at those gigantic and sprawling titles that were striving for something more, before costs got too high and the whole thing collapsed on itself.
Games are practically there already. Game makers are gravitating towards FPSs because they have a strong turnover. And all of them play the same and cost the same. Casual gaming is the future, kids. One day we'll all look back at those gigantic and sprawling titles that were striving for something more, before costs got too high and the whole thing collapsed on itself.
Fantastic episode moviebob! I agree with a lot of your main points but what I think you fail to mention as far as the future of what pc gaming may be? Let's look at the most analogue of games... Board games! Still around, still a big money-maker industry but let's face it, the kids aren't really lining up to get the newest edition of monopoly or scrabble anymore. However, what is homogeneous to most American households? Puzzles, Card games, and Board games. Where am I going with this? Well i think there will always be a niche audience large enough or broad enough that will use personal computing as their first choice in gaming. So while yes, the market share has skewed dramatically towards the console i believe that the pc will be around for a long time as a platform for games that the industry cannot afford to forget.
Likewise, consoles often do things can't, at least out of the box. Such as two analog control methods. PCs have the mouse, and that's it.Shoelip said:
Counterpoint: All three consoles have downloadable gaming capability. All of them. Every generation of consoles has tried to get closer and closer to PCs.
I love how you think you're being level-headed and objective instead of patronizing.catfishtuna said:
No true scotsman; everyone who disagrees with you isn't "intelligent".
Really? I would've guessed you were from your spelling.
This "control" bit is really rather creepy. Also, there have been 17 Battlefield games, including one whose sole purpose is to be monetized and host ads for other EA products. There are 7 main CoD games, and none of them are "Call of Duty: Heroes". What was that about originality?
You can't demand respect. If you have to, you've missed the point.
Turn down the passive-aggressiveness just a smidge. I mean, without it, you could've just said "PC gaming is still better" and saved yourself a lot of typing.
There are plenty of games for PC nowadays that are controller enabled, you can even plug your x360 pad in and Windows will install the driver for you.JonnWood said: