The Big Picture: PC Gaming Is Dead - Long Live PC Gaming!
- Thread starter MovieBob
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I am an avid PC gamer. I have not seen your video in it's entirety, but I disagree with everything You may or may not have said and the possibility of said things being said or not said offends my senses. I am at work right now, but I am going to start programming a simple game on my TI - 91 Graphing Calculator ridiculing you!
Thing is i would probably play more on my xbox if it came with a mouse and keyboard for the fps games. I do prefer fps and strategy games on the pc. Some people might think that is because my aim sucks and that i just suck at gaming on console, well that is simply not true: My Kd on cod games are waaay higher on the xbox. But i'm thinking.. a xbox with a mouse and keyboard would more or less be a bader version of a pc.
See ZombieGenesis...even though I just retracted my comment and said sorry, people on the thread are flaming...just goes to show you.ZombieGenesis said:
@dakorok Well done you know what grammar is I am SOOOO impressed, you must be like really smart or something for picking out my horrid grammar do you have like a degree or something because your amazing!
Hmmmm.... no.
This rant is so confused I'm not sure Bob knows what he's ranting about.
I guess it boils down to: "The days of people buying $5000 rigs to play with the highest possible framerate are over."
To which I say: "No, you're probably wrong about this."
Yes, this will become a less popular option in the future. Except that it was not a particularly popular option to begin with. Most people just go to Best Buy, grab the $200 computer, and let that be the end of it. Some might go a little higher in cost, but for the most part an ubergaming rig was a fairly hobbyist move.
Of course that's not what we're talking about, because Bob has decided to define PCs as Desktops. And yeah, desktops are quickly falling out of favor with plenty of people. A laptop is simply more mobile than it's fixed-location competitor, never mind the other options listed. A laptop is also a personal computer, or PC. That people have gone to great lengths to willfully confuse PCs as Windows desktops does little to actually define it as such. Just like saying "supposably" over and over doesn't actually make it a word.
But let's address his statement directly, and see why it doesn't hold water:
1. Ubiquity
I have pretty much every console in the current generation. I like my consoles. But, for the most part, people are generally limited to one, maybe two consoles. Never mind that these consoles are massively incompatible with each other. Everyone and their grandmother has a PC, however. Not all of them are graphical powerhouses(hell, probably some don't even have a GUI), but the general omnipresence of a Personal Computer in every household makes it a pretty difficult market to ignore. Most of the Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers, even a hearty dose of Gen-Xers may not be a target. But they have kids and grandkids, and such progeny may not be able to sway the hearts and minds of their breadwinners into buying them a whole new vidja game console. So they have to make do with the one outlet they have: the computer.
What's more is these supposedly dying vessels of entertainment pretty much all share a common hardware architecture. Developers are more comfortable developing on them, a lot of the APIs are the same, and there's just an awful lot of inertia to overcome. Throw that in with distribution channels that not only allow people to easily purchase and acquire such games, but allow them to make multiple installs without multiple purchases(hey there, steam!), and you've created a pretty attractive platform for development and distribution.
2. Upgrades
Yes, most people don't like doing this still. However, take a look at GDC this year. Crytek engines, Unigines, whatever B:BC 3 uses. Developers have reached pretty close to the end of what the consoles can do, and yet it's years before the development cycle is over. Meanwhile, other tech is scrambling to establish dominance. And the easiest(and often most effective) way to do this is by proudly touting graphical superiority. That's pretty damn hard to do when everyone already uses the Unreal 3 engine. And granted, most of these engines scale downward, but there are gamers out there that still are bubbling with desire to purchase the latest and greatest, visually speaking.
That isn't to say that consoles don't receive upgrades. I don't see many NES games in Gamestop anymore. But each upgrade involves a radical change in architecture, APIs, often the spurning of backwards compatibility, and so on. While they do make steps towards allowing the systems to perform more tasks, they don't multitask, and their interfaces are TERRIBLE when it comes to conveniently accomplishing day-to-day tasks. Computers are simply better at doing these things, all while playing video games.
All right, enough with the listing, I hate replying by numbers. The point is that there's very little evidence to back your claim. There's evidence that handheld devices are becoming more popular. There's proof that casual gaming is a much bigger cash cow that hardcore gaming. And some publishing execs have even extolled the virtues of smaller, more convenient platforms, such as consoles, handhelds, and smartphones. But these are largely arguments against the hardcore games in general, not PC gaming. Meanwhile, let's look at what PCs are up to...
Blizzard is still kicking ass, taking names, and making sales, all the while supporting that extremely costly blister that is Activision, who's recently lost control of Infinity Ward, canned Guitar Hero, brought the Tony Hawk franchise to utter and complete ruin, while pouring more money into the bottomless pit that is DJ Hero. All while wasting tons in their various litigious actions.
Valve runs Steam, which is fast making them one of the highest profit-per-employee company in the software industry.
Dice is making Battlefield: Bad Company 3 with the PC in mind, secondarily porting over to other consoles.
Unigine is not only making its mark in the graphical world, but also doing a fair job encouraging cross-platform compatibility, further cementing its place in the gaming world.
The point is that PC gaming may not be the juggernaut anymore that it once was in hardcore gamers' heads. But that's a far cry from "the writing's on the wall."
I guess a faster way to respond to your statement is: [citation needed].
This rant is so confused I'm not sure Bob knows what he's ranting about.
I guess it boils down to: "The days of people buying $5000 rigs to play with the highest possible framerate are over."
To which I say: "No, you're probably wrong about this."
Yes, this will become a less popular option in the future. Except that it was not a particularly popular option to begin with. Most people just go to Best Buy, grab the $200 computer, and let that be the end of it. Some might go a little higher in cost, but for the most part an ubergaming rig was a fairly hobbyist move.
Of course that's not what we're talking about, because Bob has decided to define PCs as Desktops. And yeah, desktops are quickly falling out of favor with plenty of people. A laptop is simply more mobile than it's fixed-location competitor, never mind the other options listed. A laptop is also a personal computer, or PC. That people have gone to great lengths to willfully confuse PCs as Windows desktops does little to actually define it as such. Just like saying "supposably" over and over doesn't actually make it a word.
But let's address his statement directly, and see why it doesn't hold water:
1. Ubiquity
I have pretty much every console in the current generation. I like my consoles. But, for the most part, people are generally limited to one, maybe two consoles. Never mind that these consoles are massively incompatible with each other. Everyone and their grandmother has a PC, however. Not all of them are graphical powerhouses(hell, probably some don't even have a GUI), but the general omnipresence of a Personal Computer in every household makes it a pretty difficult market to ignore. Most of the Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers, even a hearty dose of Gen-Xers may not be a target. But they have kids and grandkids, and such progeny may not be able to sway the hearts and minds of their breadwinners into buying them a whole new vidja game console. So they have to make do with the one outlet they have: the computer.
What's more is these supposedly dying vessels of entertainment pretty much all share a common hardware architecture. Developers are more comfortable developing on them, a lot of the APIs are the same, and there's just an awful lot of inertia to overcome. Throw that in with distribution channels that not only allow people to easily purchase and acquire such games, but allow them to make multiple installs without multiple purchases(hey there, steam!), and you've created a pretty attractive platform for development and distribution.
2. Upgrades
Yes, most people don't like doing this still. However, take a look at GDC this year. Crytek engines, Unigines, whatever B:BC 3 uses. Developers have reached pretty close to the end of what the consoles can do, and yet it's years before the development cycle is over. Meanwhile, other tech is scrambling to establish dominance. And the easiest(and often most effective) way to do this is by proudly touting graphical superiority. That's pretty damn hard to do when everyone already uses the Unreal 3 engine. And granted, most of these engines scale downward, but there are gamers out there that still are bubbling with desire to purchase the latest and greatest, visually speaking.
That isn't to say that consoles don't receive upgrades. I don't see many NES games in Gamestop anymore. But each upgrade involves a radical change in architecture, APIs, often the spurning of backwards compatibility, and so on. While they do make steps towards allowing the systems to perform more tasks, they don't multitask, and their interfaces are TERRIBLE when it comes to conveniently accomplishing day-to-day tasks. Computers are simply better at doing these things, all while playing video games.
All right, enough with the listing, I hate replying by numbers. The point is that there's very little evidence to back your claim. There's evidence that handheld devices are becoming more popular. There's proof that casual gaming is a much bigger cash cow that hardcore gaming. And some publishing execs have even extolled the virtues of smaller, more convenient platforms, such as consoles, handhelds, and smartphones. But these are largely arguments against the hardcore games in general, not PC gaming. Meanwhile, let's look at what PCs are up to...
Blizzard is still kicking ass, taking names, and making sales, all the while supporting that extremely costly blister that is Activision, who's recently lost control of Infinity Ward, canned Guitar Hero, brought the Tony Hawk franchise to utter and complete ruin, while pouring more money into the bottomless pit that is DJ Hero. All while wasting tons in their various litigious actions.
Valve runs Steam, which is fast making them one of the highest profit-per-employee company in the software industry.
Dice is making Battlefield: Bad Company 3 with the PC in mind, secondarily porting over to other consoles.
Unigine is not only making its mark in the graphical world, but also doing a fair job encouraging cross-platform compatibility, further cementing its place in the gaming world.
The point is that PC gaming may not be the juggernaut anymore that it once was in hardcore gamers' heads. But that's a far cry from "the writing's on the wall."
I guess a faster way to respond to your statement is: [citation needed].
I agree that the PC as we know it is evolving into a number of different things, though I don't think that stating 'PC gaming' accurately reflects the situation.
Plus I'm a sucker for strategy games so I'll probably be clinging like a fanatic to my desktop for quite some time. >_>
Plus I'm a sucker for strategy games so I'll probably be clinging like a fanatic to my desktop for quite some time. >_>
I dunno about this. Laptop sales are still running incredibly strong, so the games we know and love for the PC pretty much directly translate to that sort of gaming experience. Phones and tablets will not be to the level of user friendliness of a laptop for many years to come. I know I sure as hell won't be writing a report or a script on an ipad anytime soon.
That's alright, no harm done.DaBozz said:
I think the reason Bob is getting such a reaction, as he does in a few 'certain' topics he covers, is that deny it though he might my beloved Bobby does like to stir up the controversy pot. After all it was what made his shows get noticed in the first place, being one of the only game culture commentators to stand against the next gen consoles in favour of the retro.
But why so much scorn here? Possibly because the problems that are being addressed by PC gamers are the ones that console gamers don't even SEE in this video. People who own and play on PC's can recognise faults in Bob's logic that console players wouldn't be familiar with, and it seems quite obvious that Bob doesn't know all that much about PCs.
Understandable, as he said he only uses it for video editing.
But since that's the case I personally feel his opinion wasn't dead on the facts as he believed them to be- perhaps it would have been better had he been more careful with his words? (Insinuating that PC gamers were bitter old men who never got bought consoles as kids was a DREADFUL way of relating to that audience).
i'd happily except a future in which we can do everything we do on a PC anywhere, you know, not just a place you do everything at thats always the same place i.e. your bedroom... or a basement.
and i can't see any reason why the game we have can't be handled on a mobile device once the hardware can handle it.
a game like... Supreme Commander on something like... a tablet device would be the sweetest experience i'd ever have. even having mates over for a local multiplayer sesh. they could just get comfortable and go to war!
you can't deny how awesome that sounds right? makes me all tingly!
also, my GTX 580 would like me to remind you guys that i do game on the PC... but then again not as hardcore as most people. unless you could somehow play Garry's mod, in a hardcore sense... then again the only thing i do in gmod is build and abuse ULX's ragdoll command on myself.
and i can't see any reason why the game we have can't be handled on a mobile device once the hardware can handle it.
a game like... Supreme Commander on something like... a tablet device would be the sweetest experience i'd ever have. even having mates over for a local multiplayer sesh. they could just get comfortable and go to war!
you can't deny how awesome that sounds right? makes me all tingly!
also, my GTX 580 would like me to remind you guys that i do game on the PC... but then again not as hardcore as most people. unless you could somehow play Garry's mod, in a hardcore sense... then again the only thing i do in gmod is build and abuse ULX's ragdoll command on myself.
Why do people fight over this? Technology changes all the time, thing become obsolete. It's just how it is. This whole thing reminds me of these two guys in the Air force fighting over weather the Raptor was better than the new JSF-35. Of course the JSF-35 is better, it's newer and more efficient.
I will gladly accept anything that can replace my PC (preferably the Matrix).
But at this point you are saying spoons will replace knives... I guess if you really try hard enough you can cut everything with a spoon, but I for one like to have the right tool for the right job.
But at this point you are saying spoons will replace knives... I guess if you really try hard enough you can cut everything with a spoon, but I for one like to have the right tool for the right job.
Wait, so, you flip from "Piracy isn't a problem, the industry is still growing despite the massive losses" to "Thousands of people stole and played the game because it was... crappy... And they should make better games because people don't steal good games." Because, you know, people only steal and play bad games. Riiiight. I think I'm done here. Have a nice day pal.Astalano said:
This is more or less what I've been saying for ages. That consoles are only getting to the point of competing with PCs by becoming like them. They now have loads of extra functionality like BluRay and internet access and streaming video. The only reason a modern console is anywhere near as good as a PC is because it's nicking it's ideas. Hell, they even have bloody HARD DRIVES now. Rather than say PC gaming is dying though, we should say that all gaming specific devices are dying. Just like you can't get a phone now that isn't also a camera, a music player and whatever else you want it to be the same will be true of all devices in the coming years.
However Bob, I disagree with one point. Future kids laughing at the idea of a desktop and a specific area set aside for it. After all, the desk predates the desktop by a long way. People have always set aside specific areas for working in and that's more because that's the way our brain works. It's why people who play games and do a lot of other stuff in their bedrooms other than sleeping are more likely to suffer insomnia.
Also, cybernetic implant gaming... DO WANT!
However Bob, I disagree with one point. Future kids laughing at the idea of a desktop and a specific area set aside for it. After all, the desk predates the desktop by a long way. People have always set aside specific areas for working in and that's more because that's the way our brain works. It's why people who play games and do a lot of other stuff in their bedrooms other than sleeping are more likely to suffer insomnia.
Also, cybernetic implant gaming... DO WANT!
That was... horrid.
I'll skip a lot of the rage people have already covered and just point out that while ranting he said that the normal functions of PCs are moving to other (non-PC gaming) devices, and among that list he mentioned laptops. This of course means that according to Bob, laptops aren't PCs, and therefore you can't play PC games on a laptop. I will now disprove this by opening up Steam and double clicking S.T.A.L.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, an FPS exclusive to PC.
I'll skip a lot of the rage people have already covered and just point out that while ranting he said that the normal functions of PCs are moving to other (non-PC gaming) devices, and among that list he mentioned laptops. This of course means that according to Bob, laptops aren't PCs, and therefore you can't play PC games on a laptop. I will now disprove this by opening up Steam and double clicking S.T.A.L.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, an FPS exclusive to PC.
You misunderstood. I said piracy is irrelevantl; it's going to happen and you can't stop it. You can only keep making better games in the hope of increased sales.Darkauthor81 said:
Starcraft is the most pirated game of all time but one of the most lucrative games of all time.
Again, stop whining about piracy, it's getting old.
I find it kind of sick. THe way that they market these seperate little parts make it so that each part becomes obsolete within a year of coming out. A gaming computer can last5 years. 2020's cloud-based stuff will last into 2022 and then completely be of no use with drivers specifically made to make them not work with the new shit.
I guarantee that without a powerful, flexible behemoth in your living room that will last you five years, you will see your wallet getting gouged for subpar garbage every other year.
The month I got my Core 2 Duo laptop was the day the i's were announced. $700 down the drain for something that can't do anything I want it to do.There is no way to upgrade this machine. THis shit is what will save the desktop.
I guarantee that without a powerful, flexible behemoth in your living room that will last you five years, you will see your wallet getting gouged for subpar garbage every other year.
The month I got my Core 2 Duo laptop was the day the i's were announced. $700 down the drain for something that can't do anything I want it to do.There is no way to upgrade this machine. THis shit is what will save the desktop.