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

[tustin2121]

The problem I have with this episode is not the content, it's the title. YOU ARE USING THE TITLE WRONG!!!!!

The original phrase "The King is Dead! Long Live the King!" does NOT refer to the same King! See, a country in the days of kings NEVER EVER did not have a king. When the king died, the instant he died, the crown was passed to the next person in succession (usually his son, some other heir, or his wife, in that order). The phrase embodies the immediacy of this transition: The king died, the next king is crowned.

So when the phrase "The King is Dead! Long Live the King!" is said, it is referring to TWO PEOPLE!! The first sentence states the old king has died! The next sentence wishes the NEW king, the one that was crowned with the statement of first sentence, a long life. If the crown was passed to a woman, then the phrase would have become "The King is Dead! Long Live the Queen!" (but that rarely happened, so this phrase obviously didn't make it into popular culture).

So saying "PC Gaming Is Dead - Long Live PC Gaming" makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER!! PC Gaming is dead, and it's back alive again?! A better title might have been "PC Gaming is Dead - Long Live Tablet Gaming" or something along those lines.

Misuse of this phrase has to be one of my biggest pet peeves! Gah! Use it right, people!!

 

[I.Muir]

This could very well be true but I still don't want it to happen in the sense id rather skip tablet gaming and go straight to virtual reality instead. However when this does inevitably happen ill be sure to mourn not able to build a machine that is 4x (maybe) as powerful as the xbox for less. I'm already miss having dedicated servers "go out of style" hello lag and high pitched rage. I lament the fact that since they make games for the console first you get situations where Crysis still looks better than it's sequel. Also I'm Australian and already try and order my games from overseas because for some reason I don't feel I should be paying twice as much for a neutered version of a game see left for dead 2.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

This episode confused me... was it all about saying the TERM PC is dead?

Or is he saying that maybe in the next twenty years more convenient forms of computing will catch up in abilities and eventually cause basic PCs to become obsolete?

I don't really feel like I'm being biased about it, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen in the next decade...

---

Oh, didn't realize everyone took an oath to not comment about videos when they aren't super recent.

 

[Strazdas]

I hope you forgive my necroing, and this is hopefully all been said before, but im one of those "defending the PC master race" kind of guys. also im aware that Bob has a weakness for italian plummers mario which comesi n console form so his view is biased. I been vieving old videos i havent seen and stumbled upon this one.

Well, you started by claiming that peopel gamed on apple machines because they couldnt afford PCs. not only is apple not a PC, it cant play 90% of gamers to begin with. not to mention that "back then" apple was basically macntosh (Most Applications Crash, If Not The Operating System Hangs).
Now to another subject, PCs were and still are more expensive, and this is simply because they are suprior, technically. they are more powerful (current gen consoles pretty much copy PC architechture because they couldnt do better) and allow you to do more things (something only now consoles attemt to fix). Consoles became the "that old VHS thats obsolete yet so many cling to" thing as soon as PCs came out. only in last few years consoles been trying to break the trend by making console-only games or making such DRM for PC gamers that they spend mroe moneyjust to get around it than a console costs.
First person shooters, a (vocal) minority of faming, has moved to consoles, and yet all "big" shooters remain on PC because Mouse > analog stick. any attemt to merge the systems resulted in PC playing liek he has hax on compared to console people when it comes to aiming. All other genres.... well.... they are trying to. in racing it works, in rest, not really.
There are many genres more than civilization and flight simulator, hah.
also, you pretty much got no idea what a PC even is, judged from your explanation, so yeah, not evne bother commenting about that.
also why have things to do with 5 things if 1 thing can do everything and faster? isnt that pretty much the definition of inconvienience?

cybernetic implant i wouldnt mind though

 

[MovieBob]

Another necropost, but hey... I also stumbled on this video and just had to post.

I have a fairly simple counter to the entire argument that everything that a PC does can be done simpler and easier and whatnot on five different devices that will cost me at least $2000 to get: My PC is a box the size of a decent AV surround receiver, sits in my living room, is almost entirely quiet, can serve as a cable receiver and media center, plays games and is used for work on top of that... and it cost me less two years ago than a decent tablet and a PS3 would cost me today. How is having 5 devices instead of one easier? I mean, typing anything of decent length on a tablet or a mobile phone quickly becomes a pain thanks to the complete lack of physical feedback and switching devices for different tasks just seems like an additional burden?

I'd be fine with this video and the argument Bob makes, although I don't agree with most of it, if it wasn't for the "everyone who disagrees is a moron" bit. That's just really, really lame. Oh, it's also really nice to first state that, basically, PC gamers as a whole have a superiority complex only to follow up stating that everyone who hasn't had a console in his youth is just being whiney about that. Good move there, pal.

Overall, all Bob did in this video was twist definitions until he could title the video "PC gaming is dead" without openly contradicting himself. If anything, consoles are becoming PCs more and more... just look at what the next XBox is rumored to look like and tell me with a straight face that that's not just a PC with all the fun bits ripped out.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Sorry to Necro this thread but the video was mentioned in a Star Citizen podcast.


The Escapist thread for it is here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.405452-Movie-Bob-gets-called-out-by-Chris-Roberts-on-PC-gaming

 

[SecondPrize]

Sorry to Necro this thread but the video was mentioned in a Star Citizen podcast.


The Escapist thread for it is here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.405452-Movie-Bob-gets-called-out-by-Chris-Roberts-on-PC-gaming

Dammit man, there were 1337 comments before you posted this
Yes, it certainly is in that thread.
edit. ah I was completely wrong, just saw the comment count and quoted last comment. Take what I sad and apply it to the guy above you, please.

 

[Jayemsal]

Methinks Moviebob doesnt quite know what he's talking about, looking back at this video, he could not have been more wrong.

Sure he's right about his speculative futurist nonsense, but that is irrelevant to the point of his claim and quite frankly, completely obvious.

 

[marioandsonic]

Right now, this video may qualify as being Hilarious in Hindsight.

 

[XDSkyFreak]

Oh for the love of god ... you know what? When I can spend HALF the money on a laptop(basicaly the new form of PC) that is twice as powerfull as any console, and allows me to watch TV, surf the web, do web design and play the latest games among many other things, when every damn console out there is just copying PC architecture, but still imposing the cretinous console limitations on it and when cross paltform games have to give console tards hacks to make them even able to compete with mouse and keyboard users (I'm looking at you Titanfall and your fucking "Smartgun" or to give it it's proper name: "Gun for analog stick using fools who think they are good at shooters, but in fact suck because every single competitive shooter out there is played on PC mouse and keyboards set-up in every god damn competition" or "this was called AIM HACK and got you banned, fucking hipsters")MAYBE then this video will have some relevance. But for a much better argument as to why CONSOLE gaming is dying: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8525-Ryse-Son-of-Rome ... reallythe first minute or so ssays it all.

Peace, out.

 

[synobal]

I'm really looking forward to a follow up on this Video MovieBob.

 

[JET1971]

I'm really looking forward to a follow up on this Video MovieBob.

Me too. Also I did enjoy the Star Citizen video above Cant believe I missed that.

But in defense of Moviebob I think his predictions will come true but far after console gaming become extinct and traditional go to the theater to watch a movie is a niche form of entertainment like drive inns are today. PC's are not going anywhere anytime soon especially since they are used to create console games and movie effects. Microsoft may go but the platform has decades left to go. Maybe at the end of this generation of console games laptops will have a larger share of PC gaming but until they have battery life that requires to be plugged in weekly rather than just to be able to play that's not happening anytime soon. And yeah it is battery life that holds back laptops from being a valid platform when Skyrim will drain a full charged battery at min settings in less than an hour.

 

[plainlake]

I love moviebobs view on alot of things but I was with the fanboys on this one and I just had to come back here to be smug.. and say, WE WERE RIGHT!

 

[Olas]

Right now, this video may qualify as being Hilarious in Hindsight.

It was pretty hilarious at the time frankly. This is a clear cut case of MovieBob going outside his realm of comfort and showing us why he's MOVIEBob and not TechnologyBob.

In the long run though MovieBob could still prove to be right, not in the fact that PCs will disappear but in the fact that they will evolve to look just like everything else. However this would require one of 2 things to happen.

1. Batteries need to become way more efficient. The main thing that will hold back PCs won't be computing power but regular old electricity. The type of battery you can fit into a portable device couldn't run a triple-A game for more than an hour. If we want to play PC quality games on devices like laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc we need nothing short of a revolution in battery technology.

2. Streaming needs to become a big thing. We're seeing the beginning of this through services like Playstation Move, Steam in-home Streaming, and the NVidia Shield, but most people just don't have the internet speed for it. This could easily change however, and if it does I could see streaming becoming the future of the industry. Whether the streaming is directly from the publisher itself or from one's own computer is a big question that is probably tied to the future of where PC gaming is going.

Some people will probably also mention how the keyboard and mouse is necessary for many games and will never be adequately replaced by any sort of controller, but I would argue this is limited to only certain types of games, and Valve is already working on a controller that hopes to bring mouse level precision to a controller.

 

[Chezza]

Screw it, I'm throwing my 2 cents in despite how late I am.

Practically everything has been said, even what I'm about to say I'm sure. But:

Do people not like to sit on comfortable chairs, delve deep into immersion with large screens / surround sound and enjoy spending more than 20 minutes on a single game? Because PC won't die if that's the case. And I'm sure we all love immersion and sitting!

Although consoles may offer the same comfort and media opportunities, possibly immersion too they just aren't designed to produce major depth and complicated actions with various freedoms. If they become so then they become more like a PC.

 

[ilisium]

Hey bob, /everyone

Been watching TBP for a while and finally got around to starting from the beginning. Love your stuff.


Yeah, yeah, years ago; and that alone I believe already proves my point, but PC isn't going anywhere. Consoles are great, but their input controls innately limit what types of games can be played on them. Look at the different styles of games for wii vs xbox/ps and the difference in their controllers. PC's can accommodate any controller and all games like RTS's are exclusively mouse and keyboard. (I even prefer mouse/keyboard for FPS) But ultimately what will insure the survival of the PC master race is capability. Game companies want to develop at the maximum graphics and complexity possible and since the newest, most advanced technology is always going to be for PC before it ever gets anywhere near consoles, games will always be designed for the PC.

VR on the other hand... that is more like the evolution of PC than killing it.



(probably already said, but only got a few pages into the comments) sorry.