The State of PC gaming

[Edl01]

I didn't used to like PC gaming much, but with Steam now PC gaming is so much easier and the amount of indie games and the improved graphics is just icing on the cake.

Plus you also need to notice that with the Xbox you need to pay to access all of the stuff it has like youtube, while I don't on the PC as it works as both. Even with Xbox and PS3 adding all this extra stuff too their consoles they are still a long way off having as much stuff as a PC.


Edit: Haha! In the episode Bob complained that microsoft milks Halo too much. And yet later in the same video praises Nintendo and Mario. You know? Despite the fact Mario is being milked so much more! This is why I don't respect Bob, he is so blind to the obvious due to his nostalgia.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Well, with crap like always-online DRM, Origin spyware, and Steam not really checking what it releases, the immediate future looks kinda uncertain, but the medium will persevere, as it always has.

 

[The White Hunter]

The only problem I have with PC Gaming is when this pops up

If you're not made by the company that owns this program, I should not be seeing you!

That thing pisses me off to be honest.

Why can't I play Mark of the NInja without booting Steam up to eat up my limited system resources? (my PC, it is shit.).

I don't even have Steam installed.

And this is the reason why, despite it's fans screaming that it isn't, Steam is in fact DRM

I have steam with a small library of games on it, but it is definately DRM and there are some nasty downsides to Steam.
Contrary to what people may believe Valve is not the gaming messiah.

I always enjoy the arguments that Valve's steam-box-fixed-system-that-isn't-a-console-despite-being-a-console of myth, will come from the heavens to the console market and vanquish all competitors, because Valve totally knows exactly what it is doing in a market it has never participated in.

Also, they need to count to 3, or that Steambox thing won't be around for more than 10 years.

Oh I disagree. I think the Steambox WILL release in the next two years... in beta. It'll stay in beta for half a decade before finally seeing an official release.

Because if there's one thing Valve loves more than taking their sweet old time, it's Beta.

Ah that is true, I don't see it being a huge success either way. Console gamers don't care, PC enthusiasts seem to think people are gonna buy it, though PC enthusiasts are still gonna just build their rigs rather than buy a fixed system.

To me it's market is what I refer to as the Village Shop market.

While we're having a dig at Valve; I really don't like Half-Life 2.

 

[The White Hunter]

Never been better. This is the first console gen I've skipped, and I can count on one hand the games I regret not being able to play. (For the record: Journey, MGS4, Xenoblade, Last Story. Though I may yet get a used PS3 if Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls are good.)

Just a friendly word of advice but if you ever want to play the Wii games you mentioned I'd advise doing it now, I can't speak for the last story as I'm yet to try graba copy and it's fairly new anyway, but Xenoblade is starting to demand higher-than-retail prices at auction.

 

[2fish]

I would say healthy and growing with some bad ports. Many good indie titles, sites like gog.com to bring us the old games we love and the sales are getting better as everyone now wants to outdo steam. I feel like it is games overall that are letting me down, not the systems they are on.


Also:

 

[Something Amyss]

The state? Ohio!

FOOL!

...It's obviously Freedonia.

With PCs becoming more like consoles and consoles becoming more like PCs, I think we'll probably see a happy fusion somewhere down the line. I don't count the upcoming "Steambox" per se.

 

[Something Amyss]

I have steam with a small library of games on it, but it is definately DRM and there are some nasty downsides to Steam.
Contrary to what people may believe Valve is not the gaming messiah.

This won't end well. RUN! I'll cover you!

I agree that Steam is not the end-all and Valve isn't a messiah. Unfortunately, Gabe figured out the Apple process. You build it as a lifestyle, not a product, and you can be as big of a monster as you want. People will still flock to you.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

PC gaming is a shadow of what it used to be. There are practically zero exclusives any more for one thing. All that we get now are console ports designed for 7 year old £200 hardware platforms, which my rig can outperform by a factor of 10, yet cannot take advantage of any of my extra RAM, processing power or pixel pushing graphics card. Maps are pathetically small, with frequent load screens. Most of the time, the menus and even the title screen (Press A to Continue) are copied wholesale. Borderlands is a perfect example of how shoddy a UI you get from a lazy console to PC port.

The only other games we get are indie games, probably the final year projects of game development students. None of this is to say that there aren't good games which happen to be available on PC. Just that we are getting the scraps from the console table, along with bullshit achievement nonsense, crappy textures, shitty controls, tiny maps and almost no support. Consoles have ruined PC gaming more than piracy ever did. Not even to mention the kind of DRM and always-on bullshit from Blizzard, Ubi and others.

The only things the PC has in its favour now are MMOs and RTSs and to be honest they're not great selling points.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

The only light in the tunnel for PC gaming is Kickstarter. I suspect that will be the future of PC gaming as crowd-funding brings to gamers actual good PC games which Ubi, EA, Activision and the rest can't be arsed to make anymore, instead giving us UE3 bland shooter after bland shooter, all designed for "mass market appeal". Fuck the mass market, give me back my niche games.

 

[The White Hunter]

I have steam with a small library of games on it, but it is definately DRM and there are some nasty downsides to Steam.
Contrary to what people may believe Valve is not the gaming messiah.

This won't end well. RUN! I'll cover you!

I agree that Steam is not the end-all and Valve isn't a messiah. Unfortunately, Gabe figured out the Apple process. You build it as a lifestyle, not a product, and you can be as big of a monster as you want. People will still flock to you.

I shall never flee! I ate the Mera-Mera no Mi, the flames have no effect on me!

Yeah that's pretty much it, I have no real issue with Steam but there are a lot of people out there for whom Steam is the be all and end all of gaming. Yeah they have good sales, but outside of that Steam isn't really anything special, and if you read it's terms and conditions there's some nice evil stuff there to be seen, like the fact that if they shut your account down for whatever reason your games are gone.

I can safely say I've never paid more than £15 for a Steam game and never will, if I'm gonna pre-order or buy brand-new outside of a steam sale I'm gonna buy a physical copy (surprisingly it can be cheaper) and you can bet your ass I'm checking green man gaming first, and even gog and amazon I'll check for PC games.

 

[The White Hunter]

The only problem I have with PC Gaming is when this pops up

If you're not made by the company that owns this program, I should not be seeing you!

That thing pisses me off to be honest.

Why can't I play Mark of the NInja without booting Steam up to eat up my limited system resources? (my PC, it is shit.).

I don't even have Steam installed.

And this is the reason why, despite it's fans screaming that it isn't, Steam is in fact DRM

I have steam with a small library of games on it, but it is definately DRM and there are some nasty downsides to Steam.
Contrary to what people may believe Valve is not the gaming messiah.

I always enjoy the arguments that Valve's steam-box-fixed-system-that-isn't-a-console-despite-being-a-console of myth, will come from the heavens to the console market and vanquish all competitors, because Valve totally knows exactly what it is doing in a market it has never participated in.

Also, they need to count to 3, or that Steambox thing won't be around for more than 10 years.

Oh I disagree. I think the Steambox WILL release in the next two years... in beta. It'll stay in beta for half a decade before finally seeing an official release.

Because if there's one thing Valve loves more than taking their sweet old time, it's Beta.

Ah that is true, I don't see it being a huge success either way. Console gamers don't care, PC enthusiasts seem to think people are gonna buy it, though PC enthusiasts are still gonna just build their rigs rather than buy a fixed system.

To me it's market is what I refer to as the Village Shop market.

While we're having a dig at Valve; I really don't like Half-Life 2.

While we're taking digs at Valve and throwing firecrackers down a fanboy hole, I really hated Team Fortress 2

I hate Team Fortress 2. I played it for a while, and y'know it didn't really seem all that different from the vast majority of multiplayer shooters out there. It just had a prettier aesthetic. At the end of it it was still a hollow cycle of spawn/kill/die and the chat was still full of toss pots arguing over who's mother was fattest.

 

[Doom972]

PC gaming can't die as long as PCs (That includes macs) are a major part of people's life. An average home PC is usually an upgrade away from being a good enough gaming machine.

It seems that PC gaming is prospering in recent years, and that's probably due to the current console generation coming to an end. We might see a decline in the first two or three years of the next generation, but it should be fine once those consoles would become obsolete.

 

[Something Amyss]

The only light in the tunnel for PC gaming is Kickstarter. I suspect that will be the future of PC gaming as crowd-funding brings to gamers actual good PC games which Ubi, EA, Activision and the rest can't be arsed to make anymore, instead giving us UE3 bland shooter after bland shooter, all designed for "mass market appeal". Fuck the mass market, give me back my niche games.

Really? Because I've got a ton of good games on my PC without crowdfunding. In fact, most of them are indie. So where's the problem?

I shall never flee! I ate the Mera-Mera no Mi, the flames have no effect on me!

Yeah that's pretty much it, I have no real issue with Steam but there are a lot of people out there for whom Steam is the be all and end all of gaming. Yeah they have good sales, but outside of that Steam isn't really anything special, and if you read it's terms and conditions there's some nice evil stuff there to be seen, like the fact that if they shut your account down for whatever reason your games are gone.

I can safely say I've never paid more than £15 for a Steam game and never will, if I'm gonna pre-order or buy brand-new outside of a steam sale I'm gonna buy a physical copy (surprisingly it can be cheaper) and you can bet your ass I'm checking green man gaming first, and even gog and amazon I'll check for PC games.

Agreed. I bought quite a few games from Steam in various sales. I've got enough games that I've not yet played them all, though I know I will. Steam isn't really that competitive and as many people pointed out on the Escapist before me, you can often get the same prices elsewhere without Steam sales. Its ToU isn't really much different from the one EA had for Origin. You know, the one everyone threw a fit about. When it's pointed out, people make excuses as to why one is okay and the other isn't for doing the same thing.

Still, Steam is handy and not completely evil, either. If I truly hated it, I wouldn't buy through them. However, they're one of the reasons I dread the DD era: the last thing they need is more power in the PC market.

 

[The White Hunter]

The only light in the tunnel for PC gaming is Kickstarter. I suspect that will be the future of PC gaming as crowd-funding brings to gamers actual good PC games which Ubi, EA, Activision and the rest can't be arsed to make anymore, instead giving us UE3 bland shooter after bland shooter, all designed for "mass market appeal". Fuck the mass market, give me back my niche games.

Really? Because I've got a ton of good games on my PC without crowdfunding. In fact, most of them are indie. So where's the problem?

I shall never flee! I ate the Mera-Mera no Mi, the flames have no effect on me!

Yeah that's pretty much it, I have no real issue with Steam but there are a lot of people out there for whom Steam is the be all and end all of gaming. Yeah they have good sales, but outside of that Steam isn't really anything special, and if you read it's terms and conditions there's some nice evil stuff there to be seen, like the fact that if they shut your account down for whatever reason your games are gone.

I can safely say I've never paid more than £15 for a Steam game and never will, if I'm gonna pre-order or buy brand-new outside of a steam sale I'm gonna buy a physical copy (surprisingly it can be cheaper) and you can bet your ass I'm checking green man gaming first, and even gog and amazon I'll check for PC games.

Agreed. I bought quite a few games from Steam in various sales. I've got enough games that I've not yet played them all, though I know I will. Steam isn't really that competitive and as many people pointed out on the Escapist before me, you can often get the same prices elsewhere without Steam sales. Its ToU isn't really much different from the one EA had for Origin. You know, the one everyone threw a fit about. When it's pointed out, people make excuses as to why one is okay and the other isn't for doing the same thing.

Still, Steam is handy and not completely evil, either. If I truly hated it, I wouldn't buy through them. However, they're one of the reasons I dread the DD era: the last thing they need is more power in the PC market.

Yeah only a fool won't shop around for the best price, frankly. Terms of Use arse often cruel to the consumer, Valve isn't evil for Steam, but it's no angel either, it's the same thing as Origin really, the only difference is EA's marketing gobshites aren't very popular at all.

That era concerns me deeply, publisher dictated prices? Can't fucking wait for £50 PC games and £70 console games. One glance at the prices year old games go onto the PlayStation store for should say all that needs to be said about concerns for the Digital future (which I think is many years off still).

 

[EvilMaggot]

PC gaming is fine.. and always have been.. just the consoles overshadowing sometimes with the "uuuh look at our fancy new toys!!!"

PC gaming.. we are doing aaaalrright

 

[Something Amyss]

PC gaming can't die as long as PCs (That includes macs) are a major part of people's life. An average home PC is usually an upgrade away from being a good enough gaming machine.

This touches on points made by both Bob and Jimothy. But first, I'd point out that it can die if people don't want to put the time and effort into making it a gaming machine.

Don't get me wrong, a decent part of my income comes off of people who want me to install their hardware for them, so I'm fine with people wanting to and not having the tech savvy, but not everyone is going to want to do even that. People may not want to do that upgrade. At that point, PC gaming could ostensibly go bye-bye.

Now, Jimothy's "irony of PC gaming" video points out that some of the best (his words) PC games are games almost anyone can run. And again, those games have a specific market with PC gaming. I'm not sure I would argue the "best" games can be played by anyone, but I own a decent caltogue of games that can be played with my modest computer that still lacks a dedicated video card (I've been upgrading when I've had time and money, but it's not my biggest priority). There's a lot of games out there that should be accessible to pretty much all. That is why PC gaming will have trouble dying. EA and Ubisoft and Activision can play "the shiniest turd" until the end of days, but "lesser" games can actually thrive on PC without such antics.

Bob makes an argument for idiot-proof modularity for PCs, which is more or less not going to happen, but the idea is an interesting one. This would mean that the question of "could" would no longer be an issue, because you could go out and buy the "for dummies" version if you wanted. It would also mean less business for me, but it's still an interesting concept. Time is still my biggest enemy when I install new parts on my PC, and I know what I'm doing. It's a slog for me, but it's a bloody brick wall for others. The market could effectively tear down that wall through user-friendly modularity, and then even high-end gaming could be just a couple parts away. Easily swapped parts that might actually incentivise people.

And, as Bob put it, "everybody wins."

 

[V8 Ninja]

As of this moment, there are over six million people actively using Steam.

I think PC gaming is doing just dandy, thank-you-very-much.