Is PC Gaming Dying?

That's the two games you choose to represent PC gaming? Both "Console First" mediocre RPGs? Come on, Massive Bore II: Let's Snore Again and Drag'in On are not good representations of where PC games are going, at least I hope not, else I sense a bad omen. Bioware hasn't made a good game since Knights of The Old Republic.

Yeah I said it...

Those of us that have been around gaming for a long time know that all of this has happened before, and will happen again. I just recently gave away my FAILBox, so in fact I am a former FAILBox owner. If you have a gaming PC, FAILBox is absolutely the most useless console you can own. So I gave mine away, worst $40 I ever spent. However my wife game me a PS3 for Valentine's Day, yeah I have an awesome wife. XD Strange how she hates games and gaming with a passion. The PS3 has been great. Playing Heavy Rain, which has great story and fantastic visuals. I love it. As well I have God of War I & II (it's God of War, of course it is great), Lair (I know the controls are odd, but coming from a Wii player it is not hard), and finally Killzone 2, all right graphics, not as cool as I had heard, and overall a pretty generic console FPS, but not bad.

Anyway there is always room for both, but I will always go PC first. If a game coming out has a PC version, even a delayed one, the PC is the one I will buy. The PC versions are always superior (even if you have to wait a patch or two for them to ion out the bugs).

 

Eh it wouldnt call it a generation thing. to me console strike at the laziness factor which happens to be rather prevalent in my generation (yes I'm 23). The average age of a gamer is still 30 so the numbers wouldnt add up saying that.

I was first introduced on atari and nentendo but as soon as i came to pc games i was sold. I like the console for what it is, simple. The simplicity of plug and play combined with more affordibility in an ever growing "cheaper is better", "money crunch mindset" of todays comsumers.

However those who tend to still prefer quality over quantity or just like having more options that tend more toward the pc. People are too Glass is half empty nowadays. the PC isnt going anywhere, and pc gaming will always exist in some form.

I wouldnt doubt a single minuite that the PC will have a resurgence (typo) as the technology becomes more affordable and more readily avalible. I'd say im wrong about this but as evidence of this forum and arguements stated for and against still shows theres a strong dedicated following to state the PC games ... for the interim are here to stay.

 

PC version of ports, with the right hardware, generally feel and look better than the console counter-parts. While I am not thrilled about every single port, I am still glad that we can see PC renditions of these console games looking even sharper and better on the PC.

And good point, Lannik. No offence to fellow PC-gamers here, but there's more and more of us--and more and more threads--whining, mourning, and fearing the demise of PC gaming by the day, so that by itself must say something about numbers.

 

Its not generational (im nearly 40) but more of a time issue for me. I have a pretty busy schedule, I want to pick up a game and play, install times, patching, etc just mean that if I have 30 minutes here or there I rarely actually get time to play anything if its on the PC. I have decent hardware a nice pc and a gx720 laptop but Torchlight is about the heaviest gaming I get into anymore. In the past I tollerated setting aside time to get ready to game then actually playing later but the current generation of consoles have finally gotten "good enough" graphics wise that the benefits of PC gaming just arent there for me as much anymore. I do think PC gaming will see a resurgence if the console market keeps pushing towards the casual though, as less titles with depth get released and console games forcing installs becomes more prevalent, its advantages over PC gaming deminish.

 

what game do you have to get ready to play? you have a once off install and maybe a couple of patches to install but once you have assigned your 20 minutes to that you can just get on and play for half an hour whenever you like.

 

Well just about every game I've played in the last 5 years haven't been optimized properly at release so I'm always looking at gaming websites for updates on new patches etc.

 

I'm an old man (and it was my birthday yesterday so now I'm even older) and they've been saying that PC Gaming is dying ever since the Genesis days, so when I saw the topic title on the main page I involuntarily cringed a little. Suffice to say; it's still here.

 

Ya unless it uses GFWL and won't let you save your gaem unless you download the latest patch but GFWL just hangs on the download so you try again and it does the same thing and now you have been doing this for like 25 minutes adn the wife is like "Where is he, he was supposed to pick me up 5 minutes ago" and you're about ready to put your fist into the monitor because GFWL is just another POS getting in between you and your game and all you wanted to do was shoot some bad guys in the face for 20 minutes but NOOOOO GFWL says nuh-uh.. not unless you get the patch which it won't even let you download and now you're in really big trouble because the wife is like calling on the cell and she knows you're home and probably playing computer games instead of picking her up but she doesn't get your frustration with the stupid GFWL and how you got sucked into paying a stupid amount of money for a game you can't even play when you have 20 mins to spare and now not only do you have to deal with GFWL stupid POS patch for which there isn't even any information or alternative way to download but the wife is going to be all up and down your a55 about video games and all you wanted to do was spend 20 minutes enjoying yourself in what is otherwise a full and hectic day so what game do I have to get ready and play? a PC game with stupid GFWL or stupid Ubi DRM or stupid whatever else they come up with to kill the PC market!

phew

 

Don't know if anyone has read these articles yet or linked them here, but I've found them interesting reads.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/105/1059477p1.html
http://pc.ign.com/articles/106/1061221p1.html

 

for me it has. its been like 3 years and not a single good game. I mean just look at wow. Is it really still alive? really? its been nearly a decade.

 

the lich king brought new content to re invigorate the game, fishing for example. not im not a wow fan but even i can appreciate it. so in efect wow is actually stronger than ever. its fanbase spite all the new mmos out or coming out hasnt diminished

http://www.thief-thecircle.com/
http://www.sshock2.com/
http://www.deusex-machina.com/

These games are even older than wow and look it has a strong following STILL. Give credit to the modding communities as well as they made tons of solid developer quality add ons so.... PC gamers can still play even the great games of history past.

http://www.gog.com/en/about_us/

Stuff like this... making old games compatible with XP, win7 and vista. Consoles dont have anything quite like that. GOG.com (Good Old Games dot com) making games like fallout 1 & 2 , Duke Nukem 3d, Decent, Gothic 1 & 2, Myst, Sacrifice, THE ORIGINAL GHOST RECON, playable again on new systems. And theyre constantly making more games avalible all the time.

Furthermore theyre taking the original games and polishing up the gameplay and fixing bugs. From PC gamers for pc gamers and if theyre reqs are too high for your system then youve a more serious problem than is pc gaming dying lol.

 

Well, Wotlk didn't really introduce fishing, fishing was in the game ever since vanilla. The success of Wow largely due to Blizzard's well understanding of the player base, they know that games like MMORPG is not about the level, the grind, or the graphics, but the community, they successfully created a game that binds community, when people have friends in the game, they aren't likely to leave, even if you throw them crap contents they would still stay on because of the community. That's also why the tons of WoW private servers sprouting up everywhere didn't even put a dent in WoW's player base unlike what these have done to many other MMORPGs, because they can emulate servers and gameplay, but they can't emulate the community.

 

So when u put console head to head with the PC.
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Console Modders- Negative intentions through and through. Theyre aim is to break the system and force unfair advantages and of course piracy.

PC Modders- Theyre Yin and Yang. You have those that pirate and hack games open to allow cheats. but on the other hand you have the extreme loyal fanbase who work to fix and improve their favorite games and keep them going strong.
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Console Longevity- a few years then theyre obsolete and tossed aside. i.e. whan was the last time you saw people gathering together to play goldeneye on the Nentendo 64 or playing duck hunt on the super nentendo? Most older great games especially online are no longer playable

PC longevity- as long as it runs it can be upgraded with the times memory can be transferred to newer systems. games can be patched and fixed for newer Systems. I can still play 15 year old games as well as new. Private servers allow even the older games to be continued even online. counter strike or unreal anyone?
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Console flexibility- moderate but improving. Theyre still not optimized for ergonomics and many styles of games still play poorly on them but they have been getting more flexible with the addition of joysticks and such. clunky controllers theyre greatest limiting factor.

PC Flexibility- what can i say the pc is the penacle of flexibility when gaming is concerned. any option u can fathom is avalible.
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Price well that goes to the console but imo a console is merely a cookie cutter computer.

The PC to me is like a classic 1969 Z28 Camaro. you keep it in good condition and it will always be good to you. and as time goes on it still keeps its value and appeal. and theyres always going to be a place for it even if the number of people who enjoy them go down.

The console is like a shiny new Mits Eclipse. its flashy, it may be fast, and even semi affordable but it just doesnt have the staying power with the times. they lose their already limited value quickly and eventually no longer have any appeal.

Personally i'll always take a classic camaro over a eclipse

 

Disagree completely. The success of WOTLK is shunning the competitive community for the casual. Even hardmode is a joke in comparison to what Kael'thas, Black Temple and Sunwell was.

For example. I was in a hardcore guild for Sunwell. For us it took 4 scheduled raid nights and sometimes a fifth if we really wanted to progress that week. This same guild now only raids 2 nights a week and progress faster than we did when we had 4-5 nights. They realized 4 night raiding isn't worth it, WoTLK is truly a casual raiding game now.

Because of this, everyone has purples and pushing 6K DPS or more, the forums are atrocious. More e-peen junk, more insulting than before. Before people really couldn't do that as much, as the game was more about awareness and preparation. When I came back after break from Sunwell, I joined a few guilds for Ulduar, 90% of people arrived without raid materials or knowing the raid strat and the bosses still went down on the first night of attempts. I was shocked, and saddened.

Eh, whatever, I quit, not going back. But that's why WoTLK is so success right now.

 

Which is the community, by separating hardcore from casual content allows casual players to enjoy the game, integrating them into the community as well, the amount hardcore players that left is minuscule compared to the casual community that stayed behind, because Blizzard realized that games are not just about downing of content, but interaction between players.

 

See my point was it is STILL about downing content. And that's what the majority of players wanted. There isn't anymore cohesion among guilds still, guilds start and fall just as frequent as before and players rage even more as they did not get the loot before. In fact I'd say it's worse. Before if you wanted progression, you really needed players to get along, to stick together and work together. Now guilds are just an avenue for easy loot.

 

I have been reading this thread and although PC gaming will not die it is going through a rough patch very few shops sell pc games and if they do all they have is the chart games.

I have recently got mw2 & supcom 2 and both have been dumbed down for consoles, with mw2 you have to use matchmaking instead of dedicated servers and it doesn't work well.

supcom 2 has reduced graphics ,unit cap and its easyier to upgrade units so the game play is quicker for console owners .

so if it doesn't die we might all end up playing console ports and gaming rigs are useless
excluding MMORPG players but not every one likes that type of game

 

Someone posted a link to an interview with John Carmack.
- I find it interesting he attacks Intel frequently rather than Nvidia as much of his gripes in current PC Game development should actually be pointed at Nvidia. Can't point fingers are your biggest sponsor right? Hehe, fun fun fun.

The complexity of the new PC GPUs is probably why we see games running so well on consoles and running so crap on hardware generations superior, which is very ironic don't you think think?
- I agree with his argument. Considering console is more profitable, it makes no sense to devote more effort than needed to port a game to PC and properly make sure it's optimized for multi core.

A unified system like DirectX for Physics would be wonderful wouldn't it? I'd think that would accelerate physics in games rather than forcing developers to choose intel or Nvidia or whatever else.