Ways to improve the PC gaming experience.

I have always favored the PC as my choice for gaming machine. Mainly because I like the keyboard and mouse for controls, and mainly have played combat air or ground vehicle simulations (i.e. Falcon 4, Panzer Elite, etc), which don't even exist on consoles. Also, games were a lot more challenging and less "arcade-like", until recently where most games are console ports.

Consoles have their place, don't get me wrong. I love my Xbox 360, but its mainly used for Live Arcade games or video streaming. Plus my gamepad thumbs aren't the most nimble. It does have it's positive aspects that's for sure, and am using that for my suggestions here.

Most of what I'm suggesting here has nothing to do with the gameplay, but with how files are handled. This should be implemented through a "Games for Windows" standard. What's out there now for GFW is pretty basic for requirements.

(1) Store save games and game config files in the same spot for every game.
It seems every game you install, it places game data files in one place, save games in another, and config files in another. Why can't files be stored in a universal location? Sure give users the option to change it, but in general, if I want to back up config or save game files, you have to hunt them down. Plus it would be really cool to add the option to save a backup to a USB device, like a thumb drive. This way you always have it if your PC crashes or you reformat and forgot to backup your files, or didn't have all the required save game files.

(2) Have user configurable locations for everything.
If the user could set up a "Games for Windows" config file to tell it to install all games to: "G:\Games\", to "Start\User (or All Users\Games", save games to "H:\Backup\Game Saves\", and config files to "H:\Backup\Game Config", for example. Then you could just drop the game in and let it roll. Plus you could have all your save game and config files in one location for convenient backup. This is similar to (1) but a little more advanced.

(3) Let the gamer start the game as soon as possible, letting the rest of the game install while you play.
I know there's good reasons you can't do this. But I mean it takes sometimes up to an hour to install a game if it's a couple DVD's worth of content. I know it would require a strategy on how files were managed, but it would be a little more enjoyable. I know every time I get a new game, I'm excited to play it. But by the time I install it, get everything configured, I'm too tired to play. Maybe it's because I'm an old fart, but come on, I just want to PLAY!

(4) Official Game Patch Links
Many games offer this, but many do not. Steam solves this for the most part, but not CD or DVD based games. So many times I have to hunt down what the latest patch is, and it is rarely easily found. You have to go through ten pages of support links or sign up for their site, register your game, or whatever. I use gamespot a lot but they don't always have the lastest patch.

(5) ELIMINATE DRM
I mean come ON! This is ridiculous. I even think CD keys are ridiculous now. Make it so the game isn't easy to copy for sure, to cut back on casual piracy, but finding out you should have uninstalled a game otherwise you lost an install, and have to call. Or the fact that you want it on your desktop, laptop, netbook, and mom's PC when you visit, but can only have it on two PC's simultaneously? Ack! Quality games have proven time and time again that they still make a hefty profit with no DRM.

(6) Allow for refunds or resale of games.
Nothing is worse than buying a game, installing it, only to find out it runs like crap on your machine. Or it's just a bad game that you bought on an impulse purchase, or on recommendation from someone who obviously has odd tastes in games. Customer respect goes a LONG way in keeping loyalty. Even do like Micrsoft does, and offer a return policy as long as you write a note claiming your concern, mail it to them, and wait for a return check. I actually respect Microsoft for this, and have used this policy on two occasions and they followed through gracefully and quickly.

(7) Console ports should be optimized for PC's, especially controls
Ok, I get it. We need to accept the fact that the PC will get most of the games from ports from consoles. That is fine, as there have been several great games I've played that have also been on consoles. But for crying out loud, don't just recompile the code so it runs on a PC and let it go. Improve the graphics, since the PC can handle it. Make the controls actually usable with the keyboard and mouse. Use the added storage and features of the PC for more and larger maps, extra content, etc.

I think that's it. I'll add more if I can think of it, but those things I believe would make the gaming experience on PC more respectable.

 

I think your #1-3 are very trivial.

For #4, I do not share the same experience. All the patches I looked for recently I found with ease.

It's not okay.

 

You know, Steam kind of like improve PC gaming experience on almost every aspect there and more!

 

Very trivial? I don't think so. Do you know how many times when I've reformatted, and think I've got all my save game files and game config files, that there's several files you need for it to work? Or just the fact that you had a brain fart and forgot to backup your save game and/or config files? There's so many locations that each developer stores them in, it's ludicrous. Some are in your "(My) Documents" folder, some are in your user directory, some are in the local game directory, some are in some new made up directory, others are in your registry...

And game installs should be a think of the past. Plop the game in and let's go! Oh yeah, also PLEASE allow the user to disable startup videos after the first time, or even after the first dozen times. Just make it an option.

 

3 is anything but trivial, at least from a programming point of view. You're in effect "streaming" a game, and that's a ton of code optimization so that only the vital parts load first, not to mention that you have to keep the size of the vital parts small, so that they can load in a relatively small amount of time.

As for 5, the companies are going to want consumers to ELIMINATE PIRACY, and we all know that's not going to happen. You can argue that DRM doesn't work, you can argue that DRM is detrimental, but they're not going to listen, mostly for the same reason pirates aren't going to listen - stupidity, stubbornness, and a me-first "I only care about the present" attitude. We're just going to have to accept that until there's some real deep and lengthy roundtable discussions, the two sides are going to be at a stalemate for what is a lose-lose situation. Piracy is bad, DRM is bad, but the companies have to live with piracy, which means for now, we have to live with the DRM.

6 - refer to 5.

7 - Console games make more revenue, and developers are going to concentrate on what makes them the most money. That's just common sense. Ports are a quick and dirty way of making a few extra bucks, and most companies are very willing to fire out a broken port without regard to quality and hope the game sells based on its reputation as a console game.

 

Excellent post, wingnut. As for your third point (starting games before complete installation), you can actually do that with Halo 2 for Vista. Unfortunately, that was two years ago and no other games have implemented that feature yet.

I've been a PC gamer for several years, and I can definitely see how PC gaming is getting more and more dumbed down and console-friendly. Back in the glory days of PC gaming, games like Quake and Unreal Tournament were the kings. But that kind of game just doesn't fly on consoles (how many copies of Unreal Championship for Xbox did they ever sell?), and unfortunately, that's what influences our games for the most part.

Real PC developers are few and far between these days. My hat goes off to Valve for staying true to the PC gaming scene after all these years, and for whom consoles are a secondary priority, for once in our lives.

 

1-2. While I think a "universal saved games location" isn't necessary, it would be nice if it were generally easy to find and backup the saved games. Every game installs them in different, often hard to find, places. Have one folder within the install directly, like *Game*\saved games would be nice.

3. A few extra minutes to install everything isn't really that big of a deal, is it? You could always play the demo while you're waiting for the game to install

4. Would be nice, but I've found it's relatively easy to find patches for games. I haven't really had an issue with this.

5-6. Unfortunately eliminating DRM won't happen (at least not soon) because of all the piracy issues with PC gaming. It's a necessary evil.

7. That would be nice, but unfortunately because consoles games often sell better than their PC ports, they don't focus on any "extras" for the PC.

True, Steam covers a lot of those points. It updates games automatically, keeps the saved game files in one location, but it is a form of DRM and does not allow you to resell your games.

 

Understand that when I say 'trivial', I mean a relatively small item in the face of the larger picture. Those three items, while they would be nice, are sideline issues relative to what PC gaming's big obstacles are. They will not measurably advance PC gaming beyond what we have now.

 

True, but would be a greatly added benefit for many. Somewhat like consoles. You can easily backup your save game files because they're in one location.

And in the case of the PC, there's config files that work best for your specific setup.

 

I would like to add another point to the wish list: Play the games without the CD/DVD!!! I mean I am really pissed that it has been sooo many years since full game installation is a fact on the PC (unlike Starcraft, for example) and we still have to insert the CD/DVD to play. In that sense I am fine with DRM, in specific with Mass Effect: DRM once and no more CD/DVD!!!

 

nice guide man or what ever you call it ....