265: Punching the Baby Seal of PC Gaming

wadark

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romxxii said:
wadark said:
This article is great. And this is why I avoid PC gaming wherever possible. There are a few titles that I will continue to play simply because they only come on PC, but for all else, its consoles, and basically for every reason that chuck outlines in this article.
No it's not, it's no different from any sort of anti-PC whinging I've heard before, and I've worked in bloody tech support and build my own systems, so I know what I'm talking about.

wadark said:
My example: Starcraft 2. When I finally got to my computer, I popped in the disc and let the installer start. 2 hours later it finally finished. Ok, long install times aren't so bad. I load up the game, for some reason, the game has shifted 50% to the right on my monitor, so I have the left half of the game showing up on the right half of my monitor, the rest is black.
That alone tells me you should've replaced your DVD drive a long time ago. 3 disc installations should take about no more than an hour.


wadark said:
So, just because it sometimes works, I close the game and reload it. This time a popup informs me that my drivers and DirectX might be out of date. Updating GFX card drivers, simple enough. Updating DirectX.....not so much. Navigating Microsoft's website might as well just throw you into a labyrinth.
Actually, the latest version of DirectX you'll need usually comes packaged with your latest game. Say, Starcraft 2.

wadark said:
I told this to a couple friends of mine who suggested a) that I switch to Mac (which I cannot even remotely afford), and b) that I should never have bought a dell and should build my own (which I also can't afford, and for that matter don't even know how to do).
You don't have to build your own system. Dell's website offers customization options. Make sure you get the system that lets you pick decent GPU and memory options.
Everything you say reinforces my point. You've worked in Tech Support, so you know what you're talking about. I have not, so I don't. I just want to play this game that I've been anticipating.

I don't know that long-install times mean I need a new disc drive. I wouldn't think I'd need a new one since I've installed a grand total of 4 disc games in the 1.5 years I've had this machine.

I don't know that directX comes on the disc for SC2...it certainly never popped up before, during, or after install. And if I don't know that it comes packaged, why would I ever go looking for it in the disc files or wherever I'm supposed to find it.

I got what I could afford from dell at the time and let me be clear, it works great. A couple hiccups now and then.


My point is that I don't know, and considering I've been using computers a bit longer than most people, they certainly wouldn't know unless they were told. But when asked, I get sarcastic know-it-all elitist remarks like yours. Again, you reinforce my point. Sure, its second-nature to you because you have extensive experience in the nuances, but to a layman like me, its a nightmare.

I believe that the article is great and explain (maybe a little less than articulately) the experiences that most anyone new to PC gaming suffer through.
 

ryukage_sama

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Yeah, Team Fortress 2 got me to download Steam too. I had gotten tired of paying Microsoft to let me play online, and $0.99 seemed too good of a deal to pass up if I got all the updates.

For me though, most of my games work fine on the PC. I'm really glad I got both Mass Effect games for the PC. I think it made my experience better. Of that doesn't mean I will stop buying the console versions. I mean, they just work.
 

Mad World

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Personally, I prefer the PC; however, I can relate to this article. Computers mess up far too often, and it's annoying. And that is why I can see the appeal of consoles.

Some of you need to stop being so arrogant. I agree with Chuck; you should be able to go out, purchase something, and have it work. If he doesn't want to take the time to build a custom computer, can you really not understand that? To some, it's a hobby, but not to everyone. He said that he did update his drivers, so his frustration is understandable.

Anyway, good article. And despite the fact that I enjoy gaming on the PC so much, I can still relate.

I hope that you'll not have too much trouble trying to get Civ V working, Chuck. If you do, surely the baby seals will have something to worry about?
 

Majere613

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It amazes me that every time someone points this out, so many people will pop up and try to claim that there's no problem with PC gaming, that the author is ignorant, that they have the 'wrong' PC or graphics card, etc. As this article quite correctly points out, absolutely none of those arguments is in the least bit relevant.

If you have a console, or smartphone, or pretty much any other gaming-capable device out there, you just buy a game and it works. End of. In the very, very rare case that something doesn't work properly, it's almost invariably a problem that every other user has too (the apocalyps3 springs to mind) or your device has just died on you. Unless you go around using your game disks as coasters or smearing them with jam, that's the extent of the problem.
My own current personal bugbear is Dragon Age. Usually it works fine. Sometimes it just cleanly CTDs for no apparent reason, though lots of strategic pausing seems to trigger it on occasion. Sometimes my DLC doesn't appear, or it won't let me resume a game because it hasn't decided I'm allowed to use it yet. Then there's the toolset, which is built on an ancient database structure that is so unreliable to install that there's a 'Hail Mary' in the installation logfile. My machine is a custom build, with more memory that its OS can even address, no overclocking, up-to-date drivers and drives which are regularly swept for viruses and malware with AVG and MBAM.

It's not good enough to say "Sure, _that_ game is a joke, but that _other_ one's pretty reliable". We're paying our money to buy a game to play, not to enter a lottery where half the prizes are trouble-free gaming and half are hours of irritation. Demos are rarely any indication of stability, nor are reviews except in the case of really, really bugged games. And then, of course, there's the misery of updating your system and finding an old favourite suddenly doesn't want to know. Not to mention the increasingly inpenetrable measures preventing you from moving saves from one machine to another, or even keeping them if you have to rebuild. Let's take a moment to consider Torchlight's lamentable implementation of Steamcloud that can't handle more than one user per system.

Then there's the constant piracy war, with the poor legitimate consumer stuck between the crackers and increasingly desperate publishers. The continuing march to maximise revenue by creating hundreds of different 'account' systems that you have to sign into in order to play, many of which would dearly love to get access to your Facebook account. The constant spam of emails from 'Blizzard Technical Support' or 'NCsoft' offering you everything from beta access to free gold if you'll just click this oh-so-innocent link and enter your account details. The joys of games like DOWII that want both Steam AND GFW running before they will. And hey, look, a social network has appeared on both of those too! Want to link it to your Facebook?

To be honest, though, the biggest threat to the PC gaming market is probably going to be simple economics. It's getting increasingly hard to justify developing for the platform when you then end up with the stark choice of spending literally millions on post-launch support so your customers can actually get the thing running, or just pulling a fire-and-forget and alienating everyone who gets unlucky. If- big if- OnLive or a similar out-of-the-box service manages to start offering the good of the PC gaming experience without the fiddling about, then I suspect it may take off in a big way. But I suspect that for the time being the infrastructure for that isn't quite there.

BTW, I'm no big Blizzard fan, but I quite agree that they are one of the few companies who seem to know how to put a PC game together. Starcraft II and Diablo III are on the very short list of PC games I intend to pick up any time soon.
 

wadark

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Majere613 said:
It amazes me that every time someone points this out, so many people will pop up and try to claim that there's no problem with PC gaming, that the author is ignorant, that they have the 'wrong' PC or graphics card, etc. As this article quite correctly points out, absolutely none of those arguments is in the least bit relevant.

If you have a console, or smartphone, or pretty much any other gaming-capable device out there, you just buy a game and it works. End of. In the very, very rare case that something doesn't work properly, it's almost invariably a problem that every other user has too (the apocalyps3 springs to mind) or your device has just died on you. Unless you go around using your game disks as coasters or smearing them with jam, that's the extent of the problem.
My own current personal bugbear is Dragon Age. Usually it works fine. Sometimes it just cleanly CTDs for no apparent reason, though lots of strategic pausing seems to trigger it on occasion. Sometimes my DLC doesn't appear, or it won't let me resume a game because it hasn't decided I'm allowed to use it yet. Then there's the toolset, which is built on an ancient database structure that is so unreliable to install that there's a 'Hail Mary' in the installation logfile. My machine is a custom build, with more memory that its OS can even address, no overclocking, up-to-date drivers and drives which are regularly swept for viruses and malware with AVG and MBAM.

It's not good enough to say "Sure, _that_ game is a joke, but that _other_ one's pretty reliable". We're paying our money to buy a game to play, not to enter a lottery where half the prizes are trouble-free gaming and half are hours of irritation. Demos are rarely any indication of stability, nor are reviews except in the case of really, really bugged games. And then, of course, there's the misery of updating your system and finding an old favourite suddenly doesn't want to know. Not to mention the increasingly inpenetrable measures preventing you from moving saves from one machine to another, or even keeping them if you have to rebuild. Let's take a moment to consider Torchlight's lamentable implementation of Steamcloud that can't handle more than one user per system.

Then there's the constant piracy war, with the poor legitimate consumer stuck between the crackers and increasingly desperate publishers. The continuing march to maximise revenue by creating hundreds of different 'account' systems that you have to sign into in order to play, many of which would dearly love to get access to your Facebook account. The constant spam of emails from 'Blizzard Technical Support' or 'NCsoft' offering you everything from beta access to free gold if you'll just click this oh-so-innocent link and enter your account details. The joys of games like DOWII that want both Steam AND GFW running before they will. And hey, look, a social network has appeared on both of those too! Want to link it to your Facebook?

To be honest, though, the biggest threat to the PC gaming market is probably going to be simple economics. It's getting increasingly hard to justify developing for the platform when you then end up with the stark choice of spending literally millions on post-launch support so your customers can actually get the thing running, or just pulling a fire-and-forget and alienating everyone who gets unlucky. If- big if- OnLive or a similar out-of-the-box service manages to start offering the good of the PC gaming experience without the fiddling about, then I suspect it may take off in a big way. But I suspect that for the time being the infrastructure for that isn't quite there.

BTW, I'm no big Blizzard fan, but I quite agree that they are one of the few companies who seem to know how to put a PC game together. Starcraft II and Diablo III are on the very short list of PC games I intend to pick up any time soon.
Well said, friend.
 

Fithakk

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It's a pity people have these problems. Having never owned a console, I guess I'm lucky that all my PC games work perfectly? I sure as hell wouldn;t be able to afford having all the games I have on a console...
 

crazypsyko666

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Apr 8, 2010
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Look, I agree with many of your points, but I don't seem to have any of the problems you do. Tech should work, yeah. Do computers have problems? Hell yes. Do consoles have problems? Just as fucking many. No, you don't have to go through all of the troubleshooting on a console, you just can't. It's not possible.

I'm not convinced that consoles are any better. That opinion just pisses me off. Crysis will crash if your computer isn't good enough, whereas Fallout 3 will crash because it wants you to have an aneurysm. Both are your fault for not looking into it. What does it take, five minutes? I'd consider those five minutes to be worth the ten dollars I save on those games. Definitely worth it.

Steam, by the way, is the way of the future. If you have poor impulse control, you'll end up spending more than you can. If you have any control whatsoever, you'll end up with a smorgasbord of cheap stuff, free stuff, and the best platform on the PC to date. Did I mention unlimited installs with no invasive copy protection? Because that's a big one.
 

chuckwendig

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crazypsyko666 said:
I'm not convinced that consoles are any better. That opinion just pisses me off. Crysis will crash if your computer isn't good enough, whereas Fallout 3 will crash because it wants you to have an aneurysm. Both are your fault for not looking into it. What does it take, five minutes? I'd consider those five minutes to be worth the ten dollars I save on those games. Definitely worth it.
I don't think it's a case of "better." It's a case of, any and all platforms could *be* better. In this case, we're talking about how PC gaming can/should/could offer a more stable experience.

As regards Fallout 3, though, please know that I spent hours looking into that problem.

A problem that has never been solved, actually.

-- Chuck
 

wonkify

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Chuck, congratulations on the single funniest slug line heading a piece I have ever read, bar none.

And as a lifelong PC gamer with 10 years on you, I agree with every word and sentiment expressed in your excellent piece.

I NEVER dismiss other people's frustration with PC gaming's shortcomings or diminish their struggles to get things to work and run properly.

I continue to be a PC gamer in spite of all of that by preference, but don't deny the truth of your complaints, because I share them.

I don't use consoles. I need to economize with a platform that does multiple things for my family, but I continue to believe that the PC will not be a truly mature tech until it does in fact function as problem free as a console. Period. My entire lifetime of PC experience, personal and professional leads me to this belief.

Some day in the future PC's will finally reach a state of functionality that will require zero tweaking and function without crash or input from the user, they will just work.

Until then, they are a maturing tech. Better by far than they were back in my Commodore 64 days, dip switches and all, but not there yet.

To all my PC brethren, don't beat on the messenger, we can continue to love what we do while being honest about the shortcomings, and I believe Chuck is, and very cleverly too.
 

chuckwendig

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wonkify said:
Chuck, congratulations on the single funniest slug line heading a piece I have ever read, bar none.

To all my PC brethren, don't beat on the messenger, we can continue to love what we do while being honest about the shortcomings, and I believe Chuck is, and very cleverly too.
Thank you, sir!

Again, I am to entertain, not enrage.

-- Chuck
 

wonkify

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SomeUnregPunk said:
Anger tends to be ignorant of logic. The elitist computer perps need to calm down.

I use a pre-built computer - gateway dx4200-9 - which works fine. There are times that I want to buy and built a new computer but I don't have the time to do that. I'm fairly sure I can do it. I have upgraded a few things but I just don't have the time to familiarize myself with all the different terms and building designs to make buying hardware as easy as 20 seconds to 2 hours a day. It would be more like an year at this point.

For example:
Why would a negative pressure system for an air build have a problem with dust? Wouldn't micronic air filters and flapper check valves catch all the dust trying to enter system? Especially if you took the time to seal off all the tiny little holes and cracks in your system?

How come we don't just build refrigerators around our gaming computers?

I know of servers banks that are immersed in cooling non-conductive liquid which is then sent to air/liquid heat exchanger to transfer the heat... are those better than the mess of adding piped liquid cooling?

How much that thermal paste should I use? What happens if I use too much or too little?

Would your air cooled system be cooler if you just took two big fans and placed them on both sidewalls?
One blowing air while the other sucks it out.

Why is Geforce coding their PhysX drivers in a way so that it fucks with people that got Radeon hardware? Does anyone know their company head's home phone so I can ask him why he is being such a douche?
Hahaha! Spot on, well done!
 

crazypsyko666

I AM A GOD
Apr 8, 2010
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chuckwendig said:
crazypsyko666 said:
I'm not convinced that consoles are any better. That opinion just pisses me off. Crysis will crash if your computer isn't good enough, whereas Fallout 3 will crash because it wants you to have an aneurysm. Both are your fault for not looking into it. What does it take, five minutes? I'd consider those five minutes to be worth the ten dollars I save on those games. Definitely worth it.
I don't think it's a case of "better." It's a case of, any and all platforms could *be* better. In this case, we're talking about how PC gaming can/should/could offer a more stable experience.

As regards Fallout 3, though, please know that I spent hours looking into that problem.

A problem that has never been solved, actually.

-- Chuck
The condescending attitude in the article makes your statement hard to believe. Also, the five minute check was in regards to whether or not you should buy it in the first place, not repairing it. The less we buy shitty software, the less of it there will be.
 

SturmDolch

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May 17, 2009
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I never understand how people can't understand how to use a computer. Whether it's someone complaining about Windows Vista being the devil's incarnate or PC games crashing all the time, it is usually due to user error.

Have a problem with the computer? The problem is you, my friend. Yes, you. Abusing your sad, innocent little PC. Oh I know you'll deny it. But somewhere, sometime ago, you went into regedit and rewired a small part of your PC's brain. You probably fiddled with some Program Files. It's like sticking a needle into your child's brain then complaining when he gets a mental illness.

Or perhaps you meandered about in the deathly corridors of Internet Porn and picked up some iSTDs. Maybe you installed an entire army of shovelware to slow your computer down. The computer did not do this to itself. It doesn't turn on while you're gone and say, "Hey! Let's get Viruses! Awwww shit yeah!"

Or perhaps you forgot to feed it fresh RAM and a new video card once in a while, because hey, games that say they're for PC should run on a PC goddammit, even if it's 5 years old.

Or is your game the one that's broken? Maybe Crysis is just a buggy piece of crap. I wouldn't know; my computer couldn't run it so I don't buy it. Perhaps that's the problem, as I said before.

I've been PC gaming for a long time, but console gaming longer. Your arguments would have been very valid in the glory days of the N64 and it's imperviousness to bullets and salsa. But times have changed and I've had more problems with my Xbox 360 than I have in the last 10 years of PC gaming. Never once has a PC decided to eat my disc and spit it out. Never once has the PC decided, "fuck this shit," and given me the triple red light middle finger.

Oh, I've experienced your problems from time to time. Crashes, slowness, etc. Usually it's my fault and I can accept that. I can go back and change it, make it work again. Hell, if the game is truly messed up, maybe the community released its own patch. Consoles? Good luck changing anything without on the software engineering team that created the thing in the first place.
 

nmaster64

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I have $3000+ in games on my Steam account and my PC doesn't have a lick of trouble with ANY of them. I haven't had to worry about driver issues or anything of the sort in years. I got through Crysis with only a couple hiccups (usually when I tried to play on anything higher than medium settings). Anything else I can generally play with everything to the max.

To me, PC gaming has never been better or easier. It's only an issue if your PC sucks.
 

Doclector

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This is exactly the sort of thing that scares me away from PCs. I remember a time when I had a proper desktop PC instead of a laptop. Occasionally, I would buy a game for said PC. And y'know what? 9 times out of ten, seriously, nine out of ten times, it would not work. Sure, this is in a family in which I am the most technologically minded, and I am not all that good with pcs, but dammit, what is a game if you have to have a good amount of knowledge about the machine you play it on to actually get it to play? I'd try it if I could get my money back if it didn't work, but of course, refunds are strictly for games that don't work because they are broken, not because your PC isn't up to date enough to play them.

But, I must admit, I pine after the games those lucky enough to fathom it all get to play. Stalker, TF2 (sure, it's on 360, but valve seem to have completely forgotten it exists. I get it, it's harder to upgrade, but couldn't we at least have something? Maybe a few extra maps, less rubbish servers?), Starcraft, not to mention the numerous horror releases that I hear of that repetively have me curse my inability to make them work. Maybe, to a certain degree, the reward is worth the effort.

On the other hand, I, for one, don't like effort when I'm trying to enjoy myself. So, I'll sit here, put my hard to upgrade version of the orange box in my xbox, and wish that I could enjoy the numerous tweaks valve have bestowed upon the PC version, but constantly reminding myself that I could never wrap my head around making it work.
 

nofear220

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Chuck Wendig said:
You see that cute little baby seal? Chuck Wendig wants to punch that seal in the mouth because Crysis locked up on him. Again.
Typical story of a person who doesnt know much about computers, first off don't buy a dell XPS that is your first problem. Build your own gaming computer, so that you arent over charged, and dont have BIOS restrictions and a bunch of BS programs and on your pc that only slow it down. Second, (again with the dell trash) their cases have poor airflow and you probably have a bad heatsink, dust the inside of your case with compressed air and get a better cooler. Excess heat probably causes most of your lock ups in the first place. Lastly disable processes that have probably accumulated through using different programs, and use CCleaner to clean up the crap floating around on your drives. Hell, Defragmenting your drives would help too. Problem solved, you learned something and baby seals dont have to be punched.
 

rddj623

"Breathe Deep, Seek Peace"
Sep 28, 2009
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I pretty much keep PC gaming for PC only titles. Can't play Fallout II on my Playstation can I, well I guess I'll play it for my PC :) When my old system that wouldn't play anything new died I finally upgraded to a more modern system. Not top of the line but I can play Portal on it now!