I went down to my local EB, as they were having a big sale, and picked up, among other things, Fallout 3, a game I'd heard very good things about, enough to justify paying the $25 or so (like I said, big sale). Then, due to assignments etc I put it aside, saying I'll get to it later. In the meantime, my brother installed it and had a lot of fun.
Finally, he finished it, and I was free from assessment, so I put it in the drive and tried to run it. No dice, apparently it doesn't like being autorun. Ok, fine, no problem. Ran the setup.exe, spazzed out. Bounced around on the Bethesda forums, no dice, eventually found a solution elsewhere. Ok, finally got to install it. Then I tried to run it.
Apparently Bethesda doesn't like its precious game keeping company with certain programs. If you have any of a number of Securom things on your computer, the game will refuse to run. I popped back onto the forums (apparently I'm a masochist), and after some searching found a few people complaining of the same issue. The moderators shut down their threads almost immediately, saying that the official policy in these matters was, more or less, "too bad, use another computer".
At that, I officially decided I am done with PC gaming. Between the hardware requirements being ridiculous, the general lack of support, increasingly limited selection of games and being generally treated like a criminal even if you're trying to support them by buying the game (overprice and all, but that's a bit more global then just PC), an American company trying to dictate what I can and cannot have on my computer, even if the software is totally legal and used every day for legitimate purposes, is too far.
I truly believe that PCs have a lot to offer the gaming market, regardless of whether you prefer consoles or whatever. Another platform is a source of variety in the ways you can execute a game, and can lead to more depth overall. I also believe personally that some game types work better on PC, but this is just my personal preference. However, game developers seem intent on driving people towards consoles, and to be honest it's getting close to me dropping games altogether now, because I can see the market collapsing in on itself after all this crap reaches a head.
Summary: Fallout 3 is just the straw that broke the camels back, and I'm giving up on PC gaming altogether. If I ever play another PC game, it'll be pirated, as I cannot in good conscience support being treated like a criminal, even when I'm trying to do the right thing and buy a game legitimately.
EDIT: I seem to have confused people. What I meant was that if I ever play a PC game again (which will be a long time in the future), I would either play legit copies (because this has all sorted itself out and it's reasonable to do so), or a pirate, in order to avoid having an fMRI on my head the whole time scanning for deviant thoughts. However, I really don't think it being sorted is likely, so I see the pirate option as being more likely. But as I said, this would be a long way away.
Finally, he finished it, and I was free from assessment, so I put it in the drive and tried to run it. No dice, apparently it doesn't like being autorun. Ok, fine, no problem. Ran the setup.exe, spazzed out. Bounced around on the Bethesda forums, no dice, eventually found a solution elsewhere. Ok, finally got to install it. Then I tried to run it.
Apparently Bethesda doesn't like its precious game keeping company with certain programs. If you have any of a number of Securom things on your computer, the game will refuse to run. I popped back onto the forums (apparently I'm a masochist), and after some searching found a few people complaining of the same issue. The moderators shut down their threads almost immediately, saying that the official policy in these matters was, more or less, "too bad, use another computer".
At that, I officially decided I am done with PC gaming. Between the hardware requirements being ridiculous, the general lack of support, increasingly limited selection of games and being generally treated like a criminal even if you're trying to support them by buying the game (overprice and all, but that's a bit more global then just PC), an American company trying to dictate what I can and cannot have on my computer, even if the software is totally legal and used every day for legitimate purposes, is too far.
I truly believe that PCs have a lot to offer the gaming market, regardless of whether you prefer consoles or whatever. Another platform is a source of variety in the ways you can execute a game, and can lead to more depth overall. I also believe personally that some game types work better on PC, but this is just my personal preference. However, game developers seem intent on driving people towards consoles, and to be honest it's getting close to me dropping games altogether now, because I can see the market collapsing in on itself after all this crap reaches a head.
Summary: Fallout 3 is just the straw that broke the camels back, and I'm giving up on PC gaming altogether. If I ever play another PC game, it'll be pirated, as I cannot in good conscience support being treated like a criminal, even when I'm trying to do the right thing and buy a game legitimately.
EDIT: I seem to have confused people. What I meant was that if I ever play a PC game again (which will be a long time in the future), I would either play legit copies (because this has all sorted itself out and it's reasonable to do so), or a pirate, in order to avoid having an fMRI on my head the whole time scanning for deviant thoughts. However, I really don't think it being sorted is likely, so I see the pirate option as being more likely. But as I said, this would be a long way away.
With Steams massive sale i've actually turned back to PC Gaming, away from my X-box. Also I am preparing myself for the launch of SC2, and the beta takes up most of my time. But PC gaming was what introduced me to multiplayer gaming, and I still prefer PC multiplayer gaming to that of any console.