Game Stash: The Death of PC Gaming

[Booze Zombie]

PC gaming offers a brilliant area for game developers with a minimal of money and a maximum of imagination to take risks with their small investment and see if their idea works, which any larger studio will ignore because it's simply too risky, but these guys will do it and some of them effect the entire industry and it's those risks they take that stop the entire industry from stagnating.

The day PC gaming is dead is the day games stopped being made, I believe that.

 

[Loonerinoes]

I can't help but remember something Ricky Gervais said...when he was being touted as #1 comedian and how awesome The Office must've been to have launched him into that spotlight. I think that interview is still somewhere up on Youtube, but his answer to that ego-stroking was a simple: "It's funny, people still say how many people liked The Office, but no they didn't. In fact more people hated it rather than liked it. Luckily however, you don't have to please everyone to be successful or to become well-known. Instead you focus onto the people who share your views and find the appeal that you do."

I've managed to apply this to many parts of life and I can't help but think, could this be applied to PC gaming as well. As the article says very well, while not completely free from it, it does however manage to be a lot less constricted by overarching companies that control all of it as is the case with consoles. Why not try things like...games for Linux? Oh, I'm sure it wouldn't make as much money as any mainstream title or such and there are all kinds of marketing considerations of how to get the word out for such products.

But if the development was based around a reasonable projected return and a group decided to actually try some genuine entrepeneurship...could it be enough for a developer/distributer to make a living off it? To focus on specific groups of gamers who have specific tastes in what they'd like to see from a videogame? Honestly, it might go far in turning back the homogenization that seems to be progressing within most of the mainstream titles, even if such successes would be less-known than your standard triple-A title.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

If you'd ported Streets of Rage II or Secret of Mana to the PC, they'd have felt out of place.

Would I have loved to see a PC port of Secret of Mana anyways? Yes, yes I would. =(

Anyway, very nice article. Good to see some appretiation for the PC platform.

 

[Treblaine]

You realize that you are speaking from the perspective of a veteran right?

(concerning finding good games on PC)

You just don't remember or know how to think like a novice.

I fail to see how that is any different from consoles or iPhones or any other device you play video games from.

And on ANY system it is NOT HARD AT ALL to find the good games. Novices are novices, I know, but they aren't MORONS. They can use the internet, there are SO MANY resources to help them find the best games, you can't go 5 paces on the internet without finding some one's opinion, a top 10 list, some article on great games, Yahtzee has given so much advice on games.

I don't think it is fair to focus on the complete novice archetype, i.e. an independent adult with their own money and their own choices to make who has NO EXPERIENCE AT ALL with any games. Come on, those make up a tiny percentage of the target market. Most start gaming as kids, dependant on parents, older siblings/cousins and friends to introduce them. I, like I think most PC gamers, started on consoles before I wanted more than they could offer and moved onto PC gaming.

Also what's all this jibber-jabber about drivers and patches... have you not heard of Steam?

I too don't agree with the argument that it's harder to find good games on the PC. It's also hard to find them on consoles, and on the other hand it's not very hard at all with the internet around.

But regarding Steam, it patches automatically but it will not solve driver problems or other system configuration problems. Case in point: I bought Batman: Arkham Asylum from Steam and couldn't play it. After looking for information around, I found out I had to manually install the PhysX drivers from nVidia, and only then the game started working.

Batman AA... WITH PhysX? Come on, that is a highly advanced feature that is not activated as standard. Don't be surprised if you have to do something as basic as update your drivers. PhysX isn't supported at all on the console release of Arkham Asylum. That is not "update drivers JUST to play the game" that is updating drivers to unlock GPU-based physics processing which is no trivial thing.

Installing drivers is not hard. just run the .exe and stuff like that is to be expected if you want to use a PC for gaming or non-gaming tasks.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

For maybe the first time I feel like I don't have an opening to make a smart ass comment. Good article.

I certainly wasn't happy with the death of Amiga gaming. When DMA made the original GTA it sort of felt like one of their Amiga games only now it was on Playstation and PC. Was there something about the culture of DMA that was influenced by the Amiga that lead them to create GTA? Does the death of the Amiga mean that we are missing out on similarly great games that could have been made if the Amiga was still an important platform? I'm probably reaching a bit there but even if most young gamers have no idea what an Amiga is they still almost certainly play games made by developers who learned their trade making games for the platform.

 

[Weaver]

PC gaming isn't going to decline much further, but I can't see it getting much better either. The PC crowd is more or less doomed to live off of mediocre console ports and countless Valve/Blizzard games until something drastic changes.

I'm hoping that since all 3 consoles are now massively trying to push motion controls and 3D tech, consumers and gamers will get fed up of no "hardcore" titles and just jump to the PC for a pure gaming experience. Wishful thinking I'll admit, but that small tangent of hope keeps me going!

 

[Timbydude]

PC gaming isn't going to decline much further, but I can't see it getting much better either. The PC crowd is more or less doomed to live off of mediocre console ports and countless Valve/Blizzard games until something drastic changes.

There are a lot more games out there on the PC, which are great and don't come from "Valve/Blizzard" (Drakensang, King's Bounty, World of Goo (also on WiiWare; not exclusive, and pirated to hell and back on the PC), Plants vs. Zombies, Torchlight, Machinarium etc. spring to mind)

Also: http://adrianwerner.wordpress.com/games-of-2010/

(Snip about Natural Selection II)

I admit that King's Bounty is one indie game I completely forgot about when I said that none of them had impressed me in the last few years. It really is a great game.

But look at the rest of those games. The PC used to be known for deep, in-depth, complex experiences, which Torchlight, Plants vs. Zombies, and Drakensang (I share a different opinion than most on that game) are not. Machinarium I haven't played so I can't comment on it. Torchlight is literally just a Diablo clone from the people who worked on Diablo, Plants vs. Zombies is a casual tower defense game, and Drakensang is just...not fun. Again, a lot of people will disagree with me on that last one.

Your link to the "reasons why its worth to be a pcgamer" only furthers my point. Look under the Role-Playing heading. There's almost nothing worthwhile there. It almost solely consists of indie games and low-profile releases, with the exception of WoW Cataclysm. I know I'll be chastised for saying this, but I've learned that in general, indie/low-profile = amateur.

Like I said, the indie scene will survive on PC because that's one of the few markets in which it's viable. Of course, Live Arcade, PSN, and WiiWare are slowly changing that, but that's another story. My point is that the PC used to be the focus for huge blockbuster efforts, and now it's only a home for indie games and console ports.

Also, while I give Natural Selection II credit for surviving on preorders, that really doesn't further a point. If anything, it shows that PC gamers are so hungry for anything PC-exclusive anymore that they'll throw money at it in the hopes that it will stay.

PC gaming isn't going to decline much further, but I can't see it getting much better either. The PC crowd is more or less doomed to live off of mediocre console ports and countless Valve/Blizzard games until something drastic changes.

I'm hoping that since all 3 consoles are now massively trying to push motion controls and 3D tech, consumers and gamers will get fed up of no "hardcore" titles and just jump to the PC for a pure gaming experience. Wishful thinking I'll admit, but that small tangent of hope keeps me going!

Heh, that was included in the "something drastic" I mentioned. I think that the only situation in which the PC will be fully revived is if "console" and "casual" become synonymous; then, the two crowds will happily be separated.

But both of you, please keep in mind: I love PC gaming. I do own all three consoles, but that's because I got fed up of waiting for high-profile PC games that never came. While I enjoy playing original games on my PC more than anything else, I finally realized that the most big games nowadays are made for consoles. I enjoy most individual games on my PC more, but I've had more overall fun on my 360 and PS3 in the last few years.

 

[Weaver]

But both of you, please keep in mind: I love PC gaming. I do own all three consoles, but that's because I got fed up of waiting for high-profile PC games that never came. While I enjoy playing original games on my PC more than anything else, I finally realized that the most big games nowadays are made for consoles. I enjoy most individual games on my PC more, but I've had more overall fun on my 360 and PS3 in the last few years.

I own all three as well! I still prefer PC gaming more, mainly because I enjoy strategy games a ton, so I play the crap out of those. But, I sort of know how it is to play crap port after crap port and just say "Fine, fuck it! I'll just play it on the console like you clearly want me to." Though, for games which are controller enabled I can often just plug in my 360 controller and I'm good to go.

Of course, I've had some great times on my consoles too! Demon's Souls was likely my favorite game of 2009, though Arkham Asylum (which I got on PC) gave it a close run

 

[ALPHATT]

One of the great surprises for me on the PC was GTAIV and it's DLCs. The fact that it came with 1 of the deepest 1st party machinima tools ever but I found that the handling feels right when you use a keyboard and mouse(I was constanly crashing into things on consoles)was very reaussering that some people still care.

As far as valve goes, they are crusaders of pc gaming they give up on profits that MS and sony would never just to make themselves look better and make steam a better place.

 

[Outamyhead]

Seeing as Consoles are basically PC's (especially the 360 being a 3 core AMD processor at the heart of it) architecturally, the PC gaming market is important to the consoles as well, without innovation being forced forward by PC gaming, how do the console manufacturers expect the consoles to make another drastic leap forward from say the PS2 to the PS3, or the Xbox to the 360, heck they even use SATA laptop drives for storage instead of memory sticks now.

I too still prefer playing games on my PC, my nephew couldn't believe how much better Dragon Age was both graphically and control wise, compared to the console versions.

And STEAM is the ultimate consumer friendly DRM, Ubisoft should have learned something from their example instead of the lame excuse they are using, that kind of thing will kill gaming regardless of what platform it is on.

 

[Vladan]

What a ridiculous statement, it is EASY to find the good games on PC from friends, forums, reviews, magazines and websites like this. My problem is I find TOO many great PC games, I literally don't have enough time to play them all.

Same here. I have tons of games queued up to get and play, some of which have been released more than a year ago, because I just can't keep up.

Anyway, besides the examples of good PC games that have already been brought up above, I'd like to add another one. Star Wars: The Old Republic - potentially the most expensive game of all time [http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/feature/4115/Scott-Jennings-Great-Expectations-SWTOR.html] and it's a PC exclusive.

 

[Zero-Vash]

I tend to play on my console more than PC as of late (though that will change when SC 2 is out), but some of my favorite games with the most replay value are on the PC. I might not have a huge PC library but every game I own I love to play, regardless of how old they are.

 

[Xan Krieger]

If PC gaming ever died out I know a few series that would die out because there is no way in hell they would ever be playable on a console. The Total War series and the Hearts of Iron series just off the top of my head. Imagine playing Napoleon Total War on the xbox 360. It would be worse then Justin Bieber mixed with Twilight.

 

[nmaster64]

My Steam account is worth more than my car, it's literally the largest asset I have.

Just due to the nature of the PC as a multi-function device (that has become practically essential to everyday living), it's an impossible-to-kill industry. It can ebb and flow and change a bit, but it literally can't die.

And I haven't had driver issues with a game in years. The complexity of PC gaming is mostly myth these days. I'd say DRM is where the biggest issue lies as far as making it a pain-in-the-ass to just play the damn game I bought.

 

[lacktheknack]

The last hardware problem I had was with Batman AA... and that was the ONLY problem I've ever had.

And you say that we don't have games that embrace the eccentricities of the PC? Ok... what about Starcraft 2?

Interesting article, but I think there's pieces missing...

 

[LewsTherin]

Go not softly into that goodnight, Sir Butts. PC gaming will forever uphold the vanguard.

I mean, PC gaming is really where most of the innovation happens in gaming. Without it, we wouldn't have things like Total War, Baldur's Gate, Counterstrike, Half Life, Starcraft, Monkey Island, Portal. I'll parrot previous sentiments about indie devs being given a place to work and create. I'd go so far as to say PC gaming is far from dying, it's the source of life in the industry.

 

[b1r2u]

I just love the PC as a gaming platform, I just feel weird whenever I go over to playing on consoles.

Holding a controller just never feels as comfy with a keyboard and mouse...

 

[instantbenz]

"With no overarching structure, we occasionally run into problems where the good (or at least interesting) titles wind up competing with each other for shelf space and sales on the same day."

So, two blockbuster movies have NEVER come out on the same day? Two best selling novels have NEVER been released to their adoring readers on the same day? ... Wrong

"The open hardware environment means driver and compatibility issues, which can be very frustrating at the end of a long day when you just want to sit down and unwind with your favorite game."

If this happens to you, I'd guess you're on a mac. The only issues I've ever experienced were when I knew I had an inferior laptop and I just wanted to see if the orange box would run on it. Or when I was 8 and bought a game for windows 95 that I couldn't even run on my 3.1. Problem solved after taking it to a friend's.

 

[Plinglebob]

Great article (though not as good as the tache)

Personally, I see PC gaming go in one of two directions depending on what happens to consoles.

1) AAA game makers will follow the Ubisoft route for their large games by including annoying DRM and delaying the PC release to try and get more people to buy games on consoles where they get more money per sale *dons tinfoil hat*. This means that the number of AAA titles on the PC will slowly drop as they are claimed to be unprofitable and we'll be left with more PC exclusives from RTS and indie developers.

2) As companies try and incorporate Move/Natal into their games, people looking for more traditional control schemes will shift to buying on the PC. This will then increase the number of AAA titles on the PC.

Personally, as a hard-core PC gamer I'm happy with either happening as even though consoles come and go, the PC will always be their in the background.