Ken Levine: The Future of Gaming Is In the PC

[Souplex]

It's sad when people are that out of touch with reality.

 

[LordMarcusX]

It's not so much that PCs are the future of gaming, but rather that the distinction between "console" and "PC" are becoming moot. What is a PS3 or an Xbox360 these days except a PC with a different interface and a better opportunity for hardware quality control a la Apple? If Microsoft released its Xbox360 OS or Sony its PS3 OS for general use, they would eventually wind up on a PC, too. You could dual boot your "console" and "PC" from the same hardware.

Now that I think about it, I look forward to that day.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Ah, so much predictable fun.

I think most of you are missing the point. As I read it, Levine isn't saying that PCs are the best gaming option, or even that they will ultimately emerge at the One True Platform. He's saying they're a compass, a barometer; whatever direction the industry takes, the first steps will be taken with the PC.

Look at it this way: Portal 2 is coming to the 360 and PS3, it may or may not be a big hit. But follow its roots back to the start and what do you get? A student project, developed independently on the PC, with no need for approval or oversight or certification from the overlords at Microsoft or Sony. And somebody looked at that project and thought, wow, this is really something. He saw the future.

I think that's a pretty hard point to argue against.

 

[MercurySteam]

OP: Wasn't BioShock only on 360?

No, it wasn't

OP: Ken is simply saying that future advancements in gaming will be credited to the PC, not that it is the superior gaming platform. It's not like Move and Kinect are really that revolutionary.

 

[Tim Latshaw]

Then please tell me, what is the full attention that PC developers are EXPECTING over that of console developers? Where does the difference lie?

I don't know why you just assumed it meant game immersion and nothing else.

Maybe because Levine is a game creator talking about PC games for something called "PC Gaming Week"?

Let's look into the context again:

"But when it comes down to it, as a gamer, I'm a PC. I like the kind of games you can play on it. I like that designers know they have your full attention, so they feel comfortable EXPECTING your full attention. I like the ergonomics of the thing, the mouse and keyboard, the effortless transition from gaming to browsing to typing. I'm an alt-tab kind of guy."

In the first part he is definitely talking about game developers expecting your full attention when playing a game (unless he's also referring to the developers of Excel loving how immersed you are in their spreadsheets, but I doubt it). In the last sentence, however, he talks about how easy it is to switch between gaming and other cool things a computer can do.

That still sounds to me like, for better or worse, a distraction from the gaming aspect; not "full attention." If you have an alternate read on what he wrote, I'd still be happy to hear it, as well as any answers to my original question.

 

[Xanadu84]

but i cant afford the 10s of thousands of dollars required to be a pc gamer and always be up-to-date with the latest games :'(

fucking elitists...

...Yeah, that's pretty much flameing.

If you arn't an obsessive compulsive gadget freak, PC Gaming is only slightly more expensive on the hardware front, and that's pretty much canceled out by cheaper games. Not to mention that most people need a Computer for other things.

i did buy a computer in June, and apparently it has 2+ gig memory and Intel Dual-Core processor, but i tried to play Alien Swarm (a valve game) awhile back and got stonewalled by lag (when playing offline)

seriously, this computer was about 1000 dollars (from a store) and it lags when playing a game that supposedly has a minimum requirement of 512 MB of RAM?

i could buy a console for 350 dollars and none of my games will lag or if they do, then that's because its a HUGE game with a LOT of shit going on.

why can't i just buy a computer for about the same price as a console and get the same quality from whatever game i want to play? that would make PC gaming a hell of a lot easier for a hell of a lot more people

You can, you just have to know what your doing. Yes, that is a downside, that you have to know what your doing when you get a PC for gaming, but you can get around it. I'm willing to bet that you have an integrated Graphics card. Spending a lot of money on a computer for gaming, and getting an integrated graphics card is kind of like a cook buying only the finest, most expensive spices in the world, and adding it to some meat that has turned green. I recently got a new computer for several hundred bucks less then you, and I can play Alien Swarm WHILE playing Crysis on Ultra.

Also, I think you got Gypped. My computer was cheaper then yours, and I have twice the RAM, and three times the processors.

 

[dementis]

I'd disagree, not because I think consoles are better, I'd love to PC game, but PC gaming is just too expensive for everyone too afford, especially with the graphic requirements at what they are.

Haven't the graphics requirements staid the same sine 5 years?
Crysis was released in 2007 and new games don't need anywhere near the hardware it needed.
A 200 dollar graphics card for your office pc and your ready to go usually o. O
And since games are alot more expensive you'll save the entire cost of a pc overtime.
But you need the money up front in order to save more.
Didn't have it upfront and hardware was expensive back then so i bought a console.
But nowadays it seems odd to complain about the price.
Anyway i see updating drivers etc as a higher hurdle. Though steam does everything automaticly for ati users.
If the Facebook fad continues most gamers/game players will be on the pc anyway but those aren't the games we like :/

Well my problem is I don't have much room so I have to use a laptop, from what i've been told you can't really upgrade much on a laptop apart from the memory, meaning I can't get a better graphic card and the other stuff needed for running games. Not very computer savvy myself either

 

[Lordmarkus]

The answer is very simple: where does games on consoles are made from? PC's !

What's the only platform that delivers Mods for FREE: PC's !

i don't need to go further...

What's the only platform that you can sit on the couch and play..... Consoles.

What's the only platform that can be operated by a monkey...... Consoles.

Wait, so you're saying you can be a drewling retard and still play games on a console?

Way to go, reinforcing those stigmas about consolegamers being idiots relieved of any and all intelligence.

OT: Ken Levine, I love your games but public statements? Not your thing.

I was being sarcastic mate. For the 13th time.

Alrighty then [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SarcasmMode]

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Eventually what will happen is you will get Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo making gaming rigs that you can't customize and need their special OS to run. We're not quite there yet but as you said we're getting there.

it's already happened, It's called a Macintosh. >.>

Well I meant Sony Branded and etc but yes it is getting htere we just need them to try muscle in on the market.

 

[Canid117]

Capcom, Square Enix

Capcom? Square Enix? Innovation?


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Thats a good joke.

More like a sad, sad joke :S... Both ceased being innovative around a console generation, at least.

Oh well what are you gonna do? Buy a game by a company that actually innovates like Bioware or Valve.

One makes RPGs with the exact same characters/ basic gameplay over and over.
The other makes FPS games over and over. What innovation are you seeing? O.O

I'll take Square and Capcom.

OP: Consoles, PCs, it doesn't matter. Neither is the be all end all. Both have positive and negative points.

Dragon Age has different combat than Mass Effect and both have different combat from the Kotor games. They all have conversation trees but they are changing that up and trying to improve on the concept. Valve makes shooters a lot but they are almost always different from one another. Since when has a Square Enix JRPG had combat that wasn't menu driven? And when has a Resident Evil game last innovated? RE4? That game from five years ago? I'll stick with non stagnant companies thank you very much.

 

[Jumplion]

You were also exaggerating. And in case you weren't, that's where your repeatedly quoted line comes in handy (nothing was random about it at all). If you are that ignorant about how to build a PC, then just don't build it. Having a multitude of problems afterward is a direct testament to that. Really I am not sure why so many people think they require building it themselves to get a decent machine. The only initial step worth worrying about is getting hoodwinked by some idiotic Best Buy employee talking out of his ass. And once you are past that, it's not hard to look up some benchmarks and see the obvious differences in a nice graphical presentation.

PC peoples always say to build your own PC because it's cheaper than buying a a full-fledged gaming PC from Alienware and the like. I set out to do that, and ended up getting a moderately priced PC ($1500) that I picked the parts out myself from the Dell website with my father's help as he's an electrical engineer of sorts. And after all that, when all is said and done, after only using it for a month, it downloaded a virus on me and I had to restore it. Hell if I knew if it was a defective motherboard or someone wasn't downloaded properly or if it just did that while I was browsing the internet (probably that one), though I hadn't gone to any site that I didn't usually go to.

Don't tell me I'm ignorant and stupid after trying damn hard and researching every little thing I needed to know about the computer and still coming with problems. Not everyone is as tech-savvy or a genius in computer production. You don't get all that crap with consoles, that is what I'm saying.

Then why mention it at all?

Because I was making an example? Most PC games I have played have had a couple dozen patches just to fix some basic issues (New Vegas, looking at you) and Uncharted was focused enough on a single platform to bypass many of the issues. Are there pitch-perfect PC games? I'm sure there are, but I haven't encountered any so far. Mass Effect 2 maybe, but I dunno, haven't played it yet.

Snippity

Developers still encounter problems with the variety of PC parts out there. PCs move very fast technology-wise, but sometimes optimization is more important that more processing power and whatnot. Spreading your butter too thin I suppose.

Never said you said they didn't.

Never said you never said I never said they didn't.

I think...

This just doesn't make any sense and is self-contradictory.

Okay. Why? I would like to know, honestly, I never like answers that don't answer anything.

But they can. In computer games, there is this thing called "settings" that you can alter to match what is necessary for your PC and what the user would enjoy the most. What is the console counterpart? Well, it turning all the setting down to crap so that it runs somewhat smoothly at the highest resolution it allows (which is often upscaled to 1080).

I meant if 70% cannot have the "settings" to allow for 60fps. Why bother optimizing it that way if barely anyone of your target audience is going to be able to go for it? *coughCrysiscough* (so I've been told)

And Graphical prowess =/= Visual prowess. If you want a Non-"gushing"-Uncharted example, God of War 3 is in beautiful 1080p as far as I know, and it's visuals and artstyle give it an epic feel. And don't make me point out Okami and SotC

My 3 year old cheapo PC performs better than a console, and I can tailor the settings to my needs. I don't use a huge monitor, so I can turn up the visual settings. This makes your point moot, the one about how you worry about being able to run a game. Unless you have a severely crappy and old computer, you should be fine. Even still, if it is getting crappy, just turn the settings down. It still looks better than the no-AA upscaled console.

Again, with the numbers on how games look better with AA and texture-blah-de-blah-blah. This happens often...

It's the main reason why I was put off of buying a new PC for a long time. My brand new PC struggled playing the Mafia 2 demo, and even after tinkering it all to the lowest settings I could it still chugged. Whether it was a computer problem or a game problem, I have no idea. Also, L4D2 refuses to work for whatever odd reason. I've looked everywhere for help, and so far I have no idea what could be the problem. Again, don't tell me I'm ignorant because...

Plus, really, if you're worrying every time, then I'd say there is some sort of brain malfunction going on. Unless you play one game a year, it's easy to see whether the current generation of games will work at a certain performance level.

...oh, you already did. I suppose it's silly to want to do the research and make sure that each game will run on adequate settings on your computer, not matter how powerful it is.

Compared to the how easy it is to see whether a game will work on a console.

"Is this game for PS3/360/Wii?"
"Yes"
"Then it'll work for my PS3/360/Wii."

Entirely untrue. You should have asked a few more of those rambling questions before talking about this. If you consider the major companies for CPUs and GPUs, which makes a total of 3 players and 4 product lines, there is not all this revolving-door evolution you speak of. It takes 1-2 years for them to make a completely new product. The news you hear about is usually the slight variations and tweaks they make to those product lines, mainly so they can sell at every price point. Even with this, it most certainly doesn't cause previous models to become extinct.

Upon reflection, being totally serious here, I probably should have known better that that. I exaggerated, of course. But the fact that they release every slight variation and tweaks of their products is what makes it so confusing for people getting into it. "Is it worth it to shell out the few extra bucks for the 5790? Or should I stay with the 5780 because I've heard the 5770 has cooling problems or whatever." That's just unnecessary.

Case in point: the PS3 has something like a GeForce 7900 GPU? Well the current technology that came out 6 months ago is essentially the 11,000 line, but of course they renamed it after 9000.

Over 9000

And yet it, along with the 360, still pumps out some pretty good looking games.

And.... so what? It is true that graphics don't make the game, but once again it is a notable limitation. Speaking of the Wii, I have never used one outside of the demo at Best Buy, but I have completed about 3 Wii games. Ah, the power of the PC...

Developers can get around that limitation.

And your PC has the power to pirate off Wii games (I guess that's what you're saying?)? Well, thanks for the DRM then.

Overall, I'm still going to play my PS3 as much as I'm playing my new PC. They're both good systems, products of my own patience and diligence to accumulate the money to afford them. I think we've run this topic for a while, so if you'd like to continue this discussion feel free to do so through PM, I'd love to continue. Just keep it civil, and go ahead.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

want a PC? build it yourself.

okay, this is really stupid... why should i have to build something in order to enjoy it? whenever i buy something, i want it pre-built so i can use it right away.

having to assemble something so i can use it is just asinine. its why playing a console is simply more straightforward. you dont have to spend hours upon hours and no more than 600 dollars just to have a console and a couple of good games.

whereas on the PC i have to spend more then 600 dollars just to get it to run properly? seriously, that's why the future is not really in PC gaming, it's only just on par with console gaming.

 

[Alexnader]

Ahahahahahahahaha... good stuff.

What about Nintendo, Capcom, Square Enix, Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, Rockstar, Insomniac, Atlus and Sega? Console developers first. But I guess they don't count because they don't fit into his argument.

This guy is talking out of his ass.

Actually Rockstar or Rockstar North (the part of the company that made the GTA series) originated as 'DMA Design' and created Lemmings for the Commodore Amiga (An early PC).

Anyway you can hardly compare the innovations of rockstar and insomnia who did GTA, spyro and ratchett and clank to the innovation inherent in Steam or Minecraft. I mean those may have been innovative games in themselves but Steam and Minecraft are standout examples of innovation in the meta of games, their creation and distribution. Things which will have a greater effect on the industry than the realisation that sandbox games can be good.

Capcom makes more than just Resident Evil. In fact, I wasn't even thinking of RE. You do realize that they make other games like Street Fighter, Power Stone, Megaman, Strider, etc... Or even easier: here you go. Yeah, they certainly dwell in one game genre. /sarcasm

Valve on the other hand - FPS only. Yeah, they aren't stagnant /there's that sarcasm again.

Innovation? I do not think you know exactly what that word means. You don't have to invent a new genre to be innovative, otherwise most musicians would be "stagnant". You might as well say haiku's are devoid of creativity because they only stick to those set criteria for syllables or that Shakespeare was lazy because he stuck to his meter.
Valve is still innovative even if it focuses on the FPS genre, TF2 was an innovative class based shooter that inspired directly or indirectly several other games. Half life was half life, Left 4 Dead... well it was a large part of the surge in Zombie games. All of those were FPS games but you could hardly say they're all samey and stagnant.

In short, boundaries do not stifle innovation but rather encourage it. Ask someone to make a "poem", to write down anything they want. Pretty tough right? Now ask them write one that has to rhyme, each line has to contain a certain number of syllables and the poem as a whole must conform to a certain structure. Now they have criteria. Valve's or other devs focusing on a specific genre does not restrict their ability to innovate but rather improves it.

Oh btw: Alien Swarm, Valve developed (they hired the original team) TOP DOWN shooter and all it felt like was a well executed, great value L4D knockoff (despite it being a remake of an original game mod)

 

[RIOgreatescapist]

Get those PC balls out of your mouth and play some fuckin sf4 online on the ps/xbox. Future of gaming my arse..

SF4 is already on pc tyvm.

Hardly the same, but hey whatever blows your hair back.