PC gamers....why must we always get shafted?

[veloper]

I'm seeing things gradually getting better in PC land.

Kickstarter (among other platforms) makes it possible for niche genres to make medium budgets again.
Ubisoft have sworn off DRM (though we still have to wait and see).
More and more companies are coming back to the PC.

Besides, where else would you go for your fix of realtime strategy, 4X strategy, point&clickers, fast-paced shooters and builder games?

 

[MagicAD]

I also hate how the baking industry shits all over bread. I mean, sure you get a massive selection of bread, from home-made loaves to little conveniently packaged bite-sized rolls, but where are the loaf sized danish pastries? Why can't I have my loaf of bread coated in icing sugar and full of raisins?

Seriously, dude, what in heaven's name is your problem? You love playing on a console but you don't like using the interface? Sounds to me like you don't love playing on a console. Maybe that's just my interpretation, which is evidently wrong because otherwise you wouldn't have posted on the internet.
Perhaps the things that you dislike about the console could be easily remedied: Gamepads aren't to your liking? Use a keyboard and mouse. Yeah, you can do that. Job's a good'un.

As far as 'the console market shafts PCs' goes, everything that you say can be switched back the other way, just like that:
'Downloading a game at 15gb a pop just isn't viable'
So where does that leave console owners who now have to download patches and download only titles which, some might argue, is a follow-on from the PC industry's way of doing things.

'90% of games are as frustrating as fuck'
Oh god, playing Batman on the PC is like having toffee-fudge hammered against your knuckles. I stopped playing Saint's Row 2 because I got sick of using the bloody keyboard.The gamepad interface is better for action adventure in my experience. Now, of course, I could connect my Xbox controller to my PC using arcane magicks, but I'd rather just play one of the other games I have.
I was suckered into buying PC ports by stupid rants such as yours which made it clear that PC had the best interface. I made a mistake. [Edit: I don't mean to say that keyboard and mouse isn't better for some things, I mean that it isn't the best for everything.]
Also, your claim that 90% of games contain shooting rides the line between simply wrong and downright stupid. Maybe 90% of the games that you buy for your console contain shooting. Maybe, just maybe, you want to go ahead and reconsider your purchases, there are a plaethora of wonderful shoot-heavy games for the PC, many of them better than the console-exclusives. Enough to keep you playing until your fingers are too rheumatism-crippled to stab away at the left mouse button. Play them, you fool!

Console exclusives exist, so do PC exclusives. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. DRM vs mandatory sign-ins and mandatory update downloading. Or, better still, DRM vs warrantee-invalidating fixes to hardweare problems that the console manufacturer won't acknowledge. I don't know if anybody other than you has heard that PC gaming is dying, but I'd be intested to see where you get such information. Is it from random opinion-biased rants like yours?

Console gamers, unite! Why do we always get shafted? PCs are easier to upgrade and upgrades come more often, they get Steam, you have to get a monitor with a better resolution than many TVs by default (because the lowest res monitors have a better resolution than...etc), oh, woe-is-me we have to use an ergonomically designed gamepad to play games taht were designed for a keyboard which has looooads of buttons when, nay IF, we get a port. OH NO! I've become that very thing that I was complaining about, a blinkered bigot with a chip on his shoulder because of some imagined slight.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

this is more of a rant than anything else I supose

but I have to ask [b/]why does the games industry hate the PC?[/b]

I mean bad ports...you know I can deal with that

They sell us bad ports not because they are lazy,but because they are stingy. Work needs time to be done,and they don't want to spend enough man hours to make the appropriate work for a decent port. They don't care,they think that either way we will buy their games like good sheep and some of us will fix them,so why should they spend more man hours ?

DRM....is probably the biggest problem but its one of those things you grit and bear

I got used on Steam and I now like it. Seeing most games just using Steamworks for their DRM I feel it's OK. Now the problem is when other publishers just imitate Steam and want you to download and install new programs on your computer that will be running all the time. EA Origin, Ubisoft's Uplay...

not geting certain games....I'm still wating for Red Dead Rockstar...yes its 2 years old and Ive already played it on console...but I'm still waiting...[small/]dammit[/small]

That's how it has always been. Some games come only in one console,other comes on many consoles,other come on many consoles and pcs,and others only come at pcs.

and retail PC games are just downright depressing...granted thats hardly an issue for many with the rise of the digital platform...but for a fair number I'm sure downloading games at 15gb a pop just isn't viable

Yeah with the rise of Steam we saw shelf space of PC games in stores shrinking and shrinking... A large game would take long to download,but if you have some DSL connection,just wait for it.

the fact is when "we" are not being called pirates we are having to hear about how "PC gaming is dying" or some such crap, and I'm sick of it

While piracy exists and always was there,as it also exists on consoles since the PS1 era, lately lots of publishers blame their bad sales on piracy even if that's not the primary reason their games doesn't sell well. When some companies release broken ports that doesn't even fit the industry standards resulting their games unplayable,they shouldn't blame people that are not buying it for being pirates.
Again PC gaming isn't dying. If anything else Steam has 50 million users.

but do you get the feeling we are being pretty punished for our platform of choice? is it unreasonable of me to want to feel like I'm not being treated like a criminal if I want to play games? is it unreasonable of me to expect games to be released on my systm?

My idea is punish those who punish you,if they punish you for no legitimate reason. Put your dignity first and your excitement seconds,and don't buy a game if its company shows that doesn't respect you.


the differences between console and PC are vast in many ways...some might say "get a console" but I don't want a fucking console....[b/]consoles break games[/b]..hold on, hear me out
You are too general on this. Consoles only break once computer games. But there have been games that were designed for consoles from the get go and were never 'broke' by somebody.

90% of games thease days while good are still frustrating as fuck....because 90% contain shooting, and I love shooting but usuing a gamepad is somthing I will never really enjoy doing
the experience is so much better when I've got a moniter and the precision/ease of a mouse, thats the difference between a frustrating experience and an engaging one..hell I played ME3 first time around on my PS3 and I remember being beaten to a pulp by banshees

That's why console shooters have things like aim assist and auto aim in their options menus. Use them.

played on PC second time (same diffuculty) and those Banshee's were MY bitches...did not die once on the same encounter than beat me so many times before..which goes to show how I was just being hampered by artificial difficulty

Trying to aim with the stick without any help like aim assist is a difficult job and your aim will be inaccurate,but that's normal as the way sticks and the way lasers work is very different. So if you can't use a mouse,use assist systems.

my point there is NOT to say which platforms are better (seriously take that argument somhwere else) my point is my choice of systm is vital to my experience and "getting a console" is no fix for issues I feel are unfair

Ah what you reminded me. Once ago there was a time where game developers would boast that they spend enough time with each different version of their game,to make it so each version of their game makes the most use of the available powers and features of each platform. It was something that they believed we would like and would make them proud for doing. They where trying to make its different version of their game to be unique in each platform.
Fast forward to today,and the opposite happens.
Developers boast about making all platform versions of their games be the same. They market their laziness as something good,with the excuse that they do it for "platform equality" to fight console chauvinism or something... Yeah right.

 

[Vault101]

that it's not actually free ? it is very badly named.

also there is the issue with "pay to win" but that's mostly due to bad decisions by bad developers.
.

its not just that (I don't mind paying for stuff...you get what you pay for)

I mean on one hand it seems ok for a multiplayer model....and it might even get rid of all that "5 hour single player" bullshit

however the thing is F2P doesn't exactly mesh well with deep long single player games...thats the kind of experience I play games for....and it being a more and more attractive model for developers..well

can you say "Mass Effect MMO"? because it'll happen....

 

[Smithburg]

PC games don't get the shaft. They tend to have much cheaper games, they have modding capabilities, while there is DRM you can transfer stuff easily in ways that you can't on console, certain types of games only show up on PC, there's benefits and disadvantages to every type of system whether it's PC or console. Yes you have to deal with DRM, but it is much much much easier to pirate a PC game. Bad ports happen both ways, if a game is built for a console, there's a good chance the port might not be very good, the same for PC to console ports, hell supreme commander was unplayable on consoles.
As for not having certain games on PC, that's how the industry works, just be happy if a game is coming to PC rather than ***** about it. If you don't like consoles, you are just gonna have to deal with not having the games that are made for them. I like Zelda but I don't have a Wii, I don't ***** about it, I just deal with it. As for controls though, if it matters that much, just plug your mouse and keyboard into the console, they are able to do that.

 

[BreakfastMan]

"Choice of system"? Let me ask you: why do you have to choose one system? I have a 360, a PS3, a Wii, and a gaming-capable PC, not to mention all the older systems I have, so just choosing one system and sticking with it seems silly to me. : \

because as I said...I have a preference for the control scheme and set up which greatly affects my experience

so I mean own a PS3 but tht doesnt make playing on it any less headache inducing

Eh, I still can't understand that. Whenever I encounter a control scheme I am not used too, I "adapt or die", as it were, and things usually go great. It might be because my first FPS was Halo, and as such I grew accustomed to console control schemes first, but both work perfectly well for me.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

PC gamers have no reason to complain. You get a ton more games than consoles, and generally for cheaper prices. I would be a PC gamer if the mouse and keyboard wasn't such a shitty control scheme and the community was decent.
PC doesn't deal with half the shit consoles do. Dark souls being one of the few games you don't have and you all start bitching for a port. Then you ***** about said port being 'only as good as the console version'.

 

[wulf3n]

can you say "Mass Effect MMO"? because it'll happen....

with the "success" of the old republic I doubt even EA will be game enough to try that again.

Though I don't really see much of PC gamers being shafted, no more than any other platform really.

I would be a PC gamer if the mouse and keyboard wasn't such a shitty control scheme

You do know you can hook up PS3/XBox360/WII controllers pretty easily?

and the community was decent.

Is it really any different?

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

We don't always get shafted. There are problems with the PC, everyone knows this. But there's still a tonne of legitimately good stuff going on on the PC.

 

[TwiZtah]

There's more money in making console games, simple as that. The industry has nothing against you.

even though PC outsold PS3 this quarter?

 

[tobi the good boy]

"Choice of system"? Let me ask you: why do you have to choose one system? I have a 360, a PS3, a Wii, and a gaming-capable PC, not to mention all the older systems I have, so just choosing one system and sticking with it seems silly to me. : \

I feel like reaching into the monitor and slapping you across the face... no offence.

But to answer your question. Because I'm dirt poor? Because I can barely afford to buy a new game as it is and when I find out that a game I'm really interested in is filled with shit to keep me from actually playing it and in some cases doesn't even come out on what I even have at my disposal I get pissed off.

Heck sometimes I get a game only to find out it's been so terribly retrofitted for PC controls that I might as well have not even bought it, but hay I can always just return to the store and get my money ba- Oh wait.

 

[Vault101]

[

Eh, I still can't understand that. Whenever I encounter a control scheme I am not used too, I "adapt or die", as it were, and things usually go great. It might be because my first FPS was Halo, and as such I grew accustomed to console control schemes first, but both work perfectly well for me.

ehhh...I can't see it... the gamepad just feels like artificial diffuculy

like going for a run with a brick strapped to the side of your head

I would be a PC gamer if the mouse and keyboard wasn't such a shitty control scheme

did you know you can buy a gamepad for the PC?....or OR (here's a good one" if your already have a PS3 controller just download a thing and with a few teaks BINGO gamepad for the PC granted there may be a certian cumber of games that suport it...but still

anyway I would say [i/]at least[/i] the case of FPS it really isn't..but obviously for some its what your used too

I guess I adapted to K/M more than I did gamepad (hard to really tell though) but still the sense of precision and controll is just..somthing you can't explain

[quote/]and the community was decent.[/quote]
gross generalisation....I could just as easyly say that consoles are just lazy dumbass's with a COD complex (which I wont because I know that isnt true) in fact with PC it seems in terms of multiplayer good games actually have alot more staying powr because they buld up a loyal comunity (as in why Diablo 2 went for so long)
[quote/]PC doesn't deal with half the shit consoles do.[/quote]
liiiiiiiike?....

look as I said platforms have their good and bad but getting into "I have it worse than you" pissing match isn't a great Idea

[quote/]Dark souls being one of the few games you don't have and you all start [b/]bitching[/b] for a port. Then you [b/]*****[/b] about said port being 'only as good as the console version'.[/quote]

[b/]*****[/b]....I love that word don't you? doesn't it paint such a clear picture of your target? as being some whiney little jerk who needs to STFU?....rather effective in trivialising peoples problems people I guess

1. nothing wrong with asking for a port....

2. I dont know the situation with the dark souls port but theres a difference between "like the console" and "broken"

 

[BreakfastMan]

"Choice of system"? Let me ask you: why do you have to choose one system? I have a 360, a PS3, a Wii, and a gaming-capable PC, not to mention all the older systems I have, so just choosing one system and sticking with it seems silly to me. : \

I feel like reaching into the monitor and slapping you across the face... no offence.

But to answer your question. Because I'm dirt poor? Because I can barely afford to buy a new game as it is and when I find out that a game I'm really interested in is filled with shit to keep me from actually playing it and in some cases doesn't even come out on what I even have at my disposal I get pissed off.

Heck sometimes I get a game only to find out it's been so terribly retrofitted for PC controls that I might as well have not even bought it, but hay I can always just return to the store and get my money ba- Oh wait.

You think I wasn't? I have always been poor, my entire life (You can barely afford buying a new, $60 game? Try not being able to afford a new, $60 game, at all. That was me for a long, long time). I got those consoles by exercising thrift and frugality, as well as carefully controlling my spending and saving my money. I know that sounds condescending, but I am not trying to be. It is entirely true.

 

[Puzzlenaut]

Even as a pure PC gamer, every time I see a "Ohh woe is me being a PC gamer" I get a headache. It is no wonder everyone hates us.

A thousand times this.

PC gaming has it perks: the generally larger library and variety of games, the amount of free stuff, entire genres of games that just don't exist on consoles (mmos, etc) and mod communities, to name but a few, and Console gaming has its perks too: ease of use, reliability and being the preferred platform of publishers due to the standardised nature of the platform+lack of piracy.

Console gamers don't get mods or many other things, and for the most part (or at least no way near as vocally) they don't complain, whereas PC gamers seem to want to have their cake and eat it.

 

[BreakfastMan]

[

Eh, I still can't understand that. Whenever I encounter a control scheme I am not used too, I "adapt or die", as it were, and things usually go great. It might be because my first FPS was Halo, and as such I grew accustomed to console control schemes first, but both work perfectly well for me.

ehhh...I can't see it... the gamepad just feels like artificial diffuculy

like going for a run with a brick strapped to the side of your head

Not really. Like I said, you get used to the new control scheme after a while.

It also doesn't hurt that most (if not all) shooters on consoles feature some form of aim-assist to help out. XD

 

[Puzzlenaut]

can you say "Mass Effect MMO"? because it'll happen....

with the "success" of the old republic I doubt even EA will be game enough to try that again.

Though I don't really see much of PC gamers being shafted, no more than any other platform really.

I would be a PC gamer if the mouse and keyboard wasn't such a shitty control scheme

You do know you can hook up PS3/XBox360/WII controllers pretty easily?

Lots of games support them very poorly though, with awkward control schemes that can't be changed on the gamepad (like some FPSes where it assigns "shoot" as one of the top buttons, rather than one of the triggers)

 

[maninahat]

OP reminds me of a gag from the To Boldly Flee:


Starving Writer: "Can I have a paycheck? Or some food? Please?"
Grinning Palpatine dressed in a Corperate suit: "Soooo, sooo sorry...Piracy..."

Basically the exact same story for PCs.

 

[Vault101]

Yeah with the rise of Steam we saw shelf space of PC games in stores shrinking and shrinking... A large game would take long to download,but if you have some DSL connection,just wait for it.

its not just time....its the tyranic bullshit of internet caps

[quote/]
My idea is punish those who punish you,if they punish you for no legitimate reason. Put your dignity first and your excitement seconds,and don't buy a game if its company shows that doesn't respect you.[/quote]
at best that makes no difference..at worst in sends the wrong message

[quote/]You are too general on this. Consoles only break once computer games. But there have been games that were designed for consoles from the get go and were never 'broke' by somebody.[/quote]
I didn't mean "geniunly" broken...I ment it "feels" like playing a broekn game...or it "breaks" the experience for me because its frustrating



[quote/]
That's why console shooters have things like aim assist and auto aim in their options menus. Use them.
Trying to aim with the stick without any help like aim assist is a difficult job and your aim will be inaccurate,but that's normal as the way sticks and the way lasers work is very different. So if you can't use a mouse,use assist systems.[/quote]
unless they arent already on by defualt I do use them.....its still the same stupid artificial difficulty..I eather snail my way in between targets or I end use abusing it (continually releasing and holding the "zoom in aim" button will automatically lock you on a atrget..so I found in Sleeping dogs and Red dead)

 

[tobi the good boy]

"Choice of system"? Let me ask you: why do you have to choose one system? I have a 360, a PS3, a Wii, and a gaming-capable PC, not to mention all the older systems I have, so just choosing one system and sticking with it seems silly to me. : \

I feel like reaching into the monitor and slapping you across the face... no offence.

But to answer your question. Because I'm dirt poor? Because I can barely afford to buy a new game as it is and when I find out that a game I'm really interested in is filled with shit to keep me from actually playing it and in some cases doesn't even come out on what I even have at my disposal I get pissed off.

Heck sometimes I get a game only to find out it's been so terribly retrofitted for PC controls that I might as well have not even bought it, but hay I can always just return to the store and get my money ba- Oh wait.

You think I wasn't? I have always been poor, my entire life (You can barely afford buying a new, $60 game? Try not being able to afford a new, $60 game, at all. That was me for a long, long time). I got those consoles by exercising thrift and frugality, as well as carefully controlling my spending and saving my money. I know that sounds condescending, but I am not trying to be. It is entirely true.

I used the term 'barely' as an exceptional overstatement I assure you. And I completely understand where you're coming from but it still aggravates me when I hear people say that, mostly because I hear it coming from people that haven't had to work a day in their life and have had every damn machine they ever own given to them as a gift.

The sheer reason I do not have a console comes down to not having money, not having space in my home to put one and not owning a TV large enough to even read the damn text on the screen. This all just combines together to make the idea of wasting what little recreational funds I have on one just not an option.

 

[wulf3n]

Console gamers don't get mods or many other things, and for the most part (or at least no way near as vocally) they don't complain, whereas PC gamers seem to want to have their cake and eat it.

Really? I must be hanging out in the wrong circles of the internet.

Gamers *****, Gamers whine, Gamers complain. It's what we do, if we're not playing games were complaining about something. It's not 1 or 2 sub-genres that complain or complain more than others, it's everyone and we all whine equally, It's just that we don't seem to notice when we're the ones bitching

Lots of games support them very poorly though, with awkward control schemes that can't be changed on the gamepad (like some FPSes where it assigns "shoot" as one of the top buttons, rather than one of the triggers)

I guess I just haven't ran into the problem yet. I don't use controllers on PC that often but when I've felt the need, it's always been ok, for me at least.