The Big Picture: PC Gaming Is Dead - Long Live PC Gaming!

icame

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Void(null) said:
icame said:
Desktop PC's are certainly going away...but laptops aren't. Can't really see myself using a tablet for game design software >.>
Show me a laptop or mobile device with the power of a GTX 580?

Can gaming be done on portable devices? Certainly!
Can it be done with greater fidelity on a desktop for less cost? Absolutely!
I'm saying the DIRECTION were going towards. Not where we are now. Eventually laptops will be just as powerful as desktops.
 

magicmonkeybars

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It's nice to know ones vision of the future is so unavoidable, not one granted through effort or skill but by the grace of human nature.
 

Callate

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Mmmmmmeh. Some truth, some hyperbole.

It's true that some genres are migrating almost entirely to the console. It's also true that a mouse-and-keyboard layout tends to be superior for first-person shooters, but they've adapted the controls to the console well enough that the players of those games don't feel they're getting a lesser experience (unless they have to play against people who are playing on mouse-and-keyboard...) And yes, we'll probably come to a point where many people don't even think of the mouse-and-keyboard when playing an FPS.

That said, those "pointing devices" aren't showing any sign of replacing a mouse in terms of utility. Seriously- can you imagine trying to select a single unit in an real-time strategy game like Shogun or Starcraft with a Wiimote? Nightmare.

It's also somewhat peculiar to fail to note the role of piracy in all of this. The "pick up and play" nature of consoles- which I'm certainly not knocking- also means that a lot of the console's market wouldn't know how to pirate a new game if they wanted to and is beholden to someone else to hack their system or provide some obscure hardware doodad if they do want to, steps that are comparatively easy for the console maker or console-software-maker to block on a case-by-case basis. PC gamers have a relatively easy path to piracy and most have the small amount of knowledge that would enable them to do so, so the legitimate market for PC games is much more dependent on PC gamers behaving with a certain amount of decency, maturity, and a long-term view of the health of the industry. Annnnd.... Not to put too fine a point on it, we've sort of seen how that's going.

Small point: casting tablets and laptops as somehow separate from PCs begs the question of whether a PC is defined by its stationary nature. Yes, my Alienware laptop is something I can carry with me, but it plays exactly the same software as Monolith, my big honking black aluminum beast of a desktop.

And while XBLA's expansion and Steam coming to PS3 are notable and in some ways commendable, the PC remains the easiest entry point for new game creators by far. No licensing, no content restrictions, no clunky platforms to obtain, no size restrictions.

I guess what I'm saying is in some ways what MovieBob is also saying under the flame-baiting headline: PC gaming isn't dead by a long shot, but it may well be changing into something very different from what its most vehement defenders easily recognize. More social gaming, more independent devs, less AAA-releases, but I don't see MMOs or RTSs going away any time soon, and TellTale does plenty of business outside of the Wii, thank ye kindly.

The real question is what's going to happen when the next real generation of consoles come out. The PC has been a much more powerful creature than the current gen of consoles for some time. Seriously. Is the next generation going to be able to create an experience that console gamers will want to move on to at a price they'll be willing to pay? Or are we holding our breath, trying to forestall another huge market crash?
 

Ukomba

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Cybernetic eyeball?!? The Mass Effect Holographic arm thingy interface is where it's at.

What's odd is the consoles are fighting becoming more. There's no good reason they couldn't already be a PC for many people, only they are working to prevent it.
 

deanbmmv

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The thing is many of the services Bob mentioned killing PC gaming: Tablets, phones, streaming games(which run on PC's) etc, are killing console gaming too.
Why'd you think Iwata was the guy all doom and gloom on tablets and phones ans Sony n MS said nothing? Cos Nintendo has it's fingers in two pies: consoles and handhelds. MS and Sony have their fingers in consoles, handhelds, PC, tablets and phones. They're sorted either way.
And as I mentioned, streaming services use PC's anyway, meaning if they become the norm then PC will be fine. Either play the game as part of your monthly streaming package, or buy a copy for yourself to run locally. Also as movie bob said, he needs his PC to put together his videos, you need PC to make your game too.
Still the numbers show that PC gaming is increasing. Only reason it's "dying" is because PC gamers were the first to go "f*ck this sh*t" to the extortionate $50-$60 prices for generally sub-par games and just stopped buying them. the big publishers see the figures for their latest AAA game not selling well on PC and declare it dead. The indie guys selling $10-$30 games look at their figures and make a O.O expression.
All that's dying is the "every game is worth $60 because...we said so" model.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
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Excluding the tablet used for drawing digitally, you forgot to mention some of the other software?s that PC can only be used on i.e. Macromedia Flash, 3D Studio Max, Maya, CSS and etc (Not too sure about Photoshop or Illustrator). Ok granted not everyone will have those type of softwares
Until we heard such of those software being on alternative devices (how the hell would you use 3D Max on a Iphone or possisble on a Ipad) I think it got plenty time still using those on the PC.
 

MonkeyPunch

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Most important part of that rant:
"Hell, speaking only for myself, if I could install Office and Explorer on my 360 the only thing I'd need my PC for is the rendering software for this show..."
And there you have it. People usually tend to think what goes on in their little space or world translates to the rest of the world.

Also, PC gaming has apparently been "dead" for the last 10 years. Looking forward to at least another 10 of it being dead.

The_root_of_all_evil said:
Here's the Little Picture: [HEADING=3] Consoles are becoming PCs.[/HEADING]
and this.
 

GamemasterAnthony

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Yes, PC gaming as we used to know it is dying somewhat...and these Captchas are going to kill it completely if they keep giving us things we cannot type. (Anyone know how we are supposed to type in something in subscripts? I got D with 1.0 as a subscript here.)

Anyways...it just goes to show how much the technology has advanced. That eyeball thing is not too far off, actually. We actually have the technology so that, if we wanted to, we could actually have a chip implanted in our brains so we could communicate with each other or with our computers. Kinda "Ghost in the Shell" in a way.

Actually, we can see how much tech has advanced just by looking at one series in particular. Take a look at the Pokémon series. At first, you only had 151 Pokémon on a bit of media about 2 inch square and a quarter inch thick. Now we have more than 640 differnet Pokémon with a bunch of different abilities and nearly a thousand different moves AND fully animated this time...all that can be stored on a piece of media the size of a postage stamp!

It's...actually kind of scary if you think about it. Who knows where else this tech will take us? God help us if someone develops a Roboticizer from the Sonic SatAM series...
 

TheLoser22

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I think there's only one really important question out of all of this that needs to be addressed immediately.

Why the hell is Bob still using Internet Explorer? I'm not a champion for Mozilla or Google, but c'mon, man! It's like refusing to upgrade from a broken down lemon to a fully functional vehicle.
 

Desji

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I just don't see how it is practical to split the functionalities of a PC that can do any number of tasks to several different devices that specialize in just one or two. Currently the only reasoning seems to be mobility. Which is why we call people from our cellphones instead of an app on our computer.

But lately the whole iphone movement is moving additional features of the computer into the phone so in reality it is more of a portable PC than a phone.

Unfortunately you need a somewhat decently sized interface to run visual design programs - so untill i can run a fully customizeable package of Maya, Photoshop, AfterEffects etc. on my phone through a TV screen I'll be using a PC to work on, and since i'm spending most of my day at the PC anyway it seems futile for me to be playing my games on a seperate machine, or reading my email off my phone.
 

gigastar

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Void(null) said:
2011 PC Exclusives.

Cut it.
-gigastar


As for the Hardware debate. In no way shape and form can your phone, your laptop or your console provide the same high fidelity experience that a modern desktop can.

Desktops have better visuals, audio and overall performance. Heck the basic gaming desktop of today is 2 generations ahead of the console.

If graphics, sound and data storage did not matter, we would all still be playing Space Invaders.
I feel compelled to reply to this as you went to the trouble of copy/pasting 3 pages of listed PC exclusives.

Firstly, desktop hardware may be better, but not everyone is willing to shell out for something that is going to be considered obselete within the three months.

Secondly, most desktop games are, and always will be, limited by multiplatform releases. Nowadays it wont make a difference if you buy Crysis 2 on PC or PS3, because they will both look, sound and (to a certain extent) perform the same.

Thirdly, while nothing Atari did during the second console generation was really intelligent, and everyone knows this now. Even if they didnt fail spectacularly they would have improved thier consoles and games or the Commordore platform would have overtaken them and put them out of buisness anyway.

Oh and if youre wondering the original Space Invaders was designed for those old arcade coin vacuums. Atari just borrowed the idea then ran away with it. Tripping over several times.

And finally as a go-betweener of PC desktop and console games, i can tell you it is just much harder to get immersed by a PC game. Dont know why, but it just is.
 

Delusibeta

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Mar 7, 2010
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TheLoser22 said:
I think there's only one really important question out of all of this that needs to be addressed immediately.

Why the hell is Bob still using Internet Explorer? I'm not a champion for Mozilla or Google, but c'mon, man! It's like refusing to upgrade from a broken down lemon to a fully functional vehicle.
I heard IE9's actually not bad. Still not as good as Firefox or Chrome, but certainly not broken.
 

Void(null)

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Iron Mal said:
To be fair, the PC is dying, in decline, falling from grace, whatever poetic or avoidiant terminology you choose to use.

I saw somebody on here post a long ist of games to supposedly prove the contrary, but looking through most of them (we're going to discount indie titles since they aren't 'professionally' manufactured games and thus don't contribute to the games industry at large)
Minecraft
Super Meat Boy
World of Goo
Zeno Clash
Grim Dawn
Gish
Uplink
Darwinia
DEFCON
RuneScape
Braid
Mount&Blade
'Splosion Man

All contribute nothing because they did not have Atari, Activision, EA, ZeniMax or 2K footing the bill for their development?

 

constantcompile

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MovieBob said:
PC Gaming Is Dead - Long Live PC Gaming!

Hold off on the rage for a second and just listen.

Watch Video
I have a suggestion for an alternate title.

"Even though entertainment software that is accessible through multi-role hardware will always be with us, desktop computers as a specific means of accessing that software will sooner or later cease to be used!"

I agree that yours is catchier and more provocative, but when you specifically remark that PC games aren't going anywhere, it makes your argument seem like little more than a carefully framed statement, presented as a bold declaration - you can't really blame people for being provoked by an argument that's meant to be provocative.

Even if this does accurately summarize your argument, I'm inclined to disagree. We are not at a point where advancements in technology could be said to have killed, or are killing, PC gaming. Considering that Counter-Strike, a decade-old PC game, still dominates Steam's servers, I think it's safe to say you'll need an entire generation of PC gamers to simply die off before you'll really see an abandonment of PC gaming - at which point, you'd probably see an abandonment of all non-mobile computing altogether.

Let me make a new declaration:

PC Gaming will outlive console gaming.

Anyone care to argue this?
 

Lorennar

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Apr 14, 2009
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For much of the central premise I agree that genres are moving over to various other mediums and the tool function of the ginormous personal computer is being picked up by other machines. My one big question is how laptops are all that different from a pc. Keyboard and mouse, especially if your mouse is a usb peripheral, as the control scheme is there and in many ways isn't it the control scheme that actually defines this debate. We have had the same games being released on console and pc for ages and while companies will sometimes release exclusive content on the different machines, we have the keyboard and mouse standard scheme for pc/laptop, touchscreen for the tablet/smartphone, carry over that touchscreen and a number of other controls to the ds, controllers for the consoles, and a variety of generally inaccurate motion control systems that presumably will get better with time also working the console scene.

Digressing already from the laptop question a bit already but maybe this tangent leads somewhere. Its possible to hook the mouse and keyboard into a console but few games released to be played on them take advantage of that and vice versa for the controller. There are some control schemes that the use of more hot-keys than is really possible is an advantage or that if the ui were cleaned up to fit a controller it often involves far more menu navigation which breaks flow. Recent example: Dragon Age 2, you can map six spells to the fast cast system of the controller but as a mage I use at least eight on a fairly regular basis so in order to cast some of those spells I am constantly going into the pause battle menu and then over to the second screen within the subset instant cast spell menu. Mappable hot keys to the number line take care of that fairly well. And until motion controllers register with a bit more accuracy without making me feel like my twitchy hands are in constant seizure state the mouse is just a wonderfully fast and accurate way of navigating a screen. Mouse and keyboard on a PS3 sure I'm game, don't see why Starcraft 2 or any other game loses that "PC gaming feel" by being on a console as long as we still have the interface. Hell my PS3 is so far beyond my old laptop I can hardly be a pc gamer anymore just because it is so expensive to replace the hardware. I still prefer the tool that lets me interface with the game the easiest whether that be a controller in God of War or Saints Row 2, or that be the keyboard and mouse in Deus Ex, Starcraft 2, or Plants vs Zombies.

While I have been rambling that the system a control scheme hooks up to hardly matters as long as the controls and the game work together for immersion I think I might just have to take some inspiration from Bob and deride my children for growing up in the tablet age but wholly embrace my grandchildren's love of the eyeball implants. Its settled. Industry! begin work on the tablet age! I'll get around to the kid thing eventually.