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330 Comments
- gregstrander, on 02/03/2008, -13/+155Buried for terrible grammar.
- krystal7, on 02/03/2008, -2/+108I think the real question here is: "Is our children learning?
- CaffeinePowered, on 02/03/2008, -7/+93PCs will always be around, they've never been the industry giant, but seeing as how games for everything are at least created on PCs, you can't get rid of them.
- socalrob, on 02/03/2008, -11/+93Games will always be on the PC. The developers just need to learn a different way of making money on them. If I can get an .iso of a game cd/dvd and play it on my PC without buying then they make no money. But if they go the new way, which a lot of MMO companies are doing, and sell content rather than the game itself, they will make more money in the long run.
Most game companies though are just in it for the short term "make investors happy" profit game. That explains why you see many PC games on the shelves after 2 months (sometimes less) of being released, dropping in price. They sell a few, make some money, and then drop it quickly.
Also, some games just work better on PC's. PC gaming wont die, it will just evolve. FPS suck on consoles. MMO's the same. Consoles don't handle expansion packs that well either, but that all could change in the future. Although I doubt anyone wants their 80gb ps3 full of installs of the sims. Thats a waste of space. - JEWestbrookJR, on 02/03/2008, -1/+53Headline written by Skwisgaar of Dethklok
- MasterPlayer, on 02/03/2008, -3/+36I think Valve's Steamworks is an innovative idea and may bring new life to the PC gaming industry, also, I don't think NPD numbers tabulate Steam game sales. Granted, they may not be too large, but they are significant.
- TheZorch, on 02/03/2008, -3/+33Valve is way ahead of the pack with Steam. Steam is a good platform for selling games, once you buy them and they are logged in your account you don't have to buy them again even if you reformat your hard drive. Most game makers should be selling their titles via Steam or something like it. The PC Gaming world needs an iTunes like environment for distributing and selling games online in a way that is very easy and hassle free for the user. Steam is like this but its still not completely hassle free like iTunes is. Also, not all PC game makers sell via Steam.
Probably also one if the most important things that game makers need to do is drop DRM. DRM does NOT STOP piracy, but it DOES BURDEN users with unnecessary technical problems. You'd think they would have learned a long time ago when the gamer community launched a very negative backlash against Starforce and a lot of game makers dropped it like a bad habit in response.
DRM + PC Games = Pissed Off Gamers.
Pissed Off Gamers + Game Company that Sells DRMed Games = Gamers spend money elsewhere and game company goes bankrupt. Basic economics people. - zakatov, on 02/03/2008, -5/+32dugg for not having the article across 5 pages... but the layout sux
- Voxxov, on 02/03/2008, -4/+31"Does the game industry want the PC to fall?"
-fixed
You had too many plurals in there. - ProfessorLX, on 02/03/2008, -3/+30me fail english? that unpossible
- kaffein, on 02/03/2008, -2/+28I think most "serious" PC gamers look for games that have incredible replay value and tend not to purchase more than 2-3 games within a year... I played Starsiege: Tribes for 5 years! Best $50 I ever spent.
Think about MMORPGs as well, you buy them once and keep paying for them with either monthly or micro payments... Piracy is basically eradicated with these games since the fees are tied to an account/master login server. These games are designed to be addictive and have replay value of 2-5 years or more! - emjaymj, on 02/03/2008, -3/+29"The part that made me the happiest about Crysis was the fact that it blew away the console."
Um, the PC has always had games graphically superior to what any console of the same time has been capable of. "High-def" resolutions have been available on the PC for what seems to be at least a decade by now. Unfortunately, graphics were the only good thing about Crysis. The game itself sucked and for the very reason that I love the PC gaming experience I find it a bit insulting to consider that piece of crap as anything special. - dagamer34, on 02/03/2008, -2/+28Simply put, PC games suffer extremely from the fact that most people aren't going to spend any money on a video card, so graphically enhancing video games get very little widespread appeal. And when you have ***** like Crysis running around ruining even the best of hardware, it's not very encouraging to the noob who spends $600 on a video card to only find out that it's crappy a year later.
I'm all for advancing tech and all but the PC gaming industry has one purpose and one purpose only: create games that sell high priced hardware from Intel, nVidia, and AMD. Console manufacturers, because they sell their systems at a loss (besides Nintendo), have an extreme incentive to sell millions of copies of games to get back their investment, which means for now, no $1200 consoles with the latest and greatest hardware put in them. - Gerz1219, on 02/03/2008, -4/+29A Lexus is composed of physical materials which cost the car manufacturer money. If you steal a Lexus off the lot, you are stealing a couple tons of steel, plastic, rubber and leather. The car dealership paid for that Lexus, and your theft deprives them of the ability to resell the car to a willing buyer.
Digital content can be infinitely replicated at a negligible cost that approaches zero. If you can't afford a game, then copying it doesn't deprive the manufacturer of money, because you wouldn't have bought it anyway and you are not preventing anyone from selling the game to someone else. Piracy is also different from stealing the game from a Wal-Mart, because in that scenario the Wal-Mart had to pay for the physical box in the store, as well as the associated shipping and handling costs. - scabbers, on 02/03/2008, -4/+29Big budget games (that often still suck) are what are killing PC gaming. Look at Crysis - we were all getting big dicks about it for a long time, but when it came out it was just a somewhat boring game that wouldn't run on anything that wasn't cooled by liquid nitrogen.
- inactive, on 02/03/2008, -5/+29What the hell? Have you heard of mod chips? Pirates abound on every platform. The minor inconvenience of paying some shady guy 100 bucks to install a mod chip into your console to let you play pirated games doesn't seem to hold back many people I've ever met.
- SimianSamurai, on 02/03/2008, -0/+23Games are what primarily drives development of new PC architecture. If it weren't for games, graphics cards and math coprocessors wouldn't exist the way they do.
- MioTheGreat, on 02/03/2008, -2/+23Do we really need to get into an argument about keyboard/mouse versus controller for FPS? Because unless said controller is something like the wiimote in an MP3 control scheme, the keyboard/mouse is probably going to win.
- l0k0, on 02/03/2008, -2/+20I sure as hell don't want PC Gaming to fail. I don't want the standards for shooters, mmos, sims, rts, rpgs, etc. to drop significantly or become extinct. I don't want to settle for hardware that sits still for five to six years at a time. I don't want to lose the ability to customize games and make/share custom content to go away either, nor do I want to pay for custom content. Nor do I want to settle for an inferior control scheme. Most of us you don't care, and thus buy consoles because they are cheap and are idiot proof. Myself and others are hardcore gamers, and as long as that demographic exists, PC gaming will never die.
By the way, a one billion dollar industry (not including monthly fees) is still a very good industry. It may be far less than console revenues, but by economic standards, if a one billion freakin dollar industry exists, people will make games for it. Until that changes, this is a moot argument. - ColdShoulder, on 02/03/2008, -5/+20I'm not sure if they wants it to fail, but they might want it to fail, just like your grammar.
- Nekiruhs, on 02/03/2008, -0/+15I'm very happy with Steam. I know I'm going to get dugg down for it, but I don't mind the DRM that is there. The very fact that Steam lets me log in on all of my computers to play on whatever machine I want to is great. I LOVE not needing a CD every time I want to play. Not having to go to the store is awesome too. So is the integrated friends group thing. I can even backup my games. My game purchases would go up about 75% if all developers just got on Steam. Its so much more convenient.
- sgtcaboose, on 02/03/2008, -1/+16Its simple, most gamers want to play online, if you have proper checks for CD Keys when playing online piracy numbers on multiplayer games will fall.
- inactive, on 02/03/2008, -0/+15Exactly I'm extremely picky with my games. But when I find a couple I like ill play them for years.
- neomis, on 02/03/2008, -7/+22Its not stealing its copyright infringement and there is a difference. If I could look at a 52in Samsung TV in best buy, perform some magic on the computer and presto chango I now have a fully working copy of said TV at my house for free yeah I bet more people would be doing that instead of buying the TV.
- lordtyros, on 02/03/2008, -0/+14Digital distribution is definitely the future. I haven't bought a PC game in a box since Oblivion came out. And I've been able to enjoy that, Orange Box, CoD4, STALKER, Bioshock, and other great games without a problem.
- inactive, on 02/03/2008, -0/+14The funny thing about the 'upgrade cycle' that PCs are 'locked into' is that the Consoles have an upgrade cycle, too, which you never hear the Console Zealots bring up. And I'll admit, PC hardware is expensive, you do not need to upgrade your hardware every 6-12 months. The 8800 didn't just come out, and while the 9800 is getting ready to enter production, we're STILL not pushing our 8800s to the limit. Maybe Crysis does, but it really isn't a good game. Trust me. So, the 6-12 month forced upgrades you mention really don't mean jack *****.
- neomis, on 02/03/2008, -4/+17See: Dowling v. United States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowling_v._United_Sta ... If you don't take possession of a physical good it is not stealing.
- AgntOrnge, on 02/03/2008, -3/+15Big budget is killing gaming in general. Games sure are pretty now but with about 1/10th the content they had when I started gaming 20+ years ago.
- Zera, on 02/03/2008, -1/+13I can only imagine that you haven't been paying close attention. PC's have always destroyed consoles, in every historical scenario, in pretty much every measurable gaming dimension. Only with the XBox360 and PS3 has it been fair to even make a comparison. Before these two there still wasn't a console even in HD... and starting with the first Xbox was console gaming "online" even possible. Online computer gaming has been huge for almost 15 years already.
Already by 1998 the popularity of online gaming for just Quake2 resulted in 80+ online user made mods of the game. TheCLQ.com tracked a truely absurd amount of online gaming: http://www.theclq.com/ See that? 83 BILLION minutes tracked just by that website over one four year span, years before any console even came with a network jack. - inactive, on 02/03/2008, -2/+14The difference between the $600 8800 and the $300 8800 is about a 5-15% FPS increase in Crysis.
I have a $300 8800GTS 320MB and Crysis looked great and ran great on high-ish settings. The problem with that game is that it's not good. Bad story, bad controls, crappy characters, crappy writing.
And the kid who drops $600 on a video card isn't a noob, he's a 'serious gamer' who has the money to blow on an overclocked video card and a quad core processor (when most games coming out today don't even address dual cores). - toefer, on 02/03/2008, -0/+12Mario Teaches Typing was a PC game, and that apparently failed.
- dafugg, on 02/03/2008, -4/+16Have a ***** whinge. They're $100 here in .au.
- themastersb, on 02/03/2008, -0/+12Does I fails grammers?
- bagboyrebel, on 02/03/2008, -3/+14I'm not saying it's right, but when you download a game there isn't one less copy, which is what happens when you steal a TV.
- MonkeyFarts, on 02/03/2008, -0/+11Indeed, "for every two child did, I will."
- bnolsen, on 02/03/2008, -1/+12But to get a modchip installed by some possibly shady individual is effort nontheless.
Never underestimate the power of inertia! - inactive, on 02/03/2008, -0/+11That's been tried and is already broken. There are a few games that use Microsoft's LIVE to verify CD keys, and there are already 'patches' that turn off LIVE for that game, letting you play single player. Gears of War comes to mind as a good example.
- lex0nyc, on 02/03/2008, -0/+11Right, it's infringement. Still a crime.
- Domstersch, on 02/03/2008, -2/+13Did you even read the article? It's about how piracy is _not_ killing the PC as a gaming platform, and how, if the PC platform were ever to die, it would be because of lack of innovation in the industry.
- andymate, on 02/03/2008, -1/+11Maybe if developers started taking responsibility of their bug ridden games people would pay for them. Games that have minimal bugs, competitive and balanced multi-player usually sell pretty well. (Company of heroes, cod 4)
An example of a game pc users won't rush out to buy is Universe at war. The game was released on the xbox 360 and pc. It has a large number of bugs and feels very rushed (Missing alot of features). Now the catch is to play competitive online games you have to have a gold subscription to LIVE. Ok as an xbox user that is fine, but as a pc user why the hell would you buy a game and then pay for a live gold subscription just to play ranked games. This is just one of the reasons why people wont buy a game like this on PC.
Fact is if i don't think i will get 50 hours min out of a game i won't buy it. - Aksumka, on 02/03/2008, -0/+10On the issue of piracy: I'm glad to say that I no longer pirate games.
Everything else however... - smek2, on 02/03/2008, -3/+13Consider most console games are dumbed down for the casual gamer demographic, i start to worry. While BioShock generally recieved much fame, it was in reality a SystemShock clone and a simplified one at that. On the other hand, the "games industry" as a whole is moving in a direction i don't really like and i basically lost interest in gaming no matter the platform. In my opinion, most games these days aren't games anymore but interactive 3D animations. 90% of all new titles revolve around the gamer running around and killing stuff without bringing anything new to the table. The games industry is turning into some sort of Hollywood, with big budget titles which ultimatively disappoint.
- Zera, on 02/03/2008, -1/+11PC's are always becoming more powerful, Consoles are each locked in the technological timeframe they were designed in. Therefore PC's will always be the platform of the cutting edge, so the newest of gaming innovations will always happen on the PC.
With that said, there will always be people willing to pursue that technology, and since PC's have literally limitless uses above and beyond gaming, there will always be PC's and therefore there will always be PC games. PC's also allow for a much more complex interface with a game, the accuracy of a mouse, and the potential of the keyboard, and lets not forget the resolution of a PC monitor. - jgtg32a, on 02/03/2008, -0/+10Thats a BS fact about the graphics card I run Crysis on Med across the board with a mid range card from 1.5 y ago.
- Stevethegreat, on 02/03/2008, -0/+9I say let it fall, and then see console gaming fall as a result. Understand it bums all innovation on graphics cards comes from PC gaming, then consoles just "borrow" those designs to support their graphic capability. It's not Cell that makes PS3 seem powerful, it's the custom nVidia card that it has, without it welcome to PS2 graphics.....
PC gaming is falling mainly because there was never a serious attempt of a PC manufacturer to make a cheap gaming PC (which is rather easy) and they alway preferred to present gaming machines to be $2000 juggernauts like we're living in the ***** 80s. If Alienware made a $500 gaming PC (which is pretty much possible), being 2 time faster than PS3, you would see how many consumers would flock to buy it considering it had the proper support.
In this day and age game consoles are a horrible idea, they're closed-architecture computers (just like Macs) and we see gaming to take the steps of the PC industry had the Macs won, propriety software, propriety hardware, old technology, old hardware, in the price of tomorrow, welcome to hell.... there I said it. - Chucara, on 02/03/2008, -4/+13Shrug.. Seeing as consoles are becoming more and more like PCs, I really don't care anymore. In fact, I think I'd prefer to buy a console every now and then, and then not have to worry about upgrades for the next few years.
Only thing I need from consoles is a keyboard and mouse, and I wouldn't care what the box that ran the games looked like, or what they called it. Games are much easier to develop if you don't have to worry about compatibility, so if dropping the PC as a gaming platform means cheaper or better games, by all means go ahead. Of course, the exact same thing could be achieved by either virtualization or by everyone using XNA, Java (or similar), where the compatibility issues are moved to a virtual machine, meaning they only have to be done once. Naturally, the problem remains with GPU feature capabilities, but if you can't program your way out of that one, you shouldn't be making games in the first place.
Anyway, no writer is going to decide this: consumer demand is. As long as there are PC gamers willing to buy games, PC gaming isn't going anywhere. - mbthompson, on 02/03/2008, -3/+12I wants to fix the title.
- inactive, on 02/03/2008, -0/+9I believe all media should be soley distributed via the internet. It is so much more effiecent. Instead of creating the content, making the cds,printing the cds, shipping the cds, then selling them in a shop with operation cost in the hundreds of thousands each. Then driving to shop and bringing them home. We should just lay more under water cables, and sell everything via the internet.
- jgtg32a, on 02/03/2008, -0/+9The console aims for you because the pads aren't that great for precision.
- odecom5, on 02/03/2008, -6/+15does digg wants me to cares?
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