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PC RPGs - Time To Man The Lifeboats?
Thanks to GameBanshee for their editorial, written by former Black Isle designer Damien Foletto, discussing how PC RPGs can survive the console role-playing game's popularity surge. He explains that console-originated RPG successes such as Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic are a boon: "There is no denying that SW:KOTOR's open-endedness, character creation, and story are heavily influenced by PC RPG development." This, he suggests, helps everyone out in the long run: "When these gamers are exposed to the deeper intricacies of RPG game play, and if they enjoy it, then they are more likely to pursue similar gaming experiences. This may eventually lead them to PC RPGs, or it might just make them more demanding for deeper console RPGs." Elsewhere, the rise of the console RPG is backed up by a new 'GameSpotting' editorial naming their favorite RPGs of 2003, all of which originated on consoles.
Then again the very western game Planescape Torment had a small number of party members wich you interacted with strongly and strong story with relativly few subquests. It is widely thought by pc users to be the best rpg ever. Perhaps a happy hybrid could emerge.
So I think for this at least pc and console can exist happily together as long as developers take care to tune the game to the different platforms. So USE the keyboard. USE the HD for easy saving. USE the bloody mouse, yes I am talking to you Final Fantasy. Kotor did it pretty well although the interface graphics were a bit large for a pc monitor. No need for inch tall text thank you very much.
I have no idea what is needed to make a game work on a console as I am a pc snob.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
NWN is pretty innovative though. There has been nothing like it before. (At least not on the level of NWN anyway.)
This whole talk about a genre being at deaths door is nothing new. Every few months, some website or magazine says "(Insert genre here) is dead, consoles have killed it." Then every year we get "PC gaming is dead. Consoles killed it."
It's all bollocks. The fact is, to most people I know, the console RPG's are NOT really RPG's at all. They're no more RPG's than say Tomb Raider or Crash Bandicoot. At best you get to rename yourself. All of sudden there's one title on the XBox that's barely above average (KOTOR, and yes, I've played it. It's tedious) and suddenly the PC RPG genre is dying...
What a crock...
As Morrowind is an XBox Platinum Hit game, I'll take it this was an attempt at trolling?
Though hard drives and network adapters have long been PC advantages, those aren't what I think consoles need before I will take them over PC gaming:
1) Wide spread High Definition TV ownership in the home, and support for this on consoles. Could you imagine playing a strategy game on a TV compared to on a monitor? The same goes for many RPGs and FPPs in my opinion
2) Availability AND use of keyboards and mouse on Consoles. I don't mean just having them available as an option for a game. I mean games that are designed for them from the start and require their use.
3) Developers that will take a chance on making a game that MAY not be a huge seller on a console, but may be for a niche market. This is rare with console developers (but is sadly becoming rarer wih PC developers as well).
Get these three and maybe I won't miss my PC gaming. Don't get it, and I'll stick it out on the PC, and still avoid the consoles (at least until they drop to $100 per machine).
> with PCs losing their last vestiges of hardware advantage over consoles (namely harddrives and network adapters), there is less and less justification for publishers to ignore the console market under some illusion of console-gamer predisposition to action.
1) PCs are capable of displaying graphics several magnitudes better than a console. 1600x1200 in 32bit color with 16xAF and 8xAA vs. 480 interlaced (only displaying 240 lines). HDTV can display higher resolutions (notably 480p, 720p, and 1080i), but the only console that supports 720p is the Xbox, and its hardware isn't powerful enough to handle it for most games. Also, there is no HDTV standard, and since it doesn't look like HD will make the jump anytime soon, it will be a very long time before consoles can catch up to the PC in graphic quality.
2) Player made content. Please note that Counter Strike, possibly the most popular game ever (second only to Starcraft), is a player made module. Unless Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo decide to include developer kits along with their consoles (and developers decide to support player made content), this gigantic draw will remain on the PC.
The first two are *fact*. The third is my opinion.
3) I cannot abide console controls for certain genres - namely, First-person Shooters and Real-time Strategy games. They do not provide for the same level of precision as a mouse o trackball. I am aware that such devices are or could become available for consoles, but then you have the issue of what to put them on. Put yourself behind a desk, and now you're playing on a low-end PC with bad graphics and no potential for player-made content.
Those who predict that the days of the PC RPG are coming to an end seem to be unable to recognize Morrowind, NWN, MMOGs, and a host of other excellent titles that debuted last year. This argument comes and goes, but I've seen neither PCs nor consoles permanently decline in popularity.
-lw
Mods: Disagreeing with me != my post Offtopic / Flamebait.
World without hate or war, invaded. Tragic?
Taking a modern PC RPG and porting it towards a console is an undertaking. Inventory is a chore, forget spellcasting and conversation trees become impossible. Can it be done? Yeah, but not easily.
The mouse has always been a big obstacle for consoles. There are simple some games that just plain require it. Once a console gets a mouse as a standard piece of equipment then I'll be a console convert. But then again, wouldn't that make the console a computer at that point? Maybe I've been looking at this backwards.
In order to solve this problem, you have to look at the game which started the console RPG subgenre: Dragon Warrior.
Dragon Warrior became the most popular video game in the world after it came out. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a lot of console developers wanted to capitalize on this success, so they made games that were similar to Dragon Warrior in scope, like Final Fantasy.
And so it has been for over 15 years. Therefore, the question is not why console RPGs are different from computer RPGs, but why Dragon Warrior is different from computer RPGs. The reason? Dragon Warrior was a fairly early game for the NES, so it had very little to work with, even less than the computer RPGs of the time (Might & Magic, for example) did. This kept Dragon Warrior from being nearly as deep gameplay-wise as the contemporary computer RPGs, so the developers compensated by focusing on a linear plot, which would be easy to contain in the space provided.
So, in conclusion, you're both right. The console RPG started out different from the computer RPG because of technological issues, but now-a-days stays different because of tradition. Of course, that tradition seems to be weakening, and to good effect...
Rob
Don't forget the other major two attractors for the PC over the console:
Why not get the real ultimate power?