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PC Gaming's Future Evolution
Dr. Eggman writes "1up.com is reporting on the GDC panel from last week entitled PC Gaming in an Age of Connected Consoles. Unlike the usual doom and gloom about the 'death' of PC games, this panel suggested that the death is of PC games as we know them - PC gaming will evolve. They believe the future of gaming on the PC lies in strengths like persistent-world environments; not just as MMOs but anything that has elements of a persistent nature such as Battlefield 2142. They go on to describe the PC's greatest edge over consoles: user created content and the supportive game communities built around it. The article also cited the panel's views on the weaknesses inherent in consoles' closed networks and content control."
MODS!
"anything that has elements of a persistent nature such as Battlefield 2142"
Hell, you can still find lots of folks playing BF1942/DC online.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
They go on to describe the PC's greatest edge over consoles: user created content
Thats why consoles dont suffer from cheating.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
Another couple words. Hard drive and Xbox Live.
Besides "persistent game worlds" and community support for games that's unmatched by consoles, PC games have another massive advantage: you can do other stuff at the same time!
:-P). And that's when I'm not also messing with item designs in Photoshop while I'm at it.
I can listen to my Winamp playlist, have AIM/MSN/ICQ chat windows open, be FTP-ing files to my website, and tracking just how bad Mavs are owning Lakers on NBA.com WHILE I'M PLAYING GUILD WARS (and Oblivion in another window
When I can do all of that on a console, it will mean that my console is basically a PC. And so technically PC gaming will never die. Some people need something that lets them multitask.
When I want to 100% relax, I play some FF or Zelda or Ninja Gaiden or whatever. Something that is just plain awesome on a big hi-def TV with surround that I can enjoy on a comfy couch rather than hunched over a desk screwing up my posture. But if I want to play something AND do other stuff while I'm at it, PC is the only way to go.
I like basketball!!1!
Tell that to the GameShark people... :-)
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
First of all, you're not going to play a good RTS, RPG, MMORPG, FPS or strategy game on a console. How are you going to play Civilization IV on a console? Who wants to play an FPS with a crappy controller and "auto-aiming"? PC is the only game in town for a massive swath of genres. Not to mention, better graphics, performance and a more intimate connection to your peripherals. Sitting with my very agile mouse and keyboard in front of my 30" LCD is far more enjoyable than sitting on the couch with a poorly designed controller in front of my 65" Sony SXRD.
I have a PS2, PS3, XBOX, XBOX 360 and a Wii sitting in the other room as part of my home entertainment center. And they're connected to my 65" widescreen with an $18,000 audio system (B&W 8xx series)... but I can't remember the last time I played any of them. I think I played the Wii the first week I got it a few months ago. Same with the PS3. I haven't played the 360 since September. I haven't even sat in front of the television itself since the beginning of December.
However, I've bought about $600 worth of games for my PC during that time and played many hours on it. I'm sure I'll get around to playing the consoles some more, but for the most part . . . they aren't as convenient or fun. Not to mention, multiplayer is ridiculously cumbersome to setup. For one thing, you usually can't join online games unless you have voice capabilities. People will just kick you out of the room/game. But to get voice capabilities (as far as I have found so far) on the 360, you need a headset. Now, why would I want to go stick a crappy $100 headset on my skull just so I can talk to a bunch of twelve year olds and not get kicked out of an online game, when I have almost $20k worth of home audio jacked out of my 360?!
The kind of people who whine about PC gaming being near-death are the people who think that you should be able to buy a PC and still play the top of the line games on it five years down the line. They get frustrated that it can't be done and then start running around saying the sky is falling.
As long as there are PCs, PC gaming will be HUGE.
I think they should go back to the things that always made PC games better than console games. That is, allow the players to make their own content, host their own servers, and have more freedom to do what they want within the game. I don't really get why someone would want to pay $12.98 a month to play some game against a bunch of people they don't know. I'd rather just have one of my friends host the server. No idiots on the servers. Also, I loved creating my own content for games like Descent. Make modifying the game easy, and people will modify it. I found Descent 3 almost impossible to create new levels for, and so I created none, but the original descent was dead easy, so I created tons of levels.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
PC games will be more and more adult themed while consoles will still primarily be for children.
How about just about 100% backwards compatibility? I can still play Hellcats over the Pacific and Spectre on my PC, with a little bit of mac emulation mind you. How about BOOM! and Warcraft? Warcraft 2? Fallout?
PC gaming will never die. Also, someone before me said this, but I thought I'd reiterate it. Until the console can play music, Guild Wars, WOWo, BF2, photoshop and Firefox all at once (at which point it will basically be a PC anyway) PC gaming wont die.
The PC's greatest strength for gaming is that PC gamers like better games. Even the best console games usually seem mediocre at best compared to a good PC rpg or rts. Consoles can't handle good RTS gameplay but nothing restricts them from making some really good turn based RPG's. Yet never has a console turn based rpg ever come close to some of the PC greats like fallout. It's not like turn based RPG's aren't popular on consoles so what's the problem?
The only conclusion I can come up with is that the audience just has tastes similar to mine.
PC gaming will only die when they start making great games for consoles. When they do that though I'll probably plug the console into my monitor and call it a computer.
Have you ever seen an aimbot or wall hack on ps3 or xbox360? No, didnt think so...
"First of all, you're not going to play a good RTS, RPG, MMORPG, FPS or strategy game on a console. How are you going to play Civilization IV on a console? Who wants to play an FPS with a crappy controller and "auto-aiming"?"
Old myths never die. They just live on in slashcomments.
There will be less PC games than Console games.
/bigtime/ they're going to take a huge loss. This is why there will be fewer PC games, with less gamers on that platform, there's less room for "winners" among developers.
There's a larger market for the consoles since there are lower barriers to entry technically and at times, fiscally(this barrier can vary heavily. Development has the caveat of being able to expect all clients to be fairly uniform in spec. At least in comparison to PCs.
There will always be the PC enthusiasts who want incredible games to utilize their high-end PCs. But not every game company can craft and compete with these games. And if they fail to succeed
This is even more true for MMOs, where the persistent accounts often entail persistent investitures of time and effort. There isn't much room for multiple MMOs in a gamer's timespan.
No console can duplicate the PC experience. But the two will become more and more similar.
The key features of the two platforms will eventually boil down to:
Consoles have hardware lock-in and a controlled environment. Simpler to develop for, and simpler for the gamer to use.
PCs will have open hardware and a modifiable environment. More difficult to develop for(since diff hardware/software configurations can cause complications, we'll see how far DX10 changes this), and while more complicated, there's more utility.
That's the key difference, one is closed and simple, another is open and powerful. It's an important seperation in the market's tastes, and neither will go away since there will always be those who prefer simplicity or versatility.
That's it, consoles will someday have kbm/mouse, they'll have MMOs, they may even have "mods" in the form of official expansions. But modification and personalization will be more powerful on the PC end inherently due to the freedom given to the owner.
A side note: Most people already have PCs, but not gaming-class. Most already have TVs, but necessarily HD. The cost of enabling gaming for your TV or PC is not that different. Some can afford one, some can afford multiple gaming platforms, but many will probably have PC and TV whether or not they game with it.
I'm sorry, but if you really need to do all that other stuff while playing a game, perhaps you need to find a more interesting game. I find WOW players to be especially guilty of this, sitting at LAN parties alt-tabing between WOW and whatever we're playing.
only one everything
If the present is any indication, PC gaming's future evolution is a couple dozen MMOGs duking it out to try to be the next WoW, and about five hundred bug-riddled ports of console games.
And you only need to buy CodeBreaker or GameShark to do it. They sell this stuff in the stores, even...
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I see a sharp decline in PC gaming and I feel it has nothing to do with Piracy. Back in the day, it was a given that PC games would always be better graphically than console games. But for the first time, people can get some great looking games on consoles. Then they can pop that into their 50+ inch HDTVs and things will look great.
But I think one of the main reasons is that people want to play games. There is no doubt about that. But what they do not want to do is drop $2000 on a PC only for it to be out dated in a 6 months. They buy one console and they never have to worry about things not working, or the frame rate going to shit, or anything like that. You turn it on and it just works.
There will always be that market(which im a part of) that would rather play games on the PC. But there is a growing market of people who dont want to bother with getting a $2000 pc to play games. Its easier for them to just get a ps3/360/wii and just turn it on.
I do agree with you, and I have to add something else:
In consoles, controler setup is the most crappy thing ever. You have like 4 fixed setups and you have to chose one of them.
I got used to shift gears in car sims and racers with the R1 y R2 keys in a PS2 like gamepad in the PC. I can use the gamepad any way I like in the PC. Then going to a console and getting just 4 crappy setups that have no logic or ergonomics in them is very very frustrating.
And that can happen in the exactly same game, in both cases, like NFSU.
In this case, PC gaming rules.
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
As I see it, right now the biggest threat to PC games is DirectX 10. If developers want to use the new features of DirectX 10, then they completely exclude the whole segment of the market that doesn't have Vista yet (or never will). So instead, they develop for the next-gen consoles that have all the new features and no worry of excluding half the platform's user base. The sad thing is, Microsoft wins either way.
It's not an elitist point of view. It's just that it's an entirely different game. It's not really a FPS, because you're not in control of the actual shooting. It's also not FPS because it's typically from a third-person POV. It's about control. You simply cannot execute a disk-jump jet-away, quickly half-turn midair, cycle to magnum, and shoot the rocket launcher out of the hand of an opposing player while he's trying get a lock on you in a console game. At least not in any way you can feel like YOU did it.
Aimbots are stupid because you're not really playing the game. So what's the point? Auto-aim can be just as stupid depending on the game that depends on it.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
As easy as it is to say, consoles these days are fast becoming PC alike, just as easy can I say that my PC is becoming more like a console.
Most of the new graphics cards can plug straight into a TV, and I do it on a regular basis. I've had the family in the lounge with a PC plugged into the TV playing Trackmania, tetris, etc. We also frequently watch movies this way. Just like a console.
Moreover, how many mini/nano/whatever-ITX projects are out there for computers that act as home entertainment systems?
More like, PC's are taking over the lounge, and consoles have to become PC's to compete.
> no, yes, maybe (tagging beta)
The developers and publishers might have a slight disposition towards PC Games because they are a lot easier to copy, crack and share. Not that console games aren't impossible. Also - don't developers get plenty of support from Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo - each console is trying to woo developers to make the next Halo. What i'm trying to say is that the industry might not be listening to us - the consumers....
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