Slashdot Mirror
How To Make PC Gaming Better
New submitter RMingin writes "Bruno Ferreira at Tech Report has a number of suggestions that he feels could improve PC gaming. Some are quite thought-provoking. For example: 'When technology advanced [in the '90s], the industry came up with a certification specification to ensure punters didn't miss out—and consequently spent more on better PCs. That spec was called MPC, short for Multimedia Personal Computer. The first version of the MPC spec said, in simple terms: Thy computer shalt be blessed with a sound card and speakers.
Thou shalt be provided a CD-ROM drive in which to receive silver discs. Thy processor shalt not be completely crap. At the time, this spec meant a lot—and, to be honest, I think it worked marvelously. We need something like that again. People wanted MPC, everyone sold the better hardware, and everyone was happy. Let the powers that be come up with a new baseline specification. Call it MPC-HD or whatever acronym the marketing Nazgûl want to give it. I'm fine with whatever, as long as it gets the job done.' He also calls for an end to the unintuitive model numbers for GPUs and CPUs, and more consistent driver support."
Port everything over to Linux so we can ditch Wine and Windows.
Someone had to say it.
It's called Tablet App Gaming. Thy computer shalt have no native input device save the screen. You shall not have full control of the device. Some of your data must needs live in the cloud.
Stop thinking every title needs to be a triple AAA title with millions of dollars in cost, that has to sell a large amount of copies to turn a profit.
Stop putting crappy DRM on your software, since that only hurts your customers.
Stop making crappy consoles ports.
And quit fucking blaming everything on piracy.
Be seeing you...
Those who finds model numbers unintuitive usually asks one of their geek friends to build a PC for them, those who don't even bother looking at model number but rather look up the benchmarks don't care about the model numbers.
The real issue with PC gaming is that a lot of games these days are shitty console ports with atrocious controls, awful camera and graphics that are still stuck on xbox360/ps3 level which are already outdated by just about any discrete video card, and there's no incentive for companies to change their "make console game -> port to pc to milk" agenda.
There's nothing wrong with it. In fact, it's miles better than any console. An I5/I7 paired with a midrange graphics card blows them out of the water. The problem isn't the hardware, it's the software writers who write for consoles and then port that back to PCs... Case in point, Skyrim, which has about the most awful interface ever inflcited on the keyboard & mouse using public ever. More first-person shooters that all look the same. No innovation any more. No, the problem is the game companies and their crap.
I've been using computers since the late 80s, and I don't recall this term at all. I do remember people talking about "Multimedia PCs", which must be the verbal expression of that (just saying the letters MPC seems odd - makes me think of the MCP from Tron). But I don't recall it being a big deal... at least not as a home user in middle school and high school, building my own computers (and some for friends). Maybe it was a bigger deal among the major brands at the time?
Anyways, as a professional who helps folks figure out what they need in a computer today, I don't see how this would be all that helpful. Maybe as a guide for those who know nothing about specs, have no interest in learning, and are buying from a source where they cannot get decent advice... but there is such a wide range of specs and performance these days that a simple label would have a hard time encapsulating enough info. All modern computers (save some servers) have audio, some level of 3D performance, etc - and while not all have optical drives that isn't always a big deal, since the advent of Steam and similar services.
On the other hand, if you want to ensure decent game performance then you have wildly different specs to aim for depending on the game, the resolution the user will be running, the quality and FPS settings that they consider reasonable, and future-proofing. I don't think that can all be covered by one arbitrary standard, personally.
William George
I have to say, I don't understand CPU model numbering anymore, I do understand GPU model numbering for AMD and NVIDIA, but Intel is just way out there. (Some models are PowerVR for example, which have rubbish desktop OpenGL).
There's a number of issues with the proposals mentioned in the article however, and it's tied to specific implementation. Creating performance benchmarks to generate a category for a product will lead to the manufacturers optimizing for these specific benchmark profiles, instead of making an architecture that's fundamentally better.
This would've been fine in the the Happy MIPS Land, where every instruction took one clock. You could compare a MHZ cpu to a MHZ cpu with no issues. But different architectures will mean operation execution speeds will vary greatly. I wouldn't be surprised if branching was the most wildly changing metric in this regard. A branch predict miss will give pretty bad penalties, and a programs performance might well depend on the prediction algorithm, or it could depend on a single instruction that the compiler at the time thought was a good idea, but is infact 10x slower on a new cpu than a different operation.
You can make these benchmark categories, but they'll be mostly worthless.
Kickstarter fixes all these issues for me :)
Don't forget about PSU's some systems and cases with a free PSU come with carp ones.
How does this solve the basic problem, namely that hardware vendors and game makers have two opposing interests:
Hardware vendors want to sell new stuff, and forcedly raising minimum specs is therefore in their advantage.
Games vendors want to sell as many copies as possible to a biggest possible potential audience, and keep the specs at the minimum necessary, and might even want to do extra work to achieve this (like providing different binaries for different versions of DirectX).
And finally then there is Microsoft that wants to sell us all a new Windows
... none of the major players give a shit about the PC as a platform. Since Microsoft has abandoned the PC as a gaming platform for Xbox. This leaves a huge opening but unfortunately big companies aren't very bright. Valve sadly has went the data-mining DRM route and is adding more barriers and cluster-fuckery to gaming that doesn't need to be there.
If I was Intel right now I would see the profits apple is making and attempt to standardize the PC space and prevent bargain basement PC chaos from occurring. When one looks at steam hardware surveys one see's most people have very little clue about their computers and tend to buy the cheapest shit.
As much hate as intel gets if it was intelligent it would get serious about creating a platform and not pull the software shenanigans like DRM/closed ecosystems like what the big software companies do (ms, valve, etc). Software is becoming hugely inefficient to create because software parts the equivalent of ROADS and SEWERS are being patented and copyrighted/protected.
Software really needs public R&D investment in 'foundation level' like stuff to get over these barriers and solve these problems, but barring that Intel (one of the biggest hardware companies) doesn't seem to seriously grasp the need for a software ecosystem that drives people to need their stuff. They are too content with idiocy and clusterfuckery of the current batch of software companies.
If I were intel I would turn GOG.com into a platform and increase R&D in how to make better games for cheaper as well as invest in better tools to drive down costs. The biggest problem we have today is making complex apps people want costs too much time and money so there need to be serious R&D in tools, software aided-creativity and automation.
You are just going to repeat the stupid MS$ lockin culture of yesteryear, that era is gona and thats a good thing. PC's are powerful enough and today most gamers play on consoles anyway. PC gaming is gone and wont be coming back any time soon. Im sure some people will be saying that they and their friends still game and there are lots of them sort of people but in reality you pc gamers only represent like about 2% of game players. PC gaming is done, and now the move to linux and away from windows is playing out and thats why MS$ is going all like freaking out cause noone is locked into them anymore cause they let the game genie out of the bottle and not locked into their stupid system crap. Good outcome but, now we are all going to linux and Open GL so you never know pc gaming may come back
that you are looking for standardised cheats!
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Maybe as a guide for those who know nothing about specs, have no interest in learning, and are buying from a source where they cannot get decent advice
In other words, anyone inside a Best Buy or Walmart store.
All modern computers (save some servers) have audio, some level of 3D performance, etc
But only recently (circa Ivy Bridge) did Intel integrated graphics come to equal the graphics of a 2005-spec console like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.
On the other hand, if you want to ensure decent game performance then you have wildly different specs to aim for depending on the game
Should the industry get behind this new proposed son-of-MPC, game developers will target a particular MPC level just as they targeted the original MPC spec. That's what the Vista-era "Windows experience index" was for, but it ended up not catching on.
the resolution the user will be running
With LCD panels having standardized on 1920x1080 because of the economies of scale of the TV market, is there really a choice here anymore?
Why? most off the shelf 1000 dollar computers can run anything.
The reason it existed in the 90s was dubious at best then. and pointless now.
The current generation of on baord graphic cars can play almost any games at a playable setting. That's certainly a first.
You want a model number scheme the applies to all video cards? here is one called "money":
Pay more the 150 dollars. They will pretty much do it. Want the super card with every sparkle doing things you can see? spend 400 dollars
there you go. Yes, you can argue technical semantics, but for the person he is talking about it will be fine.
nullhulland drive:
It shows the mob destroying a mans life until ha agree to cast an unkown actress.
CPU model numbers are fine.
i3 i5 i7.
Biger has more power.
220, 3470 etc... bigger is more power.
Using power in a general form for overall performance, not just speed.
I haven't had a driver issue in any nVidia card in well over a decade.
I won't buy that other chip for personal reason, not technical(although I hear their drivers suck)
If he didn't mention the year, I would have sworn it was circa 2001..and I would ahve agreed with himi at that time. Now? power is outstripping resources to use it too fast to be that particular.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/26/intel-kills-off-the-desktop-pcs-go-with-it/
today most gamers play on consoles anyway. PC gaming is gone and wont be coming back any time soon.
So for which platform should a startup company develop games before it has the experience and financial stability to qualify for a console license?
Good outcome but, now we are all going to linux and Open GL
By "Linux" did you mean the Android stack (phones, tablets, Ouya) or the GNU/Linux stack (still associated with PCs)?
Back in 1992'ish my 386 PC with its 20MHz. CPU and 4MB RAM ran Ultima VII. It had an utterly believable game world with a huge amount of freedom and interactivity and layer upon layer of depth to the story. Seeing how the laptop I'm typing this from runs at 2.5GHz. and has 4GB's of RAM, I'm deeply disappointed with the state of gaming as it is now. FPS games got better graphics, but their stories are hardly much more than running along waypoints shooting everything that moves. Origin went utterly down the tubes when EA got involved. Sadly there probably won't ever be a game like Ultima VII, but updated in depth and scope for today's hardware.
Learn from the mistakes of others. There isn't enough time to make them all yourself.
Port everything over to Linux so we can ditch Wine and Windows.
Microsoft has been a problem for PC gaming for a long time; partly due to control over Direct X (shitty lock-in); Partly due it controlling a game console(shitty Ports). Ironically with the rise of iOS...the Android; Humble Indie Bundle(Who could have seen that) and the rise of crowd funding/indie gaming. [I am not sure about steam]...The new problem is Microsoft pushing the PG-13 Agenda through their store(shitty anti gamer store), the reality is on Linux we relied on a few ports from Windows. If you support PC gaming then move to an alternative platform. the games are coming [already here] to Linux/Android...and there is no better time to RUN!
And it's called the Xbox 360. I just played Crysis 2 the other day and its certainly a console port. It runs amazingly smooth on my modest PC on the second highest setting. Can't say the same for Crysis, though it was a better game. Just about every game that exists for both the Xbox and PC are optimized for the lowest common denominator, the 360. There is your spec.
the games are coming [already here] to Linux/Android
Only if Ouya takes off. If it fails, as several Slashdot users predict will happen, then most Android games will continue to be in genres suitable for a flat sheet of glass rather than genres suitable for a gamepad. And historically, as I understand it, touch screen games have tended to be shallower even than gamepad games. It's possible to emulate a gamepad with a touch screen, but it's reliable only up to the Atari 2600 level (one D-pad, one button). If there are multiple trigger buttons under the right thumb, the player has no feedback as to where the right thumb is positioned and starts missing buttons.
That was a step forward then when we moved out of an era of ascetic PC computers with no sound capabilities, rigorously slow processors, crappy UI and 1.4 mb disks. That was a step out of infancy and a little, fuzzy revolution with all sort of silly things coming out - as well as great overall advances. It paved the way to nowadays and things kept on going up that route. Such a label wouldn't make as much sense now.
It's called Tablet App Gaming. Thy computer shalt have no native input device save the screen. You shall not have full control of the device. Some of your data must needs live in the cloud.
Annoying as one who is really enjoying tablet gaming [and ds gaming], you have to remember that touch-screen is exciting, and even though Windows 8 sucks donkeys balls...touch gaming is great for *some* genres of games. Its not for 3rd Person shooters[keyboard mouse]...or 3dBeaten ups;Platformer;standard shooters[Joypad], but a tablet for is great for racing games[ok not as fun as a real wheel]...for for strategy!! and tower defence/offence and tactile puzzlers touchscreen wins. I will be buying a great big touch-screen when a compelling one comes along.
It's a sad thing, but I guess a "paint your name in the snow" game would probable be a big hit nowadays.
Back in those days sound cards and CD-ROM drives were rather optional, a PC gaming standard made sense.
What hardware do PCs have now that are so different than PCs from 10 years ago? Built in WiFi? Bluetooth?
So really what this seems like is that we're trying to understand why a $300 laptop from Walmart can't run the latest games on Ultra-mode? Do we really need a new spec to tell us this? Can't we just ignore those cheap bastards and tell them to go play more Minecraft on their phone?
Ignoring the fact that I have never heard of this EVER, or that PC gaming as got so shitty its more about console ports that even a basic PC can cope with anything it has to handle. That stores that deliver your games *electronically* should be able to filter out games that simply won't work like....Android does now. The idea of creating a made up specifications to represent real specifications is the stupidest idea ever. Personally I think that game designers should put effort into providing the best experience your computer can handle automatically rather than have settings.
Seriously dumb article.
You can make these benchmark categories, but they'll be mostly worthless.
They would be pretty useless at first. But once some "performance standardization" has taken place, games (and other programs) would be able to better quantify that they need at least "fifty thousand libraries of congress per furlong throughput" to be usable.
At least it might either make the hardware manufacturers aware of what performance the majority of games need, or the game writers aware of what performance the majority of hardware can achieve.
Stop thinking every title needs to be a triple AAA title with millions of dollars in cost, that has to sell a large amount of copies to turn a profit.Stop putting crappy DRM on your software, since that only hurts your customers.Stop making crappy consoles ports.And quit fucking blaming everything on piracy.
Indie gaming [and open source gaming] is all of those things, and has a better community. Apart from team meat...but they have Super Meat Boy so they get to be dicks.
Well the pc wasn't considered the mass-media / entertainment platform it is now, and I remember distinctly a tech guy handing me over my new machine while saying ironically "There, it's a nice gaming console you got there" (I was 15). That label made sense (at the time)
1. Package all hardware in cartridges. I don't care what convoluted system of bends and risers in the motherboard you have to come up with, because once the case is open it should not be necessary to remove a single screw, or touch a single bare circuit, to swap hardware or 'build' a computer. This idea is past overdue and will make upgrading (and repairing) vastly easier than it is. It is also proven, at least as far as drives are concerned.
2. Convince the major publishers to agree on some sensible system spec standards and update them incrementally every two and a half years. The eternal upgrade cycle does not help the PC at all, and makes the lifetime cost of the platform much higher than it needs to be. If your game (or other software) can meet certain benchmarks on a system matching those specs, you get a gold star, Nintendo Seal of Approval style.
3. Knock off the stupid DRM bullshit. It doesn't save anyone any money. It doesn't make the customers happier. It doesn't solve any problems. The fact that executives still think this works proves that they're just collecting checks and have no idea what actually goes on in the real world...
4. ... Which leads me to my next point. The industry has become so risk averse in general that there are really only three valid genres in the commercial PC space anymore, and all of them can be summarized with a three-letter abbreviation: FPS, RTS, and MMO. (And MMOs are on their way out.) Ten years ago, the platform was already contracting but a lot more broad than it is now. Twenty years ago, the PC (and the last of the family computers) was an extremely ambitious platform. The PC actually has an advantage here already in that anyone can develop for it, but that doesn't forgive the industry for pussing out and ignoring anyone who doesn't want to play a three letter word.
5. Stop obsessing over chasing the latest and greatest technology. That doesn't mean stagnating like the consoles do, and this point is addressed by my second suggestion, but this deserves to be said: Developing within boundaries will produce better software. Making yesterday's technology work better today can produce real yields, both in performance and mechanical advantages.
6. PC games are notorious for being buggier, less stable, and frequently performing worse than console titles. Don't skimp on quality assurance just because it's going on the PC.
7. No more direct console ports, please. They're awful and usually the fans themselves have to patch them to bring them up to par.
8. At the same time, don't be afraid of controllers. A good, cheap wavebird should be a standard accessory for any gaming rig, in addition to the keyboard and mouse.
By "Linux" did you mean the Android stack (phones, tablets, Ouya) or the GNU/Linux stack (still associated with PCs)?
I'm assuming he meant both, Reliance on any one platform, or relying on some platform dependant tools is stupid in todays diverse market its why game engines like Unity work on both Gnu/Linux and Android :) http://unity3d.com/
Pee-mail has been out for years and will run on any PC with a Flash Player. I haven't tried to wee on a Wii, but Internet Channel for Wii does have Flash Player.
If I purchase a game on Steam (Grand Theft Auto 4, Assassins Creed 2, and Bioshock are great examples) I want to play the game after it's downloaded. I don't want to join Windows games, install extra software like the Visual C++ Redist (for every....single....game. Hello? Check to see its installed first), figure out why I need to join ANOTHER community in addition to Steam to play a game (Assassins Creed 2), and have to consult numerous Google Pages to get a game to even start correctly for the first time on PC (Grand Theft Auto 4 - 45 minutes to find out how to get it to even start for the first time).
This is BS to have to do this for games these days. People wonder why PC gaming is down. Really game developers? Keep it simple. Duhhh.
Cross-platform compatibility between PCs and Android devices isn't as useful as some might instinctively assume because the input devices are vastly different between platforms, and each input device works best for a particular genre. Smartphone and tablet operating systems work best for touch-screen genres, GNU/Linux and Windows work best for mouse-and-keyboard genres, and the consoles, PS Vita/3DS, and to a much lesser extent Ouya, GNU/Linux, and Windows work for gamepad genres.
The upcoming Steambox will hopefully be the new benchmark for software. It would be nice if they'd release a certification badge upon release that other hardware makers could use. I agree 100% with the comment about GPU/CPU naming conventions. They are even worse than cell phones. If there's one thing we can learn from the iPhone, let it be simple names.
Only if Ouya takes off.
Thats such a weird think to say right now I've been playing through the games on Humble Bundle 7 and none of those are possible because of the Ouya [Legend of Grimrock is particularly good]. The reality is Android will get serious and *episodic* games just like any other platform. I say episodic because some of these games are designed for playing for short periods at a time. The reality is though the sheet of glass games are perfect for *new* game interfaces, and are perfect for strategy; tower offence/defence hell I'm looking forward to games that rely on pointing as *several* parts of the screen at once.
All the Ouya may bring is new games that use traditional controller to the Android platform. Although as owner of an Xperia Play [oh and a Ouya] they have been on Android for a while.
You can make these benchmark categories, but they'll be mostly worthless.
They would be pretty useless at first. But once some "performance standardization" has taken place, games (and other programs) would be able to better quantify that they need at least "fifty thousand libraries of congress per furlong throughput" to be usable.
At least it might either make the hardware manufacturers aware of what performance the majority of games need, or the game writers aware of what performance the majority of hardware can achieve.
That's just the issue. The only performance criteria the designers of the chips can target is existing performance targets (aka, games in this case), which is mostly meaningless, as the current games would target the existing chips, which are the previous generation.
What standardized benchmarks like these create is a stagnant market, because if your new product X, isn't faster than the old product Y in benchmark K, it won't compare successfully to some old game that will run perfectly fine on both cards. This card could have feature Z that makes it 1000 times faster in some other task.
It's not to say that benchmarking isn't useful, but attaching it directly to product naming schemes. Aka Nvidia GeForce STD771122 is equal in benchmark K to AMD Radeon STD771122, which is what the article seems to imply.
Smartphone and tablet operating systems work best for touch-screen genres, GNU/Linux and Windows work best for mouse-and-keyboard genres, and the consoles, PS Vita/3DS, and to a much lesser extent Ouya, GNU/Linux, and Windows work for gamepad genres.
Then you need to keep up because I already have several controllers on GNU/Linux, and One on my Phone (Xperia Play Baby!) :). When they have dropped in price I'm going to get me a 27" flatscreen (touchscreen) monitor going cheap because of Windows 8.
Looks like cross platform is going to be very very useful :). I suspect very strongly though that my next gaming PC will be a touchscreen chromebook running Debian with Android compatibility...I maybe will hook up my PS3 controller if Super Meat Boy gets ported :)
You have (and shall) never hear the term "console port".
The main problem with a LOT of PC games, nowadays, is they've been dumbed down, and lots of features stripped out or simply never done (or done right) in the first place. Simply to make it easier to share code-bases between a console port and the PC game.
DCUO is a prime example of this.
It's so incredibly limited, and the controls for the game absolutely SUCK. Why? Because they designed it with a controller in mind. They limited the game's models and costume options because most consoles just couldn't handle the sheer variety a full-blown costume/model system would have given them.
As a result, you have a console fighter game masquerading as a PC MMO. And it does NEITHER well.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
It's that simple.
The answer to making PC games better isn't to make them MORE like a consoles.
It's to make them LESS like consoles.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
#1. Make all games use OpenGL or some other newly invented standard that is cross platform.
#2. Have congress declare that "virtual goods" or whatever you want to call them are no more than poker chips. Selling items in game is probably the most detrimental change in the history of gaming as it leads to developers intentionally making the game un-fun and grindy so you'll sink real money to obtain imaginary items to make your play easier. Also... they really are poker chips... it's wrong that they are sold to children.
#3. Games that are online and can not work without the servers provided by the publisher should be required by law to provide service for a certain period of time after you buy the game. A certain portion of the proceeds of the sale of the game should go into a 3rd party account to pay for the continued operation of the servers even if the original producers of the game go out of business. At least someone buying the game could be guaranteed a certain about of play before it just stopped working all together. But better yet, hopefully producers of games would not want to have to put money into a trust and instead would open up the server platform to the players.
OK. First convert all GPL-based libraries to LGPL so that they are non-viral, sometimes you have to statically link. Someone had to say it.
Wow Ballmer still spreading that Cancer line is getting old just saying. Humble Bundle 7 has ten games than seem to cope just fine.
Ironically the bundle before this "THQ bundle" one was controversial because not only had DRM it was unable to provide ports to Linux (and OSX) because of proprietary based libraries. The reality is locking yourself into a single platform is particularly foolish as Android is set to eclipse Windows in a matter of Months.
I don't use Steam. I like PC gaming, but I want to disassociate my gaming experience entirely from online services. That leaves me with very few options. I've returned every boxed PC game I've purchased in the last three years has required some kind of online login, even for single-person, offline play. I really don't like having to play "mother may I" with Electronic Arts or Valve or anyone else. That doesn't leave me many gaming options, but I will say that every single thing I've ever gotten from GoG.com has worked, is divorced from any sort of download, copy protection or online community bullshit.
Also in a lot of case I have just as much fun watching somebody else's game playthrough videos on Youtube as playing myself. There are surprisingly complete video sets for many RPGs and other single player titles and that's just fine as far as I'm concerned.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
when you install video drivers you are not almost guaranteed to spend some time at a CLI prompt cause gui don't want to start.
Just to explain how modern Linux works. On the majority of desktops that have Intel...they are open source and simply work, and modern ones are suitable for most gaming, Nvidia and Ati have open source drivers, but the proprietary ones are still better (I've not used Ati in a while), but upon loading Ubuntu asked you whether you want to install them...and its always a single click away, its simpler than Windows complicated method of having to go to the web-site and wade through the complicated instructions etc etc.[I'm to bored to explain]
You live in the world of faeries :)
Why don't all the game publishers get together and make a universal system requirement app? I haven't been keeping up with hardware for last decade so I have no clue which model number of video cards are better than the ones listed on the box. If box calls for video card better than model #4440, how do I know if my #850 will work or not? I'm saying this as a person who built many desktop systems for family members, friends, and myself in the past.
App should quickly scan my system and tell me if that game will run or not.
Show them the difference. Show them how well your machine runs, and how theirs is crap. Then offer to build them a desktop for a set fee, or offer an inexpensive consult on a laptop.
The average computer user finds the whole thing confusing. They are expected to acquire skills which are both required by their job and considered nerdy. This, of course, creates a conflict for most people, as being popular / going with the crowd is more important to them than getting ahead in life.
I am John Hurt.
Then you need to keep up because I already have several controllers on GNU/Linux
So do I. I just wonder whether a platformer optimized for a controller (but also playable with a keyboard to the same extent as, say, emulated Mega Man) will have any chance of selling, especially given the button mapping phase that the player has to go through for any controller that isn't an Xbox 360 controller.
and One on my Phone (Xperia Play Baby!)
Unfortunately, there aren't enough others like you. Another web site reports "poor retail performance" for the Xperia Play. Only once Ouya comes out will games other than casual games and strategy games have a chance of being viable on Android.
Does that idiot really think that gaming equals hardware power?
In a world where consoles gather dust while Flash/mobile games are played by the masses?
Yes, technology is one aspect. But it always was the only aspect everyone guaranteed to be good. As in: Graphics and effects.
To say that we should focus on that even more, instead of using our current chance of everyone finally giving a fuck about good gameplay / mechanics and a good story too, is insane.
Also: Since when are graphics card model numbers "confusing"? The first number is the generation. The second is if it is high end, mainstream or budget, and the rest are small differences. Pick the latest generation, pick the money you’re willing to pay / power you need, and then compare the ones that pass that filter. (Usually only one card per manufacturer.) Done. How is that hard? What's his problem? (The usual? As in: Stupidity and ignorance?)
Romanticize about it all you want but to the consumer it was just another meaningless computer acronym.
The major problem with it was it only gave you a hint at what the absolute minimum requirements might be... if you even knew what the damn thing meant. MPC 1 was a 386sx25 with 2 megs of ram, sure your program might run, but just in the basic sense that it ran, not that it was playable or useable. SO instantly you are going back to the requirements list. It was meaningless and did nothing but add another dumbshit icon to the box of icons
Any decent game machine is going to need an add-in card, not an Intel GPU. I'm not sure if they'd be okay with something that mandates competitors' products. And if not, would they try to kill it? Given the hold they have on the PC market and how much money they can and do throw around to try to move the market (ultrabooks!) it could be tough if they did.
But perhaps they'd grudgingly go with it just to sell more high power desktop CPUs and motherboards.
Your guessing what my experience is like in absence of having your own. The truth is the Xperia Play is a beautiful device Sony's best ever IMHO...but in no way perfect, but that article has nothing to do with the problems of the Xperia Play which were simply initial opening price too high(more expensive than an iPhone), with specifications too low (single core, no internal memory)...and Sony half heartedly supporting it(no update to Ice Cream Sandwich). That said its a hell of a device, and there are a surprising amount of games that support it. I'd buy its successor in a heartbeat.
There are issues with using a controller on GNU Linux. The problem is games that support remapping have incredibly good support, with a wide range of hardware supported(far better than Windows). The problem is the games don't as a rule [even open source games] support them. you can change the order of your controls on your joypad, and remap keys which covers almost everything in a haphazard manner, but its too messy and very un-gnu/Linux where everything from scanners to wireless is standard across devices. To be fair it needs someone (seam maybe) with enough influence to move everyone in the same direction in this neglected area.
#1 - Don't make me obligatory xkcd you!
I think you need to look at the joke again. Its about creating a new standard to replace multiple incompatible standards. His comment is about reducing control of a de-facto standard on one ecosystem by a conflicted monopolist...and doing so using an *existing standard* that arguable is better, and is cross platform used on the majority of computing platforms [Ok no quite]. The reality is the massive growth of Android/iOS has but a massive dent in DirectX, and OpenGL has been moving and shaking after years of neglect.
All that a certification badge on components would do is guarantee that the hardware is supported by Valve's Steambox version of Linux. Did you get how great that could be? Read the bold words again. No more looking up lists or asking in hostile forums if a piece of hardware has a Linux driver. Just hop on newegg and search for Steambox compatible whatever and you are guaranteed a no fuss way to get components that will work out of the box in Linux without the need to reverse engineer the damn thing and write your own driver or wait for someone else to do it for you. Regardless of whether or not you care about gaming, it could lead to, gasp! Linux desktop adoption skyrocketing well into the double digit percentages.
By that logic, linux has long eclipsed windows as its everywhere.
Android is set to overtake Windows in a matter of months.
If Gaming under Linux is so great, why are we all still using windows?
Yes, I'm sure Linux is better than it was and I'm sure there are many fine reasons why you prefer Linux over Windows - but to put this as bluntly as I can "Anybody who suggests that linux is a better gaming OS than Windows is a dribbling retard".
See also OSX - a fine OS, but just not what you should be installing if you want to play games.
This is one of the topics that repeatedly comes up and just starts me grinding my teeth. You may not think it's right, you may not think it's fair, but it is a fact so overwhelming that any protestation makes you come across as a dogmatic fool
But it's still crashy both on video drivers and API being badly implemented in it, and you still need fairly deep knowledge of the OS to get stuff properly installed, configured and running.
Do you know what I did to get my graphics card up and running on Linux...NOTHING. You clearly have never used Linux.
Yes because your personal experience with Linux equates to what everyone experiences with it. Yep, no differences. You clearly haven't left your mom's basement in a VERY long time.
...also, 2013 will be the year of Desktop Linux. Suuure...
Ironically 2013 is the year of Android that is the point, and Windows gets relegated to second place. It kind of makes your statement a little sad. Personally I look forward to the gains on the Linux Desktop from Microsofts Monopoly getting broken.
I realize the joke isn't exact, but it still applies.
No no it doesn't. I don't think you understand the joke. The joke is in attempting to solve the problem, you add to it in the very way its a problem. This is nothing like that this is choosing micro-usb over lightening connector. Its simply that choosing one standard over another.
As for it not being OpenGL not being maintained...your kidding right. There are simply too many different parties, with a vested interest in it being an open and dominant standard. I don't think you have noticed Microsoft has months left of being the dominant computing platform.
more customization of RPGS and a mixture of the RTS and first person shooters.
MORE of a story and single player .
More ability for players to play with there own servers
More ability to create new classes , races , items and such
ya i may just say screw it and make my own games for my own entertainment
My apologies, I did not realize you were mentally deficient. I didn't mean to make fun.
Let me explain so even you can understand. Hypothetical situation (means not real, but could be): I install Linux on a spare PC I have laying around. I attempt to install the driver for the graphics card in this spare PC. I click the button labeled "click here to install just works graphics driver". It doesn't work, gives an error message. Do some reading online, find other people with same problem, they say go to CLI and type this to make it work. I do so and it now "just works". This is my personal "experience" with installing a driver in Linux.
You do the same, click the "just works" button. And it works. This is YOUR experience with installing a driver in Linux.
There ya go, go drink that chocolate milk your mom just brought down to you.
my Droid runs any app I want after checking 1 box, works with any bluetooth device I throw at it (gamepads, mice, keyboard) and has an SD card slot for storage. My only complaint is app devs that are too lazy to give me the option to install to SD (come on guys, it's 1 frickin' line in your manifest)!
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The 3000HD and 4000HD integrated chips are about as good as what you get on a modern console (e.g. on par with a GT 240 with DDR5). That more or less solves the 'I bought a computer and can't play games' problem.
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Stop porting over console games, and start designing them for PC's from the ground up again. As much as it's nice not really ever having to upgrade my video card due to dev's targeting 8 year old console spec's, it's been a real bottleneck for actual innovation. It's not even the graphics that are suffering so much, but the design as well, due to memory limitations.
In the workplaces we are forced to use windows with vm's running Linux with no compiz or ezoom or accessibility
The computers run orders of magnitude slower with no accessibility it should be iligal
So why is it legal to force people to use windows with no accessibility for people over 40 which need ezoom and compiz
Of all these so far I give you the most points. You have found the error in my metaphor. Your reply was overwrought, but if you wanted to attack the premise this was the tack to take. Nicely done. You have potential.
Now I rewrite it for you:
You say Linux is a spinning saw, and tell people to embrace it?
Do you see how this works my metaphor against me in the way you intended, and implies that I'm encouraging people to deliberate personal injury, in only a few words? How you could not see that post but read it all? No complex, unusual words nor odd grammar. How it talks down to neither the audience nor me? How it gives a visual and visceral? This is the sort of work that would raise your astroturfing to a high art. Good astroturfing is poetry: you need to distill the emotive content to the simplest, shortest and most basic words in order to convey your idea in a timeless way.
But as I said, well done. At least you found the error. That's far better than your peers could do.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
At least if Gabe Newell is your mom and he decides to close the house and board up every door and window he'll give you the games he used to let you inside to play.
Card makers ought to stop packing huge amounts of memory onto otherwise useless cards.
All that memory isn't for games. It's for people who do real work in 3D. Animators, artists, and engineers have big models to view, often with high-resolution textures. There, those gigabytes of display memory are useful. And when you switch windows, the whole graphics card doesn't have to be flushed.
In games, textures have already been optimized, merged, reduced in resolution and level of detail. Gamers tend not to have several graphics applications running in multiple windows.
Clueless people everywhere, especially in comments. Nostalgic gamers who whine games didn't evolve better than their golden years but never tried any recently. Other nerds who think Linux or Valve will save the day, or that Microsoft "abandoned" pc games. Honestly, stop whining. We have VERY good hardware, accessible at low prices. Windows + DirectX is the highest-end solution up to now and work perfectly and there's has been over 50 very good title released this year.
or vagina.
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having learned about Good Old Games just recently thanks to the $30 D&D pack (Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale 1 & 2, Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition, Planescape Torment, The Temple of Elemental Evil...), it's the best thing to happen to PC gaming.
No DRM, no internet connection necessary (apart for downloading the installation files), lots of free bonus stuff (soundtracks, artwork etc)..
Number one reason for "Y NO workie on my computeh?" posts is using a laptop to try and play PC Game.
Laptops are not for games. There are "gaming laptops" that try to cram enough GPU to melt your balls, but then you end up with laptop coolers and other bullshit because laptop itself cant handle generated heat.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
Did the specification come complete with grammatical errors?
"Thy computer shalt be blessed with a sound card and speakers. Thou shalt be provided a CD-ROM drive in which to receive silver discs. Thy processor shalt not be completely crap."
That should probably be: "Thy computer shall be blessed with a soundcard and speakers. Thou shalt be provided a CD-ROM drive in which to receive silver discs. Thy processor shall not be complete crap."
It's just funny. The average English speaking individual is nowadays more concerned with split infinitives and stranded prepositions than he or she is with putting the correct verb form with the grammatical person in a sentence.
Split infinitives have been there since before Middle English. Stranded prepositions are found in the entire Germanic speaking realm. They really don't matter. The archaic, but still valid second person singular form of the verb in English does. For ordinary verbs it's the "verb stem" + st, for modal/preterite-present verbs it's the "verb stem" + t.
Just wanted to point it out. I hope I didn't step on anyone toes. If so, I apologize, for that was not my intention.
And on the Eighth Day, Man created God.
no drm, no single use serials. banning cheats (e.g. vac) is one thing, denying someone the use of a serial because they bought second-hand is something else entirely and is wrong.
one-time online verification of an install key is acceptable, but you're not to block installs unless a key is abused (and it will be obvious-enough when a key is released to the public or shared on a campus). an install here or there should be allowed no questions asked, say 10 a year, no more than 3 in any given week should suffice for virtually all enthusiasts and tinkerers that might reinstall themselves frequently or personally have multiple computers. enough to hinder the casual copiers during initial release (when sales are highest), prevents rampant sharing via 'sneakernet' and prevents use of keys that are made public.
no hindering the used or rental markets.
embrace the rental market, instead, with special versions that are essentially built as 7 day trials (but of the full game, not a limited feature set). split rental revenues and after-the-fact purchases (of the installed expired rental) between publisher and rental distributor.
no online registrations or access required unless absolutely necessary for game function (i.e. online access required for multiplayer play but lan-based play should be an option when no publisher-provided central server is needed such -- online account needed for full participation, i.e. submissions, in a platform like steam workshop but not simply to play a game)
'dlc' should be free (i.e. the shit you didn't have time to put in the game so you could make a deadline, or stuff that essentially just adds length to the game but doesn't substantially add features). contrast with 'expansions' which should provide substantial alteration to game play (e.g. sims university added an entirely new age group to play in sims 2 .. but 'expansions' that only give extra content, items, locations, careers, etc. without a material change in how the game plays is dlc not an expansion)
cut release-day retail prices in half (e.g. $30 not $60+)
cut prices at least 50% after 2 years on market
after 5 years at retail, games become free (as in beer).
provide support and fix your bugs for five year period. by the time the fifth year rolls around it should be bug and crash free free and no longer needing direct support, on any system with common components sold during its retail lifespan.
keep the real life ads out of your games.
'free to play' should really be free to play and not pay to win. pay-for items should be limited to cosmetic and other items that do not give a material advantage over free players.. only convenience (e.g. larger in-game storage ok, provided that game is still playable for free -- higher stat items, more xp, etc not ok, especially in games with any sort of PVP).
games marketed as free to play should not have limitations to how far you can go (e.g. a lower level cap) without paying or how much you can play (compared to paying players). such games are trials, not free to play.
a story based game should be LONG.. not something you can get through in one or two sessions. i might be on the far end of the spectrum, but i would prefer an in-depth storyline that takes 100s of hours to get through (and not just simple quests of go here, kill that, get reward bullshit either).
re-playability is as important as the first time through.
mod system, content and level editors should be embraced and encouraged, not feared. (helps with the previous point)
games that require a third-party or publisher-provided server or service should be supported for at least five years or two years after game goes 'free', which ever is longer... if significant userbase still exists at such time, measures should be taken to to allow the game to continue as a community-funded and supported endeavor.
subscription games and games with in-game purchasables should be funding an account to ensure the game stays online for at least two years after the game stops accepting new subscribers or purchases..
and finally. FIX YOUR FUCKING BUGS ALREADY. repeated because it's that important.
but instead invest into gameplay.
Example: Civilization I was a great game, not because it had such nice graphics or sound effects but because of the complexity of the game play. But the interface was easy to use, the different types of terrain and units easy to recognize and it was easy to pick up the strategy. Also, it worked on rather minimalistic hardware. (And, I have to admit, I originally got it as a pirated copy, but I bought it later. But since the bought version came with copy protection I continued to use the pirated one.) Now look at the latest installments of that series. The graphics and sound are improved but that also results in units and terrain being much harder to recognize. The gameplay is basically unchanged. But it requires so much computing power that the later stages of the game become basically unplayable if you don't run it on a top of the notch machine.
I have switched back to playing Civilization I when I am in the mood.
Don't make multi-player games that can't be played on a LAN or which can't be hosted by players.
Don't do in-game advertising, purchases of virtual crap for real money and assorted bullshit.
Don't install spyware or otherwise contact the mothership unless required to fullfill the users request.
Don't do CD keys, limited activations, professor zorgs guides to alien etiquette or any other such anti-piracy garbage that treats the purchaser as a suspect.
Don't require the user to wade thru a bunch of bullshit screens before starting the game.
Never lobobotomize gameplay in order to give noobs a fighting chance.
Stop making games that are impossible to loose.
Never remove language or funny shit for political reasons.
Basically make games that are fun to play again. Things have "evolved" to where this has simply become impossible to do so I no longer bother.
Do you watch the YouTube videos offline too?
MPC was silly marketing gimmick, just like the more modern "Windows Vista Ready"; the specifications were so puny that almost every machine on the home market at the time met them. "Everyone's a Winner!" After all, a spec introduced by the PC industry is not going to be set to hurt anyone's feelings, or screw around with carefully-selected price-points.
I suppose there existed some machines that didn't meet the spec, but the target market for those was people so technically ignorant (i.e. the sort of crap advertised on late-night TV: Operators Are Standing By), they'd be surprised that they can't play CD's without a CD-ROM drive...
The purpose of MPC was more to remind people that these sort of things could be done with a PC and encourage them to purchase a PC; it was not, and did not, actually save people from buying an under-specc'd machine.
At the time, this spec meant a lot—and, to be honest, I think it worked marvelously.
It didn't. It caused uproar among gamers and all games which supported lower specs (no sound, CD drive required only during installation) were standing out and played more than the rest.
IIRC the spec was literally unused, but still some claimed some success to it. But that happened only after one could buy a sound card for $30 or less and CD drive for $50 or less.
Let the powers that be come up with a new baseline specification.
Be careful what you wish for. Mass market now is a low-power laptop, mostly used for Facebook. If not a tablet. We are at the down-scaling/miniaturization/reshaping of the PC. Most devices used for gaming today do NOT have: CD drive, keyboard or mouse.
Game competition is as high as ever - especially from the adjacent markets (mobile). Game developers are unlikely to try to limit their own market.
Insisting on some minimum spec has already created its own (closed) market: game consoles.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Did it occur to you that Thy/Thou, Shall/Shalt are archaic forms of usage, (well, "shall", only when used concurrently with "shalt") and therefore the fact that the usage is not literally correct is rather irrelevant? The point of the exercise "I'm going to humorously vaguely imitate the 10 commandments, as expressed in most English bibles" was met and it really doesn't matter that it's usage was not in keeping with rules that existed when those words were in common usage?
It's like going to a Ren Faire, and complaining that while the costumes are really good, they should have recruited more short people that look growth stunted, introduced more filth and stench and made more performers wear makeup imitating smallpox scarring. Reminding spectators that most people lived in squalor isn't the point of a Ren Faire... and adding archaic English words to a phrase isn't intended to be a treatise on centuries-old grammar.
BTW, News Flash: The "average English speaking individual" is, in fact, no longer concerned with split infinitives or split prepositions. As you pointed out, neither "ungrammatical" construct detracts from clarity, readability, or net value to communication, so modern speakers pretty much don't even notice them and/or use them themselves. Thou shan't call people on "grammatical errors" to annoyingly prove your loquacious facility with English usage whilst not engaged in an actual Trivia competition; some might consider it a bridge too far.
So, you are claiming the industry isn't risk averse by listing games that are nearly all sequels?
And a LOT of them are also crappy consolfied monstrosities?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I am sure this will be an unpopular idea, but there should be no fee to play an MMORPG. Instead potions should be things like "A nice refreshing Pepsi!"
Insert Generic Sig Here:
my original post wasn't meant to be a troll, just exasperation.
I've been playing games on PCs for way too long - and it used to be a pretty miserable experience. Having to use Qemm, buying old graphics cards on ebay so I could mount an extra 1/2 meg of RAM chips on my Ultrasound to load the full MT32 samples, trying to patch Tomb Raider so it run with my m3D and then finding the copy of the game I'd bought seemed to be a different build etc. All the time consoles were just sitting there with games you plugged in and "they just worked".
Since DirectX and the other MS APIs they introduced, drivers were made for these, games were made for the drivers and finally the PC seemed to be a platform you could actually recommend as a gaming platform to somebody who didn't want to fiddle with IRQs etc.
Now I'm fascinated with what Valve is currently doing - I love steam and I'm reasonably sure I'm never going to buy another console again. If Valve can supply a Linux build with certification for hardware beneath and games that run over the top, I'm more than willing to give it a go - but all of this push just seems to be to make something 'as good' as what we currently have on Windows. Aside from the cost of the Windows OS, I'm not really sure what massive advantage I get (more efficient driver is a good start though), but I can be reasonably sure there will be disadvantages which many people seem to be hell-bent on glossing over.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empiricism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence
Can you spot the difference?
Just to state the obvious, but not mentioned in the summary, but MPC also required that thou shall run Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions. It's hardly appropriate to have an "industry standard" where a single vendor is given a monopoly over a major part of the system. However a cross-platform games standard would obviously be too hard for the industry as it exists today.
Especially for notebooks Thy display shallst notst be 1366*768 cheap crap TN. Thy graphics card shall have at least 128 bit GDDR5 (64+GB/s). If you use an AMD APU without dedicated GPU you shallst have dual channel DDR3-1600 memory configuration, at least.
Emulating a gamepad [...] can be done well as it is in Dead Trigger, which plays very well on the Nexus 7
I have a Nexus 7 and am itching to play a game that emulates a gamepad right. But I'm not a fan of the violence seen in M rated games. Can you provide any good examples that aren't rated "High Maturity" (which appears to be Android's counterpart to M)? Or is M where all the market is?
It equates with my Linux experience. The Windows 7 experience, though? I had to download drivers on my Linux install, copy them across to the other drive, and then load them. At least, those are the ones that Windows recognises. There are a few that it doesn't recognise. I'll have to open the Device Manager and copy the device identifier into Google and search from there.
But no, I realise how fortunate we are to have an advanced system like Windows to make device installation so easy. If only Linux were this easy.
Which reminds me, I've never had an optical drive configuration fail in Linux, but during my time as a Windows tech, I've had to edit the registry dozens of times, just to get the optical drive working properly again.
Spoken like someone who doesn't use power tools on a regular basis.
You turn it on, it starts spinning slowly, there's no torque. Tools useless now, I have to go down the hardware store and buy another.
This is exactly why professionals spend $25,000 on large tool kits and benches with replaceable parts. So that it's reliable and easily repairable. Not everyone lives in a disposable world, for anything you need or want to do to an extreme, buying disposable tools is pointless. I can get a cheap Hyundai i30 buzzbox, newer and less expensive than my 350GT, but fuck knows why I'd take an i30 on the track... So I bought a Nissan 350 GT.
So it's the same with Linux, a professionals tool compared to some chinese no-name brand drill. A sports car compared to a Korean made hatch that handles like a whale.
It's also the same with PC gaming. So it's more expensive and requires slightly more maintenance than a console, in return you get more games, better games, a wider variety of games (still waiting to see a strategy game that works on a console after a decade of bad attempts) and cheaper games. Just as someone who cares about driving buys a car designed for a better ride compared over a cheaper, newer A to B crapbox, someone who cares about gaming will spend the extra time and money* to get a better gaming experience.
* With the price difference between PC and console games, buying 2 games a month makes the TCO of a $1500 gaming rig the same as a $600 console.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
It's that simple.
The answer to making PC games better isn't to make them MORE like a consoles.
It's to make them LESS like consoles.
This.
Toyota wont sell as many 86's as they will sell Camry's. So should Toyota stop selling the FT-86 then?
The answer is no because there are a lot of people who would prefer an 86 over a Camry and are willing to pay the premium cost for the 86 because the 86 is a better performer, faster, more manoeuvrable and lighter.
It's the same with the glorious bronze-fingered PC Gaming master race, we want a better gaming experience than consoles provide. Much like sports car owners we're willing to pay the extra for the superior experience. Consoles will always sell more because they are generic, low powered devices designed for the masses (much like a Camry) but the cutting edge and better games will always be on the PC (much like the FT-86).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.