Did you not mind the sluggish response in Vista either?
There is a distinct feel to a game (or any other software that controls the mouse pointer) when there is too much input lag: it feels like the pointer is at the end of a long flexible pole. It gets to where you are pointing just after you pointed there, and it is extremely hard to get precision accuracy with it.
I realize not everyone is bothered by input lag, and that's perfectly fine, but those who are bothered know exactly what I'm talking about.
(Older) PC games can be run at higher framerates because the hardware can handle it, so that might potentially decrease that 8ms average, but 5ms is only achieved with a 100fps framerate (when you assume 5ms as average, if you assume it's the slowest it'll ever be then you need 200fps).
You don't seem to realize that if an average PC gamer is maxing out at 60 fps then he is complaining constantly about the lag and making plans to build a new system.
60fps is bare minimum for a decent experience in a non multiplayer game, and unplayable against other humans.
So yes, just because you are a paranoid, psychotic nut job who thinks there's a conspiracy probably DOES mean there isn't a conspiracy. If you bet against them, you'd make plenty of money.
I can't speak as to my lack or presence of addiction, I don't know anyone else who drinks more coffee than I do though, so If I'm not addicted then I think its safe to say that it is impossible for me become so.
Also, just to be clear, I'm not saying that there aren't withdrawal symptoms at all, I'm just saying that the headache that most people seem to equate with caffeine withdrawal is, at least in some cases, a byproduct of not drinking enough liquids. This is also the case with hangovers.
You know how caffeine-withdrawal headaches feel like your head is about to explode?
No, I honestly do not. While I am perfectly willing to believe that some people do experience at least some of the effects you describe, I have never experienced a caffeine withdrawal headache.
I've also never had a hangover any worse than a slight feeling of nausea with no headache.
I attribute this to the drinking of copious amounts of water in addition to whatever else I am drinking. Yes, I do pee a lot.:-)
When most caffeine "addicts" stop drinking their favorite caffeinated beverage they often fail to replace it with water and or other non caffeinated beverages. This causes dehydration which is mistaken for withdrawal symptoms.
Last Sunday I drove all day on logging roads through forests with up to 3 generations of tree stumps clearly visible. Trees are a renewable resource. Period. Decades and even centuries are still nothing compared to the amount of time it would take to "renew" oil.
Old growth trees are being cut because they still exist, and we are using them while we are waiting for other trees to become the 'new' old growth.
You still can't say that first part, I'll give you the second part, but even experienced power users reinstall windows all the time because of unfixable errors.
I guess I've stolen quite a few pennies and dollar bills over the years from the grasps of the sidewalk.
The diferance is that you didn't have any realistic way to contact the previous owner. If you saw someone drop a bill, picked it up, and failed to attempt to return it in good faith, then that would be theft. Finding a bill of such a small denomination that it is extremal unrealistic to attempt to find the owner is not theft.
Developing for consoles doesn't prevent a company from doing the PC version right, they just sometimes lazily choose not to...
I agree, the problem, as you say, is that the majority of developers seem to be getting lazier and lazier.
it is not a vastly better fps experience for me. I'm sure it is for you, and I respect that.
Mouse and keyboard is unquestionably more precise and responsive. For the competitive gamer a strong case can be made that it's the way to go. On the other hand, the controller has rudimentary haptics to simulate kick, and a proper trigger you can pull. Having used both, the mouse feels more like I'm controlling a game and the controller feels more like I'm immersed in the situation. I think that for the more casual player who is interested in the experience more than the challenge, a strong case can be made for the controller (for the convenience of lounging back in your recliner without perching your mouse and keyboard awkwardly and precariously around you as well.)
In my opinion, the first person perspective is not well suited to the lay back and play from the couch style of gameplay. Note that I'm not saying that all FPS games are better on the PC, I'm saying that the PC is capable of supporting a game that better takes advantage of the strengths of the first person perspective. I would offer up Half-Life and System Shock as two perfect examples of this, off the top of my head.
I think cover mechanics serve a very worthwhile cross-platform purpose, specifically the idea that you can aim and shoot at enemies without exposing your whole body to fire.
On a PC you can do this without super annoying systems that take full control away from the player.
Hard for me to speak to that. PC gaming is still pretty popular last I heard, so if there really is an industry apathy toward PC development, I'd blame the industry and not console gamers. Maybe they figure that if they transition to consoles exclusively, their PC fans will follow them, and then they can develop in a magical fantasy land where piracy doesn't exist at all.....
For examples of this look at Modern Warfare 2, as well as the whole Ubisoft DRM spectacle.
You're absolutely right that it's not the console gamers fault, I was just explaining where the animosity comes from.
It seems like PC FPS players have something to prove, and I'm not sure exactly what it is. Do they need to feel like they have the better experience? That's fine. Presumably they play on PC *because* they feel like they have a better experience that way, so I'd think that would be enough.
The thing that is causing more and more of the PC gaming community to feel bitterly antagonistic is the continuing trend of "consolized" games being released for PC.
The PC is capable of a vastly better fps experience than the console is. Period.
However, none of that matters when the majority FPSs are developed with the limitations of consoles in mind (cover systems being a perfect case in point.)
So the bitterness is a product of envy. Not of your systems, but of your popularity. Many PC gamers are feeling increasingly ignored by the mainstream gaming industry.
You're making the mistake of thinking that "Chinese" refers in any way to race in this context. It does not. Instead it is being used to refer to a culture.
The contrast here is not between "white" and "yellow" people, but between "Eastern" and "Western" cultures.
Please stop reading racism into discussions of culture.
Slashdot Mirror
People do lose sales from piracy. Other posters have covered this ground, typically videogames.
The ONLY time that piracy results in lost sales is when the pirated product is superior to the purchased product.
rofl, nice -1 disagree mod there ;-)
I'm far from a hardcore gamer, I just like things to happen right when I tell them to happen, and not just after.
Did you not mind the sluggish response in Vista either?
There is a distinct feel to a game (or any other software that controls the mouse pointer) when there is too much input lag: it feels like the pointer is at the end of a long flexible pole.
It gets to where you are pointing just after you pointed there, and it is extremely hard to get precision accuracy with it.
I realize not everyone is bothered by input lag, and that's perfectly fine, but those who are bothered know exactly what I'm talking about.
(Older) PC games can be run at higher framerates because the hardware can handle it, so that might potentially decrease that 8ms average, but 5ms is only achieved with a 100fps framerate (when you assume 5ms as average, if you assume it's the slowest it'll ever be then you need 200fps).
You don't seem to realize that if an average PC gamer is maxing out at 60 fps then he is complaining constantly about the lag and making plans to build a new system.
60fps is bare minimum for a decent experience in a non multiplayer game, and unplayable against other humans.
Go die in a fire.
Oh lord, O.o me too!
This is true, I sail hobie cats and it can get all kinds of fun :-)
So yes, just because you are a paranoid, psychotic nut job who thinks there's a conspiracy probably DOES mean there isn't a conspiracy. If you bet against them, you'd make plenty of money.
Spoken like a true conspirator.
I can't speak as to my lack or presence of addiction, I don't know anyone else who drinks more coffee than I do though, so If I'm not addicted then I think its safe to say that it is impossible for me become so.
Also, just to be clear, I'm not saying that there aren't withdrawal symptoms at all, I'm just saying that the headache that most people seem to equate with caffeine withdrawal is, at least in some cases, a byproduct of not drinking enough liquids. This is also the case with hangovers.
You know how caffeine-withdrawal headaches feel like your head is about to explode?
No, I honestly do not. While I am perfectly willing to believe that some people do experience at least some of the effects you describe, I have never experienced a caffeine withdrawal headache.
I've also never had a hangover any worse than a slight feeling of nausea with no headache.
I attribute this to the drinking of copious amounts of water in addition to whatever else I am drinking. :-)
Yes, I do pee a lot.
When most caffeine "addicts" stop drinking their favorite caffeinated beverage they often fail to replace it with water and or other non caffeinated beverages. This causes dehydration which is mistaken for withdrawal symptoms.
this needs a +10 moderation.
Caffeine withdrawal is mostly caused by dehydration, imho.
Last Sunday I drove all day on logging roads through forests with up to 3 generations of tree stumps clearly visible. Trees are a renewable resource. Period. Decades and even centuries are still nothing compared to the amount of time it would take to "renew" oil.
Old growth trees are being cut because they still exist, and we are using them while we are waiting for other trees to become the 'new' old growth.
well, it's certainly not over nine thousand...
The more time I spend in college the more I realize that nearly everything that we "know" is really just semi-educated guesses.
In my experience this applies to just about every science except perhaps math.
Sorry, I would consider any problem that takes longer and is more trouble to fix than to reinstall unfixable.
You still can't say that first part, I'll give you the second part, but even experienced power users reinstall windows all the time because of unfixable errors.
Maybe you shouldn't manually edit the registry without backing it up?
I, for one, agree with you completely.
I clone my partition if I want a backup.
I guess I've stolen quite a few pennies and dollar bills over the years from the grasps of the sidewalk.
The diferance is that you didn't have any realistic way to contact the previous owner.
If you saw someone drop a bill, picked it up, and failed to attempt to return it in good faith, then that would be theft.
Finding a bill of such a small denomination that it is extremal unrealistic to attempt to find the owner is not theft.
Developing for consoles doesn't prevent a company from doing the PC version right, they just sometimes lazily choose not to...
I agree, the problem, as you say, is that the majority of developers seem to be getting lazier and lazier.
it is not a vastly better fps experience for me. I'm sure it is for you, and I respect that.
Mouse and keyboard is unquestionably more precise and responsive. For the competitive gamer a strong case can be made that it's the way to go. On the other hand, the controller has rudimentary haptics to simulate kick, and a proper trigger you can pull. Having used both, the mouse feels more like I'm controlling a game and the controller feels more like I'm immersed in the situation. I think that for the more casual player who is interested in the experience more than the challenge, a strong case can be made for the controller (for the convenience of lounging back in your recliner without perching your mouse and keyboard awkwardly and precariously around you as well.)
In my opinion, the first person perspective is not well suited to the lay back and play from the couch style of gameplay.
Note that I'm not saying that all FPS games are better on the PC, I'm saying that the PC is capable of supporting a game that better takes advantage of the strengths of the first person perspective. I would offer up Half-Life and System Shock as two perfect examples of this, off the top of my head.
I think cover mechanics serve a very worthwhile cross-platform purpose, specifically the idea that you can aim and shoot at enemies without exposing your whole body to fire.
On a PC you can do this without super annoying systems that take full control away from the player.
Hard for me to speak to that. PC gaming is still pretty popular last I heard, so if there really is an industry apathy toward PC development, I'd blame the industry and not console gamers. Maybe they figure that if they transition to consoles exclusively, their PC fans will follow them, and then they can develop in a magical fantasy land where piracy doesn't exist at all.....
For examples of this look at Modern Warfare 2, as well as the whole Ubisoft DRM spectacle.
You're absolutely right that it's not the console gamers fault, I was just explaining where the animosity comes from.
It seems like PC FPS players have something to prove, and I'm not sure exactly what it is. Do they need to feel like they have the better experience? That's fine. Presumably they play on PC *because* they feel like they have a better experience that way, so I'd think that would be enough.
The thing that is causing more and more of the PC gaming community to feel bitterly antagonistic is the continuing trend of "consolized" games being released for PC.
The PC is capable of a vastly better fps experience than the console is. Period.
However, none of that matters when the majority FPSs are developed with the limitations of consoles in mind (cover systems being a perfect case in point.)
So the bitterness is a product of envy. Not of your systems, but of your popularity. Many PC gamers are feeling increasingly ignored by the mainstream gaming industry.
...fans of first-person shooters... ...can use the left analogue stick...
Your implication is quite ludicrous, sir.
You're making the mistake of thinking that "Chinese" refers in any way to race in this context.
It does not. Instead it is being used to refer to a culture.
The contrast here is not between "white" and "yellow" people, but between "Eastern" and "Western" cultures.
Please stop reading racism into discussions of culture.