Why PC Gaming is Dying

Hey, you're forgetting, I'm more open-source/indie than commercial. Quite frankly, the profit devotion puts me off too. Quality suffers too much.

Oh really? Why are there virtually no indie and no open source games that rank anywhere near the best of all time, then?

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A fast computer with a good videocard is not. You can be very functional with a computer built from $400 (without monitor, keyboard, etc). It can run just about anything very well (even Vista if you turn off the shiny bits), even playing DVDs and so forth. Media encoding, compiling large programs, and gaming are out of course, but everything else will be very fast.

You're starting to catch on - my computer can do a lot of things consoles can't. IMHO, that pretty much justifies the higher price.

Unless you need drivers.

Well, when you start installing digital cameras, printers, memory sticks, scanners, and other devices on your Xbox, we can discuss drivers.

Although most stuff worked just fine with the generic drivers anyways.

Are you kidding?

Nope. The last few games I bought through either Stardock Central or through Steam, and I'm considering not buying any more games on a disk.

All I have to do is purchase it. It downloads and installs automatically, and when it's done I just have to click to start it. No problems at all.

yet I still have been unable to patch GCII, with a half dozen messages about different email addys, etc.

I suggest contacting Stardock. Sounds like you changed the email address at one time, and SDC doesn't seem to handle that very well at the moment. I think they improved that in Impulse, though.

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Why are there virtually no indie and no open source games that rank anywhere near the best of all time, then?

On whose list?

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Oh really? Why are there virtually no indie and no open source games that rank anywhere near the best of all time, then?

Do you even know about Indie and Open Source games? Rogue was a small project, it has its own genre. Open Source? It's a matter of opinion, but I can play tens of thousands of good Open Source games that make the commercial games feel like rip-offs.

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IMHO, that pretty much justifies the higher price.

That's not the point. The point is that you can get a $400 computer and a $300 console, or you can get a $700 gaming PC.

Well, when you start installing digital cameras, printers, memory sticks, scanners, and other devices on your Xbox, we can discuss drivers.

I was talking about graphics drivers.

The last few games I bought through either Stardock Central or through Steam, and I'm considering not buying any more games on a disk.

Now, let's assume that the Console gaming experience were equal to the StarDock/Steam-only gaming experience. That is, all SD/Steam games work instantly and nearly-flawlessly at the moment of release, just like Console games. I don't buy this for a second, but we're pretending.

If you limit yourself to only purchasing what comes out on those two PC platforms, you've basically limited your possible game consumption to a few genres and only a few games in those genres.

StarCraft II will not be coming out on Steam or SD Central. Ever. Neither will the next Total War, or any number of other excellent games. Now yes, Steam is a popular distribution channel. But it isn't all of PC gaming.

In short, you must limit yourself to only buying from certain companies or channels in order to enjoy the same experience you get with every console game.

It downloads and installs automatically, and when it's done I just have to click to start it. No problems at all.

There are innumerable bugs in Twilight of the Arnor; so many that I have refrained from purchasing it until I see a patch that fixes most of them. I was there for the initial release of GC2 as well, and to call it a beta release would be a statement of undeniable truth.

For a more casual player than myself, giving up on the game within the first few days of its release would not have been unreasonable. Few are the console games that shipped in a similar buggy state. Console games may be getting patches now, but at least the games (by and large) function. They have been vetted by someone outside the developer (unless the game is made by Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo) and pass basic tests of not crashing if left running for a day and UI qualifications.

Rogue was a small project, it has its own genre.

A genre so niche and irrelevant that nobody who plays the games realizes just how fundamentally disfunctional the genre's core root gameplay is.

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That's not the point. The point is that you can get a $400 computer and a $300 console, or you can get a $700 gaming PC.

I don't mind paying a premium to get better graphics, more customization, less manufacturer lock-in, better multiplayer, and mod support, as well as faster speed on all the regular computing tasks than some shitty $400 Dell.

I don't buy the "you're limiting yourself to only a few genres" argument either - not only does Steam have a ton of different genres, the games that I've downloaded on Steam lend themselves to so much playability that it doesn't matter. I have been playing Team Fortress 2 since Nov 2007. Seven months playing a quality MP game. Something like that matters to me - SP only games are great but I'd rather have a game like this than a variety of mediocre 30 hour titles.

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A genre so niche and irrelevant that nobody who plays the games realizes just how fundamentally disfunctional the genre's core root gameplay is.

So D&D has fundamentally disfunctional gameplay? Have you ever played a roguelike with a graphics frontend?

I don't mind paying a premium to get better graphics, more customization, less manufacturer lock-in, better multiplayer, and mod support, as well as faster speed on all the regular computing tasks than some shitty $400 Dell.

I guss I don't either, really.

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I was talking about graphics drivers.

Big whoop. You really only need to do it once, and it's more the manufacturers' fault than it is the PC itself. I'm sure it could easily be put into Windows Update if nVidia or ATI wanted to.

That is, all SD/Steam games work instantly and nearly-flawlessly at the moment of release, just like Console games.

You mean the console games that had to sometimes be re-released with new disks in the past, or now that consoles have internet access, have patches released online? Don't fool yourself. I'm not really buying the "bug" argument anymore.

I don't buy this for a second, but we're pretending.

Buy it or not, I just installed and ran TrackMania using Steam flawlessly.

If you limit yourself to only purchasing what comes out on those two PC platforms, you've basically limited your possible game consumption to a few genres and only a few games in those genres.

Have you seen Steam's selection recently?

StarCraft II will not be coming out on Steam or SD Central. Ever.

That depends on whether Valve can make a deal with Blizzard. They're already made deals with other big name publishers, including some of their largest competitors. It's not as far fetched as it sounds.

Neither will the next Total War, or any number of other excellent games.

All of the previous Total Wars are on Steam. Don't be so sure!

Valve has already made deals with 2K Games, Activision, Atari, Eidos Interactive, Epic Games, Inc, id Software, Majesco, PopCap Games, Inc., Rockstar games, SEGA, Strategy First, THQ, and Ubisoft. You will find a lot of top sellers from major publishers on that list.

In short, you must limit yourself to only buying from certain companies or channels in order to enjoy the same experience you get with every console game.

Bull. I've tried strategy games on a console, and the experience is nothing like a keyboard and mouse. I'd say that consoles lend themselves to a limited number of genres. In addition, try finding a good MMORPG on a console. In addition, Steam's selection is already very large and getting larger almost daily. I'm not buying your argument.

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Okay, maybe we're not quite there yet, but the online markets for PC games are rapidly approaching the point where your arguments are going to be useless. Enjoy having the "upper hand" while it lasts.

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By the way, Blizzard just started their own digital download service, and I wouldn't be surprised if StarCraft II and later, World of Starcraft (

) become available for purchase&download through that.

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On whose list?

Almost everybody's. And frankly, I suspect the only reason there are such games on *anybody's* list is because they're biased (most gamers are not...they do not care about the game's roots)

Do you even know about Indie and Open Source games? Rogue was a small project, it has its own genre.

A genre almost nobody plays, and most people would hate (I'm *not* one of them) Incidentally, whilst I like the roguelike concept in theory, all the ones I've played, which is pretty much all of the supposedly best ones, have been quite poor. That's understandable given these things are produced by hobbyists in their spare time.

It's a matter of opinion, but I can play tens of thousands of good Open Source games that make the commercial games feel like rip-offs.

But are these games *better*? That, too, is a matter of opinion, but frankly I have a very hard time believing your opinion is based on anything other than your bias. It is certainly not a commonly shared opinion, which makes your claim that *quality* suffers when the intent is profit a pretty stupid one.

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But quality does suffer when the intent is profit. Profit makes companies rush products, cut stuff out, curb designer creativity and so on. Its not a coincidence that nowadays we get excellent looking titles with little or no original content (notable exceptions serve to confirm the rule) while in the olden days most games were developed on a very small budget compared to today and yet managed to be more innovative and imaginative that modern games.

Why is that? Well, new stuff is risky. When you have a small budget and your office is really a friend's garage, you have little to lose and everything to gain by "going for the vision".
But when you have a huge corporation, studios which employ hundreds of people and budgets which go into millions of dollars, then suddenly its not so easy to chance it all on a risky, never-tried-before idea. Most big game companies do not have gamers and designers on the board, but investors, people more versed and interested in making money than good games.
In fact, it has allmost become a rule of thumb that whenever a good game studio is acquired by a big company, the quality of their products, of their relationship with their gamer fan base and the scope of their vision expressed in their titles declines allmost immediately.
It's not that they got lobotomized. They just lost the say in how things are to be.
It must suck to be a designer then.

Bottom line is, and the one somehow often overlooked: quality is expressed in more ways than just visual and audio excellence. A good story, new and interesting gameplay mechanics and other such "paraphenalia" are in fact what differentiates a title we pick up, play once and forget and a title which we fondly remember and come back to from time to time.

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Thank you, erathoniel.

I needed a good laugh.

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Almost everybody's.

Popularity or ratings? How would you define "Indie?" Have you considered many teams that started as indie have become commercial? (for example, Counterstrike and Portal)

I dunno, I'm seeing more small companies start to get more attention - Audiosurf, TrackMania, Gish, and some games using GarageGames' Torque engine have seen some attention. It does seem to be growing, and if the large companies start moving completely out of the PC market I think you're going to see Indie games start to explode with activity and fill the hole that the commercial games left. With the online distribution systems now available, it's a lot easier to push smaller games out to a large audience. Both Steam and SDC have a number of Indie games on them.

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Almost everybody's. And frankly, I suspect the only reason there are such games on *anybody's* list is because they're biased (most gamers are not...they do not care about the game's roots)

No, many people who are true hardcore gamers enjoy freeware or open source games. I know several people who I've handed shareware trials or freeware/open source games to enjoy them to the point where they play them almost exclusively.

A genre almost nobody plays, and most people would hate (I'm *not* one of them) Incidentally, whilst I like the roguelike concept in theory, all the ones I've played, which is pretty much all of the supposedly best ones, have been quite poor. That's understandable given these things are produced by hobbyists in their spare time.

Excuse me, but some freeware games are made by people who are professionals in the field. The roguelike concept is perfect, but you have to be willing to work with what's available. These things were made to run on console-interfaces, not GUI's, so they've got fairly simple graphics, but their gameplay is extremely deep. Ever played GearHead? Try it (1 is better than 2 right now).

But are these games *better*? That, too, is a matter of opinion, but frankly I have a very hard time believing your opinion is based on anything other than your bias. It is certainly not a commonly shared opinion, which makes your claim that *quality* suffers when the intent is profit a pretty stupid one.

No, I do find that games made for profit mainly suffer in quality a lot. For instance, most every movie game has very poor systems and gameplay presentation. However, free games do have a lack of quality control, but there are several free games that people will swear by and take over a commercial game. Granted, the commercial games have more resources, but it's easy enough to compare the experiences one would have with most of the commercial games on the market to a free or open source game.

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In addition, try finding a good MMORPG on a console.

Try finding a good MMO on PCs. I haven't...

You mean the console games that had to sometimes be re-released with new disks in the past

Are you honestly trying to say that per-capita, console games are buggier than PC games? I mean, really?

There's evidence going back decades of initial releases of PC software being essentially unplayable until the first patch. I have yet to see a single console game that shipped in a fundamentally unplayable state, one that needed a day-one patch just to play it.

Buy it or not, I just installed and ran TrackMania using Steam flawlessly.

And? One game is one game. If GalCiv2 had been available on Steam, it would not have magically been "flawless" as opposed to the flawed product it was at initial release.

But quality does suffer when the intent is profit.

It all depends on the developer. HL2 was both a labor of love and an intent to profit. As were most of the great games.

Some developers/publishers are more risk averse than others. But others know that risk creates profit.

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These things were made to run on console-interfaces, not GUI's, so they've got fairly simple graphics, but their gameplay is extremely deep.

As a former Rogue/Nethack player, I'd say a better term would be "complex." They have little storyline, but complex gameplay. The levels were mostly randomly generated, with a couple pre-defined levels thrown in. It was rather frustrating how easy it was to die, though.

For instance, most every movie game has very poor systems and gameplay presentation.

Yeah, the movie based games tend to be the worst quality, especially since the developers are pushed hard to release it the same time as the movie or DVD release. I found it amusing that the devs who made the Ironman game were boasting how it would "break the mold" and actually be a good game - then, after its release, the reviews come in and it's marginal at best, with a lot of complaints about repetitive gameplay.

However, when a commercial developer is not rushed and takes the quiet approach, they can indeed crank out some great games. I'm thinking Stardock, Valve and Blizzard.

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Try finding a good MMO on PCs. I haven't...

There's always Well of Souls, a cartoony Share-freeware MMORPG with solo/LAN capabilities and mod capabilities, not to mention server (in free edition) capabilities.

However, when a commercial developer is not rushed and takes the quiet approach, they can indeed crank out some great games. I'm thinking Stardock, Valve and Blizzard.

However, in our mega-market sized world, Stardock and Valve are technically Indie. Blizzard just never releases anything until it's ready (wise policy). Try including id, they make decent games.

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Try finding a good MMO on PCs.

I'm not sure I follow: Isn't MMORPG a subset of MMO?

There's evidence going back decades of initial releases of PC software being essentially unplayable until the first patch. I have yet to see a single console game that shipped in a fundamentally unplayable state, one that needed a day-one patch just to play it.

Okay, maybe this is a weakness of PC games - but not really enough to prevent PC owners from buying games.

This arises from a couple factors:

a) The console games are built for a limited number of hardware combinations. You know what the hardware is, its limitations, and likely most of its bugs as well. With a PC, however, all of the hardware is a hodgepodge of parts from any number of vendors, and accounting for all of the hardware variances is a lot more difficult.

You'll see this effect on the Mac as well: Generally, Mac developers have a much clearer idea of what hardware and software environment they'll be running on, so Mac software will often appear to be less buggy.

When the software is placed on a disk for a console, you're likely to never get a chance to patch it. So a lot more careful attention is (soon to be was?) paid to getting it right the first time.

Unfortunately, with the increasing connectivity of both computers and consoles, factor b is unfortunately starting to fade away: Since patches can be released, many developers are indeed getting lazier and releasing early with known bugs. It's sad to say, but you're right.

The question is: Is this what's really causing publishers to move away from PCs? These distinctions have been around for a long time - why move away from the PC now? Why didn't they do it earlier?

However, in our mega-market sized world, Stardock and Valve are technically Indie.

Stardock I could call Indie - but not Valve. I don't have any numbers on me, but it looks like Steam has made them a bit of a mega-publisher themselves.

Try including id, they make decent games.

Agreed, they make good quality games. I guess I just don't play their games much, for reasons of personal taste.

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I'm not sure I follow: Isn't MMORPG a subset of MMO?

I think it's supposed to be. MMO's not really a correct term. It has to be MMOG.

There's evidence going back decades of initial releases of PC software being essentially unplayable until the first patch. I have yet to see a single console game that shipped in a fundamentally unplayable state, one that needed a day-one patch just to play it.

Yeah, but if you get a really crappy console game, it's never remedied, but a PC game can be modded or patched up.

Stardock I could call Indie - but not Valve. I don't have any numbers on me, but it looks like Steam has made them a bit of a mega-publisher themselves.

Yeah, Valve's large, but they do do their own publishing and development in one company.

Agreed, they make good quality games. I guess I just don't play their games much, for reasons of personal taste.

I don't play many of their games either, but they're an example. Meh, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is a decent enough game.

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Excuse me, but some freeware games are made by people who are professionals in the field.

Yes, my bad, By "made by hobbyists" I really meant "made as a hobby". I wasn't trying to imply anything about the skills of the makers of the games.

No, many people who are true hardcore gamers enjoy freeware or open source games. I know several people who I've handed shareware trials or freeware/open source games to enjoy them to the point where they play them almost exclusively.

Popularity or ratings?

Popularity is a poor indicator of the user's opinion of the quality. I use a tonne of freeware apps. However, whilst they *are* often better than the mediocre commercial products, in most cases I know they are *not* the best available, because I have used the free trial periods of better products. I didn't buy them, because I didn't consider the improvement worth the money. Same with games. Very few of the best ones are going to be free, but that doesn't mean the best free games won't be better than some commercial products, or that somebody is automatically going to think the improvement in quality of a commercial product is worth paying for. (When I say "free" above, I'm meaning produced with no intent to profit, so I'm excluding the results of any business model for which free products are a deliberate component.)

How would you define "Indie?"

I don't like the description most people use, which seems to be a pretty arbitrary reference to the size of the publisher involved. I personally look at the independence of the development, so class as "independent" any self-published title. Or, I suppose, any product which was completed before being touted to publishers (probably very rare)

Due to my unusual definition, I think we may have a point of some agreement - the publishers at the top end of the scale do tend to be *all* about the bottom line, and all about it *right now* because they have investors to satisfy. This *can* hurt quality *relative to what might have been achieved*. That's really very different from saying that it's the intent to make profit *itself* that hurts quality, though - without that intent on the part of the developers, it's unlikely the product would have even been made. It should also be noted that small publishers can be just as guilty of forcing premature release, though perhaps more often for different reasons (for example, because they simply can't financially afford further delay). We also perhaps shouldn't be so quick to lay the blame at the publisher's door...the developers, after all, will usually have failed to meet pre-agreed deadlines, and I'm sure in some cases it's the developers who force release.

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I think it's supposed to be. MMO's not really a correct term. It has to be MMOG.

In any case, this is the second generation of consoles to really support online access, and although online play is becoming more popular, it's still pretty young for the platform. The PC has had it a lot longer, and there are a large number of online games available for the PC. The future of online games, especially for consoles, should be interesting.

Yeah, but if you get a really crappy console game, it's never remedied, but a PC game can be modded or patched up.

This is true, although that is changing with consoles going online now. There are advantages and disadvantages to being able to easily patch a game.

Yeah, Valve's large, but they do do their own publishing and development in one company.

True, and I think that self development is really the way it should stay. I look at companies like EA and it's really quite a disaster when several game companies merge. If they leave the PC platform, I honestly wouldn't miss them. They've messed up every game company they've bought, including some of my favorites (fond memories of Westwood start to emerge).

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This is true, although that is changing with consoles going online now. There are advantages and disadvantages to being able to easily patch a game.

Yeah, but console producers choose to take no accountability of their crappiness at times. For instance, I can't count how many broken, horrible console games I've seen. Sometimes it's just a matter of pride.

True, and I think that self development is really the way it should stay. I look at companies like EA and it's really quite a disaster when several game companies merge. If they leave the PC platform, I honestly wouldn't miss them. They've messed up every game company they've bought, including some of my favorites (fond memories of Westwood start to emerge).

Yes, self development is the best. Communication and artistic style are more brought together when everyone has unity. Westwood made awesome games while it lasted. Now EA just makes arcade crap.

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Speaking of system requirements, AMD wants to create a standard for gaming PCs. I've said it's a good idea as early as 2 years ago.

AMD's specs look expensive, but in fact they are pretty reasonable in price (less than one grand). The only thing missing is a sensible upgrade scheme.

http://game.amd.com/us-en/amdgame_testedconfigurations.aspx?p=1

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I have an AMD laptop (Dual Core, 1.81 GHZ, nVidia GeForce Go 6150, 2 GB ram, 120 [HP, so 100] GB HD, and 17' monitor). So it has a fair deal of firepower (it *should* run almost anything with enough graphics downgrades), but it seems to dislike anything EA makes. Anything with more than sixteen players (given I could find that many, or find bots to play them) is taboo (NPC's ok, bots not), and I'd have to take up human sacrifice to play a decent racing game with city, police, and traffic dynamics (NFS, some other games).

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Why PC Gaming is Dying

And How To Save It