Is PC gaming dying a slow death?

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nictron

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Looking at PC gaming and the rumors that have been foreseeing its demise.

We need three things to happen:

1) Standardization of hardware specification (IE Low, Medium and High)
2) Ease of installation process.
3) Longer development cycles that produce bigger leaps in technological advancement.

1: Standardization of hardware specification (IE Low, Medium and High).

Vista had a very good idea of incorporating a rating system into the operating system to evaluate system performance, though it is limited in the tests that it can do and the accuracy of the tests. Games should use this standard benchmark to make the game configuring process more simple and accurate, IE: if you have a rating of 5.7 in Vista it would configure Crysis correctly so that it runs at average 30 FPS. This is really lacking and causes confusion. PC gaming must also always allow you to tinker your performance to the max but the intelligence of the user should be set at a low level not an expected advanced level.

2: Ease of installation process.

Plug in the disk and off you go, Halo 2 on vista had this system in place but for some reason we are not seeing it in games released currently. Why not? Are the developers lazy or are Microsoft charging an arm and a leg for the implementation? Again ease of use with the advanced options available for those more intelligent users. O and implementing copy protection that causes confusion and interruption is also not helping the matter. When will the Grey suits realize that copy protection only wastes their money and impedes the user’s experience! Show me one game that has not been cracked over the last 10 years? I do not pirate at all, but I have used piracy to get a game to work when the process was flawed or when my CD Rom broke or would not be compatible with a disk.

3: Longer development cycles that produces bigger leaps in technological advancement.

The fact that the graphic companies release so many cards just to keep their revenue ticking is a pain in the butt, the development cycles should ensure that the leap in technological advancement is big enough so that it forces you to buy every 2 to 3 years not every year. This causes more development strain on the game developers and it will make the client with less money go for a console instead of the PC. If the advancement was great then we would all upgrade and we would all see the benefits and we would all enjoy that purchase more. Not the DirectX 10 then 10.1 then 10.2 advancements we have currently. It just causes more confusion and adds flame to the fire.

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As a final note I would like to say that I sometimes get the feeling that the PC market is used as a testing ground for new technologies that is filtered and then the best of that filters through to the console space.
 
PCs will always be better than consoles, they might cost alot more than consoles but they'll always be better. PCs aren't the testing grounds for consoles, well they arent built that way, but its is a good testing ground if youre looking at it from the side of the console builer/maker/producer. But I dont think Nvidia makes cards to see which chipset will be better for the PS4/Xbox 460/etc.

There is an easy way for the user who doesn't know that much about hardware: gaming PCs, these are pretty expensive but come pre set up. You buy that and you've got 2-3 years before its almost completely obsolete, just like buying a PS3 now is (kinda) worth it and will be a piece of crap 2-3 years down the line. (anyone remember the Dreamcast? no?)

The graphics card I bought a year ago was mid range and can still offer mid range graphics quality for new games (except Crysis).

Its not all as bad as you think.
 
Last edited:
crysis said:
Yes, but that will basically be a computer by then.
Click to expand...

I do not think consoles want to become PC's though they will try and access new markets by introducing the Keyboard and Mouse. But a console will never have the freedom a PC provides. Editing configuration files, cracking and tinkering.
 
*sigh* console fanboys...

The fact is the PC will always be useful, be it in the form of a tower,screen, mouse and keyboard or some new invention (i.e. MS Surface).You can just do so much on the PC, and when one uses a PC for so much already, it is kinda silly to spend money on top of that for a gaming system, considering PCs can already play most games anyway.

Consoles are cool, I enjoy the gaming experience on them, but I am not about to trade in my PC for one.
 
It's not Dying :eek:

Just go to fsking LAN, there's more people everytime and none of them want to play sexbox or PSfree?
 
For my kind of games (FPS and strategy) consoles currently don't work for me. I want a keyboard and mouse, and I hate playing on a TV. I'm sure there are enough gamers like me to keep PC games alive.

I might move over to console when it offers a proper keyboard and mouse option. This combined with HDTV might seduce me ... but then again I'll always own a PC for many reasons.

For now a console is useful to keep my kids off my PC so that I can play my games my way.
 
lets see:

latest PC games i Have bought
Crysis (awesome)
Call of Duty 4 (awesome)
Bioshock (okayish)
Hellgate London (still have to install)

latest xbox games i have bought:
Forza II
DiRT
Crackdown

I dont think either of the two will die out. but as someone mentioned, if xbox had a k-board and mouse... well lets just say the pc games i bought i would have had on xbox.
 
NO WAY!!!! Pc gaming is the ONLY gaming. Playstation etc etc is for illiterate, simple minded zombies. :)
 
the other day I walked in top cd to buy a pc game... and more than 70% of the shelfes were covered with Xbox 360 consoles games. and there were only a classical section left for pc's wtf up with that?
 
Nokkie said:
the other day I walked in top cd to buy a pc game... and more than 70% of the shelfes were covered with Xbox 360 consoles games. and there were only a classical section left for pc's wtf up with that?
Click to expand...

It's gonna rain, snow and hail, Nokkie's in town! ;) :D :p
 
You guys are forgetting that Star CraftII is pc only.
 
They have been saying pc gaming will die for the last 10 years and will keep saying it to make themselves feel happy. The pc ain't going to die as a gaming platform. The hardware manufacturers have way too much to lose they make a lot of money from the enthusiast upgrading their pcs.

An interesting point a few weeks ago I read an article on gaming and how each platform who has the most sales etc. Only the xbox 360 sold more games than the pc last year. PC games still outsold the likes of ps3 and wii.

And I really do not like option 2 you mentioned. I want to be able to install game on my harddrive were I choose I have a very specific way I organize my harddrive and having the setup automate as you suggest would be a problem.

And I disagree with opinion 3. A Lot of pc gamers like to upgrade our hardware it's a thrill opening up the brand new graphics card out of the box for the first time and then installing and hoping you did it right. Pc gamers like getting new toys every 6 months or at least every year. We are no console guys who like the same system for 3 years.

And pc gaming generally has always been for the more advanced users. Thats why game developers give us sdk kits to make our own mods .:D
 
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