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This may be a stupid question, but I couldn't find the answer elsewhere, so I figured it'd be easier to ask a forum full of gamers potentially more avid than myself:
:?: Do PC gamers (playing GTA4, for example) share the same game servers as XBox 360 console gamers? :?:
Throwing on lyrics like you throw up a flapjack
You're a Chicken McNugget and I'm a Big Mac Godless Gamers @ Atheist Nexus
DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
edited February 2010
There have been servers that supported Console vs PC in games before. The Dreamcast version of Quake III had this going on. From what I understand, this didn't make for the most harmonious community.
I think platform specific servers are the way to go, at least for competitive games.
Only game off the top of my head that i can think of that shares servers is Lost Planet: Colonies Edition. And the PC version was impossible to play with KBAM because they intentionally slowed down the responsiveness of the mouse to try to even out the odds. What they ended up doing was just gimping the whole experience on the PC multi in the process.
Shadowrun did this too, again with a few gameplay decisions in place to mitigate the speed/percision advantage that a mouse gives you. It's pretty rare.
Dust 514 (did I get the numeric right?) is going to be an interesting take on this, it's a console based FPS that ties in with the EVE universe.
There have been servers that supported Console vs PC in games before. The Dreamcast version of Quake III had this going on. From what I understand, this didn't make for the most harmonious community.
I think platform specific servers are the way to go, at least for competitive games.
Yeah, nothing stings like getting your ass handed to you on a DC by the guy playing on his PC who had a keyboard, mouse, and (God I haven't heard this expression in years) was a filthy LPB.
You could even the odds if you bought a DC mouse, keyboard, and BBA, but the amount of people who did was very low.
4x4 Evolution was released for the Dreamcast around the same time, and it supported online play between the DC, PC, and Mac versions. Being a racing game the playing field was skewed a bit toward the DC players at first, but after a while PC modders got interested in the game, and would create monstrous trucks that were too fast and powerful for the stock trucks the DC guys were stuck with.
I think it's pretty cool that ten years ago Dreamcast developers were experimenting with this option, I mean the Dreamcast version of Q3 can play against any platform Quake III has been ported to, all they have to have is a special .pak file and the 1.16 point release.
I was under the impression that this would never happen on Xbox Live because it basically opens a hole big enough for a whole planet of cheaters to fly through. There's a reason why modded Xbox's get banned from Live, and why you can only buy approved memory devices. Letting PC's on Live would spell the end of relatively cheater-free games.
I was under the impression that this would never happen on Xbox Live because it basically opens a hole big enough for a whole planet of cheaters to fly through. There's a reason why modded Xbox's get banned from Live, and why you can only buy approved memory devices. Letting PC's on Live would spell the end of relatively cheater-free games.
That's... a different issue.
There have been cross-platform playable games on the 360, it just hasn't really taken off because of the enormous amount of work involved. At the time of release, CliffyB said that if they'd worked cross-platform play into the PC version of Gears of War it would have taken them an extra 6 months of work.
Modded 360's can certainly allow cheating and cause issues, although the main reason for banning modded 360's from Live is simply because of piracy. "Approved" memory devices is mainly just a means to make money from the peripherals market though. A lot of devices will plug into a 360 but not all of them will work because MS simply doesn't want them to (keyboard / mouse) or else the manufacturers haven't paid the relevant licence fees to gain access to the hardware.
Letting PC's on Live will spend the end of cheat free games? Man that's a loaded statement in several ways and would deserve a whole essay of explanation, suffice it to say it's not as simple as that.
Allowing other memory devices would mean people could alter both save games and games on disk.
PC's already have this problem and there's a constant arms race between developers and cheaters. The cost of this arms race is not to be taken lightly. Xbox Live has basically taken themselves out of that arms race by prohibiting external access and saved themselves and their 3rd party developers both money and headaches.
On the flip side, their prices are egregious. The best reason for buying the Elite model (for me) was the large hard drive. I really want to buy the wireless-N dongle, but I'd rather run cat-5 through my apartment than pay $99 for a small chip and a bit of plastic.
Allowing other memory devices would mean people could alter both save games and games on disk.
I'll stop you right there because this stuff happens anyway. Quite a few of the recent hacks on MW2 for example came over from the PC side, and it pretty much relates to your next bit.
PC's already have this problem and there's a constant arms race between developers and cheaters. The cost of this arms race is not to be taken lightly. Xbox Live has basically taken themselves out of that arms race by prohibiting external access and saved themselves and their 3rd party developers both money and headaches.
XBL suffers fewer hacks because it's a closed system, but that doesn't actually have too much to do with the memory devices being sold, because it's still possible to transfer files over and do things to games in resident memory. Hence the MW2 hacks that "spread" like a virus over XBL to anyone that connected until you rebooted the system.
Approved peripherals aren't primarily about maintaining standards on XBL, that's a separate issue. They are primarily about making money, because peripherals are always a big money spinner on the consoles, hence their jacked up prices.
Allowing other memory devices would mean people could alter both save games and games on disk.
PC's already have this problem and there's a constant arms race between developers and cheaters. The cost of this arms race is not to be taken lightly. Xbox Live has basically taken themselves out of that arms race by prohibiting external access and saved themselves and their 3rd party developers both money and headaches.
What? Don't people do this anyway? Aren't there plenty of guides online on how to take hard drives and mod them for your 360?
I don't even own a 360, so perhaps I'm wrong here.
Posts
I think platform specific servers are the way to go, at least for competitive games.
Dust 514 (did I get the numeric right?) is going to be an interesting take on this, it's a console based FPS that ties in with the EVE universe.
You're a Chicken McNugget and I'm a Big Mac
Godless Gamers @ Atheist Nexus
Yeah, nothing stings like getting your ass handed to you on a DC by the guy playing on his PC who had a keyboard, mouse, and (God I haven't heard this expression in years) was a filthy LPB.
You could even the odds if you bought a DC mouse, keyboard, and BBA, but the amount of people who did was very low.
4x4 Evolution was released for the Dreamcast around the same time, and it supported online play between the DC, PC, and Mac versions. Being a racing game the playing field was skewed a bit toward the DC players at first, but after a while PC modders got interested in the game, and would create monstrous trucks that were too fast and powerful for the stock trucks the DC guys were stuck with.
I think it's pretty cool that ten years ago Dreamcast developers were experimenting with this option, I mean the Dreamcast version of Q3 can play against any platform Quake III has been ported to, all they have to have is a special .pak file and the 1.16 point release.
The only one of them I've played is Universe at War, which has absolutely no one playing online.
That's... a different issue.
There have been cross-platform playable games on the 360, it just hasn't really taken off because of the enormous amount of work involved. At the time of release, CliffyB said that if they'd worked cross-platform play into the PC version of Gears of War it would have taken them an extra 6 months of work.
Modded 360's can certainly allow cheating and cause issues, although the main reason for banning modded 360's from Live is simply because of piracy. "Approved" memory devices is mainly just a means to make money from the peripherals market though. A lot of devices will plug into a 360 but not all of them will work because MS simply doesn't want them to (keyboard / mouse) or else the manufacturers haven't paid the relevant licence fees to gain access to the hardware.
Letting PC's on Live will spend the end of cheat free games? Man that's a loaded statement in several ways and would deserve a whole essay of explanation, suffice it to say it's not as simple as that.
How else can you justify a 120GB hard drive being sold for $149.99?
It's only made with high quality components, built for the enthusiast.
Like those premium HDMI cables.
PC's already have this problem and there's a constant arms race between developers and cheaters. The cost of this arms race is not to be taken lightly. Xbox Live has basically taken themselves out of that arms race by prohibiting external access and saved themselves and their 3rd party developers both money and headaches.
On the flip side, their prices are egregious. The best reason for buying the Elite model (for me) was the large hard drive. I really want to buy the wireless-N dongle, but I'd rather run cat-5 through my apartment than pay $99 for a small chip and a bit of plastic.
I'll stop you right there because this stuff happens anyway. Quite a few of the recent hacks on MW2 for example came over from the PC side, and it pretty much relates to your next bit.
XBL suffers fewer hacks because it's a closed system, but that doesn't actually have too much to do with the memory devices being sold, because it's still possible to transfer files over and do things to games in resident memory. Hence the MW2 hacks that "spread" like a virus over XBL to anyone that connected until you rebooted the system.
Approved peripherals aren't primarily about maintaining standards on XBL, that's a separate issue. They are primarily about making money, because peripherals are always a big money spinner on the consoles, hence their jacked up prices.
I don't even own a 360, so perhaps I'm wrong here.
Edit: from the above, guess so.