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(Personal) declining interest in PC gaming
devoir
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been a PC gamer since... good lord, 1990 or so. I'm nearly 21 now, so you can imagine how ingrained it is. Which makes what I've got to say quite puzzling, even to me.
I find myself considering, more and more, that I have lost interest in PC gaming * and more and more interested in console gaming.
* aside from a few links to the past. See below.
If you're in a "LOL TLDR" mood, skip the rest and just reply based on that little nugget. Otherwise, I have an explanation:
My interest started with the Sierra Adventure games and has never really strayed far from RPG/Adventure flavours. I've flirted with RTS and other genres, but my two big gaming sinkholes have been a text-based MUD (5 years) and WoW (2 years).
When I started work, of course my gaming went down. But oddly, I actually bought an Xbox. Before this I had never owned a console and the grand total of time spent on consoles was probably about six hours, most of it spent one afternoon playing Goldeneye on a friend's N64. Broken Sword 3 worked fantastically on that platform (for what it tried to do, I thought), and KoTOR 1 and 2 were loads of fun. For lounge room gaming with mates, Lego Star Wars was sweet, as was Star Wars Episode 3.
I bought a Wii at launch day, and enjoyed Zelda, Wii Sports (many, many times with friends, work colleagues, etc) and Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
The last time I seriously played a game on my PC was the Titan Quest expansion, and that lasted for about a week. I can't get into continually playing the same content over and over again just for slightly different rewards. Which I why I quit WoW, to be honest.
I'm now eyeing off buying a PS2, and will be buying an Xbox 360 Elite when it comes out (I've sold my original Xbox). I have no interest in the PS3 because of my personal views, but let's not get into that.
On the PC I'm only really looking forward to Crysis (in a oooooh ahhh kind of way), Hellgate London (obvious link to the past), C&C3 (obvious link to the past, and even that is going to the 360). Aside from that I'm pretty much empty on enthusiasm for the platform as a whole. I haven't upgraded my PC in nearly two years, and I don't see myself upgrading for the next twelve months at least.
I'm looking forward to things like Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Crackdown, Army of Two, etc on the 360. Hell, I spent two nights after work at a co-worker's place running through Gears of War on co-op until 1AM in the morning as soon as it came out. I never play shooters, ever.
Maybe that's the source of the 'problem' - a bit of my changing life (as I have become entrenched in the day-to-day of working fulltime), plus the increasing focus on gameplay innovation on the console platforms?
As a very broad, sweeping statement I don't see a lot of innovation on the PC platform, aside from companies like Popcap. I mean, despite the fact that I bought it, Titan Quest is so very nearly a direct gameplay iteration of Diablo 2, in my opinion. I believe there is a lot more that could have been done, as a consumer of such products. I won't give specific features, and really I shouldn't be the one coming up with them - a good designer gives you features that you didn't even know you wanted until you had them.
Ah, wait. The only real new innovation I see coming to PC is Spore. And even that apparently will be targetting the console platforms.
What do you think?
I find myself considering, more and more, that I have lost interest in PC gaming * and more and more interested in console gaming.
* aside from a few links to the past. See below.
If you're in a "LOL TLDR" mood, skip the rest and just reply based on that little nugget. Otherwise, I have an explanation:
My interest started with the Sierra Adventure games and has never really strayed far from RPG/Adventure flavours. I've flirted with RTS and other genres, but my two big gaming sinkholes have been a text-based MUD (5 years) and WoW (2 years).
When I started work, of course my gaming went down. But oddly, I actually bought an Xbox. Before this I had never owned a console and the grand total of time spent on consoles was probably about six hours, most of it spent one afternoon playing Goldeneye on a friend's N64. Broken Sword 3 worked fantastically on that platform (for what it tried to do, I thought), and KoTOR 1 and 2 were loads of fun. For lounge room gaming with mates, Lego Star Wars was sweet, as was Star Wars Episode 3.
I bought a Wii at launch day, and enjoyed Zelda, Wii Sports (many, many times with friends, work colleagues, etc) and Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
The last time I seriously played a game on my PC was the Titan Quest expansion, and that lasted for about a week. I can't get into continually playing the same content over and over again just for slightly different rewards. Which I why I quit WoW, to be honest.
I'm now eyeing off buying a PS2, and will be buying an Xbox 360 Elite when it comes out (I've sold my original Xbox). I have no interest in the PS3 because of my personal views, but let's not get into that.
On the PC I'm only really looking forward to Crysis (in a oooooh ahhh kind of way), Hellgate London (obvious link to the past), C&C3 (obvious link to the past, and even that is going to the 360). Aside from that I'm pretty much empty on enthusiasm for the platform as a whole. I haven't upgraded my PC in nearly two years, and I don't see myself upgrading for the next twelve months at least.
I'm looking forward to things like Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Crackdown, Army of Two, etc on the 360. Hell, I spent two nights after work at a co-worker's place running through Gears of War on co-op until 1AM in the morning as soon as it came out. I never play shooters, ever.
Maybe that's the source of the 'problem' - a bit of my changing life (as I have become entrenched in the day-to-day of working fulltime), plus the increasing focus on gameplay innovation on the console platforms?
As a very broad, sweeping statement I don't see a lot of innovation on the PC platform, aside from companies like Popcap. I mean, despite the fact that I bought it, Titan Quest is so very nearly a direct gameplay iteration of Diablo 2, in my opinion. I believe there is a lot more that could have been done, as a consumer of such products. I won't give specific features, and really I shouldn't be the one coming up with them - a good designer gives you features that you didn't even know you wanted until you had them.
Ah, wait. The only real new innovation I see coming to PC is Spore. And even that apparently will be targetting the console platforms.
What do you think?
devoir on
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Ditto.
Well, just as soon as I upgrade.
That's actually a really cool link. Despite the fact that I spend a lot of time reading tech/gaming news, I appear to have missed the vast majority of those.
I love that list because so many of the games on it would never work on a console. It really highlights the unique experience of playing games on the PC.
Though the sooner the MMO fad dies down, the better.
'True' PC-style RTS, I would agree with, although good steps have been taken to producing an enjoyable console RTS.
However, I'd argue that:
- Puzzle
- Adventure
- Action / Platformer
- Console-style FPS
- Racing Simulation (edit: not flying)
all work well on the console.
MMOs need to go through a cull, unfortunately you look at any other genre and there is still a massive scraping of the barrel going on with game concepts and executions there, so I see no reason for MMOs in the short term to be any different.
Then I bought an iBook. I switched in a big way.
I still PC game through bootcamp, but I don't upgrade my system to run games anymore. I might move to a new iMac every two years, but that'll be for other reasons.
All running great on a 3 year old PC. I haven't touched my ps2 in years.
I think you're only looking for innovation, but a good, "unoriginal" game is much better than a bad innovative game.
I agree that a good "unoriginal" game is much better. Thus, Titan Quest. But I haven't found enough good "unoriginal" games that I like. I spend about 90% of my time on my laptop nowadays, watching movies, working and surfing. Then about 50% of the time I spend on my desktop is just setting up torrents.
But ever since getting my 360, I've been a lot more enthusiastic about console gaming. I used to buy a console and get maybe five or six games for it throughout its lifespan. I have a PS2, a GameCube, and an Xbox sitting unplugged in the other room and the most games I have for any of them is my Xbox, with six. But now I actually want to get more. This is the first time I've actually gotten excited for console games and it's really starting to weird me out.
I don't plan on getting any next-gen console that's not my 360 any time soon, but for the first time, I actually want to put money into the games.
But my PC gaming hasn't gone anywhere. Most of my multiplayer gaming has shifted over to my 360, but there are just so many genres I can't find on it that I love. I'll probably never see a TBS like Civ4 on my 360 any time soon or TBSs even closer to my heart like Disciples or HoMM. Western RPGs that aren't made by Bioware? I doubt I'll see those on the JRPG dominated console market much either. Wargames like Combat Mission? I somehow doubt they would do well on consoles. Not to mention shooters. While some are pretty good on consoles, they belong on a platform that predominantly uses a keyboard and mouse.
And honestly, I see no more innovation on consoles most of the time than I see on the PC. They've both found their niches and they tend to stick with them. That is not to say there is none on either, because there is. It just tends to be smaller things.
Right, well, you let me know when all those flight sim players start giving up their PC's to play on the Xbox.
My mistake, that makes no sense when I re-read it too.
Holy CRAP, Jagged Alliance 3 in a Silent Storm engine? YES.
Right now, my interest in the PC is on a peak again. I'm digging through bargain bins, picking up used games and new ones too. There is so much good stuff around for the PC.
I used to be big into 'cheap' gaming when I was student, which lead to me searching through a lot of old games in the vein of LucasArts, Westwood's Kyrandia, Sierra, etc. Even recently I went trawling through old game listings to see what I could pick up for cheap. I guess I just have really specific tastes and a lot of the mainstream published content has veered away from the kind of game I like.
I have less than four new PC games that I've gotten in the past few years(V:TM Bloodlines, Fear, Starcraft, etc.), and they're all pretty one-of-a-kind.
Actually, you've brought me back to my original point which I think I lost sight of while I was writing le rambling post.
I'm more interested in gaming on the console, on the whole of it. It's not to say I'm not looking forward to a few things on the PC, but I guess I am starting to look at gaming as more of a lounge room activity than a study activity. Especially with the Wii which I break out for nights in with friends.
I'm not really interested in being solely, it's just that so much of the stuff I'm finding interesting whether from a sheer polish point of view or an innovation point of view is all coming to the consoles. It would seem that the developers who target me as an audience, have shifted their sights over. As I said in the OP, I'm still interested in some sparkly fresh stuff on the horizon for the PC.
Funcom has gone on record saying that they are no longer interested in developing adventure games for the PC due to piracy and better returns for console development investment. This is probably a perfect example of an actual tangible decision of a developer who impacts me directly making the shift themselves from PC to console focus.
Every time darnit, every frigging time there's a generation shift people keep telling me to abandon PC gaming because 'OLOL you get teh crappy games and we get teh awesomes'. Well few people here anyway, but I'm pretty certain any PC Gamers here have had that experience IRL.
If I'm honest though, I've never owned a console before, and this is the first generation that's truly interested me in console gaming. There's the innovation with the Wii, multiplayer support is pretty much rock solid now, and some pretty high production values. I've already played plenty of the current crop of console games and I love them.
I think you're right in that changing priorities and time are a big factor. PC Gaming tends to be fairly in-depth, and with some titles you need to invest a fair amount of time to get into the game. Contrast with console gaming, which is largely immediate, you go in and blast.
I have to disagree greatly though, that there's no innovation on the PC compared to consoles. To be honest, the PC has always been the home to innovation for me.
This is slightly off topic, but one thing that I've noticed is that people keep expecting the PC to be a mass market style gaming machine. It's not. It's a machine that sometimes has mass market hits. Usually this happens during a lull in the console cycle, people remember the PC again and then start to think that it's SUPPOSED to be pumping out massive hits, and pumping out massive franchises with massive sales numbers like the consoles. Then they point to smaller sales numbers on the PC and point to how PC gaming is dying. Again, every console generation switch I've seen so far.
To me, the PC has always been niche. It's always had the niche games, with the lower production values and the more esoteric gameplay. As an example, I find it difficult to believe a series like Operation Flashpoint / Armed Assault could ever really make it on the console. It would NEED to change its style to be more fitting for the console. And sell 500,000 units to break even on the PS3? That's big hit territory on the PC. The closest thing the a niche market on the consoles that I've seen is XBLA. Which honestly, I think is a great idea very well implemented, but it's perhaps a bit too small scale for the types of games I'm thinking of. People talk about how developers are abandoning the PC because it's dying but I feel that's an illusion. What's actually happening is that what they're creating is now more acceptable to the mass market and they're porting this stuff over to sell the larger numbers that are inherent in the console demographic. Or to put it another way: Doom III sold roughly half of its 3 million units on the Xbox. What do you think the odds are that id would have even CONSIDERED porting it over had Halo not (a) proven that console FPS's are viable and (b) almost single-handedly created a console FPS market?
If you look at the amount of Indie development happening on the PC now, it's something I find truly awesome. The Indie market hasn't looked this good in DECADES on the PC. More and more smaller companies are getting in through internet distribution and self-marketing. Steam is probably one of the best examples in this regard. So many niche games, heck even OLDER games (Jagged Alliance 2? That's nearly a decade old now!), and they're making a profit there without needing to spend as much on distribution as the traditional retail outlet model. Sam & Max? It's getting ported to console IIRC, but it sure as hell would never have made it there if it hadn't made it on the PC first. It's practically every marketing departments nightmare, so much so that even Lucas Arts abandoned it. And now, it's heading beyond internet distribution to the mass-market retail stores.
I could easily list plenty of reasons why I still love my PC gaming, but I don't want to turn this into a love sonnet (too late?). What I will say is this: Go where the gaming takes you. Don't feel REGRET about leaving behind PC gaming if the games you want are on the consoles. Consoles have largely caught up with a lot of the stuff that made PC gaming different. Internet connectivity is there in spades. And while I still feel FPS's are much better on the PC, console FPS's have got a decent stride and style of their own.
If the games and genres you love are on a different platform, don't try and stick to it just out of some weird sense of loyalty, just move to it. Gaming's about having fun isn't it?
And as for why all this means that I'm (at least for the time being) still mainly a PC player, that's probably a discussion for another thread on another day. Let's just say, of the games I'm personally interested in in future, most are still appearing on the PC.
Still, there's a nasty part of me that's waiting for a couple of years down the line when the current gen consoles look like crap and nobody's talking about how PC gaming's dying again.
As of late, after such games as Ninja Gaiden and KOTOR I have felt myself want to go in a much different direction. Instead of BEING the hero, I now would rather DIRECT the hero. So its not so much that I want to be in the first person view, in the trenches seeing what my avatar sees, I want it to be more like its a movie, and I am the director, or like I am the avatar's higher brain function, making choices as to who to kill and in a general sense(like attack low or attack high) guide my avatar in attacking the enemy, but what the character does on screen is a lot more complex( and cool) than just shoot a weapon, what I really want to see is an interface where you specify in extremely general terms what you want your avatar do, then AI built into the avatar figures out how to do it in the most efficient way. From the games ive played, consoles lend themselves to this kind of game play better, more story driven, more movie like than more like you are actually doing what the game is suggesting.
I think its because of the control scheme, and because of the environment they are in. When I play a PC game I'm in my room, probably alone (unless its a LAN, and I dont count ven), and I am controlling my avatar directly because the many keys on the keyboard lend themselves to complex controls, and the mouse gives extremely precise quick control of the avatar, in essence the mouse becomes an extention of my hand. This gives a great immersion quality and puts me into the boots of the 400th allied soldier storming normandy wonderfully, but it isnt what im looking for anymore.
My 360 however, I can play on my couch, the games are not only fun to play but usually fun to watch too ( dunno about you guys but I can watch my friends play FFXII all day, but I will never watch anyone play UT2k4, despite how good a game that is). Being that its out in the common area, roommates and friends can hang out there and its a more social thing, even if im playing a single player game. The games are more focused on story and on cinematic flare it seems to me, this may be due to the fact that the dual joystick and simple button configuration makes makes things easier to work with in a more abstract setup (a mouse measures movements in absolute coordinates, while a joystick is relative movement, like moving your mouse to the same spot makes you look in the same place, but moving the joystick one direction will make your avatar keep moving)
even still there are great games coming for both PC and consoles, such as Crysis, Team Fortress 2/Portal, STALKER(which is out) and some others I cant think of