Originally posted by: irishScott
Originally posted by: ja1484
Originally posted by: Acanthus
Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
Originally posted by: samduhman
We pc gamers know this but try to tell that to the army of console fanboys. Maybe they will listen to someone who should know.
Interview with Valves Doug Lambardi
Why do you have to be a 'console fanboy' if you think PC gaming is not exactly at its peak? I grew up during the time when the PC market was at its peak and we're certainly nowhere near that point right now.
Err it was a record year every year for the last 3 years for PC gaming.
Im not seeing the dip
How do you want to define "peak"?
As we all know, the point of internet forums is to convince other people that your opinion is fact. For most of the goobs arguing on here, "peak" means "when they liked it most", not top sales.
This is, of course, why they have trouble reconciling the higher sales of software for consoles.
PC games were the games they liked the most, so why on earth don't all developers focus on the
PC platform? They should be more concerned with making good games than making money!
Those of us out here in the real world find this counterintuitive and ludicrous, but we're using adult thought processes, which is why there's such a disconnect between our perspective and theirs.
Lol what is it with you and your vaunted "adult perspective"; and who is "those of us"? First the facebook deal in L&R, now this? Here's my opinion: Adults don't need to flaunt the fact that they're adults to prove their point.
Well, there are two main contributing factors. The first is that the internet, and by extension discussion forums, are very useful tools for gathering information on a subject. Problem is, most of the time they're cluttered with jackass arguments that have been done to death a million times before and get no one anywhere.
The second is that the games market is mostly juvenile males, which is *why* you get these moronic year-long threads about PC gaming is dying...wait no it isn't....well, piracy is bad...well it's not as big a problem as they say...
Hint:
It doesn't matter. The dollar has spoken.
So on the far end of that, it's very difficult as someone looking to garner useful information rather than adolescent infighting off the medium. When you have to sort through all this retarded chaff to find the actual nuggets of information, it's a pain in the ass. Unforunately, there are rarely alternative resources, because informed human beings setting the idiot plebian masses straight in forum threads tend to have a conglomerated expertise of the field they're talking about. It's hard to find an information hit like that anywhere else, even in textbooks, because the language tends to be too dense.
It's not flaunting, it's explaining. It's not an exaggeration at all to say a large portion of the membership of these forums is
developmentally stunted. I will admit that I'm
assuming their deficiencies in thought process extend beyond social skills.
And most of us "goobs" don't have any trouble reconciling higher sales of console games. Anyone with half a brain can "reconcile" it. The vast majority of people out there aren't that sharp, and thus would rather play Halo 3 all day as opposed to a game that actually required serious thought. Boom! Reconciled.
If you can reconcile it, then by definition you do not fall into the goob category. Congrats!
We're simply idealists. My philosophy when it comes to my work is quality over quantity (within reason). IMO it's this philosophy that's brought us most of the quality games that are out there. Look at Blizzard and Valve. Aside from WoW, I (and many others) have not been disappointed by any game from either company, and both have produced relatively few games when compared to other giants such as EA. Both have also been extremely successful financially. I don't think Valve has ever touched the console market, and IIRC the last console game Blizzard made was back in the early 90s.
Idealists about what? That the PC will be the only game platform left? I play games on the PC and Wii60. I started as a PC gamer in whole. Then I saw the fricking light last generation when excellent games were coming out exclusively for other platforms.
I would love to hear you explain what's idealistic about hoping for PC platform dominance in gaming. The PC has just as many stinker games as any other platform, so simply developing for it is
not any indication of quality.
I'm with you on the quality titles thing - I want good games. But who cares what the delivery method is if they're good.
And FYI: All the Half-Life 2 titles have console versions either published or in the works. Portal as well, and I *think* TF2 (as part of OB) was available on the 360. I didn't buy it there because shooters are better on the PC.
Yes, you can be financially successful as a PC-only company. If you're
Blizzard. Or
Valve. Most companies aren't, and don't have the ability to be.
FYI: Your opinions are no more factual than anyone else's. Just because you find it counterintuitive doesn't make it wrong. I initially found recursive programming counterintuitive. Flat out rejecting it would have prevented me from learning advanced concepts out of willful ignorance.
Actually, it is wrong right now, because the big game companies are making their money elsewhere. Period, end of story. I know there are some naive folks out there who think anything but money matters in business, but it's frankly not the case. Some companies, like Valve, manage to produce excellent work *and* be profitable, but in the long run, most every business out there will simply gravitate to the field where it can dupe the most people.
You don't have to take my word for it though. Look at historical business trends in the US for the last 50 years.
Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Originally posted by: FuryofFivei hate how many people think that PC gaming=expensive super computer, when in reality u can get a pretty enjoyable experience for roughly 4-500 dollars if u really cut corners. thats about how much a console is worth these days.
Another reason why console gaming is in the mainstream, is because people only see base cost...they only see well my console can play games, and well my pc can play games. they dont weigh eachs abilities..such as my ability to create many things with my pc, vs me playing lets say...GTA4(which i dont)
The cost thing really depends how often you upgrade your computer. If you have an Xbox, you still need a PC for your school work, writing a resume,
good personal accounting, internet, email, porn, and pirating Blockbuster's rental DVDs. Those tasks are mostly not time-critical, so you can get away with a $400 PC with an 8gb ram limit, and just add more ram as programs get more demanding. That computer will easily last 6 years. A gaming computer will cost about $1000 every 4 years. So that's $250 per year for the gaming PC vs $66 for the basic PC. Consoles are released every 5 years, but you can probably round that up to 6 years because you don't buy every console on the first day of release. Over the course of 6 console game years, the difference in PC price between budget and gaming is (250-66)(6) = $1104 allowance for your console
If you can get away with using a heavily overclocked Celeron for 6 years, and you spend less than $1100 on Xbox hardware, then the Xbox is cheaper.
If you continually upgrade your PC, regardless of gaming, then PC gaming is probably cheaper. This would mostly be the people who are buying quad core processors for Photoshop and AutoCAD; just slap a $200 video card in there and she's a top of the line gaming computer.
See, and this is the exact problem that us multi-platformers have been trying to illustrate. Some people don't want to read multi-paragraph instruction manual on how to manage their PC over the course of several years to play games. The reasons are myriad: Some people are plainly too stupid. We know this one. Other times, it's not worth the effort to them. And this one tends to really shock platform enthusiasts: Some people
just don't want to. I know that's a radical concept - not feeling like fucking dealing with a temperamental machine after a full day's work and just wanting to relax.
But it's The Way Things Are. The majority of the market wants to push the power button and go. Intermediate steps are simply too much in our current ADD-addled, instant gratification society.
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