Gloating at the PC’s superiority over the console considered harmful
TechRadar’s list of twelve reasons PC gaming is better than console gaming is a fun little read. I’ll admit, I was thinking of doing something similar on this site for awhile (although better fleshed out), but in the end thought better of it, because I don’t think gloating is particularly helpful. PC gaming faces some severe challenges over the coming years. Series that used to be PC-exclusive are now regularly being released on consoles as well for profitability rationales that are impossible to refute. Now while that isn’t bad on its face, the amount of dumbing down that too often goes along with it is.
The only genre that I would really say that is thriving on the PC above and beyond consoles is the MMORPG, which doesn’t exactly help me much. I have an MMORPG post still in the works, but the gist of it is that, following experience with The Realm Online, EverQuest, and then World of Warcraft, I no longer allow myself to play MMORPGs as a concession towards ensuring my own wellbeing. Other genres that are still doing well on PC over the console include strategy games, both the real-time and turn-based varieties. Regrettably, we seem to have lost the first-person shooter.
So yes, while it is mindless fun to point and gloat at consoles’ problems, including red rings of death, their “discovery” of high-def roughly a decade after the PC, and proprietary lock-in, I think it’d be more constructive to make a list of the the areas where PC gaming suffers in comparison to console games, and then make all efforts to rectify them. My number one complaint is how console games “just work”, while the Digital Restrictions Management software included in nearly all new PC games introduces a flummoxing plethora of potential pitfalls that turns many potential PC gamers to consoles in search of a less frustrating gaming experience. What’s your biggest complaint?
November 16th, 2008 at 4:58 am
My only “complaint” is that PC gaming is headed toward the path to its own doom if companies keep selling “gaming” PCs that are entirely up their own asses.
Disregarding the TV, you’re looking at merely $400 for a system with great developer support giving it billions of games and that can, in fact, do other things like listen to music, play movies, and, apparently, stream Netflix.
The problem with PC gaming in general is that it is targeted to a niche — those who can build their own computers. Casual gamers can’t and won’t go through the work required to get a decent gaming system built, and since companies like Dell stick the latest and greatest hardware in their “gaming” PCs and sell them for $5999, no one wants to bother.
Even with a huge TV involved, the cost is still way cheaper than so-called “gaming” machines companies are trying to pimp. Never mind that Average Joe doesn’t realize $600 in parts can run Crysis on high; the companies aren’t building such PCs and neither will Joe.
Targeting a niche is bad enough, but throw in piracy and there’s very little incentive for developers to continue making PC games. The sales just aren’t there. The trend is already beyond the tipping point, and it’s going to get nothing but worse as more and more developers desert the PC.
Nothing is exclusive and the PC versions are nearly always shittier than their console counterparts. I have a feeling even MMOs won’t be exclusive for much longer. Blizzard simply needs to find a way to drill holes into M$’s pockets to get subscription fees out of them.
So, I guess my overall “complaint” is that, given the current state of consoles and their Internet access, PC gaming is an unsustainable model that is being beaten to death by its inability to offer the average person anything worthwhile.
November 18th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Oh really you should take a look at the real facts
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Gaming-PC-Market-Bigger-Than/story.aspx?guid={D9688101-CEDF-4862-B395-A4BF6E0558FC}
pc gaming is well over 20 billion
this is also confirm by the pc gaming alliance. There is some places in the world where consoles are band!
here take a good look at the real truth from this site
http://gametopius.com/index.php/video-games/features/250-the-death-of-the-video-game-console-market
November 18th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I am going to say something else there is just as much pircay if not more on consoles. Pc gaming is world unlike a few countries like maybe usa, japan.
Take alook at all the game devs from japan they suck and don’t keep up with technogy when it comes to games or hardware.
No console game out sells pc gaming in fact cercen tittles out sell any console on the maket. games such wow, sims, nacy drew, guildwars, linage,starcraft,half life, daiblo I could go on!
also pc gamers could easily play any console game using emulators. You should really look in to facts or do some reach beofre writing articles.
There is some courties that that band consoles and only pc ’s can be used. There are places in the world were pc gaming is main stream. Pc gaming will never die and it is bigger than any console market!
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:21 am
T2A sums it up pretty well. I play a large amount of Console games, Mostly games like Halo, and Halo Wars, though I usually go to PC for RTS games as theyre “done right” on the PC.
However the thing that makes consoles nice is that, (for me anyways) are easy to take from point 1 to point 2 without any problems (unless you have a laptop) LAN has become easy (xbox respectively) and most of all, all games are made to run on the same hardware. I dont have to worry that my game wont run well because im not “up to par” with what they had in mind.
For Example, I found this site through the Old Supreme Commander Blog that is around, “Supreme Commander Talk”, because I recently got my own new pc that could actually play it, as I couldnt afford the 700+ dollars that it costs to get a decent computer. An xbox 360 for instance is only $200 - $300 for countless hours of gaming. If anyone wants an answer to any of it, to me, thats it.