Decline of computer gaming

[Foehammer2003]

Couldn't agree more, have two versions of the music track, one with the just the tune (from the chinook bit), and the full track. Thought it was massive the first few times of going down the track, but soon got too short lol, know what you mean. Could carry on talking about SSX indefinately, unfortunately going away for a few days, Meh!

 

[spirit]

Is it just me, but I think for FPS PC is waay better (mouse is so much better than crappy joystick things). For driving and stuff, consoles tend to be better.

 

[t31os]

Whoever had the C&C Renegade & BF2 issues, try different drivers, 6.5's run my games like crap, BF2 runs smooth as pie on Omega drivers compared to the laggy 6.5 cats, and renegade, well that maxes out also, heck my old Radeon 9500 could max that game.

You have to remember though even with more memory, things like virus software and firewalls still degrade performance, even disabled, whatever anyone says, i ran my rigs without AV for about 1 - 2 years and found performance is definately increased.

Priority, what do you need more, performance in games, or piece of mind against nasty files. Personally i can say i'm safer with the AV now, but seriously considering dropping it for the extra performance. I don't download dodgy looking files, and normally know a trusted site from a not so trusted one, so generally i don't think viruses are a problem for me.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Hurst me to say but I think personally PC gaming may have seen its best days for various reasons:

Firstly, I can’t see why developers would want to invest in a market which is otherwise dominated by consoles. The cost of producing or indeed converting a game to the PC platform must be quite expensive to due to the various configurations and hardware available. I think this is evident in many console conversion and TR legends was an example to this (poorly converted with no configuration options).


Secondly, copying and piracy is a major threat to PC games and a big problem for games developers. The PC market has suffered badly in this corner and Doom 3 was a prime example of this which ended up pushing John Carmack into a corner into his decision to abandon the platform. Love it or hate it, steam or a similar delivery system would be a good way of combating this issue in future but again it’s a costly solution for little return.

Thirdly, PC gaming is an enthusiast market so PC gamers tend to be PC enthusiasts therefore the run of the mill gamer isn’t going to choose a platform which is complicated and expensive. Not when cheaper and more reliable alternative are available.

Lastly, the hardware manufacturers such as AMD, Intel, NVIDIA and ATI are in danger of killing the PC market if they are not careful. The increased cost in their products and competitive PR releases are pushing the limits of affordability and even the hardened enthusiast will ponder at the reason why they are spending so much on upgrades and enough will be enough. Each month there is something new and exciting which offers so much promise but at a cost.. The graphics cards manufacturers, for example, aren’t happy with you buying not one or two VGAs, they now want you buying 4??? Also, iirc the flag ship AMD chip 3 0r 4 years ago was around £200 -£300 nowadays it more like £750!! Who are they kidding?


The introduction of Vista may bring the PC and console gaming community together but it favours the console.


I sincerely hope I’m wrong.

 

[tom_nieto]

Thinking about it though, I've just upgraded my PC to pretty much top spec (with a little tinkering with clock speeds) for £600. With the PS3 coming in at £450 there isn't that much difference once you consider the fact that games on the PC are £20-30 cheaper than on the various consoles. It's still fairly level pegging really.

 

[Wyvern971]

Love it or hate it, steam or a similar delivery system would be a good way of combating this issue in future but again it’s a costly solution for little return.

I agree with all except the point above.

Bandwidth is a lot cheaper than having to pay someone to distribute the games for you

 

[Tommy B]

1) The fiscal greed of hardware companies. Especially the graphics industry. I mean there isn't even a monopoly ffs yet they still charge high prices! ATI & Nvidia blatantly talk to each other and set prices. This practice is completely illegal in the UK.

2) The Hollywood of the video games industry -aka- EA GAMES, eat up all the decent studios. We end up with passionless dross producing the majority of pc games.

3) (Possibly a reason most people discard) Geeks love having the top-spec hardware to play games. I'm one of those people. In fact I can't enjoy a game unless I'm playing it on top-of-the-range kit, in my case the GFX card. With all these new things - SLI, PhysX etc - it's just getting out of hand. I simply can't afford this hobby anymore and I don't accept games on mid-range hardware.

 

[SiriusB]

I agree with all except the point above.

Bandwidth is a lot cheaper than having to pay someone to distribute the games for you

I agree totally. While they do still release their games on CD/DVD the vast majority of gamers download HL2 and the other Valve releases. Valve have also began releasing episodic content which basically means they can pump out new content much quicker and do not have to worry about how they will get it to the public.

SiriusB

 

[Admiral Huddy]

I agree with all except the point above.

Bandwidth is a lot cheaper than having to pay someone to distribute the games for you

..but the service has to be administrated, maintained and serviced. These are all extra costs that are not relevant to disk distribution. All these services cost money which is paid at the expense of the consumer. It all eats in to the overall developers profit without which, they can't prosuce future games. On the otherhand, they are saving on publishers costs.

I believe in any measure to combat the copying of games. Without which the industry will die.

 

[theboyrob]

the initial cost for a pc is very expensive, but to keep it upgraded to new high specs to run the latest games doesn't cost that much.

Up until last oct I had a barton @ 2.4ghz and a 9800xt, which was starting to struggle playing the latest games.

SO I sold the barton and 9800xt for £120 for both, and purchased an opteron 144 and X800GTO²

At the time the X800 was the main ATI card and the opteron "the" chip to have. These two only cost me £250 for both, and then I flashed the GTO² to an 850XT and overclocked the 144 to 2.7GHz.

Therefore upgrade cost me £130, and my system is well above twice as fast as before

if you know what to buy and when, and how to get the best out of the hardware you can keep upgrading for next to nothing.
I shall do the same in 12/18 months time.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

the initial cost for a pc is very expensive, but to keep it upgraded to new high specs to run the latest games doesn't cost that much.

I'm sorry but you couldn't be more wrong...

I don't upgrade as much as some people i know .. but this is a history of my upgrades over the years.. i daren't total up the cost .. and please don't tell me !!

http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/Sub_Pages/My_PC/The_PC_history.htm

Point is, an Xbox 360 is less than £400 every 3 to 4 years or so. If you are a general gamer and not bothered with all the techie stuff or on a budget, which option are you going to go for..

I upgrade because i'm into PCs and an enthuisiast.. not just a PC gamer but not everyone is the same. Try convicing most people that don't own a PC to spend over a grand on a gaming rig and they'll think you are nuts

 

[theboyrob]

looking at the link you gave you have bought most of your hardware at the wrong time, spending silly money on high on cards/chips that aren't needed to play any of the games of today at that moment in time. Such as your 7800GTX last oct, when my X800GTO will play all the games you can on a slightly lower setting for £200 less.

Like i said if you buy the right hardware at the right time it doesnt cost much, as i proved with my opteron 144 and GTO²

If i had bought an FX-57 and X850XT PE then sure it would have cost me £800 at the time but I spent a fraction and tweaked to get the same performance.

I'm sorry but you couldn't be more wrong...

I don't upgrade as much as some people i know .. but this is a history of my upgrades over the years.. i daren't total up the cost .. and please don't tell me !!

http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/Sub_Pages/My_PC/The_PC_history.htm

Point is, an Xbox 360 is less than £400 every 3 to 4 years or so. If you are a general gamer and not bothered with all the techie stuff or on a budget, which option are you going to go for..

I upgrade because i'm into PCs and an enthuisiast.. not just a PC gamer but not everyone is the same. Try convicing most people that don't own a PC to spend over a grand on a gaming rig and they'll think you are nuts

 

[Admiral Huddy]

looking at the link you gave you have bought most of your hardware at the wrong time, spending silly money on high on cards/chips that aren't needed to play any of the games of today at that moment in time. Such as your 7800GTX last oct, when my X800GTO will play all the games you can on a slightly lower setting for £200 less.

Like i said if you buy the right hardware at the right time it doesnt cost much, as i proved with my opteron 144 and GTO²

If i had bought an FX-57 and X850XT PE then sure it would have cost me £800 at the time but I spent a fraction and tweaked to get the same performance.

Yes i see your point reading down that list.. However, I was quite happy with my 6800GT I had. But since i upgraded my processor to a 939 x2 i was stuck with the choice of going for another AGP (which would have been a waste of money), or taking a dive into PCI-E. which of course meant a new Graphics card. So i opted for a 7800GTX and sold the 6800Gt at a fair price.

That's slightly OT...

As I said, being an enthuisiast i'm not to concerned about the cost (to an extent) or how regulary i personally upgrade. The point is that regular non-techincal PC users don't want the hassle of having to upgrade a component just to play a game.

The fact that they also have to check the recomended specifications is more than enough to scare or deter people away from PC gaming which is what makes it a limited market. A sure sign of the times is that my local woolworths has stopped stocking PC games..

 

[locutus12]

Well I just wanted to know on everyones thoughts about computer hardware and how it may be responsible for the decline now or in the future for computer gaming. Seems that to play todays games with decent settings you need cutting edge hardware, also the introduction of sli, crossfire, physics cards and so on mean more of a burden to the consumer. I know that you dont need the cutting edge tech to run games but without it games sure do run slow. Also looks like games today are relying to much on top-end tech and are poorly optimising their code so that those without huge wallets cant run their games well. Ahwell thats the end of my moan, What does everyone else think??

i think it all depends...

The Family P.C.:
dad goes to Faecess World and buys an off the shelf P.C. it comes with a good CPU, good ammount of ram, large hard drive, and a crap Graphics card and costs around £650 (maybe a little more), the kids cant play games at full settings with them and as they know no different, they just play the game as it is quite hapilly because they know no different, Mum and Dad still buy them the games titles they want, the kids still play them, the games makers still make a sale, even though the pc the family has is not really a games PC.

the family P.C. they have wont be replaced for 2 years and as such the family should get their moneys worth out of it.


The There are people like me:
I know where to get out parts from, how to get them cheap, and i also know to never buy top of the range kit when its just come out because it drops in value like a stone and usually cant do that much more than the model underneath it, at least not enough to justify the extra £££
on my pc ive spent the following...

£313 - 19" Sharp TFT monitor (stupid impulse purchase 18 months back)
£30 - antec lanboy case
£95 - Corsair XMS 2 x 1gig (£85 saved from sale of old ram)
£100 - Opteron 146 (£70 saved from sale of old CPU)
£46 - Asrock dual 939 motherboard (AGP/PCI-E and AM2/DDR2 capable)
£30 - Watercooling
£45 - 200 gig seagate
£30 - 400 Watt psu
£240 - X1800XT 512mb Crossfire Master Card (£140 saved from sale of old card)
£13 external hard drive caddy
£35 DVD drive

Total:£662 has been spent over the course of the last 14 months to give me my current system. my point is you dont need the latest, newest and greatest parts to play games with eye candy at wonderful resolutions and anyone who does is simply being dragged in by marketing forces or they are doing a once yearly upgrade.