PC Gaming <3

[Tridanite]

I come from the xbox community and when I first started out playing online it was with Battlfield Bad Company 2 and I played that game for hours hundreds of them. THen sure enough the MW2 days came along and the Black Ops but I have never bought such a game on sale and do they ever go on sale? And I mean a real sale not a trade in 3 games of such and such rip off value to get one. No i don't believe they have atleast not on console they haven't. On steam there are so many sales and I have bought way more games than I ever had on consoles and spent more but it was worth. So how can this beautiful thing called PC gaming be dying? Look at the last humble bundle sale 2.6 million dollars in revenu! The last one had more did i not? What about you guys have you not bought games on steam over the christmas/holiday sale? I did and I plan to buy more! So I guess my question is what do you guys think about the state of PC gaming? I know Linus has said time and time again that it is in fact dying but how pirating? That gets everybody from film to music even books (don't quote me on that). And if it is how do you think it should be fixed? Steam commercials?

[DragonSteve]

I have bought about half a dozen games this holiday sale on steam and I have been utterly disappointed by all of them. Why? - Because of the vicious circle PC gaming have entered.

More and more PC games are completely unplayable console ports. They look like crap, they are so incredibly badly optimized on PC and/or they have terrible mouse support.

Something as simple as having proper mouse supports is incredibly rare these days, I can't even name one on the top of my head. And than there is all these horrible DRMs on PC, which have never worked. How many games can you think of that are not available for pirates to play? And out of those games, how many legit buyers have been locked out of their game because of malfunctioning DRM?

[liquidxerox]

I feel like a lot of people are leaning towards consoles because it's an item that just simply works, lasts years and you can forget about it while sitting on a comfy sofa.

Don't get me wrong though, I have a shed load of hate towards consoles because I feel like they're bottlenecking the development of what PC gaming could be, but there is no need for me to upset people that enjoy what they like doing and or possibly upset myself.

The only true appeal I have for a console is that if I have some friends over we can all sit around a big display (TV) and actually have some sort of enjoyment together. With a PC either everyone brings their own and we hook up our lan ports or else it's pretty boring watching someone play BF3 or L4D on a 24inch screen.

I bought FC3 over the holiday sales and I thought it was one of the best games I have played all year. I'm actually surprised how well it runs and looks on my HD5770 on high settings at 1080p. Granted I could be a nub, but hey ignorance is bliss.

The only game I've ever had troubles with horrible lag on my system was portal 2. It was utterly disappointing considering how many Source games I've played and how smoothly they all run.

Back to the point do I think PC gaming is dying? Yes and no. I don't think it's dying because of pirating, but mainly because the average console gamer doesn't want to dip into the pool of what could be. As time goes on I definitely think the pool will never dry up completely because there will always be a market for the enthusiast. Now that tablets, phablets, phones are blowing up to be a "gaming" platform the pool is definitely shrinking because it's just another platform that is simple and easy. We just have to wait and see if we're going to see some fresh water added to bring PC gaming into a whole new world (if it wasn't already compared to other platforms).

Is Piracy really killing companies as bad as it sounds?

In North America alone film box office has set a new record at making over 10 billion dollars back in 2012.

A lot of App developers for Android are complaining to Google for not implementing anti piracy software, but statistics show the majority of app piracy happens in China. Why? There's no legal way for a person living in China to legally purchase from the Google Play store it seems.

So from where I stand I think people are willing to pay as long as it is actually worth paying for or at least priced accordingly.

Sorry if that was a little long, but I hope you enjoyed my opinions!

[Joshua]

The reason lots of games are 'unplayable console ports' is because have you seen how long it takes to successfully take a game from a console to PC? Look at Halo 1, for example. That was in progress for ages being taken from Xbox to PC. Ain't nobody got time for that.

[liquidxerox]

I wish developers would instead design a kick arse game for the PC and then lower the ceiling for the consoles. Unfortunately consoles is where the money is at and no matter how much we want it to change a business will always follow the money.

[Prettyfinej]

What is meant by dying when computer gaming revenue is increasing?

[floppyprocessors]

I actually think pc gaming is growing just by a little bit, but the simplicity of say buying a XBOX or PS3 over building a budget gaming pc really does win many people over.

If more people became more educated on how freaking easy it is to build a computer pc gaming would probably grow by a lot.

The fear of building of computer throws a lot of people off.

[Tridanite]

@Prettyfinej @floppyprocessors plus I have heard that microsft and Sony are cutting out used games from their consoles because they don't get a return on the reselling of games which means everyone will have to buy a game at full which I feel will deter many from the console because that is very expensive. If only more people knew about how cheap games are on the PC it would be doing that much better but form me all of my friends for the most part have owned an xbox or ps3 maybe both but majority are on PC now the only ones that are left are those who only really play sports games like Fifa or NHL. I'd say in my circle that console is not very big but PC is greater.