Oh, and by the way: Bob, not everyone who disagrees with you is some caricature bugbear version of someone who annoyed you in your childhood, all right? Most of us did get to play console games growing up, even if we never had our own. Many of us enjoyed them, even. Maybe we like PC gaming for what it is, instead of getting swept up in the childish “my platform is the thinking man's platform, therefore my e-penis is bigger than yours!” bickering – have you ever considered that?
Maybe we like having easy access to a wide variety of games both commercial and freeware, being able to use our machines for gaming and other stuff (and you can smarm all you want about doing taxes, but give me a call when Photoshop is ported to any of the current-gen consoles, or when I can write music in something other than MarioPaint.) Maybe we recognize that current-gen console hardware might very well be capable of doing these things, but just don't feel like waiting for the manufacturers to decide they're going to allow it. Or (if you can imagine) maybe we're tired of seeing series we enjoyed get watered down for multi-platform sequels because the suits in management at game companies can't disabuse themselves of the notion that console gamers are morons.
Honestly, this whole video sounds like you've never played a PC (or other home computer) game any time prior to the last five years, or have somehow deliberately erased all memory of ever enjoying it if you have. You think PCs didn't have colorful action-adventures and dumb-fun sidescrollers? You think the console market had a lock on whimsy and joy, and that point-and-click adventures are the only PC-based genre that ever transcended the “obsessive micromanagement simulator” nature of SimCity or Civilization? Because, uh, that would be a “no.” A resounding “no,” in fact. Did you even do any research before ranting off on this?
But eh, why do I bother? It's not like you ever acknowledge anybody's disagreement beyond popping up one of your “stock mock” pictures to paint them as belonging to some group you hold a grudge against. Wonder if we'll be Ogre, or some anal-rententive in a suit and tie?
Hmm… well, I count gaming on a laptop as PC gaming since there's basically no difference at all. So yes, while gaming on desktop computers may be going away, PC gaming as a whole is not.
Now I myself am not a Hardcore PC gamer, mainly because I only have a laptop. Replacing a graphics card on a laptop might result in me “damaging my laptop beyond repair” according to a tutorial I found.
What many people miss in this debate is that the PC is no longer the most personal computing device (see http://www.buildingproductmarketing.com/2010/11/signs-of-change-smartphones-more.html). Someone above talked about PC gaming being replaced by laptop gaming; that's more the direction it's going. Is the “personal computer” on which I play games going to be the box that lives in a corner of my house, or the phone in my pocket? Which is most personal?
If desktop PC gaming continues to thrive as a separate genre, then PCs will become essentially a new type of console; they won't be the universal device that everyone is already using by default.
I'd go in depth with an argument explaining why the near entirety of this video's argument is factually disproven, but there are already hundreds of comments and controversy surrounding this video already that pretty much sum it up.
Bob, I'm surprised and appalled that someone of your intelligence could be so so so naive. And this is coming from someone who has watched your show since your Youtube days.
Yeah… This is the ONLY thing i have ever disagreed with you on.
I get what your trying to say, that the personal computer (at least the hulking versions from 2000 that i have right now) are just no practical to play any more games on except the most rudimentary (like starcraft 1, which i still play :P)
Its still a little annoying. I mean… i think its the phrasing. If what you meant is that “the home computer” is dead, as far as gaming. Then why not say it? Instead of saying all pc gaming including things i love like Starcraft 2, portal, half-life (steam in general) and all those different games enriched by the PC are dead.
There shouldnt be to much hate stirred over this video though. I think that Bob just hasnt really conveyed his opinion in a proper way. But either way we can all agree that there are still MANY better qualities in PC gaming that console. Case in point. Team Fortress 2 vs Brink. Looks like Brink is a copy-cat except with the modern warefar/gearsofwar gloss over.
But either way we can all agree that there are still MANY better qualities in PC gaming that console.
I think it all depends on what you want. To me, the console gamepad is more comfortable than a keyboard and mouse and makes room for a lot more genres. Hell, the sudden glut of shooters on consoles can pretty much squarely be blamed on American developers flooding onto the Xbox in the previous generation.
People love to say console games are “simple” or “stupid”, but I look at that as ignorance. Back in the 80's Koei made a series of complicated strategy games that were on par with PC offerings at the time. The only problem is they didn't sell as well because the older audiences such games appeal to weren't buying consoles for anyone but their children. But games like Nobunaga's Ambition, Ghengis Khan and PTO were anything BUT simple. In fact, I'd say they're more complex than StarCraft, which is the Halo of strategy games (think about it, strip the strategy game of politics, economics, trading and focus it on combat and combat alone, and you got a product similar to Halo. StarCraft is “strategy” for “consoletards”, to borrow PC gamer lingo).
When it comes to customization, I've had conversations on team-building with the original Final Fantasy Tactics that are actually more varied than conversations I've had with other Dragon Age players.
If console gaming ever seemed more simple it's only because there were developers targeting a wider audience, whereas PC games were exclusively the sort of audience the PC developers were. In which case, the current “sameness” of the modern game development era? I blame unimaginative PC developers for that.
Everything is a double-edged sword. You can blame console gamers (or more accurately, a wider and more profitable audience) for “simplifying” your favorite genres, but you guys have damn near wiped out some of ours. So it's not about “which side is better” because neither side is better. Technically we've fucked both sides up.
@Chris Cesarano: I do agree that it's a mistake to flame on console gamers for the dumbing down of various games – it's not their fault, and they're not actually stupid or even probably that much less interested in a nuanced, complex game. Instead, I blame corporate marketing drones who have latched onto that notion and can't get it into their thick skulls that it's not actually true.
However, brainless me-tooism is not even remotely a PC-exclusive thing, or even something that's that much more common on PCs. Just look at the flood of lame-ass sidescrollers on the NES that were either ripping off Mario/Adventure Island or ripping off Contra.
Yes, but it was still easier to FIND other genres at the time. I could find a variety of strategy games on the SNES, or a variety of RPG's, or puzzle games, or non-clone side scrollers (Mega Man != Mario != Metroid != Contra, after all), and you could still get fun and different projects that defied genre boundaries like Toejam and Earl or StarFox.
Then again, this could still be a result of marketing and business executives. Back then you could still get a group of five or six guys to make a game and have it be successful.
I don't necessarily miss the old days, but I do miss the variety we were allowed.
Frankly, I've never really gotten the whole “death of PC gaming” viewpoint. I mean, it seems like PC superiority is coming to an end-while graphics and online abilities are still superior on PCs, the gap gets smaller every generation-but PCs are doing just fine. Also, if the whole basis of Bob's argument is that PC gaming will die because in the future we won't need a non-portable, dedicated platform for gaming…than by that logic, aren't consoles, which actually have far fewer capabilities than PCs, dying too?
@Chris Cesarano: As do I. Unfortunately, corporate me-tooism is the industry's biggest problem at this point, driving not only the lack of innovation in game mechanics and genres, but the “bigger graphics dick” war that's causing development costs to skyrocket and reinforce the “take no risks” policy that's causing the blatant cloning – and unfortunately, it's specific to no platform. I dearly hope that the industry can move past this, or we're due for another crash…
I find the crash occurring again unlikely, or at least in that form. At most the AAA studios will crumble, but we'll revert back to small indie studios. And eventually the big studio system will rise again.
With regard to your futuristic vision…… lest I remind you, the 1986 Transformers Movie alleged we would have all kinds of crazy tech by 2005. It's six years later and I haven't seen as much as a transforming cockroach.
Seriously, I think we're more likely to burn out our energy resources within the next few decades and really wish we had colonized other planets before our great, great grandkids even have the opportunity to bitch “hey, weren't we supposed to have flying cars and all kinds of crazy-advanced entertainment by now?”
I also disagree completely with your regard to “PC Gaming is Dead”. Other people have already made a whole load of valid arguments, but if I may…..
CRYSIS 2.
You see, the biggest problem to hit FPS games on the PC is the onset of online piracy. The first “Crysis” game had such steep hardware requirements that it remains – technologically-speaking – the most technically advanced computer game to date, setting a standard that has yet to be beat (well, maybe future games using CryEngine 3 will change that).
However, in spite of it being ridiculously popular, very few people actually BOUGHT the game, as it was torrented online through illegal downloading. It wound up being a financial flop, and if it weren't for its popularity or the sales of the expansion, there wouldn't be a Crysis 2 coming out this coming Tuesday.
Crytek decided to move the game to the consoles, just to insure that they made some money off of it, pay their dev team royalty monies and make ends meet, as the non-PC gaming demographic will most definitely be less likely to pirate a console version. However, in addition to the PS3 and XBox 360 versions, there is a PC version that will be available, and might have the best output of all of them (assuming you have the hardware necessary to run it).
And, if anything, the PC version is probably going to have the largest player base (piracy or otherwise). So it has nothing to do with the PC dying.
Honestly, I have several consoles, but I also have two PCs. If anything, TV is dying, as anything available on TV is also available online, and my laptop (the lesser powerful of the two) is more capable of handling multiple kinds of entertainment than my XBox 360, PS3 and TV combined (actually, given what my PCs are capable of, I don't actually have a TV. I just stream everything through my computer, and teh int4rw3bs does the rest).
I'm not even a PC gamer, and I'm aware of the popularity that PC gaming has. Oh, and let's not forget all those freeware Korean shooters that are available online (one's a CoD knockoff, and then there are games like GunZ and the like).
Oh, FYI that “Crysis” schpeil was just an example. By no means did I intend to use it as one definitive piece of proof, but just as an example of the impact of piracy on PC gaming.
Mr. Chipman, that void you're staring in the face of and blinking is convergence. Some flavor of communications, computing, media and gaming platform (PC, “set top” box, console, or other emergent repackaging of the PC) and some portable flavor of the same will be the total sum of what most of us own within the easily foreseeable future (30 to 40 years hence tops)… hell the smartphone (or whatever new tech emerges to replace it) may become the whole of it by then, with just a docking station at home, in the car, and maybe at the office.
Your core thesis of PC gaming being dead is broken on several fronts. Steam, and most of it's myriad competitors, have had significant sales increases every year since their creation. Show me anywhere in the indie console market someone has bootstraped their own company the way Markus Persson has with Minecraft or even just survive on the proceeds of one in development game like Tarn Adams has with Dwarf Fortress… heck that market hardly exists, and the costs of entry can be very high. Then there is the game modding community where a significant number of the game developers of today cut their teeth and learned the basics of their trade… where on consoles is there a real, wide dissemination equivalent to that?
Well, at least it's a huge wall of polite arguments and not venomous rantings.
I will say this: I use my computer for art, I can't upgrade my laptop, like I can a desktop, and gadgets won't do for image files at 11×17 at 300 or 500 dpi, nor will they do for the graphics tablet interface. Sure I can get a laptop with the same specs as my desktop, but in a couple years, when the price of memory and video cards drops, I can pop those into the desktop. I am not a technical person and even I can do that, so it can't be that hard. It's not even that I grew up with it, I didn't use a modern computer, for the first time, until I was 15 and I didn't own one until 17. I'm sure all the people that do webcomics and digital art will agree with the need for a tower. However, I do agree that having to read system requirements, because I have an older system, is annoying. Also Aleinware has gone to shit, since Dell bought them.
I've always been a “pc gamer” as much as I've been a gamer in the first place. When I was four, I had an Amiga 500. Lots of good games for that. I still consider Psygnosis to be one of the greatest game developing companies in history.
But I also had consoles. And as time went on, I grew to like the PC more than the consoles. FPS's have migrated to consoles? That implies they've left the PC, which they haven't. I, and a large number of people, prefer to play them on the PC. Others prefer the consoles. That's fine. They're on both, and for the most part they continue to be on both.
As for the tangential superiority of the mouse and keyboard being replaced by Wii-style controls…even assuming the motion controller is actually better than keyboard and mouse (most likely it'll have its supporters, like keyboard and mouse and controllers both have their supporters today), There's nothing stopping people from using them on the PC. People already do. *I* already do. I don't use my Wii anymore. I have bluetooth and Dolphin.
And yeah, all those phones and ipads and gadgets can do things the PC can do…only worse. They are good for when I am not actually at my PC and need to do something, they are not something that exists in place of my PC. Consoles are PC's. Shitty ones. I can't run Cubase on my wii. I can't create images with Photoshop on my PS3. At least not as easily as I could just a PC.
Why would I crunch numbers, send emails, play games, and type reports on 4 different things when I can do them all on ONE thing? I'm not actually Goro, I only have two hands. And I'm fat and lazy, I don't like to move much. Hence again, I don't use my Wii, I use Dolphin. I'm already at my computer, why the hell would I move to use the Wii when my computer can do it just as well? If there was a good PS3 emulator, I wouldn't use my PS3 either.
All this talk of multiple outlets for computer functionality implies I actually walk around the house a lot. But the need to do so has died with the need for a television. Now, I do everything on the computer. My work is on the computer. My fun is on the computer. And *because* my work is on the computer, why would I want my fun to be somewhere else where I have to expend effort to get to it?
So yeah. To recap, PC's can be big things that can do a thousand things all by itself, and do it better than all the little gadgets. Those gadgets are supplements for when you're not at your PC, not replacements for the PC.
You know, one day I'm sure you'll be right Bob. But that won't happen until those portable gadgets can actually do everything a PC can do *just as well*. When Ipads can magically increase screen size, and when touch screens are just as good as keyboards, when my phone really can run sibelius and not be annoying and stupid to write music with, or when my game console actually can create an image just as easily as my computer. I'll be lucky to live long enough to see that day. You probably won't see it. You're older than I am, after all.
It's a question of horsepower. Consoles and mobile devices can not and never will be able to match the pure computing horsepower available to a non-mobile AC powered hardwired device.
Even as portable technology improves and miniaturization advances those advances can be better leveraged inside a fixed PC.
With a fixed PC you get access to plenty of power to run whatever services you want, you can run your cpu at full throttle and not worry about how long your battery will last. You have plenty of room to provide ventilation; you can put more and bigger fans to improve airflow hell you can even switch to liquid or refrigerant cooling systems to combat heat.
And heat is the enemy of computers heat kills parts so it's always a concern. A laptop will never match the performance of its desktop brethren because it can't move enough air. It has to pack everything in tight and close together to provide adequate ventilation plus it needs somewhere to expel all that heat and someone's lap isn't generally a popular place. So the parts get limited in performance they get throttled and chocked down to limit their heat generation and current draw.
Now the PC may change form somewhat hell it already has, gone are the beige boxes of my youth.
In fact I'm going to be transplanting the hardware from my last beige box this week into a nice new black case to become my media center PC.
Not only will it be able to stream from Netflix but it will also be able to stream content from Zune, Daily motion, any of the other streaming sites or even my favorite porn.
It doubles as my Blue Ray and DVD player and also works for playing music either from MP3s in my own collection or from any of the myriad of music services available.
Oh and it can play games too in 50″ plasma glory.
All that and it can do my taxes too. That's just cobbled together from spare parts since I'm using a new hex core computer to replace the two previous desktops that I used for gaming. (multiple accounts on an MMO something all your alternatives can’t do either)
Yes for the casual gamer their little flash games on their tablets and phones might work but for anything that requires any real computing power for rendering or calculating advanced physics a Desktop PC will always be superior.
Even consoles end up too limited because they have to conform to certain criteria, limited size/form factor, passive cooling (or at least very quiet cooling) which is why Red Rings of Death happen on the 360, locked down operating systems, limited expandability.
Say a new device comes out that's only available on a newer interface like say USB 3.0 well your Console ain't gonna work with that nor will your IPAD or your smart phone.
Nope but you know what? You can probably buy a PCI card to add that capability to your desktop.
The demise of the Desktop PC is being greatly exaggerated by the hipster Ipad toting media.
MOVIEBOB CENTRAL 
Oh, and by the way: Bob, not everyone who disagrees with you is some caricature bugbear version of someone who annoyed you in your childhood, all right? Most of us did get to play console games growing up, even if we never had our own. Many of us enjoyed them, even. Maybe we like PC gaming for what it is, instead of getting swept up in the childish “my platform is the thinking man's platform, therefore my e-penis is bigger than yours!” bickering – have you ever considered that?
Maybe we like having easy access to a wide variety of games both commercial and freeware, being able to use our machines for gaming and other stuff (and you can smarm all you want about doing taxes, but give me a call when Photoshop is ported to any of the current-gen consoles, or when I can write music in something other than MarioPaint.) Maybe we recognize that current-gen console hardware might very well be capable of doing these things, but just don't feel like waiting for the manufacturers to decide they're going to allow it. Or (if you can imagine) maybe we're tired of seeing series we enjoyed get watered down for multi-platform sequels because the suits in management at game companies can't disabuse themselves of the notion that console gamers are morons.
Honestly, this whole video sounds like you've never played a PC (or other home computer) game any time prior to the last five years, or have somehow deliberately erased all memory of ever enjoying it if you have. You think PCs didn't have colorful action-adventures and dumb-fun sidescrollers? You think the console market had a lock on whimsy and joy, and that point-and-click adventures are the only PC-based genre that ever transcended the “obsessive micromanagement simulator” nature of SimCity or Civilization? Because, uh, that would be a “no.” A resounding “no,” in fact. Did you even do any research before ranting off on this?
But eh, why do I bother? It's not like you ever acknowledge anybody's disagreement beyond popping up one of your “stock mock” pictures to paint them as belonging to some group you hold a grudge against. Wonder if we'll be Ogre, or some anal-rententive in a suit and tie?
LikeLike
Hmm… well, I count gaming on a laptop as PC gaming since there's basically no difference at all. So yes, while gaming on desktop computers may be going away, PC gaming as a whole is not.
LikeLike
Now I myself am not a Hardcore PC gamer, mainly because I only have a laptop. Replacing a graphics card on a laptop might result in me “damaging my laptop beyond repair” according to a tutorial I found.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/148909/upgrading_your_laptops_graphics_card.html
I'm scared of that risk, because computers are already expensive. I don't want to have to buy a new one if I make a mistake.
Shame too, because I wanted to play Street Fighter IV on PC.
LikeLike
Great point, Bob.
What many people miss in this debate is that the PC is no longer the most personal computing device (see http://www.buildingproductmarketing.com/2010/11/signs-of-change-smartphones-more.html). Someone above talked about PC gaming being replaced by laptop gaming; that's more the direction it's going. Is the “personal computer” on which I play games going to be the box that lives in a corner of my house, or the phone in my pocket? Which is most personal?
If desktop PC gaming continues to thrive as a separate genre, then PCs will become essentially a new type of console; they won't be the universal device that everyone is already using by default.
LikeLike
I'd go in depth with an argument explaining why the near entirety of this video's argument is factually disproven, but there are already hundreds of comments and controversy surrounding this video already that pretty much sum it up.
Bob, I'm surprised and appalled that someone of your intelligence could be so so so naive. And this is coming from someone who has watched your show since your Youtube days.
Seriously what the fuck were you thinking?
LikeLike
Yeah… This is the ONLY thing i have ever disagreed with you on.
I get what your trying to say, that the personal computer (at least the hulking versions from 2000 that i have right now) are just no practical to play any more games on except the most rudimentary (like starcraft 1, which i still play :P)
Its still a little annoying. I mean… i think its the phrasing. If what you meant is that “the home computer” is dead, as far as gaming. Then why not say it? Instead of saying all pc gaming including things i love like Starcraft 2, portal, half-life (steam in general) and all those different games enriched by the PC are dead.
There shouldnt be to much hate stirred over this video though. I think that Bob just hasnt really conveyed his opinion in a proper way. But either way we can all agree that there are still MANY better qualities in PC gaming that console. Case in point. Team Fortress 2 vs Brink. Looks like Brink is a copy-cat except with the modern warefar/gearsofwar gloss over.
LikeLike
But either way we can all agree that there are still MANY better qualities in PC gaming that console.
I think it all depends on what you want. To me, the console gamepad is more comfortable than a keyboard and mouse and makes room for a lot more genres. Hell, the sudden glut of shooters on consoles can pretty much squarely be blamed on American developers flooding onto the Xbox in the previous generation.
People love to say console games are “simple” or “stupid”, but I look at that as ignorance. Back in the 80's Koei made a series of complicated strategy games that were on par with PC offerings at the time. The only problem is they didn't sell as well because the older audiences such games appeal to weren't buying consoles for anyone but their children. But games like Nobunaga's Ambition, Ghengis Khan and PTO were anything BUT simple. In fact, I'd say they're more complex than StarCraft, which is the Halo of strategy games (think about it, strip the strategy game of politics, economics, trading and focus it on combat and combat alone, and you got a product similar to Halo. StarCraft is “strategy” for “consoletards”, to borrow PC gamer lingo).
When it comes to customization, I've had conversations on team-building with the original Final Fantasy Tactics that are actually more varied than conversations I've had with other Dragon Age players.
If console gaming ever seemed more simple it's only because there were developers targeting a wider audience, whereas PC games were exclusively the sort of audience the PC developers were. In which case, the current “sameness” of the modern game development era? I blame unimaginative PC developers for that.
Everything is a double-edged sword. You can blame console gamers (or more accurately, a wider and more profitable audience) for “simplifying” your favorite genres, but you guys have damn near wiped out some of ours. So it's not about “which side is better” because neither side is better. Technically we've fucked both sides up.
LikeLike
@Chris Cesarano: I do agree that it's a mistake to flame on console gamers for the dumbing down of various games – it's not their fault, and they're not actually stupid or even probably that much less interested in a nuanced, complex game. Instead, I blame corporate marketing drones who have latched onto that notion and can't get it into their thick skulls that it's not actually true.
However, brainless me-tooism is not even remotely a PC-exclusive thing, or even something that's that much more common on PCs. Just look at the flood of lame-ass sidescrollers on the NES that were either ripping off Mario/Adventure Island or ripping off Contra.
LikeLike
Yes, but it was still easier to FIND other genres at the time. I could find a variety of strategy games on the SNES, or a variety of RPG's, or puzzle games, or non-clone side scrollers (Mega Man != Mario != Metroid != Contra, after all), and you could still get fun and different projects that defied genre boundaries like Toejam and Earl or StarFox.
Then again, this could still be a result of marketing and business executives. Back then you could still get a group of five or six guys to make a game and have it be successful.
I don't necessarily miss the old days, but I do miss the variety we were allowed.
LikeLike
Frankly, I've never really gotten the whole “death of PC gaming” viewpoint. I mean, it seems like PC superiority is coming to an end-while graphics and online abilities are still superior on PCs, the gap gets smaller every generation-but PCs are doing just fine. Also, if the whole basis of Bob's argument is that PC gaming will die because in the future we won't need a non-portable, dedicated platform for gaming…than by that logic, aren't consoles, which actually have far fewer capabilities than PCs, dying too?
LikeLike
@Chris Cesarano: As do I. Unfortunately, corporate me-tooism is the industry's biggest problem at this point, driving not only the lack of innovation in game mechanics and genres, but the “bigger graphics dick” war that's causing development costs to skyrocket and reinforce the “take no risks” policy that's causing the blatant cloning – and unfortunately, it's specific to no platform. I dearly hope that the industry can move past this, or we're due for another crash…
LikeLike
I find the crash occurring again unlikely, or at least in that form. At most the AAA studios will crumble, but we'll revert back to small indie studios. And eventually the big studio system will rise again.
LikeLike
With regard to your futuristic vision…… lest I remind you, the 1986 Transformers Movie alleged we would have all kinds of crazy tech by 2005. It's six years later and I haven't seen as much as a transforming cockroach.
Seriously, I think we're more likely to burn out our energy resources within the next few decades and really wish we had colonized other planets before our great, great grandkids even have the opportunity to bitch “hey, weren't we supposed to have flying cars and all kinds of crazy-advanced entertainment by now?”
I also disagree completely with your regard to “PC Gaming is Dead”. Other people have already made a whole load of valid arguments, but if I may…..
CRYSIS 2.
You see, the biggest problem to hit FPS games on the PC is the onset of online piracy. The first “Crysis” game had such steep hardware requirements that it remains – technologically-speaking – the most technically advanced computer game to date, setting a standard that has yet to be beat (well, maybe future games using CryEngine 3 will change that).
However, in spite of it being ridiculously popular, very few people actually BOUGHT the game, as it was torrented online through illegal downloading. It wound up being a financial flop, and if it weren't for its popularity or the sales of the expansion, there wouldn't be a Crysis 2 coming out this coming Tuesday.
Crytek decided to move the game to the consoles, just to insure that they made some money off of it, pay their dev team royalty monies and make ends meet, as the non-PC gaming demographic will most definitely be less likely to pirate a console version. However, in addition to the PS3 and XBox 360 versions, there is a PC version that will be available, and might have the best output of all of them (assuming you have the hardware necessary to run it).
And, if anything, the PC version is probably going to have the largest player base (piracy or otherwise). So it has nothing to do with the PC dying.
Honestly, I have several consoles, but I also have two PCs. If anything, TV is dying, as anything available on TV is also available online, and my laptop (the lesser powerful of the two) is more capable of handling multiple kinds of entertainment than my XBox 360, PS3 and TV combined (actually, given what my PCs are capable of, I don't actually have a TV. I just stream everything through my computer, and teh int4rw3bs does the rest).
I'm not even a PC gamer, and I'm aware of the popularity that PC gaming has. Oh, and let's not forget all those freeware Korean shooters that are available online (one's a CoD knockoff, and then there are games like GunZ and the like).
LikeLike
Oh, FYI that “Crysis” schpeil was just an example. By no means did I intend to use it as one definitive piece of proof, but just as an example of the impact of piracy on PC gaming.
LikeLike
Mr. Chipman, that void you're staring in the face of and blinking is convergence. Some flavor of communications, computing, media and gaming platform (PC, “set top” box, console, or other emergent repackaging of the PC) and some portable flavor of the same will be the total sum of what most of us own within the easily foreseeable future (30 to 40 years hence tops)… hell the smartphone (or whatever new tech emerges to replace it) may become the whole of it by then, with just a docking station at home, in the car, and maybe at the office.
Your core thesis of PC gaming being dead is broken on several fronts. Steam, and most of it's myriad competitors, have had significant sales increases every year since their creation. Show me anywhere in the indie console market someone has bootstraped their own company the way Markus Persson has with Minecraft or even just survive on the proceeds of one in development game like Tarn Adams has with Dwarf Fortress… heck that market hardly exists, and the costs of entry can be very high. Then there is the game modding community where a significant number of the game developers of today cut their teeth and learned the basics of their trade… where on consoles is there a real, wide dissemination equivalent to that?
LikeLike
Well, at least it's a huge wall of polite arguments and not venomous rantings.
I will say this: I use my computer for art, I can't upgrade my laptop, like I can a desktop, and gadgets won't do for image files at 11×17 at 300 or 500 dpi, nor will they do for the graphics tablet interface. Sure I can get a laptop with the same specs as my desktop, but in a couple years, when the price of memory and video cards drops, I can pop those into the desktop. I am not a technical person and even I can do that, so it can't be that hard. It's not even that I grew up with it, I didn't use a modern computer, for the first time, until I was 15 and I didn't own one until 17.
I'm sure all the people that do webcomics and digital art will agree with the need for a tower.
However, I do agree that having to read system requirements, because I have an older system, is annoying.
Also Aleinware has gone to shit, since Dell bought them.
LikeLike
Hey, Bob. I crafted a video response to you. Put a lot of work into it, and it would mean a ton to me if you'd take a look at it. Thanks a lot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAMbuoalhZM
LikeLike
Well this whole video was kind of dumb.
I've always been a “pc gamer” as much as I've been a gamer in the first place. When I was four, I had an Amiga 500. Lots of good games for that. I still consider Psygnosis to be one of the greatest game developing companies in history.
But I also had consoles. And as time went on, I grew to like the PC more than the consoles. FPS's have migrated to consoles? That implies they've left the PC, which they haven't. I, and a large number of people, prefer to play them on the PC. Others prefer the consoles. That's fine. They're on both, and for the most part they continue to be on both.
As for the tangential superiority of the mouse and keyboard being replaced by Wii-style controls…even assuming the motion controller is actually better than keyboard and mouse (most likely it'll have its supporters, like keyboard and mouse and controllers both have their supporters today), There's nothing stopping people from using them on the PC. People already do. *I* already do. I don't use my Wii anymore. I have bluetooth and Dolphin.
And yeah, all those phones and ipads and gadgets can do things the PC can do…only worse. They are good for when I am not actually at my PC and need to do something, they are not something that exists in place of my PC. Consoles are PC's. Shitty ones. I can't run Cubase on my wii. I can't create images with Photoshop on my PS3. At least not as easily as I could just a PC.
Why would I crunch numbers, send emails, play games, and type reports on 4 different things when I can do them all on ONE thing? I'm not actually Goro, I only have two hands. And I'm fat and lazy, I don't like to move much. Hence again, I don't use my Wii, I use Dolphin. I'm already at my computer, why the hell would I move to use the Wii when my computer can do it just as well? If there was a good PS3 emulator, I wouldn't use my PS3 either.
All this talk of multiple outlets for computer functionality implies I actually walk around the house a lot. But the need to do so has died with the need for a television. Now, I do everything on the computer. My work is on the computer. My fun is on the computer. And *because* my work is on the computer, why would I want my fun to be somewhere else where I have to expend effort to get to it?
So yeah. To recap, PC's can be big things that can do a thousand things all by itself, and do it better than all the little gadgets. Those gadgets are supplements for when you're not at your PC, not replacements for the PC.
You know, one day I'm sure you'll be right Bob. But that won't happen until those portable gadgets can actually do everything a PC can do *just as well*. When Ipads can magically increase screen size, and when touch screens are just as good as keyboards, when my phone really can run sibelius and not be annoying and stupid to write music with, or when my game console actually can create an image just as easily as my computer. I'll be lucky to live long enough to see that day. You probably won't see it. You're older than I am, after all.
LikeLike
It's a question of horsepower.
Consoles and mobile devices can not and never will be able to match the pure computing horsepower available to a non-mobile AC powered hardwired device.
Even as portable technology improves and miniaturization advances those advances can be better leveraged inside a fixed PC.
With a fixed PC you get access to plenty of power to run whatever services you want, you can run your cpu at full throttle and not worry about how long your battery will last. You have plenty of room to provide ventilation; you can put more and bigger fans to improve airflow hell you can even switch to liquid or refrigerant cooling systems to combat heat.
And heat is the enemy of computers heat kills parts so it's always a concern. A laptop will never match the performance of its desktop brethren because it can't move enough air. It has to pack everything in tight and close together to provide adequate ventilation plus it needs somewhere to expel all that heat and someone's lap isn't generally a popular place.
So the parts get limited in performance they get throttled and chocked down to limit their heat generation and current draw.
Now the PC may change form somewhat hell it already has, gone are the beige boxes of my youth.
In fact I'm going to be transplanting the hardware from my last beige box this week into a nice new black case to become my media center PC.
Not only will it be able to stream from Netflix but it will also be able to stream content from Zune, Daily motion, any of the other streaming sites or even my favorite porn.
It doubles as my Blue Ray and DVD player and also works for playing music either from MP3s in my own collection or from any of the myriad of music services available.
Oh and it can play games too in 50″ plasma glory.
All that and it can do my taxes too.
That's just cobbled together from spare parts since I'm using a new hex core computer to replace the two previous desktops that I used for gaming. (multiple accounts on an MMO something all your alternatives can’t do either)
Yes for the casual gamer their little flash games on their tablets and phones might work but for anything that requires any real computing power for rendering or calculating advanced physics a Desktop PC will always be superior.
Even consoles end up too limited because they have to conform to certain criteria, limited size/form factor, passive cooling (or at least very quiet cooling) which is why Red Rings of Death happen on the 360, locked down operating systems, limited expandability.
Say a new device comes out that's only available on a newer interface like say USB 3.0 well your Console ain't gonna work with that nor will your IPAD or your smart phone.
Nope but you know what? You can probably buy a PCI card to add that capability to your desktop.
The demise of the Desktop PC is being greatly exaggerated by the hipster Ipad toting media.
LikeLike