In my opinion, I believe PCs as well as PC gaming will eventually die out due to other devices taking the PC's primary roles. Such as smart phones, set-top boxes and what not. But, the things that make PC gaming great will eventually move over to consoles. For now though, PC gaming is still relevant.
To be honest, I haven't played a new big budget PC game in a while. I'm more into the indie or old school ascii and roguelike games. I believe graphics aren't the best thing PCs have to offer. Of course graphics do matter to an extent. All my friend think I'm crazy for liking a game thats completely displayed in symbols or crappy unanimated sprites.
I showed a friend of mine the
Crysis demo at a reasonably high setting. He thought shooting down trees were cool but really, he did not care about the best graphics that a game has ever achieved. He later next year bought a good gaming PC for
World of Warcraft after I got him to play it for the first few levels.
The controls are a barrier also. I didn't even know it but he found it increasing awkward to use the WASD keys that he went out and bought a gaming keyboard with arrows keys and a number of buttons around it.
We need to show what PCs can do differently from consoles. PCs can do Graphics better and its nice feeling seeing an awesome view but, consoles can achieve these experiences also. They are relatively short lived compared to actual gameplay. Really, there is little difference to the core gameplay between
Crysis and
Call of Duty 4 on consoles as they both are FPSs. Of course they all have unique features that make them different but, its not so drastic that you NEED to buy a PC right now and play it.
People need to focus on games that are completely different from consoles games like
Starcraft for example. Its a RTS which has been done on consoles and has been done reasonably well in some occasions. Though the sweetness of RTSs still come from PCs.
One of which is user created content in terms of
Starcraft, UMS maps or mods from
Half-life. UMS maps made
Starcraft a better game by far. You can play tons of different varieties of maps from role play to obstacle courses. The big thing is that its reasonably easy to make one compared to a Half-life mod, so there are tons and tons of different ones to try out.
Hell, I made a extremely popular and heavily triggered map (Special Forces Extreme) for
Starcraft 7 or 8 years ago with no programming knowledge what so ever. I had my first computer for only a year. I didn't even know what a hard drive was. Now with an IT degree, I look back and I'm quite amazed that
Blizzard made something that an idiot could understand and create an amazing experience with. I essentially programmed a game without realizing it.
Consoles are getting into user created content like
Little Big Planet but that is only one game from one console compared to the tons of mod supported PC games. They will be catching up as I said above, all things that make PC gaming great will be heading over to consoles sooner or later.
MMOs are quite unique to PCs too. Though, it seems like it won't be long until they will start booming on consoles. But surely playing what is essentially a coop RPG is quite an experience, especially something like doing a raid in
World of Warcraft. Killing a boss with the combined effort of a large group of players is truly unique to the PC.
Graphics are a nice bonus but, it won't convert most people into PC gaming. Show off games that don't need to play a brand new PC for and like the
Wii, give them something they never experienced before and they will come in droves.
I play both and my friends primarily play consoles. I am not going to advocate them on buying a decent gaming PC. I'll show them awesome PC games that I think are cool and unique to PCs like RTSs and MMOs. I also do this for consoles games too. In my opinion, I believe PCs as well as PC gaming will eventually die out due to other devices taking the PC's primary roles. Such as smart phones, set-top boxes and what not. But, the things that make PC gaming great will eventually move over to consoles. For now though, PC gaming is still relevant. To be honest, I haven't played a new big budget PC game in a while. I'm more into the indie or old school ascii and roguelike games. I believe graphics aren't the best thing PCs have to offer. Of course graphics do matter to an extent. All my friend think I'm crazy for liking a game thats completely displayed in symbols or crappy un-animated sprites. I showed a friend of mine the Crysis demo at a reasonably high setting. He thought shooting down trees were cool but really, he did not care about the best graphics that a game has ever achieved. He later next year bought a good gaming PC for World of Warcraft after I got him to play it for the first few levels. The controls are a barrier also. I didn't even know it but he found it increasing awkward to use the WASD keys that he went out and bought a gaming keyboard with arrows keys and a number of buttons around it. You need to show what PCs can do differently to consoles. PCs can do Graphics better and its nice feeling seeing an awesome view but, consoles can achieve these experiences. Though, they are short lived compared to the actual gameplay. Really, there is little difference to the core gameplay between Crysis and Call of Duty 4 as they both are FPSs. Of course they all have unique features that make them different but, its not so drastic that you NEED to buy a PC right now and play it. People need to focus on games that are completely different from consoles games like Starcraft for example. Its a RTS which has been done on consoles and has been done reasonably well in some occasions. Though the sweetness of RTSs come from PCs. One of which is user created content in terms of Starcraft, UMS maps or mods from Half-life. UMS maps made Starcraft a better game by far. You can play tons of different varieties of maps from role play to obstacle courses. The big thing is that its reasonably easy to make one compared to a Half-life mod, so there are tons and tons of different ones to try out. Hell, I made a extremely popular and heavily triggered map (Special Forces Extreme) for Starcraft 7 or 8 years ago with no programming knowledge what so ever. I had my first computer for only a year. I didn't even know what a hard drive was. Now with an IT degree, I look back and I'm quite amazed that Blizzard made something that an idiot could understand and create an amazing experience. I essentially programmed a game without realizing it. Consoles are getting into user created content like Little Big Planet but that is only one game from one console compared to the tons of mod supported PC games. MMOs are quite unique to PCs, though it seems like it won't be long until they will start booming on consoles. But surely playing what is essentially a coop RPG is quite an experience, especially something like doing a Raid in World of Warcraft. Killing a boss with the combined effort of a large group of players is truly unique to the PC. Graphics are a nice bonus but, it won't convert most people into PC gaming. Show off games that don't need to play a brand new PC for and like the Wii, give them something they never experienced before and they will come in droves.
What games do you think are truly unique to PC gaming? Are there features that you think will never be accomplished on consoles to the same level as PCs? Do you think PC gaming still have some new experiences in store in the future?
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