Am I a member of a dying breed? (blog post)

I grew up with the pc as a gaming platform. I started with a commodore 64, moved on to nintendo stuff until i got my first PC. I still remember the specs mostly, it was a 486 dx2. I discovered wolfenstein 3d, and my gaming life changed forever. Moved onto doom,quake,quake2,tribes,tribes2,quake 3 arena (still play to this day thanks to quakelive.org)ut,ut2k4,ut3(not as good) and the newer games from then on.
 
However It seems that the pc is a dying platform and this makes me sad. On the pc games used to be complex and challenging. Now on the console games are much much easier and dumbed down. Look at the newest "smash hit" modern warfare 2.   I have this game on the pc. Gone are the dedicated servers which drove the pc community. Now we cant even make our own maps or mods. We are stuck with random servers and dont get to know the people in a dedicated server as before. The game itself feels very dumbed down and looses all pc semblance. 
 
The same with console ports to the pc. Dumbed down, huge menus that take up half the screen. Bigass weapons. Horrible FOV. Slow pacing ect.
 What happened to the days of hitting a guy with a rocket to the feet,launching him into the air, and then hitting him again with another rocket midair or finishing him off with a rail. This sort of stuff took skill. Gone are the days of fast paced gaming that really challenged you. If it was not for quakelive.org, i wouldnt have a choice when it comes to first person shooters. I prefer the fast pace of quake to the slow pace of call of duty. I love mastering strafe jumping,skiing and other movement technqiues these old games provided. Now it feels like im playing in jello. This is how gaming USED to be.
 

Looks like I've found a soulmate. I feel exactly the same.  
 
EDIT: Man, Quake 3 was such an awesome game. I spent like 4 years playing virtually nothing else. I know Quakelive is around but I played promode mostly and can't get into vanilla. Pings are pretty shitty too. 

I've been playing PC games just as long and I hate Quake, Duke Nukem, DOOM, Unreal Tournament, and that rocket jumping bullshit. I'm glad those games are in decline.
 
I agree about MW2, however.

I don't play shooting games on the PC, so I can't miss what I don't like.  However, PC and RTS/TBS is a dream come true, as is some simulations.  I find going to the PC section of a store to be generally depressing.  It is mostly ports of console games I don't really care about.  Still, a couple of good RTS  a year keeps me happy.

" I don't play shooting games on the PC, so I can't miss what I don't like.  However, PC and RTS/TBS is a dream come true, as is some simulations.  I find going to the PC section of a store to be generally depressing.  It is mostly ports of console games I don't really care about.  Still, a couple of good RTS  a year keeps me happy. "

" @oldschool said:

" I don't play shooting games on the PC, so I can't miss what I don't like.  However, PC and RTS/TBS is a dream come true, as is some simulations.  I find going to the PC section of a store to be generally depressing.  It is mostly ports of console games I don't really care about.  Still, a couple of good RTS  a year keeps me happy. "

steam is your friend. Who cares about brick and mortar stores anymore when you can get anything you want digitally. "

I don't miss fast twitch FPS as much as you do, nor do I think PC gaming is dead or even possible to fully kill (Indie development can't be squashed), but I do think the paradigm shift that's happened is horrible for gaming as a whole. The largest group now focused on by publishers doesn't even give a shit about gaming in any meaningful respect.
 
Like the old saying goes, "You treat your friends worse than your enemies" and it's true. Here we are, dedicated gamers for life and there they are, ignoring us and chasing after the people who have no attachment to gaming.

" @PureRok: what do you have against that stuff? Do you realize that rj's,strafe jumps require an INSANE amount of skill and practice? This is what seperates the men from the boys in quake. You simply dont have this kind of learning curve in games anymore. Things are just way too dumbed down. "

This guy above me has a point, the tactics used in quake were forged in the need tobe faster and better than the other spotty teen. The game wasn't initially develpoed with that type of crazy play involved it just evolved as more and more virgins needed gratification from thier boring game.

.....I miss quake.....

The worst part about this is that any time you complain, the legions of kids raised on Consoles who know nothing of the awesomeness that was oldschool PC gaming sit there and say things like "Hurr durr PC elitists" and "PC gaming sucksssss".
 
I have never in my life encountered a group of people more deserving of a post-birth abortion.

Once while scouring ASE (The All-Seeing Eye) for a CTF server with a decent ping, I sorted the server list by ping and proceeded to join the first one that popped up. I was surprised to see the game load up Q3DM6 (not a CTF-map), seems I had forgotten to filter out servers that weren't capture the flag. Once in, the first thing I saw was a bunch of people just flying across the screen, rocket jumping wherever they went in ridiculous speeds. Rockets and rails were everywhere, it was complete fucking chaos to me.  
I figured, "hey, this looks pretty interesting", and joined a team. I was annihilated instantly every round. I couldn't move like they did and I sure as hell couldn't aim like they did.    
  

If you want PC games then act like the gamer you claim to be and look for them, don't expect to be smacked in the face with their box to find them. If you want dedicated servers then don't play Modern Warfare 2, play pretty much any other decent FPS out there, if you want skill based play then go play Quake Live or one of the countless other twitch based deathmatch games, retail like UT3 or freeware like Warsow. If you want RTS or TBS there are plenty, either part of franchises like Total War and Civilization or newer IP like Galactic Civilizations and Sins of a Solar Empire. If you want RPG there are big names like Dragon Age or by comparison unknown greats like The Witcher and Risen. These are just examples, I can name many more if I want to. King's Bounty, its sequel and Divine Divinity for RPG, East India Company, Tropico and Majesty for strategy, Nexuiz, Armed Assault and  Shattered Horizon for FPS, and tons more for any genre, any taste. There are many, many more. PC gaming offers what it always did and more with the advent of the totally independent developers and even the bedroom game maker who offers awesome stuff for free either as mods or stand alone products thanks to the breadth of easily available tools. It's just not advertised by any first party to make it easy for you to find the games you want. If you really want them however, then look for them. If you find yourself not having the time for this and that then perhaps this mainstreamlining of games is good for you and you complain because you've yet to realise it. You just sound not in-the-know to me, I'm sorry. Hey, look, I didn't even have to mention Blizzard and Valve Software to make my point, how cool is that? Add them on top of what I said for a +1000 bonus. I would also suggest you start following a decent PC focused website like some of my past links and of course the mighty Rock Paper Shotgun.

The worlds most popular game is on the PC.

I swear gamers are an odd bunch. We're young (yes, even us "old" ones who were around during the Atari age) yet many of us already are ready to get in the rocking chair and do nothing about complain about "the good old days". It's so incredibly easy to find fault and issues with the present and it's a shame that many people are so focused on doing such that they fail to see all of the positive things staring them in the face.
 
"Games aint what they used to be like back in my day!"
 
No... no, they're not. But they don't need to be. Advancements in technology and development have allowed for the creation of plenty of wonderful games that were only the dreams of developers back in the 80s and 90s.
 
"Bah, I want multitasking and micromanaging and command prompts and blue screens of death!"
 
So.... go play your old games...? What exactly is stopping you from doing so? Last I checked, there are still Quake 1 servers being run by hardcore fans. Stick with those and shun modern gaming if it's just going to bug you. Of course, then you're just like many grandparents who prefer their old Talkies to the crazy movies of today and their 40s music over the "noise" that passes as music with today's kids. If your first PC was a 486, I have a feeling you're younger than I am, and I certainly don't feel old enough to be called "Grandma" yet. Are you really in such a hurry to be shrugged off by others your own age as a senile old fart?
 
I loved my old school PC games like King's Quest, Scortched Earth, L.O.R.D and Syndicate. Those were fantastic games, but there's room enough to love those and games of the modern era. No not all modern games are great, but let's be honest -- neither were all games back in the 80s or 90s. There were plenty of terrible games and plenty of games that are better left buried in the past (I'm looking at you, E.T.).

" I swear gamers are an odd bunch. We're young (yes, even us "old" ones who were around during the Atari age) yet many of us already are ready to get in the rocking chair and do nothing about complain about "the good old days". It's so incredibly easy to find fault and issues with the present and it's a shame that many people are so focused on doing such that they fail to see all of the positive things staring them in the face.
 
"Games aint what they used to be like back in my day!"
 
No... no, they're not. But they don't need to be. Advancements in technology and development have allowed for the creation of plenty of wonderful games that were only the dreams of developers back in the 80s and 90s.
 
"Bah, I want multitasking and micromanaging and command prompts and blue screens of death!"
 
So.... go play your old games...? What exactly is stopping you from doing so? Last I checked, there are still Quake 1 servers being run by hardcore fans. Stick with those and shun modern gaming if it's just going to bug you. Of course, then you're just like many grandparents who prefer their old Talkies to the crazy movies of today and their 40s music over the "noise" that passes as music with today's kids. If your first PC was a 486, I have a feeling you're younger than I am, and I certainly don't feel old enough to be called "Grandma" yet. Are you really in such a hurry to be shrugged off by others your own age as a senile old fart? I loved my old school PC games like King's Quest, Scortched Earth, L.O.R.D and Syndicate. Those were fantastic games, but there's room enough to love those and games of the modern era. No not all modern games are great, but let's be honest -- neither were all games back in the 80s or 90s. There were plenty of terrible games and plenty of games that are better left buried in the past (I'm looking at you, E.T.). "

PC gaming is unfortunately a dying breed, it's mostly because consoles are becoming more like PC's.

Replace Quake with UT and I agree with you completely. 

PC is not dying, it's only becoming more similar to consoles, which can be both horrible or great

I generally disagree with the OP, in that I HATE fast paced games, which was one of teh reasons I liked th original CoDs. However I do love the PC as a platform, and am angry about Console ports. Personally I think PC gaming should broaden itself, and try to escape becoming another 'console', because when it comes down to it, we can't compete with consoles. Consoles have yet to conquer the bastion of RTS and simulation games, and I while they have made slow gains into FPS territory, we still hold supeme.

" @Tahnit said:

" @oldschool said:

" I don't play shooting games on the PC, so I can't miss what I don't like.  However, PC and RTS/TBS is a dream come true, as is some simulations.  I find going to the PC section of a store to be generally depressing.  It is mostly ports of console games I don't really care about.  Still, a couple of good RTS  a year keeps me happy. "

steam is your friend. Who cares about brick and mortar stores anymore when you can get anything you want digitally. "

I am "oldschool" remember.  I like my games retail and physical.  Now who sounds like an old fart  ^-^ "

I don't want to have this discussion again, but the PC is not dying.  It is changing and evolving but it is far from dead.  If you lament the passing of the simple Quake/UT game style, then I am sorry.  But that doesn't mean that FPS games have disappeared from PC platforms.  No one seems to be making platforming games for the consoles these days either.  A generation or two ago they were everywhere just as FPS PC games were everywhere.  The whole industry is not what it once was, but that doesn't mean that it is on life support.  It's moving in a new direction.  Look on the bright side!  Adventure games seem to be making a comeback, so maybe those old simple FPS games will reemerge again someday.

Ive played almost all of those games AND I did start out on a 486 with windows 3.1... good times. I honestly think that consoles open up gaming to the wider public giving companies more funds to build nicer looking games. I built a gaming PC but for sheer fun I would have to say playing on my xbox wins hands down.

Get that disgusting Quake 3 out of here. :P

Yeah I feel the same. I grew up on the Atari 8-bit home computers with an external modem and floppy disc. My brother would download homebrew games from compuserve back in the mid 80s, which looking back seems amazing for the time. When we moved to PC I can remember going down to the computer store and buying games off the shareware rack. Commander keen, wolf 3D, duke nukem 2d. I also have very fond memories of some great PC games. Test drive 3, Jet fighter 2, Falcon 4.0, Out of this world, Ultima 7,8,9, x-wing vs tiefighter, The 7th guest (that one required a $500 2x CD-ROM drive), Dark forces, Estatica, space quest 3 & 4, Dark Forces, Doom, Strong hold, World of Xeen... and the list goes on. I really miss the golden age of PC gaming.

I still play most of my games on PC and I don't see that ending any time soon.

PengiunDust is right. I'm an oldschool gamer who has pretty much stuck exclusively with consoles since the 2600. And I could write a similar blog about the types of games I enjoyed when I was younger, and how they're not being produced anymore. But then I'd have to ignore all the awesomeness I see released every year.
Also a console owner (like me who consciously chose not to game on a PC) could also complain about how PC our consoles and games are getting. FPS all over the damn place. RTSs. Western RPGs.  Downloadable only games. Patches. Installs. Lag. Hardware failures. Hacked accounts, etc. These are issues to which a console gamer had to adjust (and adjust QUICKLY). Now PC gamers get to adjust in the opposite direction. 
 
So, yes, you are part of a dying breed. But only because you see the industry's changes as a negative. Which is fine by me. Change ain't gonna work for everyone. But your blog does make you sound like my dad talking about today's music compared to his "perfected music" of the 60's-70's.

UT 2004 was the shit.

That fast twitch based shooter is definitely rather dead, but PC gaming isnt dead...people have claimed so for the last several years. It will never have the numbers of people playing console anymore, but it isnt dead, and wont die.

Change ain't gonna work for everyone. But your blog does make you sound like my dad talking about today's music compared to his "perfected music" of the 60's-70's. "

"So.... go play your old games...? What exactly is stopping you from doing so? Last I checked, there are still Quake 1 servers being run by hardcore fans. Stick with those and shun modern gaming if it's just going to bug you. Of course, then you're just like many grandparents who prefer their old Talkies to the crazy movies of today and their 40s music over the "noise" that passes as music with today's kids. If your first PC was a 486, I have a feeling you're younger than I am, and I certainly don't feel old enough to be called "Grandma" yet. Are you really in such a hurry to be shrugged off by others your own age as a senile old fart? I loved my old school PC games like King's Quest, Scortched Earth, L.O.R.D and Syndicate. Those were fantastic games, but there's room enough to love those and games of the modern era. No not all modern games are great, but let's be honest -- neither were all games back in the 80s or 90s. There were plenty of terrible games and plenty of games that are better left buried in the past (I'm looking at you, E.T.). "

yes you are

hmm, i'm an old school pc gamer, but personally i've always hated the fast paced combat junk in the early 3d fps games.  so much so that i pretty much equate all fps shooters with them and hate the genre pretty much to this day.
 
as for the modern combat games, i hate all modern based shooters period.  i prefer all my fps killing to be of nazis and their ilk.

Considering a game like Serious Sam HD seems to have sold less than 30K copies while Modern Warfare 2 is the most popular game on Steam, I'd say yes, definitely.
 
To me Quake 3 isn't the high point, I definitely enjoyed Doom 1/2 and Quake 1 more.  Quake 3 is basically a MP-only game, and I personally am of a dying breed of people who enjoyed videogames before the internet.
 
To me most of what made PC gaming great in the 90's is gone today, but I'm sure some form of PC gaming will be around a long time.  There's still stuff like SSHD, L4D2, and Diablo 3 which will support PC gaming, but for the most part I see modern PC gaming as not dead but undead.  It continues to exist and move about, but it's a husk of its former self.
 
The general rule though is everything changes and nothing lasts forever.  The state of the Japanese games industry is also a joke compared to what it used to be.  Things will keep changing and changing.  I'm just worried that in 20 years there may not be a sector of the gaming market for enthusiasts at all.

Just so you know, I'm PC gamer as well and no PC gaming is and never will be dead. It's just as popular as it once was but we can't hold onto that title forever. I would say a lot more but then I'll just be repeating what the other guys said.

Quake is good but I personally prefer the original Unreal Tournament.

Everyone has very good points here. However i didnt say there were not avenues for us like quakelive. Just that those games of old are not being made anymore.

Get off your high-horse. Just because people enjoy games that you don't enjoy, doesn't mean you can generalize them as being "boys" or inferior. You are the type of gamer who is killing PC gaming with your elitist, and generally douchey attitude.

I agree only for nostalgia purposes. However, somebody else could make the same arguement and use CS as their game and be like wtf is up with being able to call in a tactical nuke and helicopter to do your killing for you. good old CS was just good old pure skill.

" Get off your high-horse. Just because people enjoy games that you don't enjoy, doesn't mean you can generalize them as being "boys" or inferior. You are the type of gamer who is killing PC gaming with your elitist, and generally douchey attitude. "

I wasnt trying to do so. All i am saying is that in comparison to older games, todays games feel dumbed down. You cant dispute this fact.

" @Tahnit said:

I wasnt trying to do so. All i am saying is that in comparison to older games, todays games feel dumbed down. You cant dispute this fact.

I don't think Quake 3 is a good example of a game that is less 'dumb' than recent games.  Quake 3 is about as simple as games can get.  However like you say it was a lot faster paced, and that's purely a concession for mass market gamers and gamepad controls. "

they should just make a console with a keypad and a mouse. It would be the greatest console of all time lol.

" @Diamond said:

" @Tahnit said:

I wasnt trying to do so. All i am saying is that in comparison to older games, todays games feel dumbed down. You cant dispute this fact.

I don't think Quake 3 is a good example of a game that is less 'dumb' than recent games.  Quake 3 is about as simple as games can get.  However like you say it was a lot faster paced, and that's purely a concession for mass market gamers and gamepad controls. "

they should just make a console with a keypad and a mouse. It would be the greatest console of all time lol. "