I was trying to play Civ III and Civ IV the last time. I couldn’t get either game to play. I think I tried to play Portal, as well.
I have to admit that I didn’t spend an awful lot of time on trying to get them to play before I said “bugger all this for a game of soldiers” and fired up my trusty old PS2 and immersed myself in Chrono Trigger.
Seriously?
Clicking “Portal” on your Steam game list is too difficult for you??
Did you dedicate all of a nano-second, literally, to running these games, because that’s the only way you could have possibly failed.
The irony is that it makes NO DIFFERENCE to new games whether you buy them as digital downloads or not. If the company wants it to require an internet connection (Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, etc) then it requires an internet connection, even if you have the box on your shelf and the disc in your drive.
People need to stop conflating “Downloaded game” with “internet required copy protection” because there’s not really any correlation between the two.
Note: Steam allows you to play in offline, but I’ve heard about people having significant issues, including stupid crap like “You need to be online, then SET yourself to offline mode, and THEN you can play games offline” so it’s not exactly as easy as Kinthalis would have you believe sometimes. Of course, I’ve had experiences where Steam didn’t start up right for whatever reason and the games still worked, so…
I did click Portal (and the Civs) on my game list. Didn’t run. None of them. Since I’m not too thrilled with DL games anyway, I’m not really going to devote a lot of time to them if I have another way of playing games, but I did try for several minutes before grumbling and going off to my beloved PS2.
Do you honestly believe games just not working is something, ANYTHING like the common experience for a PC gamer?
If programs aren’t starting on my PC, I figure there’s something wrong with my PC. I don’t immediately assume it’s the evil magic gods who hate me.
Don’t have Portal, but I’ve played the newest Civ in offline mode. I’ve never had an issue. The only problem I’ve ever encountered is the wait for Steam to time out while searching for it’s connection to their server. Once it DOES time out, you simply log in using the offline mode, then play a game (it will give you a popup saying that you will be playing offline or something to that effect).
The thing is, I think Airk is right…people are confusing games that require online security checks with download only. Obviously, if a game requires those checks then it requires them, whether the game is downloaded or you have the CD for it. If it doesn’t require those checks then it doesn’t matter whether you purchase it download only or you have it on DvD. To me, having the media is a waste. It just sits around, collecting dust and usually getting scratched so I need to buy a new copy or get a new DvD anyway at some point (can’t say how often this has happened…lots though). As opposed to buying it on Steam, downloading it, playing it…and if something happens to the game, simply downloading it again when I need or want it. I’ve gone back and bought games I had years ago again on Steam simply to have the thing in my library in case I want to play it again (I recently bought Sins on Steam because they are offering it there now, and this when I had it from Stardock already, which was download, merely because it puts all my games where I can more easily get at them…well, that and the hope that Steam will set up a Steam Workshop for Sins at some point).
-XT
If other programs are working on my PC, I assume that I’m having a problem with whatever program it is…and if the only way to fix the program is to go online, then I assume that I CAN’T fix it until my connection is restored. So I wander into the gun room and fire up the trusty old PS2 (which doesn’t require an internet connection and which never, ever lets me down). Trying to fix the unfixable will make me even grumpier, but playing Chrono Trigger will make me happier. Which one is the rational choice?
I agree that it is the ultimate in stupidity of having online verification for a purchased disc (I’m mainly looking at you, EA), and in that case there is no difference. However, for reasons I stated above concerning my internet connection, I’d still rather have a backup physical disc than have to re-download it. All my discs are stored in jewel cases on a shelf so scratching/losing them isn’t a problem (and many of them don’t even need the disc in the drive to play once they are installed). Download only games are fine, as long as I can copy them to a DVD and don’t need to connect to the internet to play them.
Actually, yes, or it would be a lot more successful than it is. PC Gaming has proven, time and time again throughout the decades, to have a higher failure rate than the average person who just wants to play some games is willing to put up with.
Dedicated gamers have no problems, because they are willing to put in the time to figure out what is “wrong” with their computer. They keep their display adapter drivers up to date.
I recently bought a game on Steam that simply wouldn’t start. Some forum searching indicated that it did not play nicenice with ZoneAlarm, even though every other game I have, Steam or otherwise, does. So everytime I want to play, I have to open Process Explorer, kill the offending process, and then quickly start the game before Zonealarm notices the process is dead and starts it back up. All it takes is one of these sorts of events to make the average gamer throw up their hands and say “screw this”.
What was the hardware failure rate of the xbox on release again? 40+%?
How many games on console lately have had issues with crashing/freezing/graphics? Skyrim had bugged out textures on the xbox, it still crashes on some saves on the PS3.
Just about every game suffers from frame rate drops and screen tearing.
Basically, it has nothing to do with the difficulty of PC gaming, but rather the PERCEIVED difficulty by the ignorant masses.
People, in general, aren’t very computer savvy. And these people ar eintimidated by an open platform like the PC.
THAT is why consoles are so popular.
However, you are wrong if you think consoles ar emore popular than PC’s when it comes to gaming.
Every market research study done shows, concretely, that gaming on the PC is done by a LOT more people than those gaming on consoles.
It’s mostly social gaming and browser based gaming, but there you go. Even if you take those people away, MMO + Digital + retail is LARGER than any single console in terms of software market share. Steam just posted it’s 8th consecutive 100% increase in yearly sales.
PC gaming is plenty succesful.
Valve/Steam is worth around two billion dollars. That’s a major player in the PC games business but they’re still just one player and it doesn’t count the values of PC gaming to Electronic Arts or Bethesda or what the digital downloads section of Amazon is worth these days, etc.
“A lot more successful” is a pretty relative term. I’d say PC gaming is pretty successful right now.
The thing is, when I want to play a game, I want to play a game. I don’t want to tweak my computer 10 times. I enjoy playing games. I DON’T enjoy tweaking the damn computer settings. If a game company makes me jump through too many hoops to install or play a game, then I am far, far less likely to buy another game from that company. This goes for both downloaded and physical media games.
If playing a game is going to involve a lot of work on my part, then I’m quite likely to turn to some other form of entertainment. I look forward to new games, I drool over them…but if a given company has provided me with a bad experience in downloading or installing or starting up a game, well, there’s a whole big bunch of classic games that I haven’t played yet. Ones that won’t give me problems. I’m sure that I could learn to tweak more effectively, but frankly I’ve got other things to do which are more interesting. Cleaning the cat boxes gives me more satisfaction than tweaking my computer.
I have choices when I want to play a game. I am not forced to go along with marketing techniques such as download only games, unless I want to play a specific game. Game companies are competing for my entertainment dollars, new video games are NOT a necessity for me. They are a very strong want, but wants are not needs. If what game companies offer is not appealing to me, I can and I will go on to other methods of entertainment.
There seems to be a select group doomed to get 95% of the issues when it comes to dealing with PC games. Most people I know, myself included, almost never have any issues. Heck, I’ve had more problems with bad Playstation discs than with installing/running PC games.
I don’t doubt that the tales of woe are largely accurate. It’s not as though people like Lynn Bodoni are plants by the Console Gaming conspiracy. I just wonder what bizarre dealings her great-great-grandfather had with the gypsy great-great-grandmother of EA’s CEO that she cursed the Bodoni bloodline.
Grandpa Bodoni was a low level mafioso. I don’t think that he ever killed anyone, though I’m not sure. He DID smack one guy on the head with a hammer, but that was personal, not business. Other than that, I don’t recall any notorious blood feuds in the family.
I have over four feet of Playstation/PS2 games on my shelf right now. I apparently wore out one of my FFVIII discs (not surprising when you consider that I abused Angelo Search so much), and had to buy another copy. And I bought a used copy of FFX-II that I had to get resurfaced. Other than that, I’ve never had a problem with getting a console game to play.
I’m pretty convinced that PC gaming would actually be able to reach the masses if Microsoft made the “Windows Experience” number more prominent and PC developers actually used it on packaging, download sites, and in marketing.
This is just crazy talk mister. Why…
Oh, so you did qualify that statement. And as you word it, it’s correct. But if you’re going to use all those sources to compare the two platforms, you have to do it fairly. And console retail + subscription fees + digital trumps the PC handily.
And I’d bet good money that the Xbox 360 (with it’s 12-16 million Gold subscribers) does it all by itself.
I’m not implying that I’ve had a LOT of trouble with PS discs. But I can think of at least three games I had issues with and only two games with PC problems (one of which is livable-with).
Uhm, you do know there’s this little game called WOW out there, that charges it’s 12 million subscribers $15 a MONTH, right? That one, singular PC exclusive DWARFS what any console exclusive game makes, and certainly trumps what Microsoft makes from xbox Gold subscriptions. Specially since that’s just part of digging them selves out of the hole that is subsidizing, marketing and supporting console hardware for several years.
And you’re wrong about the rest too.
Retail + digital + MMO PC share of the software market is nearly 1/2 of the ENTIRE console market. That is retail, digital, across PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, AND handhelds.
I’m not saying “core” PC gaming is larger than console gaming. But it’s better than any single console.
So I hardly see how it could not possibly be called successful.
Or to put it another way, if PC gaming isn’t successful, the Ps3 is DEAD and the xbox is got a foot in the grave.
I hate the short edit window!
Bottom line, if there wasn’t a significant amount of money to be made on the PC, no one would be making PC games.
Instead we have everybody and their mothers rushing to put up digital store fronts for PC, developing MMO’s and getting in the Free to Play market. Just about every developer who isn’t tied to the console manufacturers in some way develops their games for both PC and consoles, many of them adding PC specific features not to be seen on consoles. Heck, a PC exclusive just released that had 1.7 million more pre-orders than the big (early) console release of the month.
Cliffy B of Unreal Engine fame and infamous PC hater just got up in front of a bunch of devs telling them to focus on PC game development, and NOT consoles. That same company announcing their “next gen” engine and emphasizing it as being PC and next gen console cross-platform, and pointing out it’s running on modern PC hardware, right now.
I’m assuming you didn’t have one of the earliest PS(1) consoles. I went through 2 of them before I got one that didn’t scratch every disc placed inside of it.
WoW has 10 million subscribers, not 12. Also, the average WoW subscription price is $14 a month. That’s $1.68 billion a year.
Xbox Live Gold is $59.99 a year. Microsoft doesn’t give hard numbers for XBL Gold, but they usually peg it at 50% of the total number of users. There are currently 40 million XBL users, so 20 million Gold subscribers. That’s $1.2 billion a year.
WoW wins, but it’s not a blowout.
You know that the “ENTIRE console market” excludes digital console games right? It’s never been counted, but the informal numbers released paint a very healthy picture for the consoles.
Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition just sold a million copies. Trials Evolution just sold 500,000. The Walking Dead sold a million across PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. There are not insignificant numbers and they’re always ignored in this discussion.