For the love of PC games....STOP PIRATING!

[Nava]

@DeadlyAccurate

I agree with a lot of what the developer says in that article. I think bad design decisions, too many bugs, and too much copy protection has more to do with any problems the PC gaming market might be suffering from than piracy.

One of my last expenses when I was living in France was a game called Loki.

It didn’t work right out of the box. Not until you downloaded the patch. Now, OK, I’m unlikely to be without internet access, but a game which is played locally should not require internet access to be played. Maybe I just paid too much attention in logic class and should watch more TV instead.

It gave me a lot of security problems. The antipiracy system doesn’t recognize the DVD half the time. Sick of this, one day that it simply was more stubborn than usual, I followed the instructions given on how to get a file to send to some dev types and sent it on its merry way.

They said that it wasn’t the original which had their protection, it was the patch. Go and contact the game company directly.

I uninstalled, of course.

It was a pretty decent hack’n’slasher while it lasted, but reeeeeeeally!

Why do I play WoW almost exclusively? Because it works! And it expects the players to have an IQ above street temperature at midnight on January 15 in Alaska.

Every other PC game I’ve bought in the last 4 years has either come short of the mark, required more system than the box said, didn’t work on laptops (Sims 2, I’m looking at you… my laptop surpassed every requirement, except the video card wasn’t acceptable due to being a laptop model, of course this wasn’t indicated on the box), or simply didn’t work.

WoW is at the #1 spot on the “bestsellers” area of every computer store, gaming store, hypermarket, supermarket and whatnot that I visit; it has been for over two years. But yeah, that’s only one game. I don’t think it’s their fault if other games suck, though.

[Kamino_Neko]

@Lynn Bodoni

Most of all, though, it’s the fact that I’m gonna have to look for and download a patch, and then I’m probably going to have to figure out how to install the damned patch.

This is the big reason hard drives and online capability being out-of-the-box in the new generation of consoles fills me with dread - I’m terrified the console game industry will go down this route.

It’s not the biggest reason I play as few computer games as I do, but it’s one of the big annoyances when I do.

[Derleth]

The Great Apathetic Revolution is in progress:

To view a downloaded movie, you double-click it. And then you’re watching it.

Stick a recent commercial DVD into your player, though, and you’ll probably have to sit through lengthy, un-skippable warnings about how dastardly is the piracy which you did not just engage. And that’s before you even get to the annoying menus, trailers, and other dross that stand between you and the movie for which you, one might start to think foolishly, paid.

[snip]

Copy control, in contrast, just inconveniences honest users (the idea seems to be to just scare consumers into staying on the straight and narrow), while not affecting actual pirates at all.

Almost all copy control also does nothing whatsoever to increase sales of the product.

The basic premise is that as long as DRM makes the legit versions annoying and difficult to deal with, the illegitimate versions will flourish. The fact I even have to say this is proof of massive, systemic brain damage throughout the digital meda world.

The Consumerist article linked to above contains this jucy little quote from the BBC:

@Dan Glickman

Without the use of DRMs, honest consumers would have no guidelines and might eventually come to totally disregard copyright and therefore become a pirate, resulting in great harm to content creators.

So, consumers are utterly unethical swine and allowing consumers to do what they want is invariably going to lead to massive piracy. Tell it to the makers of VHS systems and tape recorders. I’m sure they’d be amazed at how they killed the culture in the 1980s. Tell it to Baen, Trent Reznor, Radiohead, and all of the other artists releasing work without DRM. I’m sure they’d be amazed at how they’re killing their revenue streams.

[smiling_bandit]

I reiterate. I will buy all the games I can find which are (a) fun, (b) look reasonable well*, and © runs properly. And that’s all I ask. Companies which makes for systems like this (Blizzard, Stardock, and a few others) will get my dollars. Developers desperately chasing people with high-end machines won’t. Frankly, consoles are just less and less an efficient expense too, because all they seem to do anymore is make really pretty crap. Which is nice to look at but not play. So I play a handful of quality games on computer, mostly. I own a PS2, which I bought something like 2 years after it came out. I have no desire for a Wii, OPs3, and only a small one for an Xbox 360.

*I’m not picky. I’d play a new game with the Infinity Engine for chrissakes.

[msmith537]

Here’s the problem. Lot’s of people have a PC but most don’t have one that can run the latest games at the best (or even moderate) settings. And most don’t have the wherewithall or desire to spend a thousand bucks upgrading their system. Especially when they can buy an XBox360 or PS3 for a fraction of the price and it’s ready to go out of the box.

Not to mention that with a typical FPS, as soon as I win it, I’m never going to pick it up again. I can’t rent PC games from Blockbuster or Netflix.

@Tengu

This is the big reason hard drives and online capability being out-of-the-box in the new generation of consoles fills me with dread - I’m terrified the console game industry will go down this route.

When there is a patch for an XBox360 game, you automatically get a message that says “an update is available” when you start the game and it installs the patch within a few minutes. There’s no fishing around online for the latest patch, installing it and so on.

[Whack-a-Mole]

First off folks read reviews (both professional and user reviews) before buying a game unless you absolutely must have that game the day the game comes out.

This will tell you all you need to know within a few days of release if the game is buggy/unfinished/worth playing. Not to mention gives you a better sense of whether it is a game you will like. There are tons of resources out there on the net for this so no need to spend $50 and “hope” the game is ok.

I have personally found games to be much better lately in hitting the streets in a playable manner. Sure they may require some balancing patches and occasionally patches to fix bugs with some particular system setups but most often they are playable right out of the box (not always but usually).

You can also often try a demo of the game before buying. Again not always but often enough.

As for problems downloading and installing a patch almost always these days the developer makes it a fairly automated process. Either from in-game with a button or a check for updates button in the directory the game is installed in. Some are easier than others but even the worst usually are no more than finding your game in a list, downloading the patch and running the patch. The rest just happens and you are good to go. If this is really too cumbersome/difficult for someone then it is a wonder they manage to play any game on their PC or add new software of any sort.

When it comes to needing a $5,000 rig to play games that is rarely the case unless you want to play some modern game at the bleeding edge of graphics on dual monitors at over 1600 dpi with all the eye candy turned on. Most games scale down pretty well to a playable level and still look pretty good. Some few (like Crysis) seem to need a supercomputer to run but they know that and meant to do that. While they want to sell the game they are probably more interested in licensing the CryTek engine that runs the game to other developers and use the game as a showcase of what it can do. In general a computer that was “modern” three years ago should be able to still run most things today but yes, eventually you will get left behind and have to upgrade to play most anything but that is the nature of the beast. In five years your XBox 360 will probably look a little long in the tooth too.

PC games also have the advantage of being able to be electronically distributed. I rarely buy a boxed game from a store anymore and prefer to download them (legally and paid for) via an electronic distribution channel. I know some like the box and such but personally I want the game and do not care overly much about a fancy package or figurine in the box.

And unless you have all missed it console games are getting more pricey. $60 seems to be the norm (for a newly released game) where $50 seems to be the ceiling for PC games (often cheaper…Sins of a Solar Empire can be bought for $45). You are also married to games for that console or you have to buy one of each console. Like a Wii game but have an XBox? Tough. Making the same game for multiple platforms is not easy since each platform has distinctly different hardware and programming requirements.

I am not 100% sure but it is my understanding that while you may sell more units for a gaming console due to more people having them you also pay a substantial fee to the console maker for each game sold (not to mention buy a license to develop for that platform). Anyone can develop for the PC if they are of a mind to and could start doing so totally for free (excepting the cost of their PC).

Finally, PC games frequently allow the user community to develop add-ons/modifications for the game. This can frequently result in some very cool and fun developments to the game. Done with a game after playing through once? Revisit it a few months later to see what gamers have made to add on to it. It can be truly remarkable. Oblivion was widely criticized for numerous shortcomings and the gamer community set to modding it into something really amazing. It can be a bit hard to sort through but it is almost a wholly new experience playing it with some of the more popular mods (looks even better, better combat, improved leveling system, new quests, new abilities…list goes on and on). IIRC XBox is claiming to allow something like this but not so sure how that will work…have to wait and see.

Frankly the PC as a gaming platform has a lot more to offer than consoles and while being a bit more complicated to deal with not unduly so unless you have never dealt with a PC in your life.

[DeadlyAccurate]

@Whack-a-Mole

First off folks read reviews (both professional and user reviews) before buying a game unless you absolutely must have that game the day the game comes out.

This will tell you all you need to know within a few days of release if the game is buggy/unfinished/worth playing.

Well, unless you run into the situation I was recently in. I bought the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion a couple weeks ago (it (the xpack) came out about a year ago), popped it in my DVD-ROM drive, and I got a copy protection error. I’ve deliberately avoided upgrading my ancient DVD-ROM driver because I’ve never gotten a copy protection error before. I was pissed, because I knew that a) I wouldn’t be able to take it back, and b) if I resorted to unauthorized means of getting it to work, I wouldn’t be able to use the Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) and the many mods that use that. (On the positive side, it only cost $15.) I did eventually get it to work properly, but that’s an example where a game review wouldn’t have done me much good.

Finally, PC games frequently allow the user community to develop add-ons/modifications for the game. This can frequently result in some very cool and fun developments to the game. Done with a game after playing through once? Revisit it a few months later to see what gamers have made to add on to it. It can be truly remarkable. Oblivion was widely criticized for numerous shortcomings and the gamer community set to modding it into something really amazing. It can be a bit hard to sort through but it is almost a wholly new experience playing it with some of the more popular mods (looks even better, better combat, improved leveling system, new quests, new abilities…list goes on and on). IIRC XBox is claiming to allow something like this but not so sure how that will work…have to wait and see.

Frankly the PC as a gaming platform has a lot more to offer than consoles and while being a bit more complicated to deal with not unduly so unless you have never dealt with a PC in your life.

I agree with you, and as you can tell, I mod the hell out of Oblivion and couldn’t even imagine playing the console version of the game. I think certain games are better for different platforms. I would no more want to play Guitar Hero 3 or Super Mario Galaxy on my PC than I’d want to play Oblivion on my Wii. I’ll be buying Fallout 3, The Sims 3, and Spore on my PC.

But I don’t have problems on my Wii games. I’ve never had an issue with trying to get GH3 working. In the entire year I’ve had my Wii, I think I can recall exactly one crash, one time, in Zelda. That was it. Ever.

But almost every PC game crashes at least once (I’m not counting my Oblivion crashes, which can happen from 0 to 5 times in a gaming session, because with the sheer number and size of the changes I’ve made to the base game, that amount of crashing is pretty much inevitable.)

When your games don’t work the way they’re supposed to, and you know if it doesn’t work that you’re pretty much stuck, is it any real surprise people are gravitating to console games?

[Nava]

I still have to see a review which indicates:

a) whether a game is turn-based
b) whether it will run in a laptop

(I don’t own a console. But it’s been ages since a review was any useful to me. I seem to be “the gamer who does not exist.”)

[Whack-a-Mole]

@DeadlyAccurate

Well, unless you run into the situation I was recently in. I bought the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion a couple weeks ago (it (the xpack) came out about a year ago), popped it in my DVD-ROM drive, and I got a copy protection error. I’ve deliberately avoided upgrading my ancient DVD-ROM driver because I’ve never gotten a copy protection error before. I was pissed, because I knew that a) I wouldn’t be able to take it back, and b) if I resorted to unauthorized means of getting it to work, I wouldn’t be able to use the Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) and the many mods that use that. (On the positive side, it only cost $15.) I did eventually get it to work properly, but that’s an example where a game review wouldn’t have done me much good.

Well…this is not really a “bug” but a hardware issue and an annoying one to be sure.

While a review may not cover that I will often make a quick check of forums where people are looking for tech advice on how to get the game running. A glance at the first page often gives a good sense of how serious/pervasive the issues may be (epic thread lengths, very active, etc.). That does not 100% cover you and even reading that you may not know that your drive would be an issue but it helps. Even so occasionally you get caught by something or other.

[Miller]

@Nava

I still have to see a review which indicates:

a) whether a game is turn-based

You’ve never seen a review that mentions if the game is turn-based or real time?!

[DigitalC]

@Nava

I still have to see a review which indicates:

a) whether a game is turn-based
b) whether it will run in a laptop

(I don’t own a console. But it’s been ages since a review was any useful to me. I seem to be “the gamer who does not exist.”)

I dont think i’ve ever seen a turn based game that wasn’t labeled as such.

[Whack-a-Mole]

@Nava

I still have to see a review which indicates:

a) whether a game is turn-based
b) whether it will run in a laptop

(I don’t own a console. But it’s been ages since a review was any useful to me. I seem to be “the gamer who does not exist.”)

As others have noted what “kind” of game it is is always listed in a review or even on the simple description of the game on its own website.

As to whether it will run on a laptop is merely knowing the relevant stats of the equipment your laptop possesses. Same as any other PC. Read the advertised minimum specs and add some extra cushion since advertised “minimums” tend to be stretching things and you are good to go. If you really do not know how to make sense of that a simple post on a forum (the game’s forum which most have or even here) asking that question will usually be answered in short order.

Besides, I cannot think of a turn-based game that a laptop built in the last few years could not handle with no problem. Playing something like Crysis on one however would be more than a little optimistic.

[bump]

I think that changing computer systems is a big piece of the puzzle, but not exactly for the reasons above.

Look at it this way: if you bought a Xbox360 back in 2005 when they came out, you can run pretty much any Xbox game ever produced, even the most recent ones.

If you bought a bad-ass PC in 2005, it’ll still be decent, but not all that great (I know; my system’s a mid-2004 one). You’ll be able to play the recent games, but with downgraded graphics and resolution.

Couple this phenomenon with the fact that you can probably buy the Xbox360 follow-on whenever it comes out for $5-600 bucks, but upgrading a PC from the same timeframe would be much more- probably close to $500 for processor, motherboard and memory alone, not including a new graphics card, which might be another $300 bucks, depending on the card.

On top of that, the PC stuff involves a higher skill level- to install all that stuff, you have to be pretty savvy with both your hardware and OS skills unless you just want to reinstall Windows.

That’s a big piece of why console games are more popular now that the graphics are pretty similar to PCs. Why go to the trouble unless you’re some kind of nerd who enjoys fooling with PCs?

(that being said, I’m a PC gamer and that kind of nerd)

[Whack-a-Mole]

@bump

I think that changing computer systems is a big piece of the puzzle, but not exactly for the reasons above.

Look at it this way: if you bought a Xbox360 back in 2005 when they came out, you can run pretty much any Xbox game ever produced, even the most recent ones.

If you bought a bad-ass PC in 2005, it’ll still be decent, but not all that great (I know; my system’s a mid-2004 one). You’ll be able to play the recent games, but with downgraded graphics and resolution.

The last bit is a misconception.

You can play today’s games with precisely the same resolution and graphical goodness that you played bleeding edge games the day you got your computer. The difference is today’s games have the capacity to look even better but you cannot access that due to hardware limitations. Essentially you are turning down the graphics to equal what was state of the art 4 years ago (presumably a game may outstrip your CPU/memory to run at all eventually but mostly this holds true).

So in this respect it is no different than your console. It can only live up to a certain potential and that is it. With consoles no one pushes that (well…programmers do get better at squeezing out more from the same equipment over time but that only goes so far). XBox games largely look no better today than they did 3 years ago. You are stuck with the console but at least you have the option to upgrade your PC.

[shy_guy]

@BlinkingDuck

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but PC games are DYING! PC used to be king with many different types of games…and was the source of innovative/unique games. Console games were all the same twitch games over and over and over.

:dubious: And then, what, Regan was elected President?

Anti-console rants aside, I think it’s probably undeniable that piracy is having some negative impact on PC game sales.

Of course, it’s also the case that a very few PC games are totally thriving. Here are the top-twenty selling PC games for January 2008:

1. World Of Warcraft
2. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
3. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
5. The Sims 2 Deluxe
6. Diner Dash
7. 15000 Games
8. The Sim City 4 Deluxe
9. The Sims 2 Teen Style Stuff
10. Crysis
11. The Sims 2 Bon Voyage
12. Half Life 2: Episode 2 The Orange Box
13. Battlefield 2
14. Warcraft III Battle Chest
15. Pirates Of The Burning Sea
16. Rock Tour Tycoon
17. Sim City 5: Societies
18. The Sims 2 Seasons
19. Age Of Empires III
20. Age Of Empires III: Asian Dynastie

World of Warcraft and The Sims combined account for half of the top ten slots.

[Whack-a-Mole]

I also might add there are plenty of examples of bugged console games. This is by no means a PC only phenomenon.

[Madd_Maxx]

I paid about the same for both my new PC and my PS3 console. They were each about $600. Would you like to take a guess which one will play Oblivion? Hell, want to take a guess which one will play a video game made in the last couple of years? It ain’t the PC.

I can’t justify paying all the extra cash to upgrade the video card, memory and/or CPU just to play games on a machine that mostly sees service in emailing and surfing the web. I can justify some of the cash I would have spent upgrading my PC and buying a console that lets me play the games I want and that also lets me view Blu-Ray movies in high def. I’m also more comfortable sitting in my living room on my couch viewing my game on a 52" wide screen TV with 5.1 surround sound than sitting at my desk looking at a 21" monitor with headphones on.

[Madd_Maxx]

In addition, I share my PC with my wife and two kids. Even if I were to get to use the computer for 25% of the time (which I don’t), all the upgrades needed to run a good video game for me would be meaningless for 75% for the time. NickJr.com and ClubPenguin.com just aren’t that taxing on the ol’ video card if you know what I mean. The PS3 on the other hand, I don’t have to share. It’s all mine and there are plenty of other televisions in our house one can watch if “their show” is coming on.

[Kinthalis]

@Madd Maxx

I paid about the same for both my new PC and my PS3 console. They were each about $600. Would you like to take a guess which one will play Oblivion? Hell, want to take a guess which one will play a video game made in the last couple of years? It ain’t the PC.

And that’s what I’m talking about. $600 SHOULD HAVE gotten you a PC that could play Oblivion. Maybe not with all the bells and whistles, but a discreet $80 card should have been included in that price and that’s all it takes to play oblivion in medium settings at around 1280x1024 res.

As for what’s better, the TV or the PC as a gaming experience. That’s going to depend. In my case, the 5.1 surround is on the PC, and my 21" screen is close enough that it takes up a lot more visual real-estate than my HDTV does from the couch. Plus I’m not hogging the TV when I’m playing, and that’s very probably kept my SO from killing me. Not to mention that you can just as easily hookup your PC to your TV and do a lot of other neat things like use it as home theater PC. I do this and I can both keep my DVD collection available digitally, watch netflix on demand, and record/time shift TV AND have access to FIFA '08 (the only game my SO will play with me).

[Whack-a-Mole]

@Madd Maxx

I paid about the same for both my new PC and my PS3 console. They were each about $600. Would you like to take a guess which one will play Oblivion? Hell, want to take a guess which one will play a video game made in the last couple of years? It ain’t the PC.

I can’t justify paying all the extra cash to upgrade the video card, memory and/or CPU just to play games on a machine that mostly sees service in emailing and surfing the web. I can justify some of the cash I would have spent upgrading my PC and buying a console that lets me play the games I want and that also lets me view Blu-Ray movies in high def. I’m also more comfortable sitting in my living room on my couch viewing my game on a 52" wide screen TV with 5.1 surround sound than sitting at my desk looking at a 21" monitor with headphones on.

If you are only viewing the PC purchase as a gaming machine then perhaps a console makes more sense although as mentioned earlier they fall short in a variety of ways.

While in your case all you want is a PC to do e-mail and web surfing most PCs are capable and being used for much, much more. Things your console can never do. In that light the extra cost may be justified.

As for watching a 52" TV as being “better” is a myth. Viewing a 21" screen from 2’ away is equivalent to watching a 52" tv from 10’ away (roughly). If you are too close to the TV the picture gets grainier as well as you have to turn your head to focus on different aspects of the screen. In the end the amount of your field of vision occupied by the screen is the same. Big TVs are only “better” when they need to be viewed from further away. There are ideal sizes for given ranges from a TV. If you are 5’ from the TV a smaller screen is more optimal than a bigger screen for viewing quality.

Add to that that most computer monitors have significantly better resolution than any television (even HDTV).