Breakdown by Namco (XBOX)

[shbaz]

With all this talk about which console is better, I wonder if PC gaming really is dead?

http://www.mobygames.com/featured_article/feature,11/section,45/

What do all you think? Harsh reality or media scare?

Harsh reality. Most PC games are going to be ports from consoles or have very poor sales.

I think the reason consoles are popular is because you plug them in, put in the disc, and you play it. No complexity, no installation procedures or analyzing the system requirements, no need to shop for a gamepad that you know will work well for you, etc. etc. It's a great way to trust your kids with an expensive device without worrying that they're going to tap into Dad's digital porn stash or format the hard drive. As time goes on maybe people won't care as much (society will become more accustomed to computers), but right now the majority of the world hardly knows enough to use a computer with confidence in areas they haven't explored.

People want it to be easy and fast, and in America it hardly matters that there is already a PC in the house because people throw their money around rather wastefully on anything that entertains them. I think the statistic I heard was, "The average American adult has $30k in credit card debt."

[Sylpher]

PC games have been "dead" for ten years. Same with console gaming..

It is silly.




Sorry.. Wish I could offer some amazing sage advice on this subject but that is all.

[DGMacphee]

Sylph, I'm interested in your answer, even if you can't elaborate further on it. Mind if I ask a few more questions, though?

When you say "dead", do you mean it in the sense that there's always a report in the media about such-and-such platform being dead?

And if you think both PC Games and console games have been commercially "dead" for ten years, then what gaming/entertainment format do you think is commercially "alive"?

[Gilbert]

REAL games like Football, UNO and MONOPOLY.

C'mon! Out of the virtual craps and get real!

[Mr Jake]

Monopoly breaks homes!

[DGMacphee]

We don't play Monopoly at our house anymore. Someone lost our bank.

[Kinoko]

Since I moved to QLD, I only have Operation and Battle Ships. I'd always dreamt of having Operation as a child and my boyfriend bought it for me once ;_; Oh, the happiness. Mind you, I don't think I've played it more than once, but it's the -having- that's important. I really want Monopoly, Scrabble and Cluedo now.

[SylphWorks]

Dg, I have heard reports of Pc and console gaming dying off since the early 90's. Even though sales figures show the exact opposite.. So I have learned that most reports are based on current situation and not looking at long run figures.

As well, console gaming and pc gaming goes back and forth. This is the time that Console gaming starts to slump seeing as all the latest systems are getting a bit out dated so pc gaming starts to pick up a lot of steam. Once the new systems come out it will flip around like so and continue to do so until some large wrench gets thrown in the mix.. which, of course, can happen at any moment.

[Sylpher]

Just to delve in my statements some more. I remember in the SNES days reading an article, not sure which gaming magazine, that since console rpgs are gaining such huge popularity and Pc games have no real direct competition they expected unless some pc game company can find some way to compete against this HUGE franchise pc gaming will dwindle heavily in sales.. Slight chances it may die all together.

Seeing things now it is easy to point out how silly that is. Simple fact is many games work better sitting on a couch in a comfortable setting with a controller and many games work better at a desk with a mouse in a less.. should I say.. social enviroment?

They can and will coexist until one becomes pointless because one fulfills everything the other can do. The only other option is something that takes out both of them.. or something else not even imaginable for this feable mind.

[R4L]

I know a great Action/RPG coming out for Xbox and I think PC. The remake called Fable. It's supposed you give you the most freedom in a game than you can imagine. I read that if you look scary and do bad stuff, it changes how a character interacts with you, whether bowing down before you, or running away. You can also chop their heads off and kick it around  .

[Ozwalled]

I don't see PC games going away at all -- instead, I figure they'll get far more user-friendly in the near future for the average user. A lot of what PC users have had to put up with to run games and stuff has been awfully ridiculous for a long time, but it has been getting slightly better (think back to years ago when you had to do all kinds of settings fiddling to get a game to run with video or with sound and whatever). It's going to get to a point where a PC's every bit as good at delivering the console-like experience as the consoles are, while still retaining the ability to do all of the tweaking that the consoles don't allow for.

On the flipside, I figure some the the consoles that eventually come out will have a lot more in common with PCs than the current ones do, so that those who are really involed in getting their game on can stay on the bleeding edge like a PC user.

All-in-all, I figure that there's going to be some eventual blurring of the lines between PCs and consoles. It may be a while yet, though....

And yes: Fable has OODLES of potential to be very interesting to play. Hopefully it lives up to some of the expectations (though I'm sure a lot of people will be dissapointed by it not being as good as they envisioned it to be).