Wired: The Game Console Is Dead

[noiseredux]

Why does one need to appreciate Tetris? It was the first "casual" game, whee. To me, it's one of the most boring games ever made. You just drop blocks. Whoopee.

lolwut?

[Erik_Twice]

Modern cartoons are horrible and you should feel ashamed about watching them

So that's how it feels like!


Nah, Invader Zim is awesome, one of the best animated thingies I have ever seen. The fans will make you believe that it cures cancer, though.

[dsheinem]

Why does one need to appreciate Tetris? It was the first "casual" game, whee. To me, it's one of the most boring games ever made. You just drop blocks. Whoopee.

lolwut?

Mario is boring too, all you do is jump around and sometimes spit fireballs. Snooze-city.

[isiolia]

Like I said in the other thread, a gaming platform with a much smaller but way more dedicated install base will more likely get "hardcore games". If a huge number of people buy the console with not gaming first in mind, it's more likely that publishers will want to start catering to that crowd so they would buy their games since that's such a huge "potentially profitable" group of people.

I don't think that would necessarily be the case.

The pure numbers may not support it. Releasing a game on a platform that has an install base of 10 million requires a much higher attachment rate to get the same sales as releasing it on a platform with 100 million users. Even if half the customers of the larger platform don't even buy games, there'd still be a statistical advantage to releasing it there.

The PC platform is the largest by far, and probably sees the most variety as a result.

I don't think you tend to have more dedicated fanbases on less popular consoles so much as you have less to compete with for their attention. It'd be a lot easier to be the best Vita game released in December than it would be to be the best 360 game, for example.

[Flake]

+1 for everyone in this thread that pointed out the irony of Wired calling anything dead.

[Retrogamer0001]

I won't neva stop buyin' mah vide0 gamez...

[Gamerforlife]

The fact that you have to upgrade the things and adjust and tweak various things to play games on them is just a reminder to me that PCs don't exist to play games. If they did, they'd do it right out of the box...like consoles.

I dont see how inserting the disc in and pressing the install button (next, next, next, ok) and after a while the play button is any more messy than playing a game on a modern console, since they dont automatically start the game as you have to navigate through a menu first.

There are plenty of PC games that require you to do more than that to start playing a game. That's assuming you even CAN play it. I got a new laptop recently, and it can't play most modern games. Most of the consoles games I've been playing lately don't have menus I need to get through either. So that's not true either

People use the internet and computers for every day tasks and working so much these days that chances are that you are forced to upgrade your computer anyways. Even modern consoles and handhelds have automatical system updates these days!

For what most people use their computers for (internet browsing, email, facebook, twitter, watch streaming movies), you NEVER need to upgrade your computer. That's simple stuff for most computers. Playing games is what REQUIRES a person to upgrade their computer or just buy a powerful one. You can't just buy a new PC or laptop and assume it's going to be able to run games. You have to do the research and know what components it needs to run modern games i.e. hassle that you don't have to go through with consoles because a console is built to run whatever games you buy for it right out of the box, unlike a PC that has to be manipulated and changed to get it to do that basic task

[Erik_Twice]

I got a new laptop recently,

That's your problem right here.

[ice445]

People who can't appreciate Tetris make me sad.

Why does one need to appreciate Tetris? It was the first "casual" game, whee. To me, it's one of the most boring games ever made. You just drop blocks. Whoopee.

Context made it the first 'casual' game, in terms of content it's got the laser focused design that makes so many of the great golden age arcade games so good. It's simply masterfully crafted. (at least until you get to those later games that tried to 'upgrade' it in various ways and make it boring.)

Reducing Tetris to "all you do is drop blocks" is like saying that Pac-Man is boring becuase "all you do is eat dots."

It's a puzzle game involving blocks. Maybe I'm just spoiled with higher tier games, but it's just terribly boring. I'm not saying it's badly made at all, nor am I attempting to devalue the brilliance of its design. The difficulty curve is great, and it's simple to understand yet hard to master. The makings of a great game. But to me, it's boring. Don't interpret my question "why does one need to appreciate it" mean that I don't see what makes it good. I'm just curious as to your reasoning behind that.

Then again, I'm the type of person that plays Sim City 2000 when I'm away from home. I need true complexity in my games to have any sort of fun. I also think Pac-Man is boring as well, by the way. Blasphemy I'm sure, but whatever.

[Menegrothx]

I got a new laptop recently, and it can't play most modern games.

Of course not. Laptops aren't meant for gaming. If you're trying to play modern multiplatform single player games, just buy them on Xbox 360/PS3. Most of the time their PC ports are down right horrible. High end PC gaming is for competitive online gaming, space simulators, roguelikes, strategy games and other hardcore/niche genres and games that were speficially designed for PCs (in other words have graphics that current generation consoles cant handle, mouse intensive, more keybinds than a gamepad has buttons and so on). And there really aren't many games that are speficially designed for PCs these days that have high system requirements.

I got my current old POS laptop for about 45 USD as used. As soon as I got it I downloaded and installed from discs more than 40 games on it and not a single one of them gave me any trouble what so ever. All I had to do was install the games and press the play button, not a single upgrade, update or tweak was required. Playing games on the PC isn't anywhere near as hard as you make it sound to be.

I dont see a reason to own a high end gaming PC these days anyways since there really aren't any good new games coming that require you to own one. You can play all of the major PC games that are popular right now (WoW, L4D, HoN, LoL, DOTA2, TF2, Minecraft etc) on your regular computer with out a problem. And all the great old PC games have so low system requirements these days that they'll run on any computer with Windows XP.

For what most people use their computers for (internet browsing, email, facebook, twitter, watch streaming movies), you NEVER need to upgrade your computer. That's simple stuff for most computers. Playing games is what REQUIRES a person to upgrade their computer or just buy a powerful one. You can't just buy a new PC or laptop and assume it's going to be able to run games. You have to do the research and know what components it needs to run modern games i.e. hassle that you don't have to go through with consoles because a console is built to run whatever games you buy for it right out of the box, unlike a PC that has to be manipulated and changed to get it to do that basic task

This is true to some extent but you are exaggerating though. I got my old computer (it was store bought, not tailor made gaming PC) back in 2005 and played TONS of new PC games with it from 2005 to 2008. By the end of 2008 I got a new graphics card and I played with the computer untill 2011. Later on my computer couldn't handle games with very good graphics, but up to that point I could play anything that I bought. I never had any problems, I just inserted the game disc on the computer, installed the games and started playing. It was that simple every time.

Software and operating systems are becoming more and more demanding too, so you still have to buy a new more powerful computer every now and then. You cant browse modern websites with your old computer from the late 1990s.