Sega Did what Nintendidn't

[Erik_Twice]

. If not you then have to spend as much or more than the price of a current gen console to upgrade, and keep upgrading every six months to a year on average to be able to run new games as they come out..

Please, I see this all the time. No, you don't have to upgrade your computer every 6 months, nor every year. If it were so nobody would play computer games at all.

[zarathstra]

. If not you then have to spend as much or more than the price of a current gen console to upgrade, and keep upgrading every six months to a year on average to be able to run new games as they come out..

Please, I see this all the time. No, you don't have to upgrade your computer every 6 months, nor every year. If it were so nobody would play computer games at all.

Yeah, seriously. I just did a major upgrade on my computer a few months ago...for the first time in 4 or 5 years. And that computer played Bioshock. And I spent less money on the upgrade than it would cost to buy a PS3.

Yes, ultra bleeding edge hardware can cost a ridiculous amount of money. But you don't NEED ultra bleeding edge hardware to play the vast majority of PC games.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Well all I ever see of modern PC gaming is the guys at work talking about how they've bought new stuff for their PC's every few weeks, with complete hardware overhauls every six months to a year. Then again I'm the kind of guy who wants to have the most bleeding edge hardware possible to be able to play whatever game I wanted as soon as it came out, so I'd say I'm a bit biased in that aspect.

Anyhow I still enjoy consoles more due to their standardization.

[zarathstra]

Well all I ever see of modern PC gaming is the guys at work talking about how they've bought new stuff for their PC's every few weeks, with complete hardware overhauls every six months to a year. Then again I'm the kind of guy who wants to have the most bleeding edge hardware possible to be able to play whatever game I wanted as soon as it came out, so I'd say I'm a bit biased in that aspect.

Anyhow I still enjoy consoles more due to their standardization.

Standardization is one thing in the console's favor, but keep this in mind: if everyone has the same hardware, everyone has the same problems when that hardware is defective, i.e. RRoD.

Also, a decent gaming rig, purchased for a non-obscene amount of money, can run any game that comes out (except Crysis, which requires a future computer from outer space). It may not be able to run it at max settings, but it'll run it just fine. I ran tons of games at lower graphics settings for years, and now that I've upgraded and cranked them up...I don't see that much difference.

I'm not saying you should give up on consoles, I own a 360, Wii, and Dreamcast myself, but despite popular conception, PC Gaming is not horrendously expensive.

[ZeroAX]

PC Gaming is not horrendously expensive.

plus every game on the pc is 20 euro cheaper than it's console counterpart. so let's say you are "the hardcore" who buys 20 games a year, that's 400 euro saved just by buying them for the pc. 400 euro buys you a decent gaming rig, that can play all games at decent settings (not counting a screen, but you only buy a new screen every 5-6 years which is about the same for you to buy a new tv).

and i'm going to bend forum rules a bit here, but you've got to be a MORON if you buy cutting edge pc graphic cards and ect. In 6 months time they'll cost 1/4th their starting price, AND they'll still play most games really well. Technology is like that. 1 year ago an 32 inch HD ready TV costed 700-800 euro. and 6 months ago i bought mine for 500 euro. which i regreted cause 3 months later i found a full hd one for the same price.

but I didn't care, cause I saved 200 euro which I can spend on a new tv in 5 years that's way better than upgrading to a full hd 32 inch tv right now.


that's how technology is.

and don't get me started on ipods. everyone goes out and buys the new model, when in 1 year time they can get it for much cheaper.

[fast]

Even screens are dropping in price. I mean you can get a 32 inch 720p tv with a VGA port for $300 at Bestbuy right now. Sure that is pretty extreme, but 19inch LCDs are now hitting the $120 price point (I just like the idea of a 32 inch screen).

Thanks to the good folks at Toms Hardware you can build a good pc for about $600. And if you can wait, Slickdeals and Dell Small Business can get you a fantastic one for cheaper. I bought a Q6600 with 2 gigs of ram and a 500 gig harddrive from Dell last year for $390 shipped. I threw on XP, after my palm pilot syncing program decided to corrupt Vista, added 9600gt, and I can play most games out at medium to high settings – including Supreme Commander in dual monitor mode.

And if you are crafty, know 3d analyzer and don’t care for pretty games, you can play even more… BF2142 on an EEE at a steady 10 fps is my best (and yes that is not playable but that’s an integrated gma900 and only a 1.6ghz processor).

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Well I don't even own a computer personally (ie. family comp.) so I don't know what the true running costs are, but I'm trying to say that If I did I wouldn't see the value in it as I don't care for PC gaming as much as console. Also I agree that standardization's flaw is that if something goes wrong for one then it'll most likely affect others, but I still prefer the ease of interface and intercompatibility with consoles and their respective games, accessories etc.. that I can't seem to find on PC hardware.

[Ack]

If standardization is one of the greatest strengths of consoles, machine modability is one of the greatest strengths of the PC. The people that upgrade constantly do it because a) they have the money and b) they want to or feel they have to. There are a million different ways I could design a PC, based entirely on my needs as a user and my desire to run specific programs for entertainment. PC gaming is often designed with this in mind, which is why so many will allow such a wide range of specs. However, if you want the game to be the highest quality you can get, then keep in mind you'll have to fork over some money. It's not that game companies necessarily want to force you to upgrade, it's that they want their product to continue to sell and be played a few years down the line, and if people are upgrading too quickly, then their game quickly becomes irrelevant because so much of the driving force for today's modern gamer is based on the visuals.

[riseup]

riseup, you seem to be missing my point I am speaking about consoles in a mainstream commercial success way, not an underground PC game success way. Also you have to remember that PC gaming is not a good way to represent success in the mainstream market, as in the late 80's PC games got versions made for every different type of computer C64 Amiga Apple II etc.. But the public majority will never accept PC gaming due to one key flaw it has yet to (and probably never achieve) standardization.

i left out one sentence which said basically said "and it possibly would of caused more creativity and less commercialization in the industry".. but i thought that goes without saying. now i find you are on the other spectrum than me. you think commercialization is good, and control is bad.

the computer didn't have any less standardization than consoles. everyone from plumbers to doctors learned the basic commands of dos, basic, and so on. for some who were lucky to be born at the right time and grew up in the early 80s, it was the motivator which would have them become programmers, a profession which obscene, often unwarranted pay if there ever was one.

you're taking your modern perception of computers and using it to look back in the past. sorry but it doesn't work that way. it was a different world. do i have to remind you 9 years ago most people were still on dial-up connections, doing in 1 day what would take 1 minute now. it took me 3-4 hours to download the quake demo when it came out.. which was like 9mb. now i can download it in 10 seconds flat.

people have short memories in general. but especially when it comes to the internet and technology such as computers and mobile phones. can you even imagine what your life was life before those? yet i bet there's plenty of l33t hax0rs in here who spend their mom's money on a new video card every 6 months.. just like you said.

it's true, with so many different processors, video drivers, it can be a real pain in the a$$ to just play a game. but it wasn't always so. look back, before directX, before spyware, before firewalls, before anti-cheat utilities, before gigs upon gigs of requirements, all you had to do was insert a floppy type install, and in 1 minute you'd be playing.

i don't play modern pc games much because beyond the flashy advertising, they don't appeal to me much. besides arcade games i don't play much modern games at all to be honest (unless you count homebrew stuff). but i maintain the view that if you're not smart enough to know what will run on your machine, nor figure out how to install it on there, then you just shouldn't play it. it may seem cruel but really it's not. the proletariat is being dumbed down. you know the scene, an 8 year old hyper black-kid. he doesn't know how to add 2+2 but he's ace at Call of Duty 4.

in other words.. riley freeman


even Obama mentioned this!

"I was just catching the news this morning about Grand Theft Auto, this video game, which is gonna break all records and make goo-gobs of money for whoever designed it. Now, this isn't intended for kids, although I promise you there are kids who are playing it, but these video games are raising our kids...

Across the board, middle-class, upper-class, working-class kids, they're spending a huge amount of their time not on their studies, but on entertainment.

And so part of our job is going to have to be to inspire the entire country to say, 'How are we giving our kids a thirst for knowledge?' And turning off the TV set, and getting them to be engaged and interested, like their future really does matter on how well they do in school."

source: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/04/30/ ... out-gta-iv
http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=941 < video


i'm not saying society would benefit with the sudden eradication of console gaming, quite the contrary. we'd probably have even less social interaction (through Madden and Pro Evo) and more addicted porkers playing WoW & Unreal, turning into creeps. but if it was done then, well then who knows..

unlike now, we still played multiplayer on the keyboard. i can remember micro machines4 players all squshed together worse than the simpsons 4p brawler in arcades. actually they had a dos port for that, but oddly it was only 2p

btw guys nice job derailing this thread even further. i'm all for thought provoking discussion but discussing monitor prices, AGAIN, that's just taking a piss.

[MrPopo]

it's true, with so many different processors, video drivers, it can be a real pain in the a$$ to just play a game. but it wasn't always so. look back, before directX, before spyware, before firewalls, before anti-cheat utilities, before gigs upon gigs of requirements, all you had to do was insert a floppy type install, and in 1 minute you'd be playing.

After you adjusted your autoexec.bat and config.sys to tweak the memory settings so you could play it properly. And sometimes set up a boot disk so you could squeeze a few extra kilobytes out of the 640k DOS uses. And you needed to remember your port and IRQ on the sound card. And hope that yours is one of the supported ones.

But yeah, other than all those hoops, it was install and play immediately. Much different from today. </sarcasm>

i don't play modern pc games much because beyond the flashy advertising, they don't appeal to me much. besides arcade games i don't play much modern games at all to be honest (unless you count homebrew stuff).

Wow, this really makes most of our previous posts seem quite crotchety. Writing off all modern games is really doing yourself a disservice.

the computer didn't have any less standardization than consoles. everyone from plumbers to doctors learned the basic commands of dos, basic, and so on. for some who were lucky to be born at the right time and grew up in the early 80s, it was the motivator which would have them become programmers, a profession which obscene, often unwarranted pay if there ever was one.

As soon as you got to DOS computers had less standardization. When it was the single machines like the C64 it was just as standardized as the consoles, but then you had the various IBM compatibles with their various sound cards and graphics cards, which came about rather quickly, and you had to play around with every game to get it running.

But you are right. Programming does pay obscene amounts of money. And I'm quite glad it does. Makes owning a Neo Geo affordable.