the state of PC gaming

[Traianvs]

What's tanking?

[DrSpike]

In this instance it means to perform badly.

[MrWhereItsAt]

I have a theory on this whole situation re: piracy, falling games sales etc.

Oft times I hear about a game. It might sound interesting in the review, in screenshots, and maybe even a Demo video. But to spend that much on a new game I have only HEARD/READ about is hard to justify. This is why I loved shareware. You got a real test of what the game was like for a substantial portion of it, and then you'd go and buy if it was the right one for you. Back then (this is almost ten years ago) games were easier to afford new, and I was just a teenager with a small allowance and a part-time weekend job.

But now games don't come out as shareware. If you're lucky you get a scaled-down demo version that shows you a little of what the game is like. Otherwise you get a flashy video that shows you nothing of the game itself. Useless hype, like in theatres. Except at least a movie is only a couple of hours long and can be a quick thrill, whereas a game is expensive and you don't want to waste all that money on something that loses its appeal in a few hours.

I am very happy my local video store has PC games to rent, so I can try said games out. They don;t get all new games though, so at times I have got copies of the games I was interested in trying through other means. For the games I like once I've tried (like Diablo II), I find I end up buying them sooner or later, for the right price (read: anything 75% or less of the initial over-priced day-of-release amount). For those I don't, no foul, as I wouldn;t even have tried them if I had had to buy them brand new just to do so.

So how to fix this and where to lay the blame? The demise of shareware games I think comes from the incresing complexity of new games, making shareware difficult to create. But at the same time I don;t see why you couldn;t have what is effectively the full game that expires after a certain period of time or number of uses as shareware.

So, for me at least, I buy far fewer games than ten years ago, despite my disposable income having gone up more than 20-fold because new games are overpriced on release (much better when they are released some time later as some kind of ' Platinum' or 'Budget' collection for a fraction of the price), and I can;t try before I buy. The combination of a huge price and limited chance to test games out means I buy fewer of them than I did once, and the ones I do buy are those I know to be worthwhile. It's just not worth the cost to buy a untested, potentially dud game, unless I have some history with the company/game series.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
I am very happy my local video store has PC games to rent, so I can try said games out. .

dont htink we have these here in the USA at all - only game rentals are console rentals.

[Dis]

just to reiterate piracy is nothing new. Back in the days with floppy disks, those could easily be copied.

I'm ashamed to say I never paid for x-com or master of magic . Such great games. Perhaps I'm responsible for microproses demise .

There was this place you could rent games from where I lived in Newport News, and then you could just copy them and return them

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Dissident
just to reiterate piracy is nothing new. Back in the days with floppy disks, those could easily be copied.

I'm ashamed to say I never paid for x-com or master of magic . Such great games. Perhaps I'm responsible for microproses demise .

There was this place you could rent games from where I lived in Newport News, and then you could just copy them and return them

which i think is why PC games arent availble for rent anymore - yet ANOTHER argument on the piracy issue, i think.

[Traianvs]

The big difference between now and then is that production costs now are so incredibly big that releasing shareware won't make up for that.

[LDiCesare]

The point about piracy is that pirates wouldn't buy the games no matter what, so the companies don't actually lose that much money, unless you consider they wanted to make money by selling crap knowingly, in which case they deserve what they get.
I agree with the MrWhereItsAt about demos and playable versions of games. I almost never buy a game unless I played a demo (mostly because I'm not sure my computer can run the game). Having the full game for a limited amount of time is possible. It was done by Troika for Temple of Elemental Evil for instance. You could play 3 or 4 hours for free and then decide to buy it or not. This way of providing easy access to try the game is important imo in order to know if a game is worth buying.

[pg]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
which i think is why PC games arent availble for rent anymore - yet ANOTHER argument on the piracy issue, i think.

not really ps1/ps2/xbox games are pretty easy to pirate you just need some general computer knowledge. of course that probably stops quite a few people. you can find lots of console games on filesharing networks.

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by Dissident
just to reiterate piracy is nothing new. Back in the days with floppy disks, those could easily be copied.

I'm ashamed to say I never paid for x-com or master of magic . Such great games. Perhaps I'm responsible for microproses demise .

There was this place you could rent games from where I lived in Newport News, and then you could just copy them and return them

Possible, but the MPS demise has more to do with some risky and unwarranted business decisions like making a foray into arcade machines. Furthermore the retail business knows the game better than most (smaller) software houses (at elast back then), they want kickbacks, a refund policy, large discounts etc...A software house that misreads the market are orders far to many copies could end with a warehouse full of returned and unsellable games.

Fact is that piracy remains a nice scapegoat for those business cockups

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by pg


not really ps1/ps2/xbox games are pretty easy to pirate you just need some general computer knowledge. of course that probably stops quite a few people. you can find lots of console games on filesharing networks.

so why are rentals of PS2 and xbox games so widespread, and there are no PC game rentals in the US anymore?

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


so why are rentals of PS2 and xbox games so widespread, and there are no PC game rentals in the US anymore?

I would think part of the answer to this is ease of use, obviously it is much easier to play a PS2 or xbox game from the time you get home from renting it whereas the same with a PC game involves installation, potential hardware conflicts, etc. Therefore, for someone not interested in pirating and taking advantage, xbox and PS2 are the easier formats to use.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Sparrowhawk


I would think part of the answer to this is ease of use, obviously it is much easier to play a PS2 or xbox game from the time you get home from renting it whereas the same with a PC game involves installation, potential hardware conflicts, etc. Therefore, for someone not interested in pirating and taking advantage, xbox and PS2 are the easier formats to use.

yeah but the hardware conflict issue exists for sales as well, and is a bigger risk in that case. Yet PC game SALES are still widespread.

I suppose one could argue that its not worth the installation time for a rental, that im not gonna play that long. I just dont see that, but who knows.

[Kuciwalker]

I would guess that part of it is that installation of a pc game feels much more permanent than simply popping a cartridge (or disc) into a console.