The future of PC gaming - 2009 edition

[Asher]

I'm deeply offending? But you're the hating racist.

[Nikolai]

See what I mean?

[DrSpike]

I certainly did not!

You're just bull****ting now that all of my offensive posts from the past few weeks have disappeared.

It's ok, no one thinks any less of you.

[DrSpike]

He certainly has not. He still calls me a racist and claiming I hate his colour, which is a deeply offending claim to say the least.

He's winding you up - he's white. This is a case of you needing to bite less when you are being trolled.

[Nikolai]

I know he's just doing it to be a pain in the ass, but there is a few things I don't accept being called, for whatever reasons.

[El_Cid]

some news from the recent IGF Awards:

http://gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22919

probably worth searching out some of those games mentioned

Edit: and bbc link(with other info on the event):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7962983.stm

[lord of the mark]

this sounds kinda kewl

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/03/27/epochal-achron-meta-time-strategy/

[lord of the mark]

The coverage has been pretty wide. It's an interesting idea - maybe for a decade's time, but still interesting. God knows PC gaming needs some new business models, and user friendly subscription based unrestricted PC gaming might be a contender.

from what I can gather, aside from issues with ISP's and bandwidth, there are real questions of whether there would be demand for this given the low prices of vid cards and chips to run current games - but since I don't play current games, and the local consensus in this forum wrt to what you need to play current games is different from that at other places, I won't address it.

[El_Cid]

The more i've thought on it the less i like it. I just like to own my games and not have a third party decide(by maybe not being there one day) if i can play or not. I have the same issue with steam and other such srvices also. But for many people it might be very handy? will have to see if it can fly and some of the first reports coming from the GDC suggest that in near ideal conditions(as at the show) it was noticeable enough(the lag) to probably raise issues in less ideal situations.

Ok here are some of the latest indie picks from the gamasutra ""Best of indie" thing:

http://gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22959

try something different

[El_Cid]

EA to drop DRM:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7972677.stm

old news now, i'd been looking at this over the last week i think. But anyway i thought the BBC report it kinda funny, lots of not-quite correct or confused reporting on what DRM actualy is etc, but i guess non serious gamers and non developers find it all quite confusing?

Anyway what came to me about this declaration from EA is this. I think this is just a sly marketing move. I'm yet to be convinced they actualy give a sh*t anymore about thier customers, as long as they get your money that's all that matters. This is exteneded to their employee's also(eg 'EA spouse' thing) and is sadly very indicitive of what i suspect is top tier management's thinking.

i know it's cool to bash EA, has been for a few years now, but seriously i don't give a monkeys about all that. All i care about is people in games actualy loveing what they do and wanting to make the best game experiences for their customers as they can. I'm yet to be convinced EA can make that mental shift, and it will take more than one 'declaration' of this type to prove their real intentions.

If this becomes some new policy, if we(as customers) are treated with the respect our hard eanred money deserves, and if EA just drops the bull*hit and gets back to what its historic roots(yeah it had a great pedigree) are about then i'm sure people like me won't feel the need to make a post like this, and heck may even start buying their games again.
Don't treat me like a criminal or a fool - that's all i ask from my game publishers.

[lord of the mark]

I think this is just a sly marketing move. I'm yet to be convinced they actualy give a sh*t anymore about thier customers, as long as they get your money that's all that matters.

In order to get your money, they had to drop DRM, which is what you wanted. Two cheers for capitalism?

[El_Cid]

Yeah, maybe.

What a damning inditement on how sceptical they have turned me over the years!
But yeah, much to Dr.Spikes horror - if this is all true, with no hidden catches, then i will indeed get Sims 3 for PC.

For my other half of course - she loves the games...on console only so far, but with no 'down side' from my customer end(talking nasty PC hardware screwing up software/stupid license(install) restrictions etc) then yeah this could actualy be a 'modern' EA PC game sale in my house! the horror's!

[El_Cid]

Another selection of indie fun from gamasutra:

http://gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23041

I'm looking forward to trying the 'new' version of balance of power by Chris Crawford

[Nikolai]

The balance of power game is crap, if it's the online one I found a couple of days ago. Just nuke a country, for example Israel as I did, demand whatever you want, nuke them a second time if neccessary, and every single country in the world do as you demand.

[DanS]

I don't know if this will be a good thing or a bad thing in general? But it certainly could cut out 90% of the problems associated with modern PC gaming(hardware issues etc).

To me, it's a solution looking for a problem. In the US, for instance, you would need to pay $50-$60 a month for high-speed broadband in order to save $500 or whatever on a new computer or console.

Fact is that reasonably muscle-bound computers are dirt cheap nowadays. The hardware business has a lot of cut-throat competition, while high-speed broadband is expensive and has little competition in many areas.