Insofar as which development house or platform deivers the better dish, its purely a matter of taste in my mind, and will support no substantive debate. I feel this way because technology is a predictable case of diminishing returns. Something twice as complex and twice as expensive will come out just in time to pave the way for something more complex still. The bottom line for what a computer or console with any real-world value is expected to do has not been established because the degree to which it is healthy to enmesh our lives with technology has neither been established.

Because the jury is out, price and value in all of this are functions of ubuiquity. Meaning what gizmo is absolutely everywhere you go? That thing will be cheap because we choose to build our lives on it. What can you absolutely not get away from? like a telephone, they're everywhere. When your gaming machine is that commonplace as a social tool, then you've hit upon a concrete standard. Until then, gaming will be a shapleless, organic thing beyond any meaningful analysis other than what style anyone's emoting about it assumes...

Blizzard games are the savior of pc gaming. So when your feeling down subscribe to Wow. See it rhymes (well sort of) and remember to stop by and get starcraft 42 zerg/protoss hybrids today.

Blizzard? I haven't even bought one of their games. I'm not interested in any. I will start deleting comments.

Two letters; EA

Birger

If they are, I would hate to come across the nightmare of PC gaming.

I personally wouldnt trust them as far as I could throw them. I have never bought, and never will, any game title they come up with. They are a money making machine, pure and simple, with no real feelings for the gamer beyond the quarterly revenue reviews. No one produces this stuff for free, no problem with that, I just have a real problem with the value they give for their products, which is more Marketing Spin driven yelling about what prople want to hear, than the reality of the final product.

Its all down to personal taste of course, but whatever anyones view - good or bad - lets hope they are not in reality "the saviour", because Dark, Expensive, Monopoly days of poor value would lay ahead.

Regards
Zy

Pre-WoW I may have agreed with you. Now they are just turning into SOE.

Yep. Any MMO company has to make a real effort, or they aren't worth mentioning positively.

Couldn't help but notice the title of the thread.

I think subscription games like WoW have mainly taken over what's left the PC gamimg market. You've got millions of PC gamers spending $240+ a year on WoW. Some don't even bother purchasing or playing other PC games.

There's also the shift by many publishers and development teams to console gaming. It's somewhat easier to work with: pre-spec'd hardware, gaming experience can be fairly consistent, and development for consoles tend to be easier to do (programming, graphics, etc.).

I think we might see 'subscription' type games becoming more of the standard in the PC market over the next few years while game publishers and developers concentrate mainly on consoles (which give them a higher profit-to-cost ratio).

I find it a rather weak arguement to claim that PC Gaming is dying simply because of graphics. If anything I'd say that core gameplay in games is killing gaming (this is for all gaming, not just PC) because gameplay is being replaced with fancy graphics. However, I believe that PC games have the highest valued gameplay because they are more immersive and easiest to use.

Gameplay should and should always remain more important then graphics and that is something the PC is superior in.

Spot on. Boring dressed up in sparkles and rainbows is still boring. Unfortunately I think the majority of gatekeepers who dole out the industry cash, have attention spans more in line with sparkles and rainbows.

Graphics be damned, providing a game has the necessary symbols, my imagination can do the rest. It only took me five weeks of HOMM5 b4 I was back playing HOMM3 again, damn that game wins. The fact that I can't zoom in and float around a pile of gems never even occurs to me while I'm playing.

PC Gaming will never truly die. I personally started out as a console gamer and transferred over to PC games with RTSs around the time of Age of Empires 1. Now there are only a very small handful of games that I still play on a console (about 3 or 4). The only reason I play those is that they either currently only exist on the consoles (Halo 3) or would be ackward on a PC unless screens get much larger (Rock Band).

Graphics are one of the reasons that PC gaming is becoming harder. The technology in constantly improving and currently make a computer unable to run most games three years (or less) older than the game. Upgrading is only easy if you know what you're doing and unless you have a friend/relative that knows when you don't you may pay out the rear to get it installed if you are afraid to install it yourself.

Most of the major "companies" think that the graphics are what make the game incredible. It is not necessarily true. One massive game I personally still play is StarCraft. The game is ten years old and even when it was released it was on the lower end of the graphics spectrum. 10 years later the game is by far one of the most popular games worldwide (South Korea has a television show dedicated to top players in games of StarCraft). That, along with WarCraft 3, are still the only games that we ALWAYS play whenever my friends want to play.

Many of the large companies may abandon the PC, but the best ones won't. Blizzard, whose last attempt at a console game is dead and the last one released was on the Nintendo 64, will never stop making good-quality PC games, especially RTSs and RPGs. Valve and Steam will keep PC gaming running, but will hurt PC sales in stores because of efficient direct downloads. PC gaming will not die, just change the way the games are purchased and received.

What bugs me is the way publishers and ditributers do business. Which is the main thing that is herting PC gameing. And there is some componies that will never truely die like blizzard and id Software. In the end I think id Software will be the longest lasting Software company, because they dont just make games. They make games, the engines that run them and they also make the tool used to make the games. The newest one to come is the Tech 5, which is going to be used in Doom4 and Rage. If you havent already do some reasure on the tech 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvuTtrkVtns

Well, most video cards created in the last couple years can be connected to a big screen TV if you wish.



Not to mention the "Battle Chest" for it is still available in most Wal-Marts. StarCraft is one of those games that is still on store shelves years after its release. Very, very few games can claim that title. Most games disappear from the shelves less than a year after release. The only other game I can think of that has persisted a long time on the shelves is the Sims.

PC games will never die, period! We know PC games can be modded, patched, etc... Consoles games cannot, a real shame. Worse, from playing several titles on the PS3 has me thinking, game companies making them care only for one thing, profit. There's only at the most 2 to 3 decent titles for PS3. The rest is camel dung! Even camel dung is more useful! If you played Gundam Crossfire you'd know. OMG what a $%^&* of **&^! I've changed my mind about console gaming for that one reason. I have returned the PS3 to the store and sold all the games for it for full refund.

Heck, I'll be the first to testify that PC gaming will outlast console gaming in the long run. Those console game makers are totally lame. Screw em.  

I'll support PC gaming as long as I live! (games that do the walk not just the talk)  

What puts me off buying certain PC games is the publisher's frequent insistence of including Starforce, PunkBuster or Gamespyware arcade in many games. I've been a hardcore PC gamer for best part of 20 years and I like to keep a clean system, one without hidden starforce drivers, run-on-startup anti-cheat programs etc. Most of the time if I want a game and find out it's got that extra baggage I'll download the cracked one - great - the deterrent for piracy just scored another own goal!

I've got an XBOX360 and PS3 which are both good for certain types of games (driving, football, action) but no good for FPS, Strategy or RPG (currently managed to wean myself off WoW after almost 3 years ). The PC will always be king in these arenas so long as the innovation continues. So no I don't think PC gaming is dying, I just think a lot of companies have screwed themselves over with this costly burden of extra software which in my case has the opposite to desired effect. As someone said earlier - the braindead side of it is being killed off to make more room for intelligent and thoughtful games. Just my 1p worth. Oh and hello, I'm new to these forums and recently DD'd GC2 and am loving it