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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
| Doug Church: The Death of PC Gaming @ Gamasutra |
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Doug Church, lead designer of Ultima Underworld, and designer on Thief and System Shock with Looking Glass Studios (among others projects), has been interviewed in article format at Gamasutra (free registration required) in a feature titled <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041123/hall_01.shtml" target="_blank"> The State Of Church: Doug Church on the Death of PC Gaming and the Future of Defining Gameplay</a>. Here's a snip:<blockquote><em>Church remarks on this shift: "In North America it's become a self-fulfilling prophecy: consoles are where people spend the money on marketing, and therefore that's where the market goes. Frankly the console has advantages in terms of accessibility, in terms of ease-of-install, and as such; that trend is not going away any time soon unless the PC becomes a different piece of hardware. PC gaming in the sense of 'I'm gonna go play this new racing game on the PC' is likely to be gone for a while. The controls aren't as good, it's just a different experience. You might as well crank it on your home stereo, have the big screen and have your cars screaming around the corner. It just works really well-- in a way that it doesn't on a monitor with a mouse."</em></blockquote> |
Wed Nov 24, 2004 2:04 pm |
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Wolfgarou
Guards Lieutenant
Joined: 29 May 2003
Posts: 163
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There we go again with the 'death of PC gaming'. In fact, I'm abit surprised that this actually came out this year when PC gaming actually overshadowed consoles with big names like Half Life 2, World Of Warcraft and DOOM3 taking the limelight. The only console game that I can think of that made a big splash was Halo 2.
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The world is small, nasty and complicated, and everybody dies alone... - Sam Fisher |
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Wed Nov 24, 2004 2:50 pm |
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I laugh at these kind of editorials. If you look the games released each month, you can notice the PC is still getting more games compared to xbox/ps2/gcube separately.
Not to mention that the best hardware is still made for pc of course and there's no way a console could possibily become more powerful than a pc. It's no secret that a number of developers out there, prefer to work with the best hardware rather then the fixed capabilities of say .. an xbox.
As the poster before me mentioned, there are a number of PC games this year that will increase sales quite a bit: The sims 2 it's on pc, Half life 2 it's on pc, Doom 3 it's on pc, Rome: Total War it's on pc .. and more. And i hope Vampires Bloodlines will be a major success because rpgs aren't doing so well  |
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Wed Nov 24, 2004 3:49 pm |
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Guest
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I laugh at these kind of editorials. If you look the games released each month, you can notice the PC is still getting more games compared to xbox/ps2/gcube separately.
Not to mention that the best hardware is still made for pc of course and there's no way a console could possibily become more powerful than a pc. It's no secret that a number of developers out there, prefer to work with the best hardware rather then the fixed capabilities of say .. an xbox.
As the poster before me mentioned, there are a number of PC games this year that will increase sales quite a bit: The sims 2 it's on pc, Half life 2 it's on pc, Doom 3 it's on pc, Rome: Total War it's on pc .. and more. And i hope Vampires Bloodlines will be a major success because rpgs aren't doing so well |
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Wed Nov 24, 2004 3:49 pm |
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Guest
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Yup I agree with the above 2 posts.
Been there done that.
When the Atari 2600 came out in 1978 (or 1979 can't quite remember) it was, 'the death of PC gaming.'
With the crash of the videogame market in the early 80s it was, 'the death of PC gaming.'
With the rennasiance of the videogame market with the release of the original Nintendo system it was, 'the death of PC gaming.'
Throughout the 90s, with each new generation of consoles hitting the market, it was, you guessed it, 'the death of PC gaming.'
PC gaming may take backseat to consoles... maybe... but it's doubtfull that it will die any time soon.
This is TheMadGamer by the way, for some reason I can't log in. |
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Wed Nov 24, 2004 10:04 pm |
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Guest
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[quote="Anonymous"]I laugh at these kind of editorials. If you look the games released each month, you can notice the PC is still getting more games compared to xbox/ps2/gcube separately.
Not to mention that the best hardware is still made for pc of course and there's no way a console could possibily become more powerful than a pc. It's no secret that a number of developers out there, prefer to work with the best hardware rather then the fixed capabilities of say .. an xbox.
As the poster before me mentioned, there are a number of PC games this year that will increase sales quite a bit: The sims 2 it's on pc, Half life 2 it's on pc, Doom 3 it's on pc, Rome: Total War it's on pc .. and more.
quote:
And i hope Vampires Bloodlines will be a major success because rpgs aren't doing so well
I beg to differ w/ the line of "RPG's aren't doing well." There are many great CRPG's out there: Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate series, Fallout series, Star Wars KOTOR, NWN (+ expansions), Elder Scrolls series, Gothic series, Arcanum, etc etc. I've still yet to play The Divinity series, Icewind Dale series, Wizardry 8 to name a few.
If anything this year RPG market is not flooded w/ RPG's. What were the big releases this year? Beyond Divinity? Vampire: Bloodlines? That is pretty much it, right now. BTW, I hope Vampire also does well -- looks good and sounds like a good one. Plus, I like Troika.
Why is it that the CRPG market is asleep right now? Most of the big PC RPG's are coming in the next few years. NWN 2 is coming 2006, which Obsidian is working on. SW:KOTOR 2 is coming to the PC supposingly in Feb. 2005 (X-Box version already went Gold). I don't know when Bioware's Dragon Age is coming, but sometime in the next few years. Who knows what the Unreal Engine-based RPG Bioware is working on is. It's possible Jade Empire might get a PC port -- Bioware hasn't ruled that idea out, yet. Troika's working on making an unknown Post-Apocalyptic RPG. Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is being worked on, due for end of 2005-sometime in 2006. Divine Divinity 2 is being worked on w/ a new 3D Engine. Arkane's unknown Source Engine based game is being worked on -- I'd bet it could be the Arx Fatalis 2, but it might be something else; who knows). I don't know when The Fall is coming to USA. Dungeon Lords is due next yea,r I believe. There's a lot of RPG's coming in the next few years. |
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Thu Nov 25, 2004 9:16 am |
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Guest
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None of the games you mentioned make me think of "rpg-goodness." Even troika's post-apoc game isn't going to be TB. So a bunch of action rpgs are coming out, woopity-doo. Click-click-click-click. Weeee. How fun.
But then there is metalheart, that's an TB rpg. Oh wait, there is no character creation. You have to play the two roles the devs created that already have their own personalities. I guess that rules out calling that game a rpg, since I can't play a role that is already played by the computer any more than I could play Mario in super mario brothers.
You also forgot DS 2, another super star "rpg." |
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Thu Nov 25, 2004 7:14 pm |
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TheMadGamer
High Emperor
Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 487
Location: Southern California |
quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous
Not to mention that the best hardware is still made for pc of course and there's no way a console could possibily become more powerful than a pc. It's no secret that a number of developers out there, prefer to work with the best hardware rather then the fixed capabilities of say .. an xbox.
It isn't as if the article has zero merit. Remember, superior hardware doesn't garauntee market dominance. Remember VCRs? There were the VHS and BETA formats... BETA being the superior format but nonetheless, VHS became the dominant technology. Consider the Apple Macintosh, with its closed archetecture the Mac platform has always provided superior hardware over WinTel... however, WinTel continues to dominate the market today as it has for the last two decades (if I remember right, the first 'mac' computer was released in the mid 80s).
Where articles like these fall short is the permanence of the message. The 'death' of PC gaming means the end. Finished. Done. That has never happened despite the legions who have screamed that, 'the sky is falling' all the way back to the Atari 2600.
I love electronic gaming. PC gaming as well as console gaming. I own nearly every console released since the Atari 2600 and have purchased a new PC every 2 years for the last 25 years. In fact, it's amazing I ever got married.
My first and foremost love is the PC. But with some of the steller consoles released these days, the Xbox and PS2 and to a lesser extent the GC (I like GC games best by the way, but in terms of hardware, the GC hasn't made the same kind of transition that the Xbox and PS2 have made in terms of behaving somewhat like a PC), I can see the writing on the wall that consoles will most likely become dominant over PC gaming.
But I would never say that that means it is the death of PC gaming. As far as I can tell, this shift could facilitate a positive shift for PC gamers. With large publishers focusing their attention on the mass market of console gamers, it will leave the PC gaming market wide open for smaller, but more thoughtfull developers. We've seen some hints of this already coming out of Europe with games like Gothic, Arx Fatalis, and Divine Divinity.
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And i hope Vampires Bloodlines will be a major success because rpgs aren't doing so well
Haha! Well I dunno where you've been, but that couldn't be further from accurate. The last 5 years has been awesome for single player PC CRPGers. Yeah there's a lot of CRPG-Lite in the mix (Diablo-esque stuff). But there has been some serious content for more thoughtful players. Do we really need to list them? The existence and success of RPGDot has partly to do with the CRPG boon of the last 5 years.l
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The Poster Previously Known As NeptiOfPovar |
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Thu Nov 25, 2004 7:56 pm |
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