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Dr Strangelove
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I still say that a major source of the problem has been the lack of standardization of PCs, both in terms of hardware and operating software. It is often impossible to write a game program that is cuttting edge and also will work with every possible PC system configuration owned by potential buyers. The result is that PC game buyers tear their hair out over games that won't work on their unique system while console owners are spared that tribulation because the people who write the game programs they play were able to design a product that only had to work with one standard system.
What is needed is a working committee of PC hardware designers and PC game designers to hammer out some sort of set of standards that will reduce incompatabilities.
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Gods Pet Monkey
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Melting away on the East Coast of Australia
Nov 2001
time: 15:24
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No, its not dieing. We have just had a very bad lead up to the end of the year.
Normally, late October and November sees a lot of the big name games released, just in time for Christmas, and usually several well anticipated games get put out in a matter of weeks. For some reason, this just didn’t happen this year.
When i think back over the last 3 months that games that instantly pop into my head are Unreal Tournament 2003, and Age of Mythology... The other big games of the pre-holiday season were The Lord of The Rings, the new Harry Potter game, NFS - Hot Pursuit 2, + a few expansions, the first 2 are clearly money grabbing marketing titles, and I’m not really into racing games, so NFS doesn’t interest me. I think back to this time last year, and I remember buying games like Ghost Recon, AvP2, Civ3, Empire Earth (which I thought was a huge disappointment, but anyway), Return to Castle Wolfenstein, IL-2 Sturmovik and Soul Reaver 2.
Ultimately, I blame the lack of big name games this Christmas on them all being released earlier in the year. There have been quite a few big games released this year, Warcraft III, Neverwinter Nights, Jedi Knight 2, Soldier of Fortune 2, etc. but most have been out for so long they no longer take top spot on the shelves, instead they seem to be replaced by endless tycoon titles (there seems to be a new one out every other day).
As for innovation, its not really dead. It’s pretty much in the same state its been in since the conception of PC games. Really innovative games are rare, and always have been. We look back to the days where games like Wolfenstein3D and Dune 2 were creating new genres, and we think that it was a time of great change and upheaval in the games industry, when in fact it wasn’t. Truly, only a handful of games did anything major, and none of them were released at the same time, it’s just our memory playing tricks on us...
Next year is looking good though, a few anticipated titles coming up quickly (MOO3, SimCity4) and some big names on the horizon (Doom III, perhaps... Unreal 2, maybe... Duke Nukem 4 Ever, well.. no actually, no DK4E).
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kring
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Wichita,KS,USA
Dec 2001
time: 23:24
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quote:
Originally posted by ADG
Well yes, it helps on the sales, if people know that there'll be patches for the game, but let's make a quick poll:
Wich game do you prefer to buy:
GameA - made by a company who always makes patches for their buggy games...
GameB - made by a company who's only famous for making bugs, but no patches... |
Given those two choices, I would opt for:
C - not buying either game. I have adopted such tactics against companies that produce shoddy work. The expectation by both companies and consumers is: buy it buggy, that's okay. Maybe for most people, it is. But, for me, it isn't.
I have notified several game companies that I won't buy any more of their games until and unless they start putting them out fairly bug free. I have mentioned the titles I own from the companies as well as what I would buy if they cleaned up their act. I realize that there are potential system issues, but when the problems are not system issues, just a rush to beat a deadline and profit margin, that is where I draw the line. I have also used this in my regular shopping as well. I have some companies I don't buy from because they want my money, but don't want to put even a half decent effort in providing a decent product.
I would agree with the ones that say it is the buggy games causing the reduced sales.
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JohnT
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Capitalist
Mar 1999
time: 00:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Lancer
I recall I felt the same way about board wargames going down the tubes in the 70's. It seemed that role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons were stealing the the customers. My friends quit getting together for the latest release from Simulations Publications or Avalon Hill and started doing D&D, which I never had any interest in. So, now if you can even find a true hobby store you won't find many board wargames like you used to. They are in the cabinet under the flexible Darth Maul dolls with 'life like' light up light saber..."you can look but try not to mess up the Star Wars display". Hobby stores used to have racks upon racks of wargames.
So now we have consoles eroding the customer base of the computer game genre. This means that folks will never graduate to strayegy games from shoot em ups...and that might be the end of computer games, or at least relegate them to the same cabinet as the board wargames...
That said, I almost bought myself an X box for Christmas, that mech assault game looks awsome.  |
You know Lancer, there is a game store here in K'ville that specializes in board games, especially military games - their shelves are just crammed with the things. If you are interested in a title, but can't find it in that backwater called "Oregon" (  ), please PM me and I'll go look for you.
- - - -
Oh, I do agree that PC games will never die as long as there are PC's. But what I'm really bemoaning is the fact that PC games are no longer the standard, the industry leaders in design and playability. Sure, console games might have always sold more than PC games, but for about a decade PC games were king - and being a PC gamer, I grew used to such affairs. Now, like a 30-year GM man in 1986 who grew complacent with American industrial dominance, I find my team immersed in mediocrity and repetition, while the other guys seem to be having all the fun and making all the money.
I'm missing the 90's more and more. 
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Lancer
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Oregon Coast, USA! or Bohol, Philippines!
Apr 1999
time: 05:24
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John, I played Civ2 on my Playstation 1 in the Philippines for 6 months. It didn't use a keyboard, just the usual hand held game controller. There was no random map generator either, just a bunch of stored maps on the game CD.
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29-12-2002 03:39
... because we don't expect them to do else. maybe that's what the gaming industry wants.
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