How PC gamers can be heard

[thilanliyan]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/...an-be-heard-hint-not-by-threats-of-piracy.ars

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Support Stardock Games.

 

[gszx1337]

Great article! I haven't heard of the ECA before. Shit, I didn't even know that there was a Steam group boycotting COD:MW2.

 

[Bateluer]

Shit, I didn't even know that there was a Steam group boycotting COD:MW2.

Who all apparently bought MW2. Voting with your wallet is still a powerful tool. When you complain and rail against the publisher and then buy the game anyway, that makes a powerful statement about your intentions.

 

[lifeobry]

Dragon Age is the first game I bought in a while because I support BioWare and because it didn't have DRM (Thanks EA)

 

[marmasatt]

Who all apparently bought MW2. Voting with your wallet is still a powerful tool. When you complain and rail against the publisher and then buy the game anyway, that makes a powerful statement about your intentions.

This. It's like saying "we're mad and we're not gonna take it anymore" and the just bending over.

IW and whomever know that they've "got ya" if they see that all these people have allegedly rallied against buying it it yet it's already outsold COD 4 in 2 weeks. That picture of the 50 guys from the STEAM boycott group in-game playing MW2 is hilarious.

 

[Udgnim]

money is in the console market now

PC gaming market is secondary and will be treated as such

whether PC gamers vote with their wallets does not matter to console focused developers / publishers because any additional money gained through a PC port is good enough. only MMOs and RTSes will remain PC centric. all other genres will become more console focused.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Great article. Most PC gamers don't have the backbone to vote with their wallets, as evidenced by the extraordinarily successful launch of MW2 and the continued success of Intel chips.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Great article. Most PC gamers don't have the backbone to vote with their wallets, as evidenced by the extraordinarily successful launch of MW2 and the continued success of Intel chips.

i was actually considering buying MW *1* just to see what all the CoD hoopla was about (i only played CoD2, was not all that impressed)

not that i was going to buy MW2 in the first place, but no DS = no sale

 

[wanderer27]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/...an-be-heard-hint-not-by-threats-of-piracy.ars

Interesting article with some good points.

I particularly found this interesting:

People are making money on the platform, and Stude points out that only 40 percent of revenue from PC Games would equal the entirety of software revenue from one of the major consoles.

. . . and we all keep hearing PC gaming is dying . . .


I totally agree to vote with your wallet, unlike these so called MW2 boycotters


I'm not going to Pirate games I'm interested in, I'm just not going to buy them until there are acceptable terms (no invasive DRM).
BioShock and Mass Effect are a couple that are still on my do not buy list due to DRM.
OrangeBox would have still been on there, but it's totally come off since even to play single player mode it seems to have to use Steam - that's just rediculous.

Settlers VI just came off and was purchased recently because they finally pulled the DRM off it, maybe other Companies will come to their senses as well . . .

If it hadn't been for the DRM, I'd have probably picked up Spore as well (and maybe a few others).
I guess in this case it was a positive since it sounds like that game is a major disappointment.

 

[Maximilian]

Support blizzard.

 

[n7]

Support blizzard.

They don't make the kind of games i enjoy, at all.

 

[bullbert]

money is in the console market now

PC gaming market is secondary and will be treated as such

You have it backwards if you are referring to the developers and publishers making enough profit to survive and flourish. What you have said is true only for the Retailers (i.e. Best Buy). The Publishers get more profit per unit from a PC game sale than from a Console game sale due to console licensing (rape) fees to MS and Sony (and Nintendo). Reread the article, and as wanderer27 pointed out in a post below yours, the article even eludes to this fact.

 

[Gothgar]

I haven't bought L4D2 or MW2

And I dont play on it till they are under 20...

I for one do vote with my wallet.

Cause fuck em, that's why

 

[Maximilian]

They don't make the kind of games i enjoy, at all.

Well if good games arent really your thing heres a few recommendations from me:

Anything with EA sports on it
Spore
Cities XL
Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing

Last but not least this little gem here:
http://www.stfj.net/art/2009/loselose/

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

It's not a matter of "good games", Blizzard just makes games that don't appeal to some people, myself included.

 

[frozentundra123456]

money is in the console market now

PC gaming market is secondary and will be treated as such
whether PC gamers vote with their wallets does not matter to console focused developers / publishers because any additional money gained through a PC port is good enough. only MMOs and RTSes will remain PC centric. all other genres will become more console focused.

Unfortunately you are correct, even if they make more per unit on PC games, the sales are so low relative to consoles that PC games are a small part of the total revenue. As I have said in other posts, perhaps AMD and nVidia could encourage developers to keep PC gaming alive. Otherwise there may be no market for the gaming graphics cards. Even RTS games are now going over to consoles too.

 

[minmaster]

as steam's L4D weekend deal proved earlier this februrary, i think if they lower the price significantly, they can exceed their expectation in not just units sold, but in revenue. to me it feels like the publishers are too scared to put something up for sale for around $20. not only will they generate a lot of sales, i believe such a price will cut out a lot of piracy. i think we'd be surprised in the perception of gamers in how reluctant they are to pirate when it comes to paying $20 vs $40-$50. if a game they want costs only $20, i bet a large percentage of them will just buy it.

 

[Bateluer]

It's not a matter of "good games", Blizzard just makes games that don't appeal to some people, myself included.

Keep a close eye on Blizzard, now that they are pretty much owned by Activation, you can expect a lot of anti-consumer tactics from them.

 

[exar333]

Great article. Most PC gamers don't have the backbone to vote with their wallets, as evidenced by the extraordinarily successful launch of MW2 and the continued success of Intel chips.

That's a bunch of crap. Most people on the forums here buy Intel because they are BETTER (or where better). Not to derail the thread, but when I picked up my i7 a year ago, it completely owned anything AMD had. AMD's offerings are now very competitive, but thats now.

CPU choice =! console/windows game choice

VERY bad analogy.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Great article! I haven't heard of the ECA before. Shit, I didn't even know that there was a Steam group boycotting COD:MW2.

That group was pointless...everyone in it was playing MW2...haha

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Who all apparently bought MW2. Voting with your wallet is still a powerful tool. When you complain and rail against the publisher and then buy the game anyway, that makes a powerful statement about your intentions.

This! Money talks, the rest of the...crap walks. I love all of the hypocrites who whine about X company screwing them over with Y game, but then they run out and buy it on launch day anyway. These companies have to be laughing all the way to the bank, because it would (correctly) seem to them that they can do whatever they want and the sheeple will buy it up anyway.

 

[SunnyD]

Problem is that the software devs and publishers don't care. You vote with your wallet to not buy a PC game, that will be one more vote the dev/pub have going to the console crowd. And it's a vote they actually want to happen.

 

[exar333]

Problem is that the software devs and publishers don't care. You vote with your wallet to not buy a PC game, that will be one more vote the dev/pub have going to the console crowd. And it's a vote they actually want to happen.

It's also getting increasingly hard to vote with your wallet in someone else's favor. Often times, you get to choose between Activision or EA. Pick your poison.

What I hope happens is that people do vote with their wallets (I do) and smaller development/distribution companies flourish.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Problem is that the software devs and publishers don't care. You vote with your wallet to not buy a PC game, that will be one more vote the dev/pub have going to the console crowd. And it's a vote they actually want to happen.

True. Though it doesn't help at all when they whine fervently about some grave injustice or something and then go out and buy the game they were protesting against anyway. A Catch-22 I suppose...if they boycott the game, then the game companies will say pirates! have ruined PC gaming, and if they do buy the game, then they are condoning the shady practices these game companies now oftentimes deploy.

It's also getting increasingly hard to vote with your wallet in someone else's favor. Often times, you get to choose between Activision or EA. Pick your poison.

What I hope happens is that people do vote with their wallets (I do) and smaller development/distribution companies flourish.

Also true, but gaming is big business now, which means it is mostly too difficult and expensive for smaller studios to create A+ games that will sell well and compete with the big boys.