This is a rant.
I think it's a shame when folks complain about "the way it used to be. Oftentimes, "the way it used to be is" the way it still is, you've just gotten older and more resistant to change.
I hate it when large swaths of people are painted with a broad brush. If you go over to P&N right now, you'll see posters there slinging insults and generalizations about groups that comprise thousands if not millions of people. I think on some level, we all know that's not fair but it's easier to put people into boxes to easily identify and label, fairness be damned.
That being said, PC Gamers used to be a friendlier, more mature and forgiving community and have become a group of self-entitled whiners. They bounce miserably from game to game, never satisfied with anything, viciously nit-picking each new title into oblivion and waiting for the next big thing, only so they can blow it apart.
No one is happy with *anything,* which is unfortunate because PC Gaming has never been better.
I don't have numbers to back this up but in my experience, PC Gamers have always been an older, more mature bunch than their console counterparts. If I ever talk to any of my friends or peers about gaming, I always have to relate things to the Xbox or Playstation. Maybe it has to do with the cost involved or the amount of technical ability required or even the greater amount of patience you have possess to troubleshoot bugs and what-have-you that come up.
In the last decade though, several of those barriers to entry have been lowered, if not lifted altogether. Component prices have never been lower. You can easily build a perfectly capable gaming rig for ~$6-700 (which is cheaper than a console if you factor in the cost of a 47 inch LCD). Dealing with Windows 7 and the wealth of easily obtainable 'how-to's' and help information available online is a hell of a lot easier than freeing up IRQ's and mucking around in DOS.
I think there are those who would say that that a high barrier to entry was the one thing keeping the more 'elite' PC community a cut above the unwashed masses of console gamers. There's probably a grain of truth in that. But with the removal of those barriers came an influx of new players, new developers (seeking new revenue streams) and new ideas. Love it or hate it, it's those new players who are just discovering this universe are keeping the hobby we all love so much infused with new blood and (more importantly, I guess) new dollars.
There's lots of blame to go around, though. In the years since gaming became a big business, you've got your Activisions and your EA's churning out sequel after sequel, each successive one barely iterating on the last. The term 'console port' has become an instant negative, connoting less-than-stellar controls, UI and graphics options.
Then there's the piracy angle. Whether or not piracy actually has an effect on sales is a debate for another thread but one this is for sure: the idea that piracy has had an effect on development. Invasive DRM has blown a hole in the landscape of PC Gaming. Personally, it's not a big deal to me but I get why some folks are upset.
That being said, the amount of vitriol surrounding PC Games is reaching critically absurd levels. The internet has given everyone a soap box (see: the unfortunately long missive I'm writing at this very minute) and made every forum and comment thread an echo chamber.
Why can't we give things a chance? Why can't we offer constructive criticism instead of sounding like raving lunatics? I don't work in the games industry at all and when I read some of the stuff that's out there, I can't imagine anyone wanting to develop PC Games exclusively. In return for your hard work, you get a face full of bile and criticism about the most irrelevant minutiae.
I'm rambling. Go play your games. Enjoy them. Criticize but do it reasonably. Everyone involved here are human beings with human feelings. I think it would do everyone a service to remember that.
TL;DR: Shut the fuck up and play
I think it's a shame when folks complain about "the way it used to be. Oftentimes, "the way it used to be is" the way it still is, you've just gotten older and more resistant to change.
I hate it when large swaths of people are painted with a broad brush. If you go over to P&N right now, you'll see posters there slinging insults and generalizations about groups that comprise thousands if not millions of people. I think on some level, we all know that's not fair but it's easier to put people into boxes to easily identify and label, fairness be damned.
That being said, PC Gamers used to be a friendlier, more mature and forgiving community and have become a group of self-entitled whiners. They bounce miserably from game to game, never satisfied with anything, viciously nit-picking each new title into oblivion and waiting for the next big thing, only so they can blow it apart.
No one is happy with *anything,* which is unfortunate because PC Gaming has never been better.
I don't have numbers to back this up but in my experience, PC Gamers have always been an older, more mature bunch than their console counterparts. If I ever talk to any of my friends or peers about gaming, I always have to relate things to the Xbox or Playstation. Maybe it has to do with the cost involved or the amount of technical ability required or even the greater amount of patience you have possess to troubleshoot bugs and what-have-you that come up.
In the last decade though, several of those barriers to entry have been lowered, if not lifted altogether. Component prices have never been lower. You can easily build a perfectly capable gaming rig for ~$6-700 (which is cheaper than a console if you factor in the cost of a 47 inch LCD). Dealing with Windows 7 and the wealth of easily obtainable 'how-to's' and help information available online is a hell of a lot easier than freeing up IRQ's and mucking around in DOS.
I think there are those who would say that that a high barrier to entry was the one thing keeping the more 'elite' PC community a cut above the unwashed masses of console gamers. There's probably a grain of truth in that. But with the removal of those barriers came an influx of new players, new developers (seeking new revenue streams) and new ideas. Love it or hate it, it's those new players who are just discovering this universe are keeping the hobby we all love so much infused with new blood and (more importantly, I guess) new dollars.
There's lots of blame to go around, though. In the years since gaming became a big business, you've got your Activisions and your EA's churning out sequel after sequel, each successive one barely iterating on the last. The term 'console port' has become an instant negative, connoting less-than-stellar controls, UI and graphics options.
Then there's the piracy angle. Whether or not piracy actually has an effect on sales is a debate for another thread but one this is for sure: the idea that piracy has had an effect on development. Invasive DRM has blown a hole in the landscape of PC Gaming. Personally, it's not a big deal to me but I get why some folks are upset.
That being said, the amount of vitriol surrounding PC Games is reaching critically absurd levels. The internet has given everyone a soap box (see: the unfortunately long missive I'm writing at this very minute) and made every forum and comment thread an echo chamber.
Why can't we give things a chance? Why can't we offer constructive criticism instead of sounding like raving lunatics? I don't work in the games industry at all and when I read some of the stuff that's out there, I can't imagine anyone wanting to develop PC Games exclusively. In return for your hard work, you get a face full of bile and criticism about the most irrelevant minutiae.
I'm rambling. Go play your games. Enjoy them. Criticize but do it reasonably. Everyone involved here are human beings with human feelings. I think it would do everyone a service to remember that.
TL;DR: Shut the fuck up and play