Why don't game developers understand that a PC is not a console? (ahem, Skyrim)

[morkus64]

Shouldn't we be past this by now? Sports games are the worst offenders, but at least that's vaguely understandable. The fact that you have to use up and down arrows in the Skyrim menus rather than using the frackin mouse is just ridiculous. Makes it totally unplayable for me.

Of course I am a curmudgeon who longs for the good old days of text adventures, and point + click + parser...

 

[Nintendesert]

It has nothing to do with developers understanding what a PC is, it has everything to do with them developing with the consoles and PC at the same time and saving money and time by developing for the lowest common denominator, the consoles.

I however use the mouse for the menus and haven't had any problems with it other than with books getting it stuck and having to tab out and tab back into it. I click for all the menus in the game.

 

[Dumac]

Shouldn't we be past this by now? Sports games are the worst offenders, but at least that's vaguely understandable. The fact that you have to use up and down arrows in the Skyrim menus rather than using the frackin mouse is just ridiculous. Makes it totally unplayable for me.

Of course I am a curmudgeon who longs for the good old days of text adventures, and point + click + parser...

Huh? I never use the arrows...I just use my mouse...

But the menu design itself is very consolized

 

[morkus64]

Really? I haven't gotten very far in because of annoyances with the controls, but all through character creation I had to use the keyboard. I thought I read somewhere that the latest patch fixes that, but that there are all sorts of other things that go wrong.

 

[morkus64]

It has nothing to do with developers understanding what a PC is, it has everything to do with them developing with the consoles and PC at the same time and saving money and time by developing for the lowest common denominator, the consoles.

I think you may be right there.

 

[Sulaco]

I'm 45 hours in. Never once used the keyboard to scroll through the menus.

Like Dumac says, the appearance is very consolized. But it's not that bad by any means.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Speaking of which, the game only uses to cores, so I might as well throw my X6 out the window.

 

[cytoSiN]

I'm 45 hours in. Never once used the keyboard to scroll through the menus.

Like Dumac says, the appearance is very consolized. But it's not that bad by any means.

^ This. I don't like the LOOK of the UI, but the LOOK has nothing to do with the PLAYABILITY. And for me, it's more than adequate to get the job done. Basically, Mouse+Tab=Anything. If you can't tolerate it at all for now, in January we get the CK, which will allow for complete UI overhauls.

 

[s1njin]

Speaking of which, the game only uses to cores, so I might as well throw my X6 out the window.

Which is complete horsesh*t too. I put so much money int my rig - and very few of the games I built it for use the resources available. I sometimes think I wasted a lot of money.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Zenoth]

What gives me a good laugh when thinking in retrospect is that lots of people complained that vanilla Oblivion's GUI was horrendous and too streamlined in favor for consoles, but honestly I think it was much better than Skyrim's, even though I do live with it. The only thing I truly hated about Oblivion's vanilla GUI was its size rather than its actual design. In Skyrim's case I think both its size and design are horrible. I still enjoy the game a lot anyway.

 

[morkus64]

So you guys convinced me to give it another go - Still awful, but not absolutely horrible. I discovered the 360 controller option in the settings and turned it off which helped some. No idea why that is checked on by default. Still have issues with the mouse - some things, like inventory, seem to need me to press D instead of just being able to click on things, along with having to scroll up and down through the list is bothersome.

All in all, it might be just what I need. A game so buggy and cumbersome that I enjoy it for about 30 minutes, then give up and go do something productive.

 

[Markbnj]

Speaking of which, the game only uses to cores, so I might as well throw my X6 out the window.

Another way to look at it is that the other four cores are available to handle threads in processes like system tasks, so nothing should interfere with the game's access to the two cores it's using.

 

[coldmeat]

It has nothing to do with developers understanding what a PC is, it has everything to do with them developing with the consoles and PC at the same time and saving money and time by developing for the lowest common denominator, the consoles.

I however use the mouse for the menus and haven't had any problems with it other than with books getting it stuck and having to tab out and tab back into it. I click for all the menus in the game.

When the mouse doesn't click after reading a book in the inventory I just click on the furthest left column on the screen and that frees it up.

 

[Bateluer]

What incentive do publishers have to actually optimize for the PC's strengths when everyone buys the half ass'd versions regardless? It doesn't matter how much or how loudly people complain if they just buy the game, and usually all its DLC, regardless?

 

[PrayForDeath]

What incentive do publishers have to actually optimize for the PC's strengths when everyone buys the half ass'd versions regardless? It doesn't matter how much or how loudly people complain if they just buy the game, and usually all its DLC, regardless?

Sad but true.

 

[Sulaco]

What incentive do publishers have to actually optimize for the PC's strengths when everyone buys the half ass'd versions regardless? It doesn't matter how much or how loudly people complain if they just buy the game, and usually all its DLC, regardless?

Yeah, but how many hold off 'til the game half price (or less)?

Not specifically talking about Skyrim here, but it seems more and more people these days in the era of Steam are more likely to wait for major sales if they hear less than flattering things about the game at full price.

 

[BrightCandle]

If you wait for the sale price then all you are telling the publishers is that the game is fine but you aren't willing to pay as much as console buyers. That makes the PC even less attractive to them as a platform.

If its rubbish don't buy it. Stop preordering and instead for wait for multiple good quality reviews and playthroughs. Don't buy games that are overly consolised at all!

Alas I can say this but most people are happy as is, which is how DRM became so prevalent and why heavily consolised interfaces are becoming normal. Even BF3's interface is clearly optimised for the console but not one review I read mentioned how poor a left/right selector is for a PC user compared to a selection list since we have mice.

 

[morkus64]

Just found myself thinking how great it would be if the next fallout game for PS3/360 was a text adventure.

 

[s1njin]

If you wait for the sale price then all you are telling the publishers is that the game is fine but you aren't willing to pay as much as console buyers. That makes the PC even less attractive to them as a platform.

If its rubbish don't buy it. Stop preordering and instead for wait for multiple good quality reviews and playthroughs. Don't buy games that are overly consolised at all!

Alas I can say this but most people are happy as is, which is how DRM became so prevalent and why heavily consolised interfaces are becoming normal. Even BF3's interface is clearly optimised for the console but not one review I read mentioned how poor a left/right selector is for a PC user compared to a selection list since we have mice.

I'll wait for a sale price because, unless its Blizzard, more often than not the PC version of the game is rushed out and has multiple problems with it.

BF3? Sure it looks better than console - but so many people had connection issues with it or just getting it to launch.

Skyrim? How long is that Bethseda CTD thread getting now?

Batman AC? How's that DX11 working out for us on these nice graphics cards we ponied up for?

I'm pretty disgusted w/ PC gaming - I sincerely doubt I'll be dumping this much cash into a gaming rig in the future.

 

[Joemonkey]

This is why:

Over the three platforms, 59 percent of Skyrim copies were sold for the Xbox 360, 27 percent for the PS3 and 14 percent for PC

http://www.dailytech.com/The+Elder+...Retail+Sales+in+First+2+Days/article23293.htm

 

[TheSlamma]

I sincerely doubt I'll be dumping this much cash into a gaming rig in the future.

Smart move.

 

[Blitzvogel]

What saddens me is that the profitable potential of the PC is misunderstood/unrecognized by publishers these days. Even with mass pirating, there should be more attraction to the PC platform when there is more profitability in each PC game sold at $50 than their is console game sold at $60 because there are no royalties to pay MS or Sony. The addition of mods, better graphics/performance, etc gives rise to the possibility of a console gamer buying the PC version at a later point for these aspects too.........

 

[s1njin]

Smart move.

My only prayer at this point of recouping any of the $$$ I spent through joy of use would be Diablo and the next chapter in Starcraft. Which is pretty sad. Had I only known ...

 

[Red Storm]

This is why:

Over the three platforms, 59 percent of Skyrim copies were sold for the Xbox 360, 27 percent for the PS3 and 14 percent for PC

http://www.dailytech.com/The+Elder+...Retail+Sales+in+First+2+Days/article23293.htm

That doesn't include digital sales, which you know, make up a pretty significant portion of PC game sales nowadays.

I almost feel sorry for all the console purchases. Playing a Bethesda game without mods is a terrible thought...

 

[darkewaffle]

It never ends lol