Tom

"The alMIGHTY N" <natlee75@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ec2df8c6-f80b-42f2-afc9-49d3da40b7a3@o3g2000vbo.googlegroups.com...
> On Jan 14, 8:01 pm, "Tom" <no...@nothere.com> wrote:
>> "Morgan" <nos...@nospam.co.uk> wrote in message
>>
>> news:eZN3n.8295$jE1.6623@newsfe27.ams2...
>>
>> > Tom wrote:
>>
>> >>> That's one example, Bioshock on the other hand ran fine maxed out on
>> >>> a
>> >>> mid range PC of the day.
>>
>> >> I have to mostly agree with Almighty on his comments really. I mean, I
>> >> am
>> >> an avid PC gamer but only for a niche set of games, and I just built a
>> >> really expensive rig ($4K) and most people are not going to go that
>> >> route
>> >> because most (typical) gamers feel just fine with the console games,
>> >> they
>> >> are happy with what they offer
>>
>> > At the minute yes, but I'm talking about now, I'm talking
>> > hypothetically,
>> > if a new console doesn't come out for over two more years
>>
>> Well, I have yet to read where those on the 360 have gotten tired of it
>> and
>> bought a new PC for gaming (except for me), and the 360 is into its fifth
>> year.
>
> That's because you and people like you are about as commonplace as
> unicorns. :-)
>
>> They are still happy and it is still selling consoles and game sales
>> are still decent. Even game sales have been bland the past year or so for
>> consoles, but they are still smoking PC game sales. Look at it this way,
>> and
>> 360 game usually sells 5 times more game than on a PC, yet we all know
>> there
>> are far more PCs in the world than consoles. It's just that the majority
>> of
>> those PCs are not used for gaming as you and I would use them.
>
> Further, the majority of PCs that are actually used for gaming of some
> sort are used for playing The Sims, World of Warcraft, Bejeweled,
> Diner Dash, Plants vs. Zombies, and social games. A relatively small
> slice are being used to play Modern Warfare, Oblivion, etc.
>
>> >> (look at Wii sales!!).
>>
>> > You can't really count the Wii, it's not a gamers console.
>>
>> It is a gaming console no matter how you look at it and it remains a
>> gaming
>> console whether you think those games it offers are not gaming to your
>> standards. I don't own one and I probably never will as it doesn't appeal
>> to
>> me, but I recognize that it is a gaming/entertainment console still. It's
>> sheer sales numbers states that the majority of people are not PC gamers
>> and
>> that spending preference is going to keep propping up that section of the
>> market. It is just as easy to say by the console and game sales (game
>> sales
>> of which have been lackluster the past few years) of the Wii, 360 and
>> PS3,
>> that the majority of people who like to games are just fine with those
>> consoles. This fact made more so by how much PC gaming is becoming more
>> and
>> more niche form of gaming for a/to a certain group of people, like me.
>>
>> It would be interesting to see how many former avid PC gamers have just
>> quit
>> it and made the switch to consoles and not looked back. I was there for a
>> few years.
>
> Of all the console gamers I personally know or know only through Live,
> the only one that still plays "core" games on the PC is one of my best
> friends who only does it because he's a cheap bastard who pirates
> everything. He plays on the PC because he can play for free.
>
>> >> I am, for the most part, one of them, except I am an RPG freak, they
>> >> are
>> >> better on PC, but I somehow think that won't last much longer going
>> >> into
>> >> the next gen.
>>
>> >>The PC market is certainly not dead, but it is a nearly complete shell
>> >>of
>> >>its former self and game sales and especially hardware sales even
>> >>reflect
>> >>that.
>>
>> > That's my point and the point that a couple of people seem to ignore.
>> > I'm
>> > not saying that the PC will make some massive comeback I'm simply
>> > saying
>> > that it will probably have a slight but noticeable improvement if the
>> > next
>> > generation of consoles doesn't come out PDQ, and that it's not dead, as
>> > die-hard console fanatics seem to think. They seem to read this as
>> > "the
>> > PC will come to conquer us all."
>>
>> I didn't really notice anyone ignoring your words, but you do seem to be
>> very dismissive of the sales points and the well known gaming preferences
>> today, consoles have been and still are the gaming grade of choice for
>> "most" gamers, not PCs. I actually do not see it making an improvement in
>> sales or even growing as a base. I couldn't even say that PC sales will
>> make
>> even a small improvement since the decline has been very long, since the
>> mid
>> to late 90s this has been happening. Did you see PC rigs sales ramping up
>> while the PS1 and PS2 were selling over 100m each, as an example? Another
>> fact about PC gaming is that some games require really high end systems
>> to
>> be able to run them. Most don't buy PC gaming rigs to be run on low or
>> even
>> medium setting, they know why they bought the rigs and consoles have
>> gotten
>> much better graphically and even on performance to negate a reason to
>> spend
>> that kind of money for the majority. Crysis, when released sold well
>> under
>> 100K its first month after release as an example because the cost
>> requirements to run it were off the charts. Even by today's standard, it
>> still takes a rather pricey rig to run it smoothly on any setting more
>> than
>> medium.
>>
>> I have been a PC gamer going back two decades,
>
> Amateur. ;-)
>
> I can't really remember a time when I didn't play games. I used to
> play Archon, King's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, and Thexder at my best
> friend's house since he had the "IBM" (back when that label supposedly
> meant something). When my father brought home the first Macintosh, I
> was enthralled because the graphics, while black and white, looked so
> much better than the PC's. Dark Castle, Cap'n Magneto, Scarab of Ra,
> Dungeon of Doom, etc. were games I played to death.
>
>> but with the arrival of the
>> og Xbox, what it did online and what it offered graphically, my gaming
>> preference swung totally 180º. Only because of my liking for a certain
>> genre, have I just bought into PC gaming again. But the 360 is still my
>> choice for gaming and consoles will be for the times to come. For
>> example, I
>> cannot see playing Bayonetta on a PC with a mouse and keyboard, it
>> doesn't
>> work as console game controllers have evolved hugely compared to PC,
>> making
>> them very functional (thanks Halo for giving us this better console
>> controller system). I bought my previous gaming rig in early 2004
>> ($2500),
>> and it was a powerhouse, but I was still playing mainly on my Xbox, I
>> felt
>> stupid sometimes when I bought the Xbox version of games that were also
>> on
>> PC. I even bought Oblivion for the 360, though I knew my rig could more
>> than
>> handle it, but I had a nice couch, nice HDTV and a wireless controller,
>> see
>> what I mean? It has been only recently that I am back to PC gaming
>> because
>> the 360 isn't giving enough offerings in the quality and performance of
>> today's RPGs. Dragon Age simply rips the heart of the 360 version on the
>> PC.
>> I got Oblivion GOTY edition for $15, while XBL still wants (even now, go
>> look) 2400 MS points ($30) for the Shivering isles DLC that I wouldn't
>> consider paying for. Mass Effect, though I loved it on the 360, just
>> because
>> of its storyline, was sorely lacking graphically and by way of using
>> commands and changing items/weapons, that I made the swing to a new rig
>> knowing ME2 is about to arrive. I will definitely getting B:BC2 on the
>> 360,
>> though I bet the PC version smokes it. But I am into B:BC for it MP mode
>> and
>> all of my MP gaming is solely on XBL.
>>
>> If FXIII were on PC, that's where I would go, but as you can tell, I am a
>> very niche PC gamer and more than 95% of the market is not going to
>> operate
>> in favor of PC gaming by my standards, but they will surely hit the
>> consoles..
>>
>>
>>
>> >> Hell, even over the past year or so, the console gaming industry has
>> >> suffered a bit from sales, so I don't think that PC sales for gamers
>> >> are
>> >> going to somehow leap consoles,
>>
>> > I've been very clear and said that I don't think this will happen
>> > either.
>>
>> And it has been like this since the late 80 with NES setting the stage
>> for
>> large scale console gaming sales. I know the Arari 2600, Coleco Vision
>> all
>> had consoles, but nothing on the scale of sales of NES and all other
>> brands
>> that came after.. PC gaming started its decline about then
>
> I don't know if I would take it back that far. PC gaming actually
> expanded quite a bit after that. It *never* beat out console gaming
> until recently with the advent of MMORPGs and the "casual" genre.

I don't know about that. I know PC sales went up for gaming during the early
nineties, but console gaming was smoking it hugely even then. PCs then were
substantially more expensive then they are now, relatively speaking. When
you put "casual" in the frame you do here, well just about everyone in the
world that plays online with free online interfaced games blows all consoles
combined in history away. I am going to be specific and say people who buy
PCs for gaming do not fall in that group and I really don't count them
because they bought those PC for more than a specific reason; gaming. I
could just as well say that. I want to keep it in context to casual console
gamers to PC gamer who actually buy (or even pirate) games for playing on
PC, not someone going to a web site and loading up Bejeweled.