Tag: video games

Blizzard Keeps PC Gaming Alive

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Everyone Keeps asking the same question ” Is Pc Gaming Dying?”. The answer is hard to explain but i will try and give it to you like it is.
Most games are being created for consoles. consoles have a fixed set video card. Consoles have a fixed set processor. They all have fixed set motherboards. So all compatibility issues are resolved at one time. They never upgrade. They just get replaced. This makes game creator’s job simple. This also Ruins any evolution in gaming and ruins the future of “bigger better faster”. Why? because they all have limitations and if they exceed the limitations then the console makers have to expand and evolve. Then the game makers have to start all over in their game codes and engines that they have been kicking around easily. They don’t want to ruin their “easy money”.
Games get created for the consoles first because that’s where the majority of sales are. Many of these games get “ported” (converted to compatibility) to the Pc. These ports have become sloppy and careless. These ports are becoming further and further from the original release date. If ever at all.

So Far 2 of the top Selling PC games are Blizzard Games. Both of these games have epic sales totals in comparison to the rest. One of these games had the highest sales total for many years. This game was Starcraft. Now with the release of Starcraft II finally about to be released, I can imagine the pc video game sells will be greater than ever. The cinematics should be greater than your highest resolution video and teh game play will be more fun than any game on your wii. You will be required to just have one of the most average computers to play this game. This should provoke more old game makers to come out of the woodworks, motivated to make a fun game. Of course there will be game makers making more extreme graphics, more cpu intensive engines and more Memory utilizing AI. And there will be some that use them all. If  things go right, Then pc game will wander off in it’s own direction from console gaming. The way it used to be. The way it should be. The way it should have been all along.

Manifesto

If game makers kept in mind they are dealing with a different breed of gamers when it comes to pc games, they would understand, we like quests. We like interaction. We like a never ending challenge. We don’t like to beat the game, We like to have a reason to play it again. And when that finally gets old, we go and get the Expansion. We wait for the second version. The new engine, the new story to sit through before we jump online and mash together will a bunch of crazies. We are not the ones who hurry and finish a game so we can tell everyone it’s old news. We play it into the ground and we tell everyone we know how fun it is. We are a word of mouth crowd. We are the heavy metal music of Gaming. We are the underground difference of opinion. We like a challenge, so we play the game again to find someone who can beat us. We have no thumbs so keep your game controllers.

Is pc gaming dead? no. Is pc gaming dying? yes by the lack of resources. Can pc gaming be revived? Oh by many means , yes. They just have to entertain us. We need more Blizzard, We need more Starcraft more Warcraft more Diablo.

Is Pc Gaming Dying

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker1 Comment

I wrote Is Pc Gaming Dead 2 years ago, Now I recap.

I actually got tons of hate-mail from pc gamers. There was a ton of messages from console gamers saying stuff like “go buy a ps3/360 you cheap %%^#). but to get hate mail from pc gamers on a subject that bothers me. To get called a scare monger or fear monger or a poor writer with scare tactics. It threw me for a curve. So for two years I stayed off the topic. Now the consoles are a few years old. No news on a new Xbox or the next playstation. I do feel like I am cheating because this is a bad time to do an assessment. Then again, people are fanboys of stuff for a good long while. I am certain the fanboyism has petered out now that pc gamers have slapped the console kiddies down with “Nice out dated machinery, still calling it next gen?”

Okay lol that was so wrong of me. but it was right. Very right.

Ok to the work at hand.

I took a trip to the local gamestop to see if I could find a fun new game for my pc. I mean I did just upgrade my video card to dual Nvida gts 250 cards toting 1g memory, and I just upgraded my processor from a dual core 2.9g cpu to a tri core 3.0g processor. and I added two gigs memory to my motherboard. So you can see I am ready to game a bit. I get into the game store and look what I found.

Game stop Pc gaming

Pc gaming went from a small shelf, down to one of the outer edges of a small shelf. A small 4 foot shelf end-cap. so I was was shocked. all of the games so old and outdated, I tried to laugh at it but it came out distorted. It was disturbing. I was outraged. I walked to the cashier and said ” What the %^^&%^ is this %^$%^” or something really close. The cashier pointed at the pieces of paper hanging over the side.

It was three pages I think, front to back listed with  hundreds of pc games they have in the back. I was excited. I bought some games from the list and left there happy. Then I got all the way home and realized ‘dude, we are pc gamers, not paper gamers.”   They could just go ahead and remove that whole dang rack and that notebook on the side and just put us a computer there to select our purchase from. i could go for that.

a week or so later, I was shopping in Walmart for some screws or something. It was late and no hardware stores were open. So wally world was all I had. After I finally found something that might work, I walked to the electronics department so I can look at the fading pc games there and sulk at the three shelves of 9.99 games and a few two year old games. The pc games were gone. I mean completely and entirely gone from the spot they have slowly dwindled down to. They were gone. I broke out my cellphone to take a picture. I back up and bumped into some guy. I turned to apoligize. As i turned I winced because of the huge long glass cabinet of console games. My eyes moved from the furthest end. Nintendo stuff had to have had 300 different games. Counting hand helds and stuff. Then the next case xbox. Well over 100 games. Then playstation 200 or so. Then….. wait…. What????? IT’S A HUGE RACK OF PC GAMES AT THE END OF THE LINE. MORE PC GAMES THAN ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Walmart Pc Gaming

The Humble Walmart has more pc games than Gamestop of Spring (on 45 and cypresswood).

so what the heck happened? is pc game dying? Is it on it’s last breath? Is it getting it’s second wind? It looks like pc gaming is coming to the forefront again. Quietly making it’s march forward.

What i am worried about is that most pc gamers are let down enough, they have been buying online only. so they may never even notice that this is going on. and by the time they find out about it, the games will be pulled off the shelf because it was a failed attempt.

Or someone will get the news out as well as they can that pc gaming is not dead or dying, we just have to find it and make sure the guy who sales knows he has what we want and that we will be there for him to profit from.

******Update*****
Well I talked to Gamestop.
Got the answer we needed to hear.
GAMEstop (lol their name says it all.)
Gamestop is reducing their pc games because gamestop tends to sell used games. Pc games, even though they do not get pirated any more or any less than Xbox and Playstation games, they have great deals of protection methods on them that prevent the RE-SELL of Pc Games.
Since GAMEstop sells a lot of used games, and you can’t use cd keys like you used to by “unregistering a cdkey”. Games now come with a limited amount of installs.
The pc gaming industry is killing it’s self

Is pc Gaming Dead?

Posted onAuthorTruXter2 Comments

Over the years I have watched the pc video game section dwindle down to almost nothing.

Ten years ago it was two rows in the electronics section at Wal~mart. Now it is half a row, at the ones that even carry pc. That of course is after they share the rack with software, and some psp accessories. At Game Stop , pc games had a whole wall 4 years ago, and two racks on the floor. Now , pc gaming is one side of a floor display rack.

It’s not even the whole rack. Just one side. It seems that the console companies have made a great push and have nearly removed all of the pc games. You must figure that the most popular operating system, has one of the two dominant consoles, you can see why game makers don’t make pc video games.

now I quote myself from the gtaforum.com  thread.

On the left side of the rack is like two pins to hang psp junk on.
On the back is a bunch of console accessories ( well you know
a handful of the stuff none really buys like game sleeves and
cloth controller warmers) on the right side is new releases mixed
with current popular for 360.

I find it a disgrace.
The display shows a video game that is older than 4 years old.
a video game that is now the stereo type of all pc gamers.

When I walked up to the counter to confirm, the kid asked me
“well what are you looking for?”
I responded ” something I haven’t played before”

Are we being dumbed down?  are we being reduced of our resources?  there could be a whole lot more to it than just ” no one plays games on computers anymore”  google.

*****Updated *****
Piracy is a fact.
But pc gaming piracy being a fact is an exaggeration.
There are not near as many people out there willing to dl a video game for a pc
as there are ones who are willing to dl one for a console. I know a bunch of people
who use me as their computer guy, yet they had someone else crack their xbox
so it will play burned games and directly run iso from an emulated drive.

Come on, what other reason you need a 180 gig hd on a fricken console?????

See console companies throw up this big stink “make games for us to stop piracy”
but really in the end, it’s just a smear campaign to get to the top of selling lists.

Go to any game shop in the usa, you will see that if they have pc games, it is one tiny
rack on the floor. If you are lucky, pc games are both sides of that rack. don’t count
on it though. Ok you can raise your fist in triumph and scream d2d or steam.

But, how many games are available through microslops xboxlive? I know you can sample
but can’t you also buy?
If microslop stopped pc gaming on their o/s platform, it in theory would only solidify the sales
for their console. This of course would allow them to raise their price as high as they want.
Oh wait, they thought it was time already a couple years ago. Would have worked too if not
for the red ring of death.
Now the price is way down where it should have been to begin with. We all know the quality of
consoles suck, but look at who the target market is. people who know nothing of tech and live
by the code of “it’s expensive so it must be good”. When in fact the cooling sucked because of
no actual direct flow of air on the cpu heatsink and hardly any cooling for the video. the video
was next to the power source absorbing any heat that can dissipate from the power source.

See it’s all marketing. sure they can’t just come out and say “gaming on pc sucks, we rule buy our stuff”
it has to be gradual, kinda like a slow brain wash. one commercial shows it being easy, another
commercial shows it being small and pretty, then a mention of “unique” disks for games, it sounds
solid…
It’s just sales. and pc gaming is being pushed off the planet by it. deal with it. understand that
computers will upgrade slower and technology will nearly run at a trickle.
why? because we aren’t going to be here to say “hey the game would run smoother if you just blah blah”
Our kids will be dumbed down.
reduced to three buttons to mash and graphics only as good as they are now.
*****Updated *****

Have You Seen jPod?

Posted onAuthorTruXter2 Comments

Have you seen jPod yet?

It’s yet, another very good Canadian comedy from our beloved favorite director Mike Clattenburg, the guy known for the viral indy series Trailer Park Boys, based on the Douglas Coupland novel of the same name. No, it does not have Robb Wells or John Paul Tremblay. It is not in any way a remake of the Internet hit that we all know and love.

It is on the other hand something that stands a chance of being one. See, there was a glitch with the Y2k bug that threw a handful of game designers at E.A. into a basement area of their game development building. It’s okay, though. This crew of three guys, two girls and their obsessive leader boss are pretty much the biggest cut-ups in the company.

The new boss comes in and decides to overhaul the game that the jPod crew has been working on for some time and turning it into a few things it should never have been. The new boss has no frickin’ taste whatsoever. It’s a blood and guts game, but Steve, the new boss, wants turtles and role model women incorporated into the game. Not against women, just you can not make that big of a change that far into developement.

One guy is a hacker kid.

One guy has screwed up parents. His mother wants him to bury a body and hide the remnants of an illegal plant she has growing back home. I think his dad used to be “Mr. Seaver” from Growing Pains. His wife thinks he is gay and losing his mind.

One girl is an ex-fatty turned hotty with low self-esteem.

One is a hot Asian female with a strong attitude and a mean dad.

And then there is “Cowboy,” the resident Gigolo. He is cool.

TruXter

Owner and writer of :
iworkwithtech.com and iworkwithpeople.com