Article 1 The Future of PC Gaming

This is a summary from the article ‘Is PC gaming dead? Three E3 editors tackle the topic--each provides his own perspective. See if you agree.’

Taken from-

http://www.pcworld.com/article/229976/e3_2011_the_future_of_pc_gaming.html and relates to an area of technology which interests me, which is gaming on the pc.

This article is a collection of small articles from three editors of PC world magazine who give their opinions on the future of pc gaming. This was based upon their perception of events at 3E which is the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The first contributor was Alex Wawro who discussed how pc gaming is at the beginning of a rebirth because of the limitation of consoles in that they cannot be upgraded he believes that pc’s are going to be that higher quality games will only be available on pc. His expectation is that because Sony and Microsoft show no intention of releasing the next generation of consoles and instead seem to be coming up with new ways to play your favourite games on console (e.g. kinect) that pc gaming is here to stay. He believes that consoles can offer convenience but the pc version of games will be far more impressive in every way.

The second contributor was Nate Ralph who was talking about how during the E3 convention he noticed that he didn’t see much of a presence from games which are exclusively for the pc; he said that the only pc games on the floor were the ones which were being released for both the pc and the consoles. Nate believes that this is not because a shortcoming of the pc as a gaming medium but more to do with accessibility and the ease of use that consoles provide. This is referring to the troubleshooting which inevitably happens after a games release, developers know it is far easier to find a solution for a console as it has a standard design whereas pc’s can be have vastly different hardware and software configurations.  He also believes that the bigger audiences that console games have has a large effect upon developers. But on the other hand console developers will never have a modding community on a scale as the pc.

The third editor was Patrick Miller like Nate agreed that the pc had a poor representation at the press conference. He seems to believe that no one could be bothered to give the pc any floor time and that doesn’t look well for the coming year for the diehard pc gamers out there. What with franchises like Dues Ex which were blockbuster pc games a few years ok designing their new games primarily with console gamers in mind it is no wonder that the floor of E3 was not that pc friendly. He seemed to believe that this was based upon the amount of money that companies like Microsoft can make from xbox gamers by charging them for all expensive hardware as well as having to pay for downloadable content.

In my opinion I believe that the PC has always been at the forefront of gaming and I have confidence that it always will be. The PC has always offered the most impressive graphics, the cheapest games and the most engrossing games. The death of the PC as a gaming platform has been predicted before and it still hasn’t happened yet. I would agree with the contributors of these articles as I don’t see me hanging up my mouse and keyboard for a joystick in the foreseeable future. Alex discusses how games are higher quality on the PC than consoles, I have some experience with this myself as I have played one or two games and both, and  from the moment I turned on the console I was struck at how poor the visual quality was compared to my own PC. 

I have had my troubles with glitches and bugs that exist on PC games and I have spent hours looking through forums for advice on how to fix the problem. But it is a price I will gladly pay to play such fantastic games as the Witcher 2 and have access to the modding community who in their own free time design modifications which breed new life into old games. An interesting point about the Witcher 2 the downloadable content is free on PC but you are charged for it on Xbox which supports what Patrick was saying. I am really disappointed that greed takes precedence in the gaming world, if a game is successful on pc the will make every subsequent title for both pc and console just so they can make more money. I have been burned by this before with sequels for good challenging games been dumbed down for the consoles such as with Dragon Age 2 and Dues Ex 3. 

And I will always bear in mind buying more ram and a new graphics card cost a lot less than a new Xbox or Playstation.