PC gaming is WAY too fragmented nowadays. Especially with Google trying to enter

The thing about PC is that you are not seperated from people who choose to use a different platform.

If I have Steam, and someone else has Xfire I can go and download Xfire for free, and have it run right alongside Steam.

Most of what you listed are just online retailers. Impulse, GoG, GamersGate, and Direct2Drive online could just be an analogy to Gamestop, Bestbuy, and a local Mom & Pop store.

Google is entering the market as far as I can tell as just an online social gaming network. You saw they're investing in Zynga who made Farmville? That's all it seems they're doing. It's not like I'm going to be going on Google to play Battlefield just as right now I don't go on Facebook to play Battlefield. I would not consider that some sort of threat to unified PC gaming.

Gaikai and OnLive are just essentially closed platforms within an open one. As an analogy it'd be just like having an Xbox 360 in my PC. Only difference is if you were to play with someone online in one of these programs you could play with someone who doesn't use them, so it's not a fragmentation at all.

The only valid point you have is GFWL which is MS trying to have it's own Steam program. It's not doing so well as far as I can tell considering lots of devs are jumping over to Steam. I think I use it for one game out of the 85 or so I have on my PC, and that's Batman: Arkham Asylum (which I bought off Steam, and play through Steam 8))

I think it's more your misconceptions on how it all works, TC. PC gamers have the tools necessary to run any of these programs, and the choice to use any social networking devices to stay in touch with their friends. There's not a time when I'm playing a game wishing I could talk to my friends because OMG all these programs are free for me to use, and I can use them while playing games? NO WAY!!!!

PC gamers like to talk about "PC gaming" like as if it is one large, unified platform where everything flows smoothly. This may have been slightly true in the 90's, but nowadays it is broken up into too many competing services.

PandaBear86

Says who? I've been PC gaming since the 80's and I've never heard anyone claim it was homogeneous. In fact, as PC gamers we rather pride ourselves on the fact that it isn't. It was this way in the 80's, it was this way in the 90's and it's the same now.

You mustn't have been around in the 90's if you don't remember Kali vs TEN vs WON.

Please, just stop. :roll:

And that is the beauty of the platform... no singular group controls it and does ridiculous things to limit users.

and no PC does not lead in FPS's most of which are multiplats so its a big giant moot point. It has a few exclusives here and there but its not a massive difference. And my "counting crumbs" is things that don't bother you bother me, like the "improvements" you keep speaking of to me aren't that much to me. This is all about preference, I like consoles because of the standardization and universal nature of everything onto 1 account.

IDK what you've been listening to on live but I've never noticed a big difference between ventrilo, the only thing i did pick up on were cheap headsets on PC where people sounded terrible and everyone had different volume settings so some people you could barely hear. Matchmaking is a ranked listing, but there are custom games and less popular games aren't non existent. And even if PC has live too, its just another addition to the tons of things you can use on PC which is why i don't like PC. I like my 1 account for everything on my 360. Works better imosavagetwinkie

My cheap Plantronics headset is leagues ahead of my 360 one, and with these applications you can adjust every individual users voice volume as you desire; louder or quiter.

If you cannot get basic facts right, like volume adjustment, then your argument is beyond skewed and you undermine what point you have.

Yet Matchmaking doesn't work nearly as well as it should; it being the dominant server creating type for games (due to the brilliance of people deciding matchmaking is the leveling system for rank, next to custom games in many titles) you have a noticeable fracture and division, alienating people in less popular titles. This isn't a good thing, at least with a standardised server browsers I can see the amount of other users playing a game, and what modes there are for selection, rather than the 'lucky dip' mentaility.

And having options is a bad thing? I have had my Xfire account since 2005, and my Steam account since 2003; my XBL account was made when I purchased my 360, and same in respect to my PSN account to my PS3.

The only new service accounts I have been making this generation are for my consoles.

Standardisation can be good and has it's perks, however it is far from a holy grail and does hold back many options, more importantly player choice.

Its funny how you write off a few games as generic when they are the ones being followed by "me too" games because they sell well. the only games i can think of on PC that have had communites for so long are like counter strike and tf2, they probably last so long since it takes valve 10 years to make a sequal so everyone is just waiting. Oh and blizzard too,savagetwinkie

I'm not writing the off. You didn't get my point. They are generic, so when users get tired they can always get their fix in newer games (either similiar games or new instalments of the same IPs). It's a whole different matter when you have weird and niche games. There you don't have dozens of alternatives laying in front of you. If you want to play this type of game you have no choice but to stick to this particular title. And there are dozens, if not hundreds of old games that still have active communities. You don't need to have 50 thousands players for community to be active, you know. Plenty of older titles have communities of merely hundreds (sometimes even less) that concentrate around couple servers and continue to play their beloved games when the general population of gamers have moved on to diffrent products.

My ps2 and snes still work fine, not much of a difference except consoles just work, and pc's need work arounds and compatibility modes.savagetwinkie

I'm sorry, but they do not work. You can't buy new console that plays games from those platforms anymore. And don't give me the "you can still buy PS2 and SNES" nonsense, because I could easily counter it with ability to buy older PC too. At least you can make those oldiers work on new PCs instead of goinfg to ebay to look for old hardware. Plus those older pc games still can be played online, can't say that for vast majority of PS2 titles and all SNES games (actualy the only way to play games from those platforms online is on PC nowadays). So no, consoles at most offer merely a fraction of games longetivity that PCs do.

Important was a bad choice of words, prominent is what i meant, PC gaming was huge and everything big happend there but its not like that any more, even the mod scene doesn't seem as popular any more unless you really dig for something good. And indie games? they are on consoles now too... And a lot of the block buster titles have been aimed at consoles while PC gets a lot of low budget stuff, thats fairly rough around the edges.

savagetwinkie

Choose vs merged community

PC vs console

[QUOTE="Espada12"]

My thoughts? Choice >>>>>>>>>> Closed box where they can charge you for whatever they want.

PandaBear86

Skype + Raptr and im sorted... what more do I need?

My Raptr combines my Xboxlive/windows live, my PSN, my Steam, My Xfire and even facebook.

I can speak and know exactly what everyones doing all of the time without my consoles even on, and i can talk to them from my PC (granted only text to consoles).

This thread is pretty dumb though tbh.

Why is this topic still open? It's based off some really flawed ideology that doesn't even hold true.

Ehhhhh.... what Live did to people :P

Oh this thread makes me want to faceplam... like REALLY in reality do it.

It is quite clear that there are 1 or 2 people on the tread speaking against PC gaming, and it is dead clear that they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about... Fine Fine...

P2P vs Dedicated. P2P is ALWAYS goverened by the company, if they shut down thier main servers, no P2p exists... its final... Dedicated servers can be owned, and often is, by gamers, they can NOT be shut down by any company, only the main server, but then you can stillbe able toconnect to most dedicated servers via 3rd party programs... It is not rocket science, I doubt the anti PC trolls even grasps the concept, and no P2P is NOT better then dedicated servers, since you have no control over the ping you get... ever.

as for Console games vs. PC games selling... well, how many buys Halo 2 nowadays? and How many buys CS:S? paints a picture for you? if not you might want to scearch the web for clues, since it has been stated time and time again by websites, analysts and you name it, that Console games always sells far the most just at launch, and then trail off, where PC games rarely skyrocket like console games, but keeps selling, they are 2 WAY different userbases.

and the fragmentation of communities? oh please, most of what TC was listing, were retailers, just like buying a game at Gamestop, or Wallmart, it does not change the game, it is still quite possible to communicate even if the other players are not using the way you purchace games, heck most games have thier own VIOP, so no it is not a problem... None whatsoever.

And a kicker is, that near all modern Console games, can be shut off permenantly, and youd be able to do absolutely nothing, if the Publisher or Firm that ownes the console does not want you to play? they will turn it off, fine and dandy that you can play sp games, but the last gen of Consoles are NOT like the NES or SNES, since most files of your game are tied to thier network. So where on a PC you might have to do work to make a 15 year old game to run? yeah On console it is a lost cause from the getgo. And yet I know that Those few will then turn around and use the "who wants to play a 15 year old game?" well they themselves brought up the "I can still play my old consoles"

I can respect and even understand people that does not want a load of apps and programs running to do thier gaming, but the logic some people use, is not based in reality at ALL, just what sounded right in thier own heads, like standing in one spot of this planet, and claiming how every other part of the world is, without even having been there.