Video Games vs. Computer Games (Sound and Vision)

I found this article rather interesting.

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/blog/2011/07/22/video-games-vs-computer-games

Thoughts?

***still having problems linking directly. Apologies.

He has a point, PC games are definitely more complex and more detailed than console games.

Sounds like restating common knowledge here at sw in his words.

He brings up some fair points. I don't think he is right with all of his assertions, or rather, I don't think he explains them well enough.

For example, his assertion that WoW couldn't be on consoles due to a restrictive control scheme. While he's mostly right, there is an option to include KB/M controls for the consoles, though, a developer would still try to shoehorn controller specific controls to hit that "wide market" (i.e. every console has a controller).

Pretty much the same rant we always see. Ignoring the ideals of game design and only going "PC games are more complex hurrdurr"

There's nothing overtly complex about RTS or old school shooters. I was playing them when I was 10 and decimating the high level AI. And the classic rebuttal of "But you're not playing against real people" is a farce. Every game requires a completely different and more elaborate strategy against real people. From Street Fighter to Halo, I've been owned online by people who simply know the game better than me. Even in SSBB, I was rountinely owned by a certain player who could exploit Ike's invincibility frames like there was no tomorrow. HL2, frequently cited as the hallmark FPS and the poster child of PC FPS, is incredibly simple. My brother was on his way to beating the game alone last year, and he's only 13. Same deal with Portal - the puzzles are designed to require high brain function. Most of them can be solved in a matter of minutes and by the end of the game it's pretty much all about pattern recognition - a trait that even monkeys have.

Pretty much all games follow the same paradigm - easy to learn, hard to master. There are a few outliers on either side, but the vast majority of games have been this way.

As for WoW, There's isn't anything in that game that needs to be complex which as I have stated in the path. WoW complexity is not only easily quantifiable - its a game of numbers and repetition at it's best. If we're defining complexity in such a way, then Pokemon beats out a BF3, Halo, and ton of other games. The fact that needs to make use of nearly the majority of the keyboard should be a demerit; not something to be emulated.

I absolutely disagree with everything he said really. First of all computer games and video games = the same thing for the most part. Only an elitist would split the two completely change the meanings and try to state one is better than the other.

Healths packs were removed from shooters because the slowed down the pace of games. Whats better doing a shoot out and wait a little to regen or do a shoot out and have to back track through a whole level just to find a health pack. The intensity is still there and regen will not save you from being killed in MP or SP.

Consoles aren't holding PC back in any department besides maybe graphics and even then that's reaching. The gaming industry would still be in its current state even if consoles did not exist. The one thing he did get right is the mainstream thing and how the industry caters to them. That's the real problem not consoles. There will always be a mainstream no matter what and they will demand easier and less complex games.

I haven't read it yet but if it's just more of this talk of how PC games are more complex and deep than coloses games it's bs. All games are simple in nature, you may need more time to get used to them, more repetition is some cases but in the end anyone can beat them. Not to mention a lot of this complex is in most times utterly unneeeded. A great exemple is System Shock 2... a lot of the stuff in that game just distracted you from what made it great.
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I played a lot of games, a lot of "casual" ones, a lot of "complex" ones. In the end, the ones that I used my brain the most, that made me think and think again even when I wasn't played the games were Bioware games (and other similar RPGs), especially Mass Effect 1 and 2. Not in combat, not in a super challenge final boss, but when complex and deep (and now this worlds can be properly used) decisions were throw at me. For exemple? The Rachini Queen in Mass Effect, saving her or killing her is a question that can generate more discussion than any gameplay mechanics in any game.
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ps: multiplayer games in played in hige level is another thing. It's more similar to a sport than to a videogame.

I dont know about most people, but i was exposed to keyboards and typing while I was growing up and in school.

Don't know why people are so afraid of a keyboard and/or mouse. I wish more stuff supported it. It is god awful trying to send someone a message or do ANYTHING having to select letters with a controller.

Him calling video games "dumb" is just silly. Another elitist remark to add to the pile.

Good read, but nothing new.