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PC gaming will never be taken seriously until it fixes the bs
- Thread starter Scrabble
- Start date
Have you tried turning it off and back on again, sir?
human onion
Banned
The cost of great graphics and performance is both time and money. If you think it's not worth it, then don't go for it. Or get a mid-tier PC, that has plenty of advantages as well.
the point that most people never seem to grasp.
The main reason I went to PC was because I enjoyed setting my own controls. On consoles you're forced to whatever the developer says it is. That can either be one universal option or two options (that are inflated to four because of the lefty switch) and that's pretty much it.
I'll gladly deal with "headaches" like editing ini files and driver updates if it means I have full customization of how I want to play. If there's something that annoys me in a game, chances are with a little editing I can remove it. I haven't played a modern FPS on PC but there's probably a way to remove the jelly from your screen when you get shot.
lmao I thought I was the only one who did this. whenever I watch people stream on twitch, they usually just rock the presets with a few small changes. I spent like an hour doing my first crosshair
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I like this post.
derExperte
Member
I almost can understand that. I mean the one thing I don't like about
MoGamesXNA
Unconfirmed Member
.
Fair enough
I dont know a single person in my life who has ever bought a console or handheld game that flat out did not work, or required any kind of tinkering, or crashed constantly. And ive been playing consoles since 89. The closest was blowing into NES cartridges to make them work. I am sure we can find a person who bought a game and the cartridge/disc was faulty in some way, but that does not happen often, ive never seen it or heard about it. The ratio between a console game having issues and a PC game having issues is staggering in my experience.
Look i am not here to tell you that consoles are better, because they are not, if the best circumstances on a PC are going up against the best circumstances on a console. The PC wins, there is no point in even arguing against that.
At its best, PC gaming is the best. How can it not be? 1080p, 60fps, tons of options, ability to play on your TV, use any controller as long as the game supports it (and even if it does not through Xpadder and all sorts of programs).
At its worst, PC gaming is also the worst. How can it not be? When games flat out do not work and require you tinker with all sorts of issues.
I dont care about the car analogies or "work", this is a product meant for entertainment. And when it fails at that with various issues, it fails harder than any other platform out there. Its more frustrating and bothersome than anything else. There is no arguing against people spending money on something that does not work/stops working/has issues. Not everyone wants to "work on their rig", these are games we are talking about, supposed entertainment products
Consoles have never been the best, especially not in recent time, but they have also never been the worst either.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
I'm no stranger to PC game issues, but I would argue that things like that are the exception these days rather than the norm. A lot of stuff is just plug and play now. But there will never be a one size fits all solution, because the problem is due to all the different PC configurations. People that care more about convenience than choice or flexibility can try a standard Steam box configuration, but they might be better served by consoles anyway.
Also, that's begging the question, because it assumes that PC gaming isn't being taken seriously now because of those issues. But PC PC gaming is a massive business already. The problems aren't so great that they scared everyone away.
I think a lot of people get caught up on this though. Some people seam to forget that Indies frequently sell better on the PC platform regardless of OS. Also that some of these guys wouldn't even get a chance to get their game out the door if it wasn't for an open platform. It's not all about the bleeding edge.
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
You know what to do
that always used to do the trick
format c: /y
that always used to do the trick
LordBaztion
Member
Those issues sound like a pain. For me was enough to not go back to PC gaming after I spent like 3 hours looking for drivers to be able to play Dota 2 beta.
Ah... but that's the beauty of it. PC's are so overwhelming at first because they give you the opportunity to mess with everything. That means that you have a lot of opportunities to fix problems by tweaking settings, but also a lot more opportunities to mess things up yourself if you don't quite know what you're doing. The best you can do is just keep an older, secondary rig that you can use to check whether changing something has the desired effect.
Oh, and backups. Always keep a backup at hand in case you can't reverse whatever went wrong.
Oh, and backups. Always keep a backup at hand in case you can't reverse whatever went wrong.
I stopped taking this thread seriously as soon as you said you've been PC gaming for only 3 years.
Try creating a custom boot.ini and fiddling around with IRQ ports just to get your sound or CD-ROM working properly. This stuff is so easy now my little brother has been using a PC as his primary platform since he was 12.
He has autism. (yes I am serious)
I am 11 years older than him so I don't live at home and am not there to support him with his PC, and he has NEVER run into a problem he couldn't figure out for himself.
Try creating a custom boot.ini and fiddling around with IRQ ports just to get your sound or CD-ROM working properly. This stuff is so easy now my little brother has been using a PC as his primary platform since he was 12.
He has autism. (yes I am serious)
I am 11 years older than him so I don't live at home and am not there to support him with his PC, and he has NEVER run into a problem he couldn't figure out for himself.
You don't really have to go to indies for that, the fact that the most popular games on the platform are MOBAs and MMOs should be pretty telling of that. Those things will run on anything.
Who are you people?
I understand your frustration..even as a long time PC gamer like me...it sometimes takes it's toll on me when i am not in the mood to thinker. I think about those new to the PC platform gaming environment and feel utterly SAD for them!! Because they are in for one hellish ride. You really need to have a firm grip on troubleshooting to be able to enjoy PC gaming.
I agree..for the most part as long as i am in the mood for it...i LOVE tinkering with ini files,etc..even troubleshooting leads to me furthering optimizing a game..it's one of those things you either love it or hate it.
Thats total nonsense - there will still be the same problems with steam machine boxes lol..its just a regular PC but its a "pre-built" PC which can be had now ...steam machine is NOT going to do much for the PC gaming environment besides that steam OS might catch on..but the odds of it doing so are still slim imho. Everyone keeps waving this stupid steam machine flag like its going to be the Holy Grail or something lol...my goodness!! I been a PC gamer for over 20 years...been there done that and this is not the first time I've seen such things
I think the last time I actually had to "tinker" to get a game to work was in 2011 at the release of The Witcher 2. The game had some issues with AMD drivers. After a quick Google search and changing a single driver setting, the game was working perfectly.
2 years without a single issue. Hell, I even seem to have avoid all of the problems people had with Rome 2 at launch.
2 years without a single issue. Hell, I even seem to have avoid all of the problems people had with Rome 2 at launch.
I knew someone would give a smart ass reply like this. Do you feel better now. I am aware of this, that is one of two possible solutions, however i wanted to download 8.1 drivers anyway.
Also lmao, you are still proving my point either way, there are issues you need to look up and/or solve yourself.
dark_prinny
Banned
Convenience is the real master race. I'm glad people enjoy things they like but I don't like bullshit. Good night and good luck.
Yeah, I haven't kept up much with the MMO scene lately, some of that stuff looks really heavy lately (like Guild Wars 2). I was mostly referring to WoW, since I think I've played that thing on so much different hardware by now.
Those gigantic PVP wars in GW2 look frightening.
Funny cause the mess console games create and force you to exist with is equally bullshit as much as most issues people bitch about pc games have.
You just happen to prefer one set of problems to the other. Don't need luck just a little bit of awareness and paitence.
derExperte
Member
Oh you do. As long as it's your own.
Let's not get too ridiculous now. You should just buy an iphone if that's the case.
I've been a PC gamer since I started gaming. Honestly, I don't have that many problems regularly as the OP describes, especially not in the last 7-8 years. On the other hand, if I do happen to tweak a config file or mess around with drivers or whatever, its so easy and second nature I hardly consider it a problem anyway. Never does that eat up hours of my time, more like a few minutes.
I can appreciate the OPs sentiment, and its good that consoles exist which typically don't have those issues. Options are good. Not every platform has to be or should be for everyone. I'm happy with PC gaming staying as flexible as it is, being taken seriously is not a concern for me at all.
I can appreciate the OPs sentiment, and its good that consoles exist which typically don't have those issues. Options are good. Not every platform has to be or should be for everyone. I'm happy with PC gaming staying as flexible as it is, being taken seriously is not a concern for me at all.
After I updated my WiiU two days ago, it now takes over ten minutes to go from the WiiU startup logo to the menu and I can't do anything. If I try to play a game it just goes to black and hangs. Now I have to send the piece of shit back to Nintendo and wait several weeks.
"Plug and Play" my ass.
"Plug and Play" my ass.
Anecdotes, how do they work?
Been PC gaming for 20-odd years now, and honestly minus the odd hardware related BSOD or overbearing AV product, I've never had any major problems since Windows XP was released.
It sounds like the OP has installed some tweaking utilities (rivatuner etc.) and misconfigured something.
PC gaming is not 'hard' - there hasn't been an issue I've come across that can't fix with common sense, Google or a mix of the two. Hardware is child's play to assemble these days and most drivers install automatically. The only thing I update on a regular basis would be graphics drivers, and those install over top of the old ones and don't even require a reboot anymore.
It sounds like the OP has installed some tweaking utilities (rivatuner etc.) and misconfigured something.
PC gaming is not 'hard' - there hasn't been an issue I've come across that can't fix with common sense, Google or a mix of the two. Hardware is child's play to assemble these days and most drivers install automatically. The only thing I update on a regular basis would be graphics drivers, and those install over top of the old ones and don't even require a reboot anymore.
Lol what are you talking about? The last five years in PC gaming I rarely have to tinker in order to play pc games. Most of it just works fine out of the box. It just more that games are unfinished and patches are needed for optimization. But I almost never have to deal with .ini or .dll files. If you have so many problems, I think you may do something wrong.
Aarglefarg
Member
It doesn't reach 'not taking PC gaming seriously' levels but the current reliance PC gaming has on Windows really undercuts it for me. There is promise for change with that, with a growing focus on development for Linux.
No you will not see many of those, don't exaggerate. However, you will find a lot of people playing games straight out of the box on PC these days without having to tinker all day long unless it's their choice to do so. And with that said, it is actually quite fun to do optional "modding". ..But of course Steamworks has automated that process as well now..
So I don't know what to tell you. I just made a clean Windows 8.1 install a couple of weeks ago, and my Steam games seems to be working straight out of the box. I installed no drivers manually, my 360 controller included. So.. Yes I guess, I and many others really do not have any issues. Although of course I buy proper quality standard components and piece together my own computers. When it comes to ready-built PCs (Compaq was a NIGHTMARE back in the days..) it might not always be as straight forward, of course. But that's really not a "PC Gaming" issue.
I'm baffled with the amount of "lol I love tinkering!" replies.
Really? You love when you have to google for solutions when a game crashes or just simply refuses to work? Like when you feel like playing a game and your PC goes "NOT TODAY." and instead of playing the game you're trying to fix issues. Yeah, it's such a blast >.>
Customization and freedom are both great and not what the topic's about. Sure, shit going wrong is the price we pay for these things and if for you it's a bargain than fair enough.
But unless when you click a game icon you secretly hope that shit's gonna break and you'll get to "tinker" instead of playing then nope, you don't love the things OP hates.
Really? You love when you have to google for solutions when a game crashes or just simply refuses to work? Like when you feel like playing a game and your PC goes "NOT TODAY." and instead of playing the game you're trying to fix issues. Yeah, it's such a blast >.>
Customization and freedom are both great and not what the topic's about. Sure, shit going wrong is the price we pay for these things and if for you it's a bargain than fair enough.
But unless when you click a game icon you secretly hope that shit's gonna break and you'll get to "tinker" instead of playing then nope, you don't love the things OP hates.
Convenience is great for casual enjoyment.
Customization and power is great for enthusiasts.
How blessed we are to have platforms which cater to all tastes.
Yep.
In the back of my mind I always wonder whether people are running into this many problems don't know about proper PC maintenance. Keeping your computer virus free, reformatting once a year, updating drivers on a regular basis. These things aren't very difficult to do and I have never run into problems running a game.
The biggest issue I've ever had was with Arkham Asylum, but that was purely a GFWL issue. Took a little tinkering with the 'My Documents' location and it worked itself out.
And now, GFWL is dead
The biggest issue I've ever had was with Arkham Asylum, but that was purely a GFWL issue. Took a little tinkering with the 'My Documents' location and it worked itself out.
And now, GFWL is dead
No, you aren't.
I rarely run into any problems with my PCs. My PC boots faster, games load faster, I get higher FPS, and they look better than any console out there. I don't spend endless hours tweaking (unless I want to) settings, installing drivers, or crashing either. I set the shit the first time the game runs and I don't have to ever mess with it again.
The funny part is, half of the complaints about PC gaming are things that are completely unnecessary for people to do. If you don't like editing .ini files, tweaking settings, etc. just don't do it. Consoles don't even give you the option, just load up the PC game and it will detect settings and run it...it will still look better than the console equivalent without playing with settings or editing files, those are optional.
Consoles are easier for people to half-ass their way into. You buy a system, ignore it until a game you want to play comes out, and then you turn it on, put disk in and then it automatically updates everything that you would otherwise be too lazy to do on your own. You get what you put in with the PC, a half-assed effort will get you half-assed results. If you keep up to date on hardware and software, the vast majority of problems go away on their own. It's not a hassle for people who put a little bit of time and money into it, if you aren't one of those people, buy a console. I love both, they both have their advantages, but I prefer my PC. It's certainly not the struggle that people in this thread are making it out to be and if it that much of a struggle for someone they have no business playing on a PC anyway because they are clearly doing it wrong.
Whatever.
If your computer is really a "dual-SLI beast" no one is going to tell you to upgrade. The fact that you call it that and yet are too embarrassed to tell people what cards they are pretty much tells me it's NOT a beast and you know it.
I too have been a PC gamer for only around 3 years now and before that I was strictly a console gamer. I have indeed encountered many of the problems you listed. I am not trying to say these problems dont exist but to present them as regular occuring, in my experience is a huge misrepresentation overall; I would say it is far less than 1 in 10 games in general that have these sorts of problems. Looking at my Steam list, out of the 400 games in my Steam library, I have encountered this kind of problem with MAYBE a dozen or so games, give or take a few.
I am not constantly tinkering. And I play ALOT of games. It is maybe once a month or less I encounter some problem or something that needs extensive configuting/updating.
Moreover, there has yet to be a problem I havent found a solution to, usually in only a couple of minutes of googling. There have only been a couple of occasions that have taken longer to find a fix.
If there is a problem usually a combination of google, Steam forums, and youtube gets me a fix relatively quickly.
They are intrinsically linked though. Customization and freedom of choice are what make it impossible to guarantee that all PC games run perfectly on all PC HW/SW configurations, all the time.
Been PC gaming for 20 years, it's not as hard as people make out it is. Yes, you occasionally have to update a driver, force vsync or edit an .ini file but I think the results more than outweigh the effort.
Also, at least I know what resolution and frame rate my BF4 and CoD: Ghosts (and all other games) are going to run at....
Also, at least I know what resolution and frame rate my BF4 and CoD: Ghosts (and all other games) are going to run at....
No sane person will ever tell you to upgrade. Honestly you can go into this generation with just about any mid-range card from the last several years.
Chasing maximum settings is, frankly, insane.
Yeah, maybe that's why I wrote this exact thing right in the next sentence of my post.
dr_rus
Member
Yeah. Can't even remember the last time I've had to do anything at all to run a game. To tweak it to my tastes - yes, constantly. To simply run it - well, I guess I was having some problems running Doom 2 on a 1 MB RAM machine, had to write a separate autoexec.bat for this... This was in 1994. After that there were some problems with DRMed games in Vista but that's more or less all.
SwiftDeath
Member
Honestly I think my bad experience was likely due to the games I tried running at first
The original Crysis and Kotor
Crysis I got up and running after half an hour or so and was very good
It was Kotor on Windows 7, gave so much damn hassle that it was easier for me to install a dual boot with XP and run it from there (older game obviously)
Suffice to say that is not the average game install and optimization etc.
I've been meaning to build a new gaming pc and try again but haven't gotten around to it
Yes, but if you acknowledge that this thread is about issues introduced due to them, why do you think the thread should not also be about them?
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
The configuration related problems won't go away unless the hardware is no longer customizable. Ignoring reality won't lead to a better discussion.