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The Number One Reason (Besides Piracy) That PC Gaming is Dying.

December 22, 2010 in Blog comments 9

Once at the forefront of video gaming, the PC in recent years has slipped from the cutting edge to teetering near the edge. New England Gamer looks at one gamer's recent experiences with the platform to find some insight as to why.

Gather round dear friends for I shall reveal unto you a secret most extraordinary! For in this late hour I have discovered the secret that has befuddled gamers and fueled countless debates across the wily plains of the internet. I know (hold your breath folks) why PC gaming is on the decline: it’s a pain the ass.
stewie32887 via newenggamer.com »
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  • 0
    HarryMMGN Dec 23, 10
    PC gaming is so far from dying it's not even funny.
    • 0
      stewie32887 Dec 23, 10
      Yeah, after some consideration I agreed that the title of the article was a bit too inflammatory. I changed it at the site "The Number One Problem With PC Gaming (After Piracy)."

      Never let it be said I'm inflexxible.
      • 0
        HarryMMGN Dec 23, 10
        That's a bit more fair!

        While I don't entirely agree with everything you've said, I definitely see where you're coming from. That title is a lot more suitable now
        • 1
          stewie32887 Dec 23, 10
          One of the many advantages of online publication over print. Modification after the fact is possible.

          Cheers! Oh and here's one of these right back at you.
  • 1
    DarkLordAkuma Dec 23, 10
    This article confuses me a bit.

    For starters PC Gaming isn't dieing, the market is growing so that's false, i don't think the number of PC gamers has dropped in fact i think its growing. I think you get this impression because the console gaming market is growing faster.

    Secondly, problems with the DLC because you weren't on the internet... how did you download it in the first place, or did you download it then unplug your internet ? The majority of PC users will be connected to the internet 24/7 so a problem with the DLC not working because the user is offline isn't really much of a problem, especially as it seems to be one of the ways to combat piracy that actually works.

    Thirdly,

    quote
    I’m a paying customer and you’re telling me that if I’m not logged into your servers I can’t play a game that doesn’t actually require the internet in the slightest? That you essentially don’t trust me to play the game legally? Granted, piracy has decimated PC gaming, but does anyone really think requiring an internet connection will help?
    That is correct, they don't trust us. Can you blame them? Seriously can you? you even say that piracy has decimated PC gaming so of course they don't trust us. It also seems that requiring an internet connection to authenticate with one of their servers works, or at least would make sense to work. They've tried other ways of doing it but they all failed, so they are giving this a go, makes sense to me.
    • 0
      vortis Dec 23, 10
      That's kind of a double-edged sword there and unfortunately I'm torn about it.

      Sometimes the net does go out *shakes fist angrily at Comcast* and when it does happen it means that gamers (PC gamers) have to play something offline. I've ran into a few probs with some games that require logins and authentication (many of the Battlefield games) which make it a pain to enjoy even offline. At the same time, though, it does thwart piracy in a big way. So...yeah...double edged sword.
    • 0
      stewie32887 Dec 23, 10
      I will grant you that publishers really have no reason to trust us, after how cheap many gamers have proven themselves to be. I'm not a pirate, I always purchase games when possible (I use the occasional ROM when no English version exists) but I still feel ashamed when I read some of the statistics for piracy. 20 illegal copies of Crysis for every one sold legally. Unbelievable.

      We use a USB Wi-Fi connector to connect to the net when we need it. We downloaded the DLC, disconnected from the net and then used our laptops to find the solutions and contact tech support.

      We do it this partially because we had our PC built custom and it was cheaper to go without built in Wi-Fi. Additionally, we were having issues with anti-virus software interfering with the games we were playing, so we opted to remove it and avoid the internet. As we don't play much multiplayer, it didn't seem much of a sacrifice.
  • 0
    Dark Arcanine Dec 24, 10
    I haven't got any recent PC games (I really want to find my Empire Earth II now I have this swish laptop, haha), and I've never dabbled with any sort of DLC, but even I can see that's a downright frustrating system.

    What virus protection have you been using that's been giving you hassle? I use avast! and it's great (and so do my friends, they both do a lot of online gaming, one of them might as well marry Steam).
    • 0
      stewie32887 Dec 25, 10
      It was Norton. I will have to try Avast! Thanks for the advice.

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