Some people are predicting the downfall of PC gaming (again) so in the spirit of most forums I thought I would make a thread in the vain hope that some dev would read it one day and do something. On second thoughts that should probably be marketing droid rather than dev but hey.
Most of my points are ages old and courtesy of me wasting a good bit of my life to learn electronics/computers do not frustrate me that much but I am going for general people that lack the time and desire to go the same path as myself.
1) Reduce prices: I know PC games are already more or less the cheapest in the games world but films and the like seem to be doing OK despite costing similar amounts. It is known as disposable income for a reason and there is already considerable evidence games are up there with films and music as entertainment devices.
2) Reduce requirements: by all means make a version that requires next years machines to run but as more than a few people have multiple PCs these days you can safely bet that they are either older or "just to go on the internet machines" that would happily run it if you just toned it down a bit. It has already reached the stage where people wait to play the games or construct elaborate tools (see stuff like oldblivion) to play. I would like to see less dependence on microsoft but we can work on that one later and as more than a few of your customers still use it and the "direct" stuff actually works you can quite safely hang on for a while.
3) Leave in co-op mode: owing to points in 2) many people have networked machines (whether they know it or not) and when I pick up a game that has it on a console but lacks it on the PC I get more than a bit annoyed (especially when the PC version arrives later). Also you mean to say I can have a multiplayer game on a connection that is slower than most peoples networks were 15 years ago with 60 odd people playing a large level yet to have a friend or three playing alongside me in more or less the same room with a decent network is not going to happen?
4) Mods: do not leave time between launch and mod tools and try and make them good. While Quake, Unreal, Half life, Elder Scrolls series and so on represent good forays into their respective genres it takes a mightily brave or uninformed person to argue their success owes little to user made modifications. Likewise try to cater to all levels of modder eventually (my opinion says go for the middle ground at first).
5) Installation: I am all for simple stuff but allow me to rip it apart if I want when my machine inevitably does not conform to the "simple" method.
6) coupled with 1) reduce copying incentive. Customers depend on technical types regardless and if you have pissed on them with system killing or generally frustrating copy "protection" you are not likely to win friends or business.
7) Speak to the censors: if everyone else can buy a government group then so can you.
Most of my points are ages old and courtesy of me wasting a good bit of my life to learn electronics/computers do not frustrate me that much but I am going for general people that lack the time and desire to go the same path as myself.
1) Reduce prices: I know PC games are already more or less the cheapest in the games world but films and the like seem to be doing OK despite costing similar amounts. It is known as disposable income for a reason and there is already considerable evidence games are up there with films and music as entertainment devices.
2) Reduce requirements: by all means make a version that requires next years machines to run but as more than a few people have multiple PCs these days you can safely bet that they are either older or "just to go on the internet machines" that would happily run it if you just toned it down a bit. It has already reached the stage where people wait to play the games or construct elaborate tools (see stuff like oldblivion) to play. I would like to see less dependence on microsoft but we can work on that one later and as more than a few of your customers still use it and the "direct" stuff actually works you can quite safely hang on for a while.
3) Leave in co-op mode: owing to points in 2) many people have networked machines (whether they know it or not) and when I pick up a game that has it on a console but lacks it on the PC I get more than a bit annoyed (especially when the PC version arrives later). Also you mean to say I can have a multiplayer game on a connection that is slower than most peoples networks were 15 years ago with 60 odd people playing a large level yet to have a friend or three playing alongside me in more or less the same room with a decent network is not going to happen?
4) Mods: do not leave time between launch and mod tools and try and make them good. While Quake, Unreal, Half life, Elder Scrolls series and so on represent good forays into their respective genres it takes a mightily brave or uninformed person to argue their success owes little to user made modifications. Likewise try to cater to all levels of modder eventually (my opinion says go for the middle ground at first).
5) Installation: I am all for simple stuff but allow me to rip it apart if I want when my machine inevitably does not conform to the "simple" method.
6) coupled with 1) reduce copying incentive. Customers depend on technical types regardless and if you have pissed on them with system killing or generally frustrating copy "protection" you are not likely to win friends or business.
7) Speak to the censors: if everyone else can buy a government group then so can you.
