PC Gaming's Future Evolution

Dr. Eggman writes "1up.com is reporting on the GDC panel from last week entitled PC Gaming in an Age of Connected Consoles. Unlike the usual doom and gloom about the 'death' of PC games, this panel suggested that the death is of PC games as we know them - PC gaming will evolve. They believe the future of gaming on the PC lies in strengths like persistent-world environments; not just as MMOs but anything that has elements of a persistent nature such as Battlefield 2142. They go on to describe the PC's greatest edge over consoles: user created content and the supportive game communities built around it. The article also cited the panel's views on the weaknesses inherent in consoles' closed networks and content control."

BF2142?

[Hoi Polloi]

"anything that has elements of a persistent nature such as Battlefield 2142"

Hell, you can still find lots of folks playing BF1942/DC online.

PC Gaming will not disappear

[Sciros]

Besides "persistent game worlds" and community support for games that's unmatched by consoles, PC games have another massive advantage: you can do other stuff at the same time!

I can listen to my Winamp playlist, have AIM/MSN/ICQ chat windows open, be FTP-ing files to my website, and tracking just how bad Mavs are owning Lakers on NBA.com WHILE I'M PLAYING GUILD WARS (and Oblivion in another window :-P). And that's when I'm not also messing with item designs in Photoshop while I'm at it.

When I can do all of that on a console, it will mean that my console is basically a PC. And so technically PC gaming will never die. Some people need something that lets them multitask.

When I want to 100% relax, I play some FF or Zelda or Ninja Gaiden or whatever. Something that is just plain awesome on a big hi-def TV with surround that I can enjoy on a comfy couch rather than hunched over a desk screwing up my posture. But if I want to play something AND do other stuff while I'm at it, PC is the only way to go.

Heh... Riiight...

[Svartalf]

Tell that to the GameShark people... :-)

Go back to the old advantages.

[CastrTroy]

I think they should go back to the things that always made PC games better than console games. That is, allow the players to make their own content, host their own servers, and have more freedom to do what they want within the game. I don't really get why someone would want to pay $12.98 a month to play some game against a bunch of people they don't know. I'd rather just have one of my friends host the server. No idiots on the servers. Also, I loved creating my own content for games like Descent. Make modifying the game easy, and people will modify it. I found Descent 3 almost impossible to create new levels for, and so I created none, but the original descent was dead easy, so I created tons of levels.

Re:One word times two.

[Joe The Dragon]

= paying more for the same things you get on a pc for free

Re:Of course PC gaming will continue to be huge.

[necro2607]

"But to get voice capabilities (as far as I have found so far) on the 360, you need a headset. Now, why would I want to go stick a crappy $100 headset on my skull just so I can talk to a bunch of twelve year olds and not get kicked out of an online game, when I have almost $20k worth of home audio jacked out of my 360?!"

Buddy, you're telling me you have a $20k home theatre setup (and a 65" widescreen display), but you bought the Xbox 360 "Core" (aka "Crippled") system so you could save a few bucks? Give me a break! Apparently you have nearly limitless money to buy an insane home entertainment setup only to hook up the cheapest hardware to it?? Something doesn't add up here.