An interesing way of looking at things 

I had a chat (registration required, and yes I’ve heard every argument against that) with Markus ‘Notch’ Persson for my day job recently, and was rather taken with one particular observation he made about the current state of PC gaming. To crudely paraphrase: the big publishers pissing off to console because they thought the PC wasn’t as lucrative as platform as they’d like actually turned out to be a good thing.

With all the sound and fury of big, PC-specific, graphically intensive games gone, there was space for something new – something better, I’d argue – to come through. Leading on from that, I’d like to thank the graphics card companies for making such a right royal mess of the PC. I’m not being sarcastic. They did us a favour.
 
Here’s the quote I’m on about:

The games industry started moving away from PC and into console a lot. While there are a few hardcore PC studios around, most of it seems to be focused on the console versions. They only really port the PC versions. The indie market really could blossom because people started realising that we’re actually doing interesting ideas in the indie games. Something like in the early 90s, games that were made by id Software or Epic – small developer teams who actually took chances because they didn’t have huge projects. So the indie scene could blossom; there are a lot of indie games on console too and they’re selling really well as well. But I think it’s one result of the sort of abandonment of PC gaming.

The other thing leading on from that, which we touched on very slightlly in the interview, was that perhaps the ‘abandonment’ was caused by gamers feeling to consoles to escape the tyranny of expensive graphics card upgrades, which is a fascinating idea: the vainglorious pursuit of ever more power and speed led to a perhaps inevitable downfall. I’ve blogged (in my biz voice) a little more on that here, but I’d like to be a little more emotive with you trusted souls.

Admittedly, my experience of 2001-2007 was coloured by working on PC Format and thus being required to keep up with the pixel-pushing Joneses, but the need for new graphics cards seemed constant. A steady flow of graphically-intensive, milestone titles gave NVIDIA and ATI cue to keep on pumping out ever-faster cards – which in turn led to a weird sort of terror amongst PC gamers both existent and potential. Every year or so, we’d need to splash out again, usually in the form of hundreds of pounds/dollars. It was exhausting. Worse, it was bewildering.

The furiously complicated naming conventions the graphics card companies used/use is, as far as I’m concerned, unforgivable, as was the sheer range of different boards available at any one time. Numbers, letters, ‘ultras’ and ‘pros’. Once I kept up, doggedly. Now I don’t care enough to try to. Not only did that overblown marketing vampirism make selecting which was the best card at a given pricepoint incredibly hard work for casual upgraders, it meant sub-par boards were put out with names incredibly similar to decent ones. Just a GS or GT at the end could make all the difference, and you could too easily end up buying an absolute lemon by mistake. What was the purpose? To trap us into endless upgrade cycles from fear and confusion alone? Or was the PC simply such an unregulated Wild West (something that otherwise serves the platform well) that the graphics card companies didn’t really know what they were doing either?

Now, it’s all change. Gaming-capable PCs are much cheaper, and few new games require a high-end machine – either because they’re ports of console titles or they’re lo-fi, marvellously interesting indie fare. While I miss being able to decisively say that the PC is the most technologically progressive platform, I wouldn’t swap this age for that one. RPS circa 2004 would probably have been wall-to-wall FPSes. Tedious. Now, with the big publishers off pouring everything into their Call of War Honor on console and the graphics tech companies seeing a dramatic decline in card sales because there’s not much that demands an expensive upgrade, PC gaming is wall-to-wall wondrous unpredictability, left to free-thinkers unbound by technological and budgetary restrictions – which means I can decisively say that the PC is most creatively interesting platform.

I haven’t upgraded my graphics card for going on three years. I don’t expect to have to any time soon, unless I’m planning on picking up a ludicrously big, high-res monitor. I don’t see another Crysis on the horizon*. And I’m glad.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/11/29/thanks-for-screwing-the-pc-over/

i love minecraft

keep it up Notch. I want rivers now. 

on topic. the major problem with PC gaming is its too expensive and the most popular genre: FPS are now primarily console based now.

In order for PC gaming to change is there needs to be an Set Graphics card at an set period. And that set graphic's card remains the standard for at least 2-3 years. and all future PC games must run standard on that graphics card. But there can be higher end cards to run games on high. 

Thats what needs to happen. The card must be clearly pointed out to the gamers as the card to get, so it removes the confusion and makes gaming more cost effective. 

yea notch is awesome 

as for having a set graphics card that kinda whats happening now I mean a 8800 GT will still run any PC game out now it's not like you have to have the latest graphics card just to play games, just if you want to run everything smoth at high settings and resolutions.But one of the biggest advantages of PC gaming has been the rapid increase in tech to fix everything to one point pretty much just makes it the same as a console. 

I agree with the sentiments of this article. The smaller devs have been able to thrive in the current PC environment. Titles like Darwinia, Mount & Blade, Amnesia: The Dark Decent and The Witcher show this.

With digital distribution due to mediocre stock in brick n' mortar retailers, these small devs have also been able to find a fantastic market for their creativity and gain greater rewards for their hard work.

Yeah, my 320Mb 8800GTS is still running most games on Medium to High settings at slightly above 720 res, with 2-4xAA, HDR On, Dynamic shadows and 8-16xAF.

So I take it the developers have finally realised that the sweet spot to target isn't the $300-600 high end enthusiast but the $60-200 mainstream gamer level. Thats fine by me, they should have been doing that anyway but at least they've finally come to their senses.

well the smaller devs have because most can't afford to push tech that much and the big publishers just don't care so they don't put the effort in lol, wich means that yea the sweet spot has settled at the mid teir cards.

It will be interesting to see if this changes the way 2 GPU companies develop cards and they stop trying to push high end tech and focus more on consumer friendly levels, I mean ATI for the last couple have kinda been doing that focusing on smaller efficient dies and launching their new generation with mid range cards as well as high end (HD57**) instead of what Nvidia do which is push out the biggest possible die for the enthusiasts first (GTX480/470) and pushing out high mid range cards later (460/450) this seems to have payed off for ATI. So maybe they will both focus more on getting the latest tech into the hands of the majority as soon as possible in the future I hope so lol.

I like this article, honestly the whole graphic card crap is one of the main reasons why ive done my gaming primarily on consoles. Its just so much simpler. I might play the PC more with the changing times though

i think you hit the nail on the head... it always felt out of place the monies i had to drop down...

i think its being exacerbated  by the move to laptops as primary computers and a slower replace cycle on them....

id love to have civ 5 but it will have to wait till i have a new laptop... dont think im going to replace my ancient tower

Well said and more people need to say it. Good Games don't come from fantastic tech. They come from small developers who take risks or share creative ideas. I keep on saying again and again for those who listen. PC gaming is not collapsing. It's maturing. PC market has already shifted away from the idea that the graphical push rate is the size of their dick or boobs.