somebodyspecial :
Alec Mowat :
somebodyspecial :
PC games were not always like this. Troubleshooting is my job (IT treadmill, didn't read my previous post I guess)...LOL. consoles suck and need to die
I'm dreaming of older days when you didn't need 6 months of patches for the game to finally function as sold. Over 30yrs+ gaming, I've seen far better days. For instance, EA used to release games that MAYBE need a single patch or at most two. I guess you just don't get the point or weren't around then. It was
better before we all got online and they couldn't count on fixes easily downloaded. Today WE are their beta testers unfortunately for most companies (not all, but most). I digress...
They were always this way. Ultima Online, World War II online were buggy as heck at launch. Day 1 500MB patch for WWIIO. I can name a dozen games that were broken or had bad cheating and required patches.
But there were fewer factors at the time. Systems were way less secure, graphics were simpler, drivers were simpler. We would get winnuked because our IP's were in the clear.
Now you have people using all the same hardware as 10 years ago, expecting EA games to work, + all the new hardware from the last decade. Letting the user Beta test is the only possible way to beta test at a reasonable rate. 10 million PC's at once.
You're talking online games (at UO is one of the worst ones anyway). You already missed my point (In bold above for you) and you're wrong. Years ago we had a dozen gpu's (I used to sell them all too...LOL - custom pc business owner 8yrs), and there were not this many patches, and we had more API's then (glide, etc). Today we have 2 major gpu vendors (amd/nv - gamers don't really buy Intel for this job) and we are far beyond plug&pray. IT's ok to beta test with me BEFORE you sell it to me for $60 (the right way) it is NOT ok to make me the tester after I've paid for it thinking that part is done (because I saw your open beta test etc..LOL) and your game really needed a few more months at LEAST of polishing. I'm not saying there weren't some crap games made back then too, just that was not the norm (UO scores under 60 at metacritic, and deserved it, the other 57! I never played those junk games or any game under ~70 really
). Now most games are made on a few major engines, which work very well out of the box (unreal, Id engines, unity etc) with the hardware dating back quite a ways due to different dx paths etc. Most ID your card and adjust accordingly today (taking a dx9/10/11 or opengl path maybe even a dx7 path...ROFL, whatever is best for your card/chip). I used to troubleshoot drivers for users, not usually the games themselves, which usually just meant checking their PC for the latest sound/vid drivers. We'll just have to agree to disagree
There was 1 more API, Glide. OpenGL = Open Glide, it's just the open source code.
There were dozens of cards, but only a small handful actually worked and supported the required features. I certainly wouldn't go out and buy the latest Savage 3D card.
There were 3 major vendors by 2001 (ATI, Nvidia, 3DFX), 2 of which still exist. 3DFX was bought out by Nvidia.
Glide was proprietary to 3dFX, which is why they both vanished.
And we do have Mantel now, which brings us back to the same level of API's.
And sure, game prices are a bit excessive. I agree with that point. I don't think it' worth spending $60 on a day 1 release game, that I know will be full of bugs. Don't forget we always get massive discounts on PC games. Thief and Tomb Raider are both in the Humble Bundle for $15 right now. That's incredibly cheap.
The market value on games does not last, only a fool or a rich man pays $60 for a day 1 release game.
But what does this have to do with Nvidia publishing a game?
An Nvidia game won't work with ATI or Intel cards intentionally, won't support mantel, and could have less time for bug checks and more issues. I don't see how this solves anything.
But still. I think you are just suffering from "Back in my day, everything was great and wonderful" syndrome and just choosing to ignore all the similar and worse issues we had. You forget all the garbage titles in the bargain bins, and ignore the hyped up flops like Diakatana that existed.
You only focus on the few titles that were good and say "This is how everything used to be". But that's not true, PC gaming has always been this way. Mechwarrior 2 was a buggy mess, the Titanium versions barely even worked. Freelancer was buggy. The joystick throttle in the Mech3 expansion never worked, and never was patched.
Starcraft and Warcraft II weren't balanced properly for online. I remember Metal Fatigue had a fatal crash that was never patched and the company went under. It was a great game too, but completely unplayable.
PC games are buggy and always will be. This is the test bed for new features and improved graphics. If you take risks, there's bound to be problems. It require a lot of patience and troubleshooting (both from users and developers) to get them running properly. Settings need to be tweaked, .ini files need to be modded. That's why it's a "Gaming Community" and not a "Entitlement to Game".