How the PCGA could help PC gaming

So now what, we have a PCGA that is suppose to help bring back pc gaming. Yet they I havent heard of any problems or solutions to the problems in improving PC gaming. So Ill list a few possible problems and the solutions to them.

1. Quality. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all have quality control of the games from third party publishers and developers. They dont allow just anyone and everyone to make a game to help avoid putting too many sloppy made games that would drive customers awat from buying their consoles. PC gaming have no such quality control. We have seen time and time again of poorly made games with poor control handling and bad optimizing.

2. Exclusives. There isnt a whole lot of exclusives for the PC. Last year highlight for the PC was Crysis. Anyone console gamer who have heard of Crysis would know of one thing, PC. PC gaming need more exclusives that would encourage people buy or build a gaming pc.

3. Education and marketing the gaming PC. Mike Sweeney from Epic games not too long ago commented how poorly Best buy and all the big retail stores in marketing pcs that would play games. PCGA should educate people about the gaming pc. Coming to sites like Gamespot, IGN, Games for Windows website and retail stores in providing fast and quick information about the PC someone should get to play the games they want. Listing various amounts of hardware specs of a low end gaming pc, medium range, high end, and ultra high end pc specs along with the price.

4. Price. Alienware, Dell, HP, FalconNW and other brand name computers market up their pcs way way too high. Someone who want to get a decent computer that would last a few years would have to spend over $3000. This might be a sticker shock for someone who isnt ready on how expensive pc gaming is. PCGA should encourage PC manufactuers in keeping the price down to help grow the PC gaming market. Yeah maybe everyone should build their own computer, but if someone is new at pc gaming then there is no way from them to know how to build a computer. There best source for a computer would be from a prebuilt manufactuer like Dell and HP.

Well, the first thing they should do is kick Epic out. Those guys really aren't doing any positive PR for PC as a gaming platform and they are mostly console developers these days. Only reason I saw for them to stick around was their Unreal Engine, but since that's now mainly for consoles too I don't really understad why they are there.

Second, they could dump GFWL, if they really want to unify PC platform GFWL isn't the way, instead they should be supporting Steam for e.g.

Third, offer to publish and market some smaller PC games. I hardly ever see any ads for PC games, and our biggest tittle this year(this far), SOASE, doesn't even have a publisher outside NA.

Fourth, integrated graphics chips and pre-built PC's need an extreme makeover, so that they could actually run games.

i think the main thing is publicity. uve got the big 3 who constantly promote there consoles from many outlets. in contrast u have individula PC companies batting out conflicting messages and thats only happening in PC gaming and hardware mags. even websites are ignored by these companies. i dont think ive ever seen an add for a GPU or a CPU on a website. when/if we see the PCGA advertise PC gaming on the telly then they will be making some real progress. and all companies involved should be chipping i for an add campaign. to get ppls attention. the PC has alot of strengths but not alot of ppl know about them.

ease of use and improved understanding also must be improved. at the mo PC gaming is just getting very confusing unless ure in the know and keep up. naming conventions on GPUs have gone to pot (especially on nvidias side) and the CPU numbers make absolutely no sense to the guy on the street. if u dont do ure homework then u will either get screwed (a 640MB 8800GTS must surely be better than a 512MB GTS right?...RIGHT???) or u will get someting thats not up to the job. thats nto helping. and before anyone says "just do ure homework"....well yes i could do that. or i could pick up a PS3 with confidence that it will work with all PS3 games. personally i think CPU makers shoud go back to the speed measure scale. with P4s out of the equation, its easy to compare the actual core 2s and quads on a speed level. intel and AMD should also start knocking heads and come to an agred measurement for their respective CPUs. so if i buy a phenom 2.8GHz cpu say....ill know for certain that its as good as a 2.4GHz core 2 quad. it makes determingin my systems performance and understanding system reqs in games that much easier. GPU makers should also start knocking head in this regard also and publishers need to stop messing around with specs: saying that something like a 6600 or 9800 will run something like crysis. they work but the game will run like a pig and wont give a good experience at all. the windows performance index is a good idea in theory but it isnt really that accurate.

another thing id love to see, in terms of ease of use, is a more unified driver system between manufacturers. so i could download drivers from the PCGA and they will work with everything from an 8800GTX to an ati 2400 to even intel integrated graphics. most ppl here would probably know there PC inside out and backwards but an awful lot of ppl dont have a clue whats in there PC and PCs are not very fourth coming with that info. if u dont know where to find it then looking for it is a right pain. same idea for motherboard manufacturers and soundcard manufacturers and printers and so on.

getting more exclusive devs on PC would also be great. the likes of ninty have a 1st party dev team that are to die for but the PC does not have any first party. the great thing about first party is that there games will never go to a competing format. again the PCGA could do alot here. companies could start funding new projects and new teams. if a promising new game was coming up then they could back them and actively promote them on PC. of course they should also have many devs that span the length of PC hardware variety. so theres the high end team like crysis but also a company like pop cap games whos games will run on even the lowest hardware specs. the only thig i wouldnt like to see is intel exclusive games or AMD exclusive games..or games then need an ATI or Nvidia card.....that would be a disaster. if a game is backed, it should be backed by the PCGA...not an individual company.

Establish a baseline for gaming capability. Any pre-built, brand name computer should be able to play any game on at least a passable level. You can't walk into Best Buy and purchase an "Xbox Live Arcade games only" version of the console. Any version of the console you buy is able to play all of the games published for the system. You don't have to know any of the hardware specs to know that either. Not only will this reduce the gap between the gamers and non-gamers, but it would help the game developers by having a industry-wide standard to work with.Bane_v2

This is something I agree with.

There should be a unified or baseline systems capability for games on the PC. Anyone trying to get into PC gaming gets discouraged when they here that they are going to need to upgrade in 6 months. This is what makes consoles so accesible to the general public.

[QUOTE="Bane_v2"]Establish a baseline for gaming capability. Any pre-built, brand name computer should be able to play any game on at least a passable level. You can't walk into Best Buy and purchase an "Xbox Live Arcade games only" version of the console. Any version of the console you buy is able to play all of the games published for the system. You don't have to know any of the hardware specs to know that either. Not only will this reduce the gap between the gamers and non-gamers, but it would help the game developers by having a industry-wide standard to work with.Legend4000

This is something I agree with.

There should be a unified or baseline systems capability for games on the PC. Anyone trying to get into PC gaming gets discouraged when they here that they are going to need to upgrade in 6 months. This is what makes consoles so accesible to the general public.

So what's keeping you from buying a console?

kick epic out, and start advertising "PC Gaming".

Also maybe try come up with a gaming grade for a new PC. So when you go into a shop and buy a PC you know for a fact it will play all the games. And force devs to make sure they support that grade of PC for maybe 4-5 years.

In the ideal world all PCs will be able to play any game, and that means the standard video card can play crysis, but i doubt that will ever happen.

but first and formost get rid of epic since they are p**sing off us pc gamers big time. sick of em.

kick epic out, and start advertising "PC Gaming".

Also maybe try come up with a gaming grade for a new PC. So when you go into a shop and buy a PC you know for a fact it will play all the games. And force devs to make sure they support that grade of PC for maybe 4-5 years.

In the ideal world all PCs will be able to play any game, and that means the standard video card can play crysis, but i doubt that will ever happen.

but first and formost get rid of epic since they are p**sing off us pc gamers big time. sick of em.

crozon

the problem there is that ure undermining what a PC is. someone may as well just go and buy a console. the flexibility and diversity of the hardware is one of the PCs strengths. to lock that all down and say "right....thats PCs for the next 5 years" basically just makes it a games console. ure also hampering devs because they cant just go nuts like they do now and that doesent help at all.

an overall grading system would be nice though. something like the windows performance index but more thourough and complete. there could even be a type of reg number like on a car. so my PC, say, could be a 2007 grade 10 PC (i like my PC :P) where as someone who buys a PC today that has a decent CPU, 1GB of ram and an intel GPU could be a 2008 grade 3 or something. have that as the system requirements then. also....perhaps inform users that, say, a 2007 grade 10 system is the same as a 2008 grade 9 system and so on. so if a game has its reqs as 2010 grade 10 then my PC simply wouldnt be up to the job. as it would be the equivelevent of a 2010 grade 6-7 system.

also i would advise against kicking out supporters. what epic are saying may be a pain but there is an element of truth to it. and if devs start vocally attacking intel about there integrated systems (and other companies that are making a nuisance of themselves in the PC business) then they might do something about it..like make it available only to businesses for example.

1. Quality. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all have quality control of the games from third party publishers and developers. They dont allow just anyone and everyone to make a game to help avoid putting too many sloppy made games that would drive customers awat from buying their consoles. PC gaming have no such quality control. We have seen time and time again of poorly made games with poor control handling and bad optimizing.

Jd1680a

...you cant be serious, have you not seen the crap thats been released? if you have the money to give them, you can release whatever crap you want on tehre system

[QUOTE="Jd1680a"]

1. Quality. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all have quality control of the games from third party publishers and developers. They dont allow just anyone and everyone to make a game to help avoid putting too many sloppy made games that would drive customers awat from buying their consoles. PC gaming have no such quality control. We have seen time and time again of poorly made games with poor control handling and bad optimizing.

warmaster670

...you cant be serious, have you not seen the crap thats been released? if you have the money to give them, you can release whatever crap you want on tehre system

Edit : Never mind bud. I just researched it and discover fps started on home computers back in the early 80s.

[QUOTE="crozon"]

kick epic out, and start advertising "PC Gaming".

Also maybe try come up with a gaming grade for a new PC. So when you go into a shop and buy a PC you know for a fact it will play all the games. And force devs to make sure they support that grade of PC for maybe 4-5 years.

In the ideal world all PCs will be able to play any game, and that means the standard video card can play crysis, but i doubt that will ever happen.

but first and formost get rid of epic since they are p**sing off us pc gamers big time. sick of em.

osan0

the problem there is that ure undermining what a PC is. someone may as well just go and buy a console. the flexibility and diversity of the hardware is one of the PCs strengths. to lock that all down and say "right....thats PCs for the next 5 years" basically just makes it a games console. ure also hampering devs because they cant just go nuts like they do now and that doesent help at all.

an overall grading system would be nice though. something like the windows performance index but more thourough and complete. there could even be a type of reg number like on a car. so my PC, say, could be a 2007 grade 10 PC (i like my PC :P) where as someone who buys a PC today that has a decent CPU, 1GB of ram and an intel GPU could be a 2008 grade 3 or something. have that as the system requirements then. also....perhaps inform users that, say, a 2007 grade 10 system is the same as a 2008 grade 9 system and so on. so if a game has its reqs as 2010 grade 10 then my PC simply wouldnt be up to the job. as it would be the equivelevent of a 2010 grade 6-7 system.

also i would advise against kicking out supporters. what epic are saying may be a pain but there is an element of truth to it. and if devs start vocally attacking intel about there integrated systems (and other companies that are making a nuisance of themselves in the PC business) then they might do something about it..like make it available only to businesses for example.

oh no way was i saying lock the system out. its why i love pc gaming.

but like you said, come up with spec of a PC thats good for gaming and say thats a number. and for the next so many years the developers have to make sure their game runs, even as a minimum, on that spec.

i mean honstly i don't have an issue with figuring out if a game would run on my PC, but i heard some people do :P