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PC gamers strike back
THIS is in reply to Haider Javed’s article in the previous issue of Sci-tech World. I too am a gamer and have been playing videogames for as long as I can remember but I shall not become tastelessly showy and bore you by going into the nittygritty of my gaming history. Without further ado I am going afield, i.e. why am I an ardent proponent of PC games?
The PC as we all know was never made solely for video games so it will be logical to mention any unintended hardware advantages that it may have for its games. The keyboard and mouse were never made for FPSs (First-Person Shooters) but a FPS experience without the presence of both is analogous to a person dependent on crutches for locomotion. For the same reason the genre that is RTS (Real-Time Strategy) is like a needle in a haystack in the console world.
On the other hand it would be slightly unfair to mention any hardware pluses that the rather ‘sole-purpose’ consoles have for their games over the ‘multi-purpose’ machine that is the PC. By the same reasoning any criticism of the hardware limitations of the consoles is wholly justified.
The driving power of console games and thus the main design focus of their developers is to have candy-eye graphics. This unfortunately makes up the major part of the game and to the amateur eye (ref. to console gamers) mitigates the effects of any blemishes present in the game. The result is another scion of the multitude of ultra-simplistic transient futilities that have gone console previously.
Console gamers always exultantly point towards the huge sales that console games are making— more like how little children do(oh who am I kidding, most consolers are little striplings) (FYI- the Accord’s making more sales than the Benz-but does that prove anything?)
The Japanese hold considerable sway in the console world and PC gamers find it very hard to relate to the overly ludicrous “Anime-like” protagonists and NPCs that they bring into their games. Not to mention the sickly-sentimental love scenes that are thrown in as well. Bah!
Many developers hint at the lackluster capabilities of consoles such as the Xbox. E.g. Lion Head’s Guru Peter Molyneux stated that Big Blue Box had to cut down on the game-world span in their game-FABLE due to limited processor power of the XBOX. Todd Hollenshead, who is CEO ID Software, mentioned that Xbox’s technology is causing problems for the company in making Doom3 as tightly tuned as it is on the PC, which to the utter dismay of Xboxers has indefinitely extended its release date.
There is ample evidence to suggest that consolers want ‘simplified’ games e.g. ‘Deus Ex: Invisible War’ and ‘Legacy of Kain: Defiance’ to name a few. Although present on both platforms they were primarily console shifts that flopped on the PC as they lacked the quintessential PC essence of their mighty prequels. To suit to the needs of the feeble-minded consolers their provocative ness was lessened and they were deigned to the design level of many mainstream yet ‘wanting’ console games out there.
Cross-genres and other new genres are conceived on the PC. This is because developers are least restricted on the PC and thus venture into the realm of innovation by making risky design decisions. In addition the over all budget is much lower on the PC which reduces any threat of bankruptcy. An example of a cross-genre PC game is Deus Ex which is one of the first few FPS-RPGs ever released in videogame history. This Gamespy “Game of the year 2000” is one of those rare games in which among other things, the way you put up a converse greatly affects the course of the game.
What primarily drives PC games is the combination of both ‘intentional’ and ‘strategic’ game play. Secondly you tend to have a greater control over the player character’s actions and you enjoy a higher degree of freedom in the game world. NPCs(Non-Player Characters) are more orthogonally differentiated; which in layman terms means-different NPCs have accentuating functions so that they contribute to the overall challenging and thought-provoking aspect of the game.
As for the need to constantly upgrade the PC and the steep prices of computer hardware, again the PC cannot be blamed for this because it was never designed with the sole purpose of playing video games. A cheap long- term solution can be to implement the SMP(Symmetric Multi Processing) technique so that no single processor is shared between the running software in the background and the game it self—-only then will the PC’s processor be working like a console.
Two more genres that have hoisted the PC’s name high above the consoles are the GOD(a game in which u control the lives of virtual NPC characters) games and MMO(Massively Multiplayer Online) games. Among GOD games Sid Meier’s Civilization III is quite prominent- you take the role of your self as a mouse-clicking overseer who governs everything from military might to industrial development and economy. Time Magazine calls Civilization III the “the greatest computer strategy game of all time.”
Among MMORPGs(Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) which have thrived on the PC platform, the Ultima Online series has been on the horizon since quite a while now. These online RPGs can go on for months on end in which you (just like in a traditional RPG) develop your character with the experience that you gain; only this time around you are playing both with and against human players.
No matter what the future has in store for PC games, the master pieces which already exist (i.e. the leviathan breathing world that is Gothic, the surrogate virtual life that is Deus Ex, the epic adventure that is Warcraft and the awe-ridden D&D experience that is Neverwinter Nights), will all continue to outstrip their console counterparts for years to come. Consolers we have parried your moves. I believe the suitable phrase is well met!
As Richard Garriot founder of Origin Systems and pioneer of MMP (massively multiplayer) RPG said, “The wonderful thing about an MMP is that you don’t have to go alone. You can actually go with your friends, which everyone has always wanted to do.”
— The writer is a freelance contributor
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