bensam123 wrote:It's tougher for other developers because there is a limited number of gamers and Blizzard has all of them?
It isn't any
easier, and that's the point.
You seem to think it is, and that's bizarre. The fact that Blizzard can make tons of cash off a MMO that millions play for 10+ hours a week doesn't mean, as you indicated, that the market is flush for cash for other developers. It means the opposite.
bensam123 wrote:The amount of people that play games and the amount of people in the world are vastly different.
But the amount of people that play the kind of PC games you want and the amount of people who are
willing to play the kind of PC games you want is not.
bensam123 wrote:Wii is an example of how your theory does not carry through. Nintendo didn't aim for the same market that Sony and Microsoft did with the PS3/X360, instead they aimed for a completely different market and they're doing very well.
....by making games completely unlike their competitors.
This exists on the PC too.
You just don't care. Zynga is the analog to the wii. They make simple games that are very different from the FPS/RTS/etc... but yet are WILDLY popular. They tapped into "the amount of people in the world" market that you keep speaking of, but as I said, that's not the kind of PC gaming you're looking for.
But it isn't BF3, there aren't any "ULTRA" or "LOW" settings, and it doesn't fit the paradigm of PC Gaming that you want to see more.
bensam123 wrote:You guys are using way too many absolutes to look at an abstract problem. You could add Minecraft on top of that too. What existing market did Minecraft pull all of it's players from? It is no where close to being a zero-sum game.
...the same one? Everyone I know who plays minecraft, including myself, is/was a RTS/FPS/RPG PC gamer. Yes, this is anecdotal, but the point is that I know LOTS of people who play Farmville/MafiaWars but have never touched that kind of PC gaming.
And minecraft, in fact, has dissuaded me from purchasing other PC games. I would have considered getting Rage, but the reality of it is that when I'm at my desktop PC I'd rather be playing minecraft. There are several games I've overlooked because of it, and I think I've only bought two PC games this year: BF3 and Deus Ex. I can directly blame mineraft for that.
Just as plenty of my other friends who used to be avid old school PC gamers, but now play MMOs, buy considerably less PC games these days.
bensam123 wrote:Spoofe you're being insanely obtuse. This is the very first time I've heard of WoW being a contributing factor to consolization.
I'm with SPOOFE. A lot of those avid old school PC gamers only play WoW on their PCs now, but many of them still have consoles. When they are at their computer, they're playing WoW. When they are at their couch, they play other things.
bensam123 wrote:Valve doesn't need to make episode 3 in order for them to still be profitable on the PC...
Yes, they have Steam. At this point they don't even really need to make games. And they don't. They effectively just publish them. Portal/L4D were built from developers that Valve pulled in, not their original development team.
bensam123 wrote:Where even computers made two years ago can play games like Skyrim on ultra just fine (Q6600 with a 4870 for instance).
That was still a high-end computer two years ago. And the vast majority of people don't buy high-end computers. A lot of them buy laptops, just to start.
There are a lot of people with PCs, yes, but a ridiculous amount of them have a budget CPU with integrated graphics.
The PS3 and Xbox360 have BOTH sold over 50 million units. That's over a 100 million systems.
Do you think there are even 10 million computers with a 4870 graphics card or better?
The industry only sells about 100 million discrete graphics cards a year, and of those, how many do you think are for high-end gaming? 10%? How many in SLI, relegated to older systems, or used exclusively to play WoW?
I mean, even BF3, one of your examples of the possibility of a resurgence in PC gaming sold more copies for the consoles by a factor of EIGHT.
bensam123 wrote:Consolization has taken place and it's people like you that are helping to perpetuate it.
Good grief.
I have all three consoles and a PC that plays BF3 fine. I'm not going to change. Neither is anyone else.
If I'm part of the problem, well, I just don't want your solution.