How eSports Are Saving The PC Industry

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Although I don't think the PC industry ever needed "saving," this is still a pretty good article for anyone that thinks the PC is dying.

PC gaming hardware produced about $21.5 billion, or, roughly double that of the console hardware market. Quite contrary to the worn, 90s-era narrative of PC gaming’s imminent doom, ceding the gaming market to the console for all eternity, the exact opposite has been happening.
 
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Am I the only person that just doesn't find MOBA's to be entertaining? I keep trying to get into them but it just feels like there is something missing. *shrugs*
 
Darunion said:
Am I the only person that just doesn't find MOBA's to be entertaining? I keep trying to get into them but it just feels like there is something missing. *shrugs*
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No, you're not the only one. I've tried repeatedly to play them, and the only one I could get into for more than a few hours without being bored to death was heroes of the storm, but even that just got "bleh" pretty quick after a couple of weeks.
 
I don't know about saving, but certainly MOBA games have brought esports viewing to a more mainstream segment of the population with millions of viewers worldwide. Wasn't there an article saying worldwide RIOT viewership is higher than major league baseball?
 
I'm like pretty sure that business purchases of computers and related services are doing a lot more than games are for the personal computer market.
 
Merc1138 said:
No, you're not the only one. I've tried repeatedly to play them, and the only one I could get into for more than a few hours without being bored to death was heroes of the storm, but even that just got "bleh" pretty quick after a couple of weeks.
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That's funny considering HotS is the most basic one of all.
 
Darunion said:
Am I the only person that just doesn't find MOBA's to be entertaining? I keep trying to get into them but it just feels like there is something missing. *shrugs*
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Nope, me neither. Either playing or watching. I just don't get it. Being 31, maybe I'm just too old. I've just become jaded over any competitive multiplayer over the years, anyway. The Counter-strike cheating scandal was the final nail in the coffin for me.
 
NickJames said:
That's funny considering HotS is the most basic one of all.
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I'm aware(since people gladly repeat that). The real difference though? Maps. Yeah, I get why for an esport it makes sense to use the same basic map layout, but I don't play games as an esport.

All a moba really seems to be, is RTS micromanagement and the nuances of it on the same map repeatedly with a little bit of rock paper scissors. And that's fine for some people I guess. I'd never play an RTS on only one map, I don't like the idea of paying a moba on only one map(like I said, still got bored with HotS anyway). I haven't had the time to put into a game to be "competitive" for well over a decade, and if I don't find a game to be entertaining then it's just not worth my time. If it can't hold my interest to play it a couple hours a week without becoming a repetitive slog, I'd rather just play something else.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
I'm like pretty sure that business purchases of computers and related services are doing a lot more than games are for the personal computer market.
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Holy shit. You and I agree on something!

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CreepyUncleGoogle said:
I'm like pretty sure that business purchases of computers and related services are doing a lot more than games are for the personal computer market.
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hmm, you might be right!

*looks around to see if anyone heard him say that*
 
I spent a whole weekend at a LAN trying to appreciate DOTA 2, but no way...

something about the none interaction of your mouse clicks and the onscreen action, and the randomness and lack of impact on your direct keyboard/mouse skills...

FPS ftw
 
JMke said:
I spent a whole weekend at a LAN trying to appreciate DOTA 2, but no way...

something about the none interaction of your mouse clicks and the onscreen action, and the randomness and lack of impact on your direct keyboard/mouse skills...

FPS ftw
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What does that even mean? DOTA 2 is all about teamwork, strategy, critical thinking and timing. But I love DOTA the way most people like football, soccer, basketball. Great to watch, not so much to play.
 
Darunion said:
Am I the only person that just doesn't find MOBA's to be entertaining? I keep trying to get into them but it just feels like there is something missing. *shrugs*
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You must not be a 22yr old Korean then.
 
Armenius said:
Nope, me neither. Either playing or watching. I just don't get it. Being 31, maybe I'm just too old. I've just become jaded over any competitive multiplayer over the years, anyway. The Counter-strike cheating scandal was the final nail in the coffin for me.
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It isn't an age thing, it is just a personal taste thing. I'm 36 and highly enjoy league of legends, but I don't enjoy any other moba. I've tried and tried and I cannot get into dota or hots for anything.

That said I still overwhelmingly prefer my rts and rpgs over everything else. Starcraft, final fantasy and assassins creed are my addictions.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
It isn't an age thing, it is just a personal taste thing. I'm 36 and highly enjoy league of legends, but I don't enjoy any other moba. I've tried and tried and I cannot get into dota or hots for anything.

That said I still overwhelmingly prefer my rts and rpgs over everything else. Starcraft, final fantasy and assassins creed are my addictions.
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Speaking of RTS, what games do you play relating to that genre? Its looked increasingly bone dry over the past few years, and I've been struggling to find some decent games. It surprises me, the lack of RTS games. The early to mid 00s were great, but hasn't been the same since.
 
I would have to agree that it's helped a lot. Even though I just turned 30, I love to watch cs go pro matches. While upgrading my keyboard and mouse, I looked at what a lot of pros were using. But it doesn't matter tbh. Esports has started to become mainstream, and that in itself will promote hardware sales. And when you have f2p games marketed towards kids, it will only bring pc in to market even more. Imagine how many of those kids will get pc's and steam machines this Christmas because of this.
 
MrTryfe said:
Speaking of RTS, what games do you play relating to that genre? Its looked increasingly bone dry over the past few years, and I've been struggling to find some decent games. It surprises me, the lack of RTS games. The early to mid 00s were great, but hasn't been the same since.
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It's because it's hard to market a F2P RTS. With MOBAs you can stuff them full of microtransactions and make tons of revenue off it. On the plus side, we have the next Starcraft expansion next month.
 
MrTryfe said:
Speaking of RTS, what games do you play relating to that genre? Its looked increasingly bone dry over the past few years, and I've been struggling to find some decent games. It surprises me, the lack of RTS games. The early to mid 00s were great, but hasn't been the same since.
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It's been a freaking deserted genre for years unfortunately. It's pretty much Starcraft or turn based like civilisation. It makes me sad really.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
I'm like pretty sure that business purchases of computers and related services are doing a lot more than games are for the personal computer market.
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Different market, and I believe here they are talking about home PC. In the article they discussed stuff like GPU, which is not relevant to enterprise market. The discussions about "death of PC" are centered around consumers PC, not enterprise.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
It's been a freaking deserted genre for years unfortunately. It's pretty much Starcraft or turn based like civilisation. It makes me sad really.
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Even EA seems to have finally finished shitting on CnC after the abomination that was 4. The only big name in the game is blizzard and it's taken them forever to finish up SC2. There's pretty much nothing to encourage investment into the development of a big title for the genre so all we have is a smattering of small indie games with no player base for MP.
 
Merc1138 said:
Even EA seems to have finally finished shitting on CnC after the abomination that was 4. The only big name in the game is blizzard and it's taken them forever to finish up SC2. There's pretty much nothing to encourage investment into the development of a big title for the genre so all we have is a smattering of small indie games with no player base for MP.
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I was bummed when that new CnC based on Frostbite was cancelled, since the graphics and gameplay actually looked good.
 
Hornet said:
Different market, and I believe here they are talking about home PC. In the article they discussed stuff like GPU, which is not relevant to enterprise market. The discussions about "death of PC" are centered around consumers PC, not enterprise.
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Which is kind of pointless. Because the PC market is quite a bit larger than simply consumer PCs. That, and with their bulk-buying power, enterprise pushes PC development quite a bit more than you'd believe.

A lot of the benefits we currently see hitting the consumer space are actually rollovers from enterprise ventures.
 
Chas said:
Freaky eh?
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Yeah, just like you and Dar, I'm really creeped out too. There must be something wrong with my secret trolling powers today.

Hornet said:
Different market, and I believe here they are talking about home PC. In the article they discussed stuff like GPU, which is not relevant to enterprise market. The discussions about "death of PC" are centered around consumers PC, not enterprise.
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Well, a lot of business machines ship with dGPUs. HP Probooks, Dell Latitudes/Optiplexes, Lenovo ThinkPads...that kinda junk all has a dGPU option and quite a few business purchases include dedicated graphics options...moreso I'd say than consumer purchases since the largest share of consumer grade computers are the super cost-sensitive models that are priced as low as possible and only have whatever Intel or AMD includes on the CPU die.
 
The demise of PCs and PCs gaming was always based on sales numbers and not revenue numbers ... the mobile market has outsold the PC market for several years in terms of raw numbers but the companies who make the sales in PCs earn 10 times the revenue of their mobile counterparts ... that gives them a lot of purchasing and R&D power

Also, PC gaming has far more incremental upgrade opportunities than consoles or mobile ... a modern console will sell about 100-125 million units over its life (about a decade) but outside of a few controllers or voice hardware there isn't much to upgrade ... mobile sells even more but your upgrades are headsets and covers primarily ... the installed user base of consumer PCs is probably in the 3 billion+ range now (with enterprise you might double that or triple it) and there are tons of incremental upgrades for gamers and non-gamers alike (headsets, keyboards, mice, monitors, GPUs, soundcards, NICs, hard drives/SSDs, etc) ... even if you assume that only 1% of all PC users play games (probably very conservative) you would still have a user base of gamers that is 2-3X the console market and equivalent to the more serious mobile users ... PCs and PC gaming will not go anywhere until some major technology shift allows mobile solutions to be equivalent to performance PCs
 
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