How PC Gamers Can Be Heard

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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Ars Technica has an article about ways the disillusioned PC gamer can make his or her opinion heard. No, pirating the game and signing anonymous online petitions don’t work. Oddly enough, civil discussions via official channels and following through with your threat not to buy the game are viable options. Imagine that.

PC gamers make a lot of noise online, but the amount of concrete action pales in comparison. By spending less time organizing public boycotts and more time simply buying good games, by choosing not to fly the Jolly Roger and changing the discussion to things publishers can do to earn your money, by organizing in a real way and criticizing productively, you can make things better for PC gaming.
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Amen. I have not bought MW2 and I will not to until dedicated support is added.

If IW wants to continue thumbing their nose at me, so be it. I'll never buy an IW game again. There are so many good games out there, I could never play them all. In the last week I've purchased Borderlands, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age: Origins, Far Cry 2, Osmos, Plants Vs Zombies, Ghostbusters, and Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic. All PC games. It's going to take me half a year to play through all of these.

I still use my 360 for Forza 3 and other games that are better on consoles, but I'm not letting go of the PC for my competitive FPS.

IW: I'm an angry PC gamer and I hope you don't continue to ignore me.
 
I always say that, online petitions dont do jack %99 of the time, people post on forums and such and usually in 12 year old cursing language and companies likely just laugh it off.

Wonder if someone took the time to write a letter in the mail and send it how much more of a impact or positive response it would get vs the petition with people saying nothing.

Then on top of that it doesn't help that most of the people who boycott something (MW2) in the end buy it anyways...
 
Why didn't they release this after the L4D2 boycott? Least then alot of people could've just pointed to this when some of the MW2 boycotters started getting all uppity.

Hell if both sides didn't question each other's decisions so damned much maybe things wouldn't get so heated.
 
I haven't bought MW2 and am not interested in it, they watered it down heavily and tried to cram it down our throats, as an informed PC gamer, I vote with my wallet, I look more at user reviews than I do "professional" reviews because a person who actually has to put money out for a game is a more credible source of information than a "reviewer" who has to answer to the advertisers.

MW2 PC is a perfect example of "reviewers" being for sale. I love Jeff Gerstmann and his Giant Bomb review of it for PC, what a joke.

If you watch his video, be prepared for hilarious moments as he goes by it point by point.
 
well, here we go, now we can finalyl say PC gaming isnt dieing to all the belivers!

he told us. People are making money on the platform, and Stude points out that only 40 percent of revenue from PC Games would equal the entirety of software revenue from one of the major consoles."
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Online petitions are actually usually harmful. The reason is it seems that a large number of people who sign those sort of things don't really intend on following through with boycotting. That is, in fact, why they sign. They want to get something but aren't willing to stick to their guns so they figure this is the next best thing. Well it's not, in fact it tells publishers to not listen to you, because you are just a whiner who will buy anything put before you anyhow, even though you bitch about it.

As with everything, the real answer is to vote with your dollars. If a game is good, buy that shit. If it isn't, don't. Economic Darwinism works just fine. Publishers will either make games that are good and sell, or they'll go broke and others will do it.

Also ignore the dumb publishers that whine about PC gaming as though they don't make any money on it. They are just the flip side of the whiny gamers that sign the petitions. They full and well know they make plenty of money, they wouldn't bother to keep putting games out for it if they didn't.

More or less ignore all the politics bullshit and just play games. Buy the games you like, and everything will work out.
 
MrGuvernment said:
well, here we go, now we can finalyl say PC gaming isnt dieing to all the belivers!
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All that means is that if you consider the PC as a platform and compare it FAIRLY to consoles, on a CONSOLE BY CONSOLE, a PLATFORM BY PLATFORM basis, PC Gaming wins out.

Its not a new fact, its just a fact that gets twisted, Consoles as a whole may make more money than the PC Platform, but the PC Platform is VERY completive revenue wise when compared on a platform to platform basis(PC vs X-Box 360 vs PS3 instead of PC vs Consoles)
 
Chilly said:
All that means is that if you consider the PC as a platform and compare it FAIRLY to consoles, on a CONSOLE BY CONSOLE, a PLATFORM BY PLATFORM basis, PC Gaming wins out.
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Or at the very least is still very competitive

Silly, no edit.
 
plus there's the whole "no licensing fees" thing, don't forget that part
 
Sadly ... I did buy MW2 and I have yet to play a smooth online match.

Had they had dedicated servers ... no doubt I would have been able to find a smooth game.

Most of my friends were smart and did not purchase the game, the 10+ or so guys I know that bought it have openly regretted buying it.

To be fair, my closest friend did enjoy the very short single player side of the game.

I really wish EA and some of the others would stop making PC games. Stop trying to scam PC users, families, kids out of cash for extras, releasing ports, buggy games, etc.

It's been a very long time since I've been able to buy a game that was priced right, worked and was fun. Those days seem far and few inbetween.
 
I did buy l4d2.

i like valve. with prices for that game in the $30s and the amount of new stuff they added its worth it.

I just hope they rerelease the l4d 1 maps for it. that would be good free DLC.

MW2 on the other hand, I have not bought. i would have, but no dedicated servers is a deal breaker.
 
I laughed out lout at one guy shitting on MW2's playtime in singleplayer because he did it on the easiest difficulty, where you can finish the Favela by just running. If you want a 10+ hours linear action FPS..

If you find one, let me know.
 
SixFootDuo said:
I really wish EA and some of the others would stop making PC games. Stop trying to scam PC users, families, kids out of cash for extras, releasing ports, buggy games, etc.
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Careful what you wish for, since PC games are going the way of the Dodo.
 
EA has actually been doing a pretty killer job on their PC division last year or two. They also were losing money....
 
The whole "Console vs PC" market argument never makes sense. There are plenty of PC games released over the last few years that sold quite well. I think a lot of gamers usually have a PC and a console anymore. If they can't play a game on one, they play it on the other, right?
 
uclajd said:
Careful what you wish for, since PC games are going the way of the Dodo.
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You think that developers are going to ignore the largest gaming platform on Earth? If EA left someone would take their place.

At least EA is now making an effort to not suck and they got rid of the really nasty copy protection.
 
If not buying the title worked, wouldn't we have seen Infinity Ward clamoring all over their forums by now, apologizing to the PC community, promising changes? Surely selling less than 10% volume on the PC than Xbox360 is enough "not buying it", isn't it?

If "reasonable discussion" helped, it would be at least POSSIBLE to get ahold of a Gearbox developer for comment on any one of the issues the Borderlands community is concerned about.

"Voting with your wallet" is great, of course, and it's not as though I'm going to pay for a title I think is crap, but a lot of the time it makes no difference. Don't believe me? Tell you what; Starting today, you stop eating McDonalds hamburgers, and get back to me when they change the recipe for you.

The fact is that some developers will actually involve themselves directly with their customers and their intended audience, listen to them, and try to craft a truly specific experience for their players. Other developers are interested in creating only the most generic, enjoyable-by-all product as possible, and these developers have no interest in your specific concerns.
 
I bought L4D2, mainly because I was far more interested in it than the nerfed MW2, but also from the standpoint that I would be supporting a company that doesn't support my interests if I did buy MW2. I will be purchasing Bad Company 2, because I am interested in it, and it has my PC-centric interests in mind (dedicated servers, not a console port, etc.)

I will also be purchasing any game that meets my not-so-strict PC-centric credentials, which I believe mirrors others' requirements as well when it comes to PC games.
 
I pop off every now and then about Console games and such and I've been known to expound on whether a game is a "PC Game" or not. The truth is I really don't mind cross-platforming, some of the best games I've played in the last couple of years were also console games. Bioshock, Mass Effect and Fallout 3 come to mind. I don't even mind the glowing quest items and magic arrows. What I hate is the laziness with which some of these companies port the games. By and large, imho, PC gamers stay with or prefer PC because of the visuals and the controls. When they release the game without widescreen support or screwed up FOV and what seems like absolutely no thought to the fact that a PC gamer will be using a mouse and keyboard, that is what gets me chomping at the bit. When I see that stuff, I feel like I am either being manipulated, milked for easy cash or just simply discounted as too unimportant to be consdered in the process and abandoned. When it comes from a company that made thier bones on the PC and has me looking forward to the next thing from them (F.E.A.R.) (Wolfenstein) only to be slapped in the face, it is hard not to lash out.

I understand that financially, the games need to be available to the widest audience possible, all I would ask is that if a developer does make a PC version, show us a little respect. Get the FOV right and pay a little attention to the controls or just don't bother. Be honest and make it for the 360 and PS3 or even Wii if it will run it. Quit insulting us.
 
Theres lots of good ingame reasons to boycott this or that, but I actually did vote with my wallet in teh most literal sense. I wouldn't pay $60 for a game if it came with an answer to AIDS. I'm just be virtue a $5-30 gamer. A game has to be out of this world good to talk me into paying over $30
 
Instead of just not purchasing a game, how about purchasing a competing companies' game instead? Instead of just a no vote, purposefully purchase another game to play instead? Start talking about it in online forum, rave about how it has the features you want, post screen shots, throw a lan party where it is the focus game, and post about it on social media sites. All while NOT mentioning the game (MW2) once. Simply say something along the lines "I am glad (insert name of game) has dedicated servers (or whatever feature) because (reason you enjoy that feature)" Make sure all your other friends purchase a copy and play it, throw up your own dedicated server, start a community website and etc.

I think much of the backlash for MW2 was due to the how highly anticipate it was. The original Cod4 Modern Warfare was really a hugely great game, and PC gamers really did get the best end of the gaming stick when it compared to the console versions. Since the PC as a gaming platform is wide open compared to consoles, PC gamers simply expect a wide range of features that are disallowed due to licensing on consoles. For example, Mac versions of games will play on the same servers as the windows versions, dedicated servers allow gamers from across the world play on a even playing field by choosing a server that is a relative equal distance geographically, and many games covet the ability to modify and create their own content for games. Basically PC gamers are the spoiled brats of the electronic gaming realm. And you must expect such a backlash to happen.
 
I don't believe it.

The industry has been on a McDonaldization kick for almost the last decade. When people bring these things up at conventions, interviews and public discussions, the big dogs always sweep it under the rug.
 
As long as valve continues support...I couldn't give a shit what the rest of these clowns do.

They've made every good PC game I like. HL2, CS, Team Fortress, Portal....
 
I think the only game I "boycotted" was Freelancer because they killed flight control support. I can understand adding good keyboard and mouse support, but taking flight controls out of a space flight game was a huge WTF slap in the face for joystick jockeys. All the complaining in the world resulted in zero changes on the part of the developer.
 
RE: online petitions..

Just me personally, I think >250000 signatures on an online petition for LAN support in Starcraft II is significant. Whether that translates into support/compromise by Blizzard is ultimately up to Blizzard. They have the power and make the final say, regardless of consumer response. Sometimes companies make very bad decisions, even with forewarning.

Say only 5% of the ppl who signed that petition follow through and don't purchase the 3 parts of SC2:
12500 x 3 campaigns x $35 (conservate estimate of each campaign at retail) = $1312500 gross. I can guarantee you that 1) it would cost a fraction of 1 million dollars to implement LAN and 2) 1 million dollars is insignificant to how much the SC2 games are going to be pirated anyways.
 
I am currently boycotting MW2 until we recieve what it is the community has been asking for. Namely dedis. As for the petitions, and forum bs that goes on, well it normally starts out alright, then a fanboy on one side or the other runs his/her mouth. Its already kinda started here in this thread but there are enough mature people here to keep the majority of it to a minimum.

I think the larger part of people that posted on IW forums started out just wanting to get information out to the casual gamer about what HC gamers where talking about when it came to dedis, and IWNET, and some of the issues with P2P networking and it just snow balled.

This last part is mostly to TheMead:
TheMead said:
Basically PC gamers are the spoiled brats of the electronic gaming realm. And you must expect such a backlash to happen.
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We are not spoiled brats. We are consumers that were promised that the PC version would have everything that COD4 had and then some. This came straight from the community manager. And then three weeks before released they dropped the bomb about iwnet. You maynot fully appreciate the gravity of this, but dont call names because you dont agree. Its disrespectful and just uncalled for.
 
Voting with your wallet also helps. Actually buying a game gives real incentive for developers to keep producing for a platform.

Fucking pirates
 
PMildren said:
We are not spoiled brats. We are consumers that were promised that the PC version would have everything that COD4 had and then some. This came straight from the community manager. And then three weeks before released they dropped the bomb about iwnet. You maynot fully appreciate the gravity of this, but dont call names because you dont agree. Its disrespectful and just uncalled for.
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I'm a PC only gamer, I just don't have any desire to game on a console. I buy a lot of games, about 35 to 40 per year since forever, PC only.

I bought MW2 primarily because I love the Call of Duty series for the SP experience. Though I buy a lot of games I rarely play one for long. CoD games have been one of few exceptions and MW2 while short is still a great CoD type of shooter.

Bottom line, as long as people buy a decent amount of PC games which apparently we must as PC games are still being made and as long Intel, AMD and nVidia have hardware to sell us.
 
What if we started a "petition" to collect names to mail to IW to show them how many people want dedicated support?
 
they've made over 550 million

why would they give a fuck about what people want at that point?
 
Fail said:
they've made over 550 million

why would they give a fuck about what people want at that point?
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This. Whatever it was they did it seemed to work. Now the question is would making PC gamers happy made it $555 or $560 million with no drop in FUTURE revenue which a lot of people take away with the locking down of mods.

I like the CoD series and I want to see it continue on the PC.
 
Boycotted pc Version MW2 as well.

Picked up NFS:Shift instead. One of the better NFS's in the last few years imho.
 
TheMead said:
Basically PC gamers are the spoiled brats of the electronic gaming realm. And you must expect such a backlash to happen.
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While PC gamers may be a bit more high-maintenance, we have good reason to be so. PC gamers drop a significantly higher amount of money on their systems as compared to consoles, so we'd expect games to take advantage of that and, even if they are being ported, to add in some features that are designed specifically for the PC. Also, considering that we count for a significantly higher amount of revenue than our console counter parts when it comes to purchasing video games, I'd say we have plenty of reason to be dissatisfied with games that aren't built with any features for the PC.
 
Maybe if the people who have only played games on consoles would understand if they saw how shitty their online games are in comparison to their PC counterparts.

Trying to play shooters without dedicated servers is unbearable at times.
 
No, pirating the game and signing anonymous online petitions don’t work.
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Most gamers aren't interested in influencing the overal gaming trends, we all know that irrelevent of what we all want, what makes developers the most amount of money is what makes business decisions.

When you come to the realisation that your word is basically useless the only way you can make a dent is by voting with your wallet. Unfortunately there's so many sheeple out there who complain about games like MW2 but then go out and buy them, that voting with your wallet simply doesn't make any difference, it doesn't matter that 230,000 people signed a petition for dedicated servers that's irrelevent because theres 3 million sheeple buying it irrespective of dedicated servers.

So when you have the 3 choices of:

1) Not buying the game and missing out on any potential good points
2) Buying the game and betraying your ideals
3) Downloading a pirate copy

3 actually starts to look pretty good to most gamers, you get the best of both worlds, it's the equivelent of voting with your wallet but getting to play the game anyway. I'm afraid to say it but we CAN have our cake and eat it.
 
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