the "Master Race" dilemma

[brokenergy]

PFff small screens are for the birds. Though the psvita's Oled screen is pretty to look at :yes:

 

Considering that 17 years ago I wanted a gameboy, small screens will never go out of style.

[kvnchrist]

The closer the screen to your eyeball, the bigger the screen is and if the screen was in a wrap around pair of glasses the screen would be all you see. The virtual reality side of the game mixed with the quality of the graphics we should have 20-30 years in the future will, most likely, effectively place you in the center of the game as you perceive yourself in the center of your real life. The perception will be the same except in the real world you will still feel pain. In the alternate world you would have a hud, not unlike some of these first person shooters tht are so popular today. You would simply have a gauge that calculates your life and other vitol components like the environment, the rounds you have and the quality of your defences and weapondry.

 

Anything you would do would count on you reflexs, the encomberance of the equipment you wear and the condition you find yourself, but your reaction time would be cut way down and be effectively control by your level of agility. You could run, roll and dive as if you were realy there and under the conditions you would be in that would.

 

I would think the sound quality would be far superier. Most likely a set of headphones that could generate any game sound to appear in the dirrection it would have been initiated in the gaming world and the sensation of being shot or poked would most likely be transferd through a headband which you would wear. The intensivity and the dirrection of the stimulous would be represented by a pulse within the band. The more intence the hit, the greater the pulse and the dirrection of impact would be regestered in the appropriate side of the band.

 

For instance, If you were coaught in an explosions. The sound would iminate from the rear and you would receive an heavy pulse from the back side of the headband. The imagery in the glasses would show you forcably thrust foreword onto your front, which the. Your impct on the ground would be regestered with a equal pulseat the front of the headband, but you would not nessecarily hear anything, since if you were actually in an explosion you, most likely would have your hearing effected, simularly. The effects of shock could be represented with a lack of noise through the headset, a gentle throbbling all the way around the headband and slow and blurry visuals through the glasses.

[JimboUK]

 

 

But, the reason why PC is the "master race"

Thats exactly what I am trying to tell. The PC is no "Race" at all. Its a machine, a tool designed to fulfill certain tasks and so is a console.

 

Where does this Console PC rivalry come from anyway? I am a "seasoned" gamer with experience back to the golden ages of Sega and Nintendo. At that time both Systems were acknowledged to be different for different purposes. Nobody who owned a PC would say "but I want Mario on PC" or on the other side nobody who owned a console would say "I want Civilization on my Console". People who could afford it had both anyway, the console mainly for the casual Jump ´n Run, Beat´em up or other platform games and the PC for Strategy, Simulation and other usually complex and time consuming games. If you did not have the resources for both, i know i did not, then you just assessed your priorities and get the system you knew you would play the most time on. Both systems perfectly coexisted. There was no "hate" among gamers but positive envy like "wow as soon as I have the money I like to buy a PC/Console too".

 

All changed when Gaming started generating huge amounts of revenue. Some Publishers had the great idea to sell games to as many players on as many platforms as possible for which no one can blame them. The gaming community got a lot larger and unfortunately a lot more "undisciplined". People started to "Troll" each other to new extremes and some really smart Marketing "geniuses" started using that against them.

 

Hype for example is a great Tool in the Belt of any Marketing/Sales Specialist. Combine it with Preorder and you have a potential method for generating Money for a Product that does NOT EXIST yet. Imagine this, you are paying money for the promise that sometime you will get something. Many well known Publishers have done this but again, can not blame them. The blame is with us. We can not control ourselves. its the same as gambling, we love to spend money for the promise of something without being really sure that if we get it we will like it.

 

Take a normal shopping deal, shoes for example. You go to a Store, look at the shoes, find one that suits your tastes, try it on, look at the price and if all important criterias are to your liking, you buy it. You worked (usually) hard for your money and its absolutely normal that you want to know what you get for your hard earned money. Thats completely normal and logical. So how come that when it comes to video games so many people seem to "shut off" this logic?

 

There is an upcoming Game that I believe launches today for consoles (I really dont wanna mention which game because it does not matter). It generated a lot of hype especially since a Trailer was shown in Youtube. The trailer was admittedly great but I was a little sceptical if the shown graphics are really the graphics of the retail game. However one could easily get the message from the trailer that the game was something very special that would be completely different and redifine her genre. After the beta Version came out, while the overall reviews were not bad many reviewers said that it was just more of the same.

 

Now lets read a few comments of gamers in the comment section of a site that criticized the game:

 

Comment example:

 

- yeah another overhyped game. Looks like a disappointment. I preordered it but I think I wont be playing it for long

 

- I think Game X is not as good as they made it look like. I will buy it for my XBOX One and PS4 but I dont expect much. <this comment hit me hard>

 

another comment to an article that said the game was possibly overhyped:

 

- Yea, I agree for the most part. I havent had a Big Triple AAA Game for a while, I'm entirely ready to be extremely disappointed.

 

(just for consideration, I altered the comments a bit because you nowadays never know who might sue whom because of copyrights)

 

This is mind blowing. Those Gamers are basically admitting that they will buy the game NO MATTER WHAT. Thats a dream come true for any Salesman. This is practically "suicide" from a Customer perspective. Its like closing your eyes, opening your wallet and hoping that whoever takes money out of it will give you something worthwhile in return...all in good hope.

 

To quote a relatively famous Youtuber; "this is why we cant have nice things".

 

It is our responsibility as consumers, especially in a free market, to say "look buddy, thats my hard earned money you want, so you better deliver what you promise" and not "here take my money and do you want me to also bend over?".

 

 

I wouldn't read too much into the Hitler thing, it was Yahtzee who came up with the term "PC Master Race" and he's English, the English have always made light of even the most terrible of things, it's the way we deal with them, this obviously leads to things that may sound inappropriate but there's rarely any ill intent.

 

As for the rest of it, the answer is simple, a fair sized percentage of the gaming community is made up of simpletons, they're easily manipulated into doing the bidding of company marketers. Post-purchase rationalisation is a common trait with most consumers, it's not easy to admit publicly you may have got it wrong and that's perfectly normal. However, fanboys combine it with an inability to understand that different people like different things, thus they see someone elses preference as an attack on them personally and react accordingly.

[Arcadiast]

 

the English have always made light of even the most terrible of things

which is one of the greatests qualities of english and english people.

 

I fully understand and even encourage making light of especially the terrible things. Otherwise coping with things and living on would be Hell on Earth. The english are also known for their great and creative sense of Humor.

 

However, in this particular case I think especially the creative part is missing and as you stated...

 

 

a fair sized percentage of the gaming community is made up of simpletons

 

..this may be the reason for it.

 

An intelligent and creative mind can make fun of most of things without sounding offensive or belittling. Take George Carlin for example. He was a great comedian but factually he critized us all. He called upon our weaknesses and really pushed the boundaries of "political correctness" to new levels. Nonetheless we laughed, albeit with some concern but he was extremely entertaining and you could feel that he put a lot of thought into his arguments.

 

A statement that goes like "Shooters on Consoles are garbage #PCMasterRace" has none of those qualities whatsoever. There is no thought put into it and mostly its just something somebody said and quite a few "parrots" repeating it to look, i dont know, "cool".

 

So far you are absolutely right. These are "fanboys" or teenagers with not that much experience who are mostly controlled by their emotions. What really bothers me though is that people who should know better are either doing nothing to deescalate the situation or even worse are actively endorsing it. It is no secret that some major companies employ "spin doctors" to further extend discontent among customers. I have the feeling that many companies do not even regard to their customers as human beings anymore but a form of "cattle" which they try to "milk" as much as possible with the least effort.

 

Great Civilizations perished over History not only by war but because the mass of their people degraded so much that the societies could not work efficiently anymore. As the americans say "a sucker born every minute" every one of us has weaknesses. We cannot be all knowing, even if we want to, we neither have the time nor the resources to make sure that we always do the right thing. Nowadays people seem to be proud getting rich by exploiting human weaknesses.

 

What a shame. We all stand on each others shoulders and the misfortune of our fellow people, while it may have no immediate effects, will affect the world we live in. As like a Boomerang, it will at some point come around to hit us. This may be soon or in a couple of generations. Thousands and Thousands of People may pay for the shortsightedness of one Person.

 

I hate to see gamers acting AGAINST their own interests without knowing and without a good reason. Its very hard for me to ignore this.

 

P.S. thanks for staying on topic and not talking about small screens. No offense to other commenters but if I wanted a debate about Screen Size I would have called the topic "Debate about Screen Size".

[JimboUK]

The PC Master Race thing was just one line in many, he was making a point by using language not uncommon here, Tinpot Hitler and Gestapo are other terms often used to describe people.

 

The consumer is entirely to blame to for what goes on in the gaming industry, as in any other industry its the consumer that decides what is acceptable and what isn't by voting with their wallets. There are rare examples of people saying no to gaming companies, UbIsofts 90% fall in PC games sales due to their DRM is one, the awful early pre order numbers for the Xbox One is another, sadly this sort of thing doesn't happen nearly often enough. Gamers need to get their act together and stop pre ordering things based on marketing hype alone, stop buying overpriced DLC, stop buying unfinished games and stop pretending that game developers are their friends, they're not, they're there to liberate as much money from gamers wallets as possible.

 

Yesterday I was looking at the Steam forum for Fable Anniversary, once again people were complaining about being scammed or ripped off, something that wouldn't have happened if they had waited for the reviews, they've only themselves to blame but they won't learn, as soon as the next potential shiny thing comes along they'll be throwing their money at it. As the saying goes "A fool and his money are soon parted".

 

As for fanboys, they're the scourge of any community, not only do they try to mislead people they actively get in the way of any intelligent discussions. I remember the run up to Skyrims release here, several new users appeared and they would appear in every thread where people were trying to discuss the game. One that sticks in my mind was a guy who appeared in a thread discussing the chances of the game being buggy, he actually said that he'd owned every Bethesda PC game and have never encountered a bug, a statement that beggars belief, the company is notorious for bugs and they wouldn't release numerous patches for their games if they were bug free. I cannot understand the mentality of someone who would try to defend a companies reputation like that, I don't think it was a company man who posted it, it was too obvious and inviting of examples.

[Arcadiast]

I have no choice but to agree. You make very valid points but since it would be a pointless debate if I just nod and leave it at that, I will try to add to or discuss your points.

 

It is well common and often useful to use well known phrases from History to describe current and somewhat similar events. Waterloo was often used to describe a defeat of a formerly strong person or group (not only regarding to war). You could use that in the gaming world if for example a well known and successfull Gaming Publisher, launches a new expensive game that does poorly on the market and "ruins" the Publisher, you could then say "Game X was Publisher Y's Waterloo". So I have no problems with the underlying "mechanics" of the term "PC Master Race". I also know that the term describes those "PC Enthusiasts" who regard everything else (Consoles, Smartphones, Tablets etc.) as inferior. So there is some sense to it. What I dont like however is how easily this term is tossed around and how much it hinders serious and reasonable development.

 

The Consumer is to blame yes but who is the Consumer? Billions of People in different Countries, speaking different Languages, having different Cultures, different "Lifestyles", different levels of education, different financial resources and so on. So we are not talking about a single being who could centraly organize a response to the different challenges of the market but quite a many individuals that may or may not even know that they are spending money for a bad product. That is a great "rift" from which many Marketing departments get through. Especially well organized Corporations have often highly motivated and effectively organized people, trained to especially target such "weaknesses". You can try to manufacture a Product for the Customer or you can try to manipulate Customers for your Product. It has been proven over and over that weaknesses can be exploited to great financial results. Which makes it hard to blame the Corporations exclusively for this moraly very questionable Method. If your Numbers are deep Red while your Rivals flourish, then it must be extremely hard to withstand the temptation. So we are in a very "sticky" Situation here. Neither the Customers nor the Corporations/Publishers can be blamed exclusively.

 

The Reason why Preorders are working is (at least its what I believe) that many enthusiastic Gamers cant wait for a certain game to come out. When they preorder the game its like having at least a little part of that game allready which, they hope, will shorten the (subjektively) eternal wait until the game comes out. This has been realized by the sales experts and so some Publishers do their utmost possible to further this feeling. There are several Methods to "heat up" potential buyers for a Product. Some examples: Teasers that e.g. show only the outlines of a new Hardware, "Blockbusteresque" prepared Trailers, Conventions held like Rock Concerts, promise of groundbreaking Gameplay/Design etc.

There is nothing wrong with it per se. Especially if your Product is targeted for great "Audiences" you want people to know what you soon have to offer. This is good for the Customer as well by the way, because if you know that a Product is coming out that might interest you, you are able to plan accordingly like saving money for it. Again the problem lies with the "misuse" of something that could otherwise be a good way of communication between Vendor and Customer. Some Publishers deliberately choose to misinform people. One example to this, a game that looks great on Trailers but less so when it hits the shelves.

 

There is nothing a "normal" Gamer can do about this because its bordering on criminal intend, executed with resources that far surpass the capabilities of unorganized individuals. This is similar to other real life events, we need organized, independent press sources that investigate such behaviours and warn us of the impending "danger". Sadly Gaming Journalism now mostly lies in ruins.

 

Fanboys are the accidental creations of all these methods. I was a Fanboy once and it took quite some "life experience" to realize let alone admit it. What was the reason for my "fanboyism"? Well, when I bought a Graphics Card X from Manufacturer Y and my friend bought a Graphics Card A from Manufacturer B then of course, like every Teen, we immediately began to compete among ourselves (mines longer, mines harder :smile: ), every review that said that Graphics Card X (the one that I have) is even slightly bad in anyway was like a personal offense to me. Especially if they were right about the product that I aquired and it was really bad then my "self preservation" instincts kicked in and I started also verbally kicking in all directions. The reasonable thing to do in such situation is to acknowledge that I made a bad deal, learn from it and leave it be but at my emotional state back in the days, this did not even occur to me. It was difficult back then, its nigh impossible today. The internets is full with "competing Teenagers" who are downright afraid to admit they made a bad deal. It would not surprise me at all if some Organisations are actively endorsing Fanboyism.

 

Fanboys are victims of their emotions or the lack of control of emotions. They are the ones suffering most from their "mindstates". A reasonable Customer can save a lot of money by comparing similar products from different Vendors/Brands. Fanboys are usually so much "shackled" by their decision for one Brand, that they often spend to much money for equal or even less value. You can guess who is the first person to "suffer" from that.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Arcadiast

[HeyYou]

Folks have been announcing the death of console/pc gaming, and consoles/pc's, since the first generation of gamers. So far, both platforms seem to be doing rather well. At this point, we have reached a plateau in PC development, they are about as fast/powerful as they are going to get. Sure, there will be incremental increases, but, nothing like what we have seen in just the last five years. At least, not until the next major hurdle is passed. (heat generation, and a way to dissipate it.) Now, the software developers need to actually take advantage of some of those advances. We STILL do not have games that TRULY utilize multi-core processors, and multiple video cards. Most games run on a single core, or at most, partially utilize a second.

[Stronglav]

PC rules and will rule.

[kvnchrist]

PC rules and will rule.

No one knows what the future holds. Tech will advance and better, cheaper more efficient products will replace what was once essential. The future is the only thing I have real faith in since by the time it gets here, I won't be.

[Arcadiast]

 

We STILL do not have games that TRULY utilize multi-core processors, and multiple video cards. Most games run on a single core, or at most, partially utilize a second.

I have the feeling that this is because some people consider it an offense when Games are released that need Powerful Hardware. How so? thats part of a twisted "class warfare" mindset. Those games are considered "Elitist" because obviously not everybody can afford a Multiprocessor, Multi Graphics Gaming System for Thousands of Dollars. The industry "bends" to those tendencies for quite simple reasons. They want to make as much revenue as possible and for that they need to reach as many people as possible. So they accomodate "down" and make games that are so restricted that they run on 5 year old Hardware. The funny thing is, here we have a merging of socialistic and capitalistic traits. Socialistic because as many people as possible get the same experience and capitalistic because game companies make as much money as possible. What a great achievement ey?

 

There was a time in pc gaming where games came out that could not be played on max settings on actual hardware (even with a high end system). That did not bother the gamers because at that time gaming was mainly something for the enthusiasts, who had no problems whatsoever to play on lesser settings until new generation hardware came out at which point they enjoyed the game again with better graphics. Game companies back then were even endorsed to make the best looking game possible. Today, if a game company releases a game that does not run well on ancient stone age Hardware, a shitstorm the size of a hurricane surely follows. Even if a Game Company would decide to pass on more money by making a really Hardware demanding game, the negative PR from that would certainly hurt or even ruin them. Why take such risks?

 

Gamers demand that their Games on their 5 Year Old Consoles look the same as Games on a Multi-CPU-Graphics High End PC. They demand that. If they dont get it its "Elitist Garbage" and the company "sucks" and so on. Unfortunately those people are so loud and so persistent that they absolutely affect the development of Games.

 

Someone at some point realized that Gameplay is more important then Graphics which I also think is true but then Game Companies started using this argument to excuse crappy Graphics in Games that were still Fully Priced and whenever somebody would criticize them for it, some "Trolls" would "choke" his critic before he could even reach the Game Publisher while the Publisher sat back and enjoyed the show, making same or more money for less work. You have to understand the implications here, a gamer trolls another gamer who tries to speak on his behalf. Thats a very "interesting" form of lunacy.

 

This is not only with Graphics, people defended Game Companies for using DRM, Pay to Win models, extra Software that even states in its Licensing texts that it will practically take control over your PC etc. All of which are AGAINST a Gamers interests. Sometimes I think the whole thing is a lost cause.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Arcadiast