PC game theory : Companies are favoring consoles, gamers want simpler

[Steven917]

Like the title, something just felt wrong when I first pressed F1 in Oblivion. It looked like it was SPECIFICALLY designed for the consoles, moving the analog stick left or right to go between your inventory, to your spells, to your statistics, up and down to go through the list of options in them. In Morrowind, you could access everything with a few clicks, in Oblivion PC users are pretty much forced to click 3 - 5 times to equip/un-equip, access a spell, etc. While Daggerfall did use a similar inventory/spell system to Oblivion, that was mainly because it was only 100-ish pixels. The inventory is made specially for the consoles. Also, just why do they let half of the screen be taken up by our character portrait? :\

 

Next, the newer RPG gamers are getting... Dumber? In Morrowind, your melee fighter couldn't start casting spells at the very start of the game, you would constantly fail. In Oblivion, you could put no points into a certain school of magic, still be able to cast "simple" spells... Not in Morrowind.

 

Morrowind had rather specific weapon proficiencies, long-blade users wouldn't be used to using a blunt weapon, axe-users wouldn't be used to using a short sword. All while in Oblivion, if you're good with a long blade, you could use a short blade. "Blunt" means being good at one weapon in skill makes you good at ALL weapons in blunt. Example : Being good with a heavy, two-handed warhammer means you're completely used to a mace. This honestly makes no sense.

 

Oblivion became quite easy because of this, even if you install mods such as DarN UI, FCOM, the problem still exists, we still lose half of our screen to our oversized character portrait, we can still cast spells with a level 5 skill in magic, and now you can manually block. Manual block pretty much makes the block skill useless, since every twenty-five levels simply adds a new special ability involving blocking, or a passive extra to blocking.

 

Don't get me wrong though, Oblivion IS a great game, still loads of fun, has more mods, and can be more random than Morrowind. The only flaws are that it is too easy for people who previously played games like Daggerfall (make a mistake in character creation? You're screwed/gonna have a rather hard time through the entire game.) Oblivion is also graphically better (even with Morrowind Graphics Extender installed), has a better persuasion menu, (felt like) better sneak mechanics, but still has less join-able factions.

 

Actually, you can join ALL the factions in Oblivion while in Morrowind you couldn't be master of the fighter's guild and also master of the mage's guild... Nor could you be the thief guildmaster, fighter's guild master, mage's guild master, etc. etc. Another rather disappointing thing in Oblivion, is the lack of silt striders/boats/fast travel systems.

 

That is all I have to say in my little (rant?) theory. Please, do not get me wrong... I DO think Oblivion is a great game, and no, I'm not a "old elitist" type who has an old computer and is just jealous of the high requirements of the new games, I am not like that.

[Vagrant0]

Gamers aren't necessarily wanting simpler, but many companies are definitely making games with consoles being the primary market. The problem however is that the two are often related.

 

Game companies try to go for mult-platform release simply because it's a larger market and generally sells more copies of popular titles than PC. It has nothing to do with politics (console makers pushing their developer software on companies), piracy (since A- Console games are often bootlegged and pirated more than PC games since a person with a hacked console is already breaking the law, and will usually go on to pirate everything they can get their hands on. and B- Just because someone pirated software does not mean they ever intended or were even able to buy the game legally), or anything of the sort, but instead just cold sales figures by nature of actual market data. The fact that consoles have been rapidly becoming both more PC like and more versatile as an entire media center only makes consoles something which is for a wider dynamic, but makes it easier to design software and media for those devices.

 

Games are becoming simpler, not because companies are purposely designing them that way, but rather because they are often limited to things like processing, rendering speed, storage space, memory, and input methods that are part in parcel with anything console related. Even the newest incarnation of the xbox is only about as powerful as a mid-range multi-use PC, and doesn't come anywhere near the capabilities of a real gaming PC. In the case of Oblivion, this seems to be one of the main reasons why so much of the game was literally ripped out from the final release in order to fit on the media format used by the first version of Xbox360, and probably why some of the internal game mechanics were simplified. Although there is also the push to remove complexity to appeal to a wider audience, in some cases, like Fallout3 or Dragon Age: Origins (a game written primarily for console first and just adapted to PC) it ends up being minor enough that nobody really cares. In cases like Spore and Sims variations which were brought to console, the changes and limitations are extremely drastic to the point where you really don't even have the same game. But, one can argue that the reason why Oblivion was simplified so much compared to Morrowind has to deal more with their target audience of people ages 12 and up who and not always quite so game savoy or willing to plan character builds and other stuff.

[brokenergy]

I agree with Vagrant but Origins was for PC but got striped for console and now many fear that it would be the other way around for the sequel.

[Carthean]

I think most people are using consoles because it's cheap and easy. PC is more expensive unless you buy parts seperate assuming you know how to put them together.

[katashy]

Consoles are cheaper, there are more of them and you'll usually find younger people playing them due to it being cheap. Game developers realise that there's more money to be made in the console market than in the PC market.

 

Oh, and Oblivion WAS designed for the Xbox 360 originally. Can't remember where I read it, but it's true.

[DarkNinja13]

It isn't that gamers want simpler, it is that the companies are looking to make money. What is the easiest way to make money? Get your games in the hands of as many players as you can. How to do that? Console gamers, by far, are the best bet. Look at the number of PC ports to console games if you doubt me. Morrowind, the Sims, and games that were PC games made the jump to the consoles (sometimes disasterously, sometimes not), and those that struck a chord are just as loved by console gamers as PC gamers. Franchises that did well when ported then jumped into the multi-platform releases, coming out for console systems as well as PC (such as Oblivion). Some game makers even decided (and I am assuming here), "The PC is our thing, but we are going to release to consoles as well.". Thus Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Origins were multiplatform from the word "go" - a smart move on their part in my opinion.

 

I had the luxury of playing Oblivion on my 360 first (and loved it). Then I start hearing about all the mods that were availible for the PC version and tried it on my PC. Granted, I had to upgrade like mad to play (video card, more memory, better hard drive, etc), but i was so worth it. I can't play Oblivion on my 360 any more now because, as I word it, I have had champagne and caviar - I can't convince myself to go back to beer and hamburgers.

 

Console gaming is extremely limited in what you can do with it, but because it has the "lion's share" of the gaming market a PC's "good enough" seems to be "The Best" the consoles can achieve. The other failing (for lack of a better word) of console games is that they do have a "cookie cutter" feel to them. Tom's game is the same as Dick's game, is the same as Harry's game. Not so with some PC games - with the right mods, you can make a game that is uniquely yours.

 

"Traditionally" PC gamers have been regarded as "hardcore gamers" because, among other things, they deliberately set up their machines to handle just about any sounds and graphics a game can throw at it, no matter what - they want the most out of their games. The smarter game companies know this and this is why their games are like they are (how many times have we heard people say that Game X for the PC feels like it's incomplete or a released WIP?). It is so PC gamers can tweak it to what they want it to be. For this reason, I can say the companies might pander to console gamers which makes they look like they prefer that section of the gaming community, but truth be told: we are their true love.