PC Gaming in need of saving? Say it ain't so...

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I have made mention of the ailing state of PC Gaming before, but I had decided to drop the subject as my predictions weren't far from the coming reality.  But this week, an article popped up on Digg.com that I couldn't ignore.  Kristen Salvatore, of PC Gamer magazine (and also of the PC Gamer Podcast, where I catch her mostly) dropped an article at Games Radar (their new home, as it seems the PC Gamer Magazine couldn't maintain their own site) with the heading "How you can "save" PC gaming".

I was surprised to find this, as the company line from the Podcast is that PC Gaming is fine and that rumours of its death are greatly exaggerated.  In fact, as a PC Gamer, I have been taking heart from Kristen and the crew's optimism, and they do a good job of addressing the issues on the Podcast.  It is a good listen if you're interested in the industry and also the tech involved with PC Gaming.

But back to the article.  Kristen delivers a short three-part piece, nicely written, with a couple of swanky words to justify all the money spent on her education.  The piece starts by describing the popular version of the state of PC Gaming, and quite eloquently sums up the problems.

Then we see a nice explanation of the whole NPD problem, which seems to be the only measuring stick for PC Sales figures.  Maybe if we just trusted the figures set forward by the 2 or 3 companies making and selling PC Games, we would avoid the whole "low sales" problem.  But no, we have to keep them honest.  It turns out that the current NPD's don't actually count the sales of download-able games, or games distributed by means other than the mighty North American retail market.

Now Kristen gave us her 3 point plan to save PC Gaming, and as a regular listener to the PC Gamer Podcast, I have to say that I'm very well acquainted with said plan.  The reason for this is that the guys go over this every week!  I would like to take this plan to task.

The Cost of PC Gaming
PC Gaming costs more than console gaming because you can do more with a PC.  Also PC Gaming tends to be at the cutting edge of gaming in general, so just like owning a high performance sports car, you get much more performance for your buck.  This idea of buying a US$700 gaming computer and only having to spend a couple hundred dollars a year on upgrades is nice, but a little fantastical.  I'm not the only one who has gone to upgrade, only to find out that my motherboard doesn't have the right port, or won't support the new standard.  Then the selling of body parts begins.

This may be an area that needs to change before PC Gaming can get the console style status people think it needs.  Tim, a good friend of mine, feels this way and has put some thought into the idea of a modular PC case based on the popular ATX form factor.  This would turn the PC into a Lego set, where an upgrade could be done by replacing an external module, rather than having to open the case.

This could go some way to demystifying the upgrade process, and make PC Gaming more consumer friendly, and "consumer friendly" has worked well for Apple, so why not PC Gaming?

The Cursed "casual" games
The problem is that once you get a job, and/or responsibilities, you turn into a casual gamer.  This has happened to me, but I don't play casual games, and I don't want the PC to turn into a casual game platform.  So if someone is a casual gamer who plays casual games, buy them a Wii, or DS.  The chance that they will go from Peggle to Civ IV is a little slim, so they won't be spending the money to support the industry, so why pander to them?

Honesty the best policy
Piracy may be the crux of the matter, for if the money isn't flowing into the industry, games and innovation won't flow out.  Now, I'm guilty of a mis-spent youth, and in my family man years I have been working on going legit.  What that has meant, though, is getting less games, and scouring the bargain bins.  At AU$99 a game at release, I have been finding a lot of reasons to go without.

Add to that the odd upgrade cost, and my gaming heart is cursing my new "setting a good example to the children" stance.  But in the long run, if we want PC Gaming to be there when we have time again, we need to pay now.

My thoughts on the matter
In the end, we are seeing a shift in the gaming industry as a whole.  I have mentioned before that we are seeing, and going to continue to see, the developer's code where the money is.  So this will mean a swing away from the PC, but I believe that this doesn't mean a complete end to PC Gaming.  There will always be developers pushing the envelope when it comes to graphics and content, and as good as the consoles look, it is going to be a while before they can run Crysis.

Also, as we have seen, PC Games do make money, it just takes a little longer.  And that has always been the nature of the the beast, because PC Games (especially cutting edge titles) sometimes require upgrades and tweaks.  Us PC Gamers know that, and, to a degree, that is the point.  So we buy fewer games and are a little more choosy, we may find that we are going to have to settle for a title leading on the Xbox 360, then dropping a better version for the PC a couple of months later, Mass Effect comes to mind.

Bottom line is that PC Gaming is for the PC Gamers, the elite few million of us who are willing to jump through the hoops and pony up for the better graphics, and the better game-play.  We are aware that things are changing, but sucking up to the casual market is not going to get us Fallout 4.

Jason Remnant

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Now that I'm online what can I do with the Wii?

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A question came through from a friend, telling me that she had finally got her Nintendo Wii online.  With the line "OK, so I've set up our Wii to connect to the Internet... now what??" bouncing around in my head, I decided to post about this, because even though I have had a Wii since launch night, the whole online part is a little cloudy.

The online component of the Nintendo Wii is, in a word, disappointing.  If you have an Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3, you may be used to a rich and interesting experience full of friends, achievements and downloadable content.  You may also experience the trolls, 13 year old boys and 42 year old boys, and this is something that Nintendo is working hard to remove from the online experience.  To do this, they have come up with the policy that the Wii is best played with your friends in the warmth of a lounge, not the cold netherworld of the Internet.  Must be a Japanese thing.

OK, that said, let's look at what we can and should do with the Wii online.

Updating

The main reason to have the Wii online is really just to receive the system updates.  At this time, these updates relate to the patches and additional functionality for the console.  And of course, breaking any hacks that you may have installed.

There are two ways of doing the system update, the easiest is to wait for the message from Nintendo.  You can see you have a message when the Wii starts to strobe a blue light (this can be a little freaky if you wake up in the middle of the night and see the light coming from the other room).

The second is more manual:

1. Make sure your Wii console is successfully connected online (more info).


2. Access the Wii System Settings (how to).


3. Click on the blue arrow twice to reach the Wii System Settings 3 menu options.


4. Select "Wii System Update" and press the A Button.


5. Select "Yes," and read any messages regarding obtaining the update. If you agree to the messages, select "I Accept."


6. The Wii console will now search for the latest Wii System Update.


7. If an update is available, it will be downloaded and installed automatically (this can take some time).

After a update, I always check to see if there are any new channels on the desktop (I think that's what they call it).


Channels

Channels are described as portals into the features and interactivity of the Wii, and the online world.  Some of the channels offer the latest news and weather in a cool, fun way, if you have the time to play with it.  Other channels offer reasonably pointless time wasting activity's, and others show the potential of what can be done with the space.

Some of the channels are not really channels, they are fillers in my opinion.  Hopefully those who enjoy voting on other peoples Mii's don't read my site.  But there are a couple of good channels, and one has to be the shopping channel.

Downloadable Content

The shop channel is one of the cooler things you can do with a online Wii.  Nintendo has put up a bunch of stuff that you can download to the Wii to expand the console, and a couple of the things are free.  The big things for me are the Virtual Console and WiiWare, which offer a few of the old favorite games from the past consoles and WiiWare.

It is fun to download and play games like Waverace and Streetfighter, and annoy your kids telling them "how these were the games I played then I was your age".  WiiWare hopes to offer lots of spanking new titles from the big and small developers alike, of course we are waiting on a good storage solution.

Online Gaming

Yes, there is online gaming for the Wii and the titles are starting to roll out.  The problem is the way the online gaming works is not all that user friendly.  There is a point to it being that way,  seeing how the Wii is mainly marketed at kids and families, and as the "bringing people together" console.

There are a number of good titles out now with some sort of online play, and it is only going to increase as the developers rush to cash in on the install base.

There are many things to do with the Wii online, and as the channels keep rolling out, there will be more and more.  But it has to be said that the Wii wasn't really designed with a online future, like the PlayStation3 or the Xbox 360.  Maybe it is the cultural difference, or the place that Nintendo see for the Wii in the market, but the console seems to be firmly pitched at the broader market, and we can't say that it hasn't worked for them.

Jason Remnant