Monday, December 8, 2008

What the future holds...

For PC Gaming.


Thinking back...

As I am sitting here typing, looking at my 4 draft and unfinished post which I've left long time ago and I remembered that there's one of those unfinished post which I've written with a title "Evolution of PC which Revolves around Gaming" and it was intended as an article, but I was having a writers block at that moment and so I left it unattended in a digital closet of Draft Posts section. This thought has been on my mind all these while. It has been on and off on several occasions and so I decided to write this out on my first attempt but I guess it'll end up into this post.

Gaming, first started not with the Commodore 64 actually. Video Games have been created way before Pong on a big computer with a tiny screen which is actually an Oscilloscope in a Science Lab. As years went by, gaming has been going through a lot of advancement and changes of forms which splits gaming into 3 major line which is the Portable Gaming (i.e PSP, Nintendo DS, Phone), Console Gaming (PS3s, Xboxes, Nintendo Wii) and finally, the PC Gaming.


The Experience.

Through my years of experience in gaming, I first came through with the MicroGenius console system. And then I was transported to PC gaming on a Windows 3.2 Operating System. That time, the only game I'm really into is Cosmo Cosmic, the cute green alien fighting his was to find his family. That was only the first episode by the way. I found out about it after I finished the game. After our family's 1st PC is dead, the only thing that is closest to gaming for me was the MicroGenius and a portable system called the GameBoy. That time, PokeMon was the "in" game. At the age of 13, my dad bought a PC. Starting from there, I've been into PC gaming more than the console and even the portable system. At that time, the games I've played were Counter Strike 6.6 Beta, Star Craft, Red Alert 2. I haven't had much knowledge about hardwares, and technical stuff then. Heck, I don't even know that there's even a gaming peripherals just for gaming. Until Command and Conquer Renegade gets in the way. I found out that I've been having trouble with hardware incompatibility and I seriously needed an upgrade if I were to play newer games.

To cut things short, I got into highs and lows, many troubling experience, and while fighting my grades in studies, I ended up as a geek and a gamer I am today.


The Industry.

Gaming, in the industries has been growing a lot these few years but not a lot in my home country. Right now, in Sarawak here, you can see that there are some PCs on sale which are called Gamer's PC which is made purely based on performance to be able to run the latest and intensive games coming out in the recent years.(Though I rather build than buying their pre-build due to their lack of hardwares that I prefer.) New hardwares, keep on coming out to support the latest games like Crysis, Call of Duty 5, Left4Dead, Need For Speed Undercover and many more.

Besides the hardwares, we have the I/O (Input and Output) devices too which are made for professional gaming. From gaming keyboard and mice to gaming headset, they are made for better precisions, controls, very very good responses and very clear and accurate sounds to be able to conquer the virtual battlefield. Besides that, the gaming peripherals also comes with drivers which you can reprogram the macros on your gaming mice and keyboards. My favorite brand for gaming peripherals are Razer and also a bit of Microsoft. So far, I've got a Diamondback and a DeathAdder Mice, an Intelli 3.0 mouse, 3 mouse pads from Razer, SteelSeries and a cheap Microsoft Mouse Pad and a Razer Lycosa Keyboard which I might wanna switch into the mirror edition.


The Unresolved and The Deluded.

Gaming, in the PC section has been in a serious problem of piracy. This would cause a lot of waste of hardwork from the developers because they are not earning what they should be. Many ways they have tried to use in order to fight piracy. Due to the problems, many console gamers would think that PC Gaming is dead. This actually kinda cause the existence of 2 gaming cultures which are the PC Gamers and the Console Gamers. Console gamers only thinks that PC Gaming is dead mainly it's because of this piracy thing and not many games are made for PC in the last recent years or some seasons. Or maybe they're just jealous that PC are superior in games like FPS. Ignore my last remarks if you don't like it, console fanboys.


Solution?

Today, developers like Valve, the team behind the most popular game, Half Life and Counter Strike franchises, have resolved to distributing games online through a MSN Messenger-like program called Steam. All you have to do is to put in your credit card number and choose which game you want to buy and they'll upload them into your hard disk. One thing that really intrigues me about Steam is that, once you have reformated your computer, you don't have to worry about losing your game. All you need is to download the Steam program again and login your ID. Once you're in, you'll be able to download the game which you have bought before without any charges. Rumours has it that Microsoft are also planning to distribute games through the online method. Which is a good way to fight piracy in my opinion because if games are released in a form of DVDs, they can burn them and work on a keygens and stuff.

On top that, big companies like Dell and HP are acquiring or having a partnership with gaming PC companies like Alienware (for Dell) and VoodooPC(for HP) to produce gaming PCs and laptops for their gaming and performance line.


The Stand.

In conclusion of this experimental and just for fun article, I will take my stand here and now. PC Gaming will NOT OR EVER WILL BE, DYING. So when people say that PC Gaming is dead, give them a very hard hit on their head and ask them to wake up.



-VIRUZXP,out-

A gamer who would game on any system but doesn't believes that PC Gaming is dead.